Abstract. Nitrate contamination of subsurface aquifers is an ongoing environmental challenge due to nitrogen (N) leaching from intensive N
fertilization and management on agricultural fields. The distribution and fate
of nitrate in aquifers are primarily governed by geological, hydrological and
geochemical conditions of the subsurface. Therefore, we propose a novel
approach to modeling both geology and redox architectures simultaneously in high-resolution 3D (25m×25m×2m) using multiple-point geostatistical (MPS) simulation. Data consist of (1) mainly
resistivities of the subsurface mapped with towed transient electromagnetic
measurements (tTEM), (2) lithologies from borehole observations, (3) redox conditions from colors reported in borehole observations, and (4) chemistry analyses from water samples. Based on the collected data and supplementary
surface geology maps and digital elevation models, the simulation domain was
subdivided into geological elements with similar geological traits and
depositional histories. The conceptual understandings of the geological and redox architectures of the study system were introduced to the simulation as
training images for each geological element. On the basis of these training
images and conditioning data, independent realizations were jointly simulated
of geology and redox inside each geological element and stitched together into
a larger model. The joint simulation of geological and redox architectures,
which is one of the strengths of MPS compared to other geostatistical methods, ensures that the two architectures in general show coherent patterns. Despite the inherent subjectivity of interpretations of the
training images and geological element boundaries, they enable an easy and
intuitive incorporation of qualitative knowledge of geology and geochemistry
in quantitative simulations of the subsurface architectures. Altogether, we
conclude that our approach effectively simulates the consistent geological and
redox architectures of the subsurface that can be used for hydrological
modeling with nitrogen (N) transport, which may lead to a better understanding of N fate in the subsurface and to future more targeted
regulation of agriculture.


Therapeutic trials often attempt to "blind" patient and investigator to the true nature of treatments received, reducing the influences of conscious or subconscious prejudices. In drug trials, this is accomplished with placebo tablets, but blinding in trials of physical treatments is more problematic. This issue arose in a clinical trial of transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) for patients with chronic low back pain. Several study design features were incorporated to promote blinding: use of sham TENS units visually identical with real units, exclusion of potential subjects with previous TENS experience, avoidance of a crossover design and use of identical visit frequency, instructions and modifications in electrode placement. Subjects were asked not to discuss treatments with the clinicians who performed outcome assessments. Both patients and clinicians were asked to guess actual treatment assignments at the trial's end. Every patient in the true TENS group believed the unit was functioning properly, but the degree of certainty varied. In the sham TENS group, 84% also believed they had functioning units, but their certainty was significantly less than in the active treatment group. Differences in patient perceptions did not affect compliance, as the two groups had similar dropout rates, appointment compliance, days of TENS use and daily duration of TENS use. Clinicians guessed treatments correctly 61% of the time (as opposed to 50% expected by chance), again suggesting partial success in blinding. These efforts at blinding may partly explain the negative trial results for TENS efficacy. We conclude that complete blinding is difficult to achieve because of sensory difference in treatment and unintended communication between patient and examiner. Nonetheless, trials of physical treatments can achieve partial blinding with the techniques described here, and the success of blinding can be assessed with simple questions at study completion.


We repurpose existing RSA/ECC co-processors for (ideal) lattice-based cryptography by exploiting the availability of fast long integer multiplication. Such co-processors are deployed in smart cards in passports and identity cards, secured microcontrollers and hardware security modules (HSM). In particular, we demonstrate an implementation of a variant of the Module-LWE-based Kyber Key Encapsulation Mechanism (KEM) that is tailored for optimal performance on a commercially available smart card chip (SLE 78). To benefit from the RSA/ECC co-processor we use Kronecker substitution in combination with schoolbook and Karatsuba polynomial multiplication. Moreover, we speed-up symmetric operations in our Kyber variant using the AES co-processor to implement a PRNG and a SHA-256 co-processor to realise hash functions. This allows us to execute CCA-secure Kyber768 key generation in 79.6 ms, encapsulation in 102.4 ms and decapsulation in 132.7 ms.


Economic crises, natural disasters, armed conflict and infectious disease outbreaks, amongst others, present interlinked challenges for small businesses and have generated a recent wealth of research across varied fields. Therefore, this article outlines an analytical lens suggesting how SMEs experience shocks and crises that focuses on the interlinked nature of (i) the business, (ii) the shock and (iii) the response within a given context. We thematically draw out key trends, knowledge gaps and tensions and highlight promising research and engagement avenues for future scholarship and practice. We contextualise (i) how small businesses are distinct from large firms in how they experience shock and crisis events; (ii) how different types of crises impact small business; (iii) how shocks and crises shape SME-specific responses and (iv) how the COVID-19 pandemic as a 'novel exogenous shock' influences all of the above. We conclude by emphasising emerging knowledge avenues for future small business, shock and crisis research.


Effects of applications of pig slurry on soil aggregate stability are not well understood in dryland agriculture. This research aims to (i) identify aggregate stability tests that give a reliable description of the soil's behaviour when pig slurry (PS) is applied to calcareous soil and (ii) interpret them in terms of chemical, biological, morphological and physical soil properties for soil quality assessments. Soil samples from eight fertilizer treatments (mineral fertilizers and PS), applied over seven growing seasons were analysed. We applied five methodologies to examine different mechanisms of aggregate breakdown. Porosity was characterized by image analyses. There was minimum resistance to the mechanical breakdown of aggregates when slurries had been applied 12 months before analysis. Recent applications of slurry (3 months before the analysis) improved resistance to implosion caused by the penetration of water into dry aggregates (slaking), although the opposite result can occur if the method of evaluation is not chosen properly. Recent applications of PS also enhanced soil respiration and increased soil porosity in the 25–100‐µm size range (packing pores between aggregates) and in the 100–400‐µm size range (interaggregate or faunal pores). In dryland systems and in the winter cereal cropping season, the resistance of dry aggregates to slaking is improved temporarily if PS is applied at N rates equivalent to around 1.7 Mg OM ha−1 year−1.


Purpose - This study attempts to understand the nature and activities of growth-oriented women-owned businesses in the East of England by highlighting the problems faced by women entrepreneurs during the growth process.

Design/methodology/approach - The approach analysed the main growth factors and their influence on the adoption of different growth strategies. An online questionnaire was designed using Snap survey software™, with results exported to SPSS™ for analysis. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected via a variety of scaled, open-ended, rank order, dichotomous, multiple choice and open questions.

Findings - The research indicates that most do not opt to develop growth-oriented businesses, choosing instead small, non-scalable, locally focused businesses providing services or operating in low-tech industries. Women who are growth-oriented appear to be inhibited due to a lack of access to, and control over such resources as, capital, business premises, information and technology, production inputs, appropriate childcare, qualifications, experience, training facilities and appropriate assistance from business development agencies. Non-effective accumulation and use of social capital hinders access to appropriate decision-making circles, and limits the probability of accessing critical management and financing resources, especially through the venture capital industry.

Practical implications - This research has implications for government or other business development agencies seeking to understand the growth patterns and problems of women-owned enterprises in the East of England.

Originality/value - There are few British studies that have focussed on growth oriented women-owned businesses. This study contributes to the body of knowledge by attempting to understand the nature and activities of such business, by analysing the main growth factors and their influence on different growth strategies.


BACKGROUND
After taking control of oral anticoagulant therapy in our health center it became necessary to detect possible differences with regard to hospital monitoring. The aim of our study was to determine the variability in the International Normalized Ratio (INR) values of patients on oral anticoagulant therapy (OAT), and the possible relation to control in primary care or hospital.

METHODS
We analyzed the last 6 controls of 291 patients in an urban health centre in routine control by OAT. In order to analyze the variability, we calculated the standard deviation (SD) of natural logarithm (ln) of INR values, comparing by Student t test their mean between patients whose treatment had been scheduled in primary care and those on some occasions ruled by them and others in hospital. We compared also the proportion of controls within range in each group (chi2).

RESULTS
153 (52.6%) patients were women, and the mean age was 73.8 years (SD: 11.3). We analyzed a total of 1710 INR controls, of which 1412 have been validated by family physicians and 298 by haematologists; there were no significant differences in INR values. Patients whose treatment had been scheduled by professionals of the health centre had mean values of the SD of the ln of the INR of 6 controls analyzed significantly lower (p <0.0001) than in those who had taken a mixed control. Also, a higher proportion of controls within range (68.0% vs 38.6%, p <0.0001).

CONCLUSIONS
Patients who are followed only by professionals in the health centre have less variability and more appropriate INR control than those with a mixed control health centre / hospital.


Thanks to Salem sea captains, Gilded Age millionaires, curators on horseback and missionaries gone native, North American museums now possess the greatest collections of Chinese art outside of East Asia itself. How did it happen? "The" "China Collectors" is the first full account of a century-long treasure hunt in China from the Opium Wars and the Boxer Rebellion to Mao Zedong's 1949 ascent.The principal gatherers are mostly little known and defy invention. They included "foreign devils" who braved desert sandstorms, bandits and local warlords in acquiring significant works. Adventurous curators like Langdon Warner, a forebear of Indiana Jones, argued that the caves of Dunhuang were already threatened by vandals, thereby justifying the removal of frescoes and sculptures. Other Americans include George Kates, an alumnus of Harvard, Oxford and Hollywood, who fell in love with Ming furniture. The Chinese were divided between dealers who profited from the artworks' removal, and scholars who sought to protect their country's patrimony. Duanfang, the greatest Chinese collector of his era, was beheaded in a coup and his splendid bronzes now adorn major museums. Others in this rich tapestry include Charles Lang Freer, an enlightened Detroit entrepreneur, two generations of Rockefellers, and Avery Brundage, the imperious Olympian, and Arthur Sackler, the grand acquisitor. No less important are two museum directors, Cleveland's Sherman Lee and Kansas City's Laurence Sickman, who challenged the East Coast's hegemony.Shareen Blair Brysac and Karl E. Meyer even-handedly consider whether ancient treasures were looted or salvaged, and whether it was morally acceptable to spirit hitherto inaccessible objects westward, where they could be studied and preserved by trained museum personnel. And how should the US and Canada and their museums respond now that China has the means and will to reclaim its missing patrimony?


After the breakup of the Soviet Union, Ukraine found itself in possession of the world's third largest nuclear arsenal.  By 1994, Ukraine had surrendered its entire nuclear arsenal to its historical enemy, Russia.  This phenomenon has largely escaped scrutiny.  At a time in world history when the question of nuclear proliferation and disarmament has again come to the forefront of international politics, it is important to reexamine the case of Ukrainian disarmament in which standard paradigms of international relations fail to satisfactorily explain historical events.  Only by applying the underutilized individual level of analysis can Ukrainian disarmament be clearly understood.


CONTEXT
Studies aimed at identifying structural brain alterations associated with persistent violent behavior or psychopathy have not adequately accounted for a lifetime history of substance misuse. Thus, alterations in gray matter (GM) volume that have been reported to be correlates of violent behavior and/or psychopathy may instead be related to lifelong substance use disorders (SUDs).

OBJECTIVE
To identify alterations in GM volume associated with violent behavior and those associated with lifelong SUDs.

DESIGN
Cross-sectional study.

SETTING
Participants were recruited from penitentiaries, forensic hospitals, psychiatric outpatient services, and communities in Germany. Structural magnetic resonance imaging was performed at a university hospital.

PARTICIPANTS
Four groups of men were compared: 12 men with SUDs who exhibited violent behavior (hereafter referred to as violent offenders), 12 violent offenders without SUDs, 13 men with SUDs who did not exhibit violent behavior (hereafter referred to as nonoffenders), and 14 nonoffenders without SUDs.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Voxel-based morphometry was used to analyze high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging scans. Assessments of mental disorders, psychopathy (using the Psychopathy Checklist-Screening Version), aggressive behavior, and impulsivity were conducted by trained clinicians.

RESULTS
Compared with nonoffenders, violent offenders presented with a larger GM volume in the amygdala bilaterally, the left nucleus accumbens, and the right caudate head and with less GM volume in the left insula. Men with SUDs exhibited a smaller GM volume in the orbitofrontal cortex, ventromedial prefrontal cortex, and premotor cortex than did men without SUDs. Regression analyses indicated that the alterations in GM volume that distinguished the violent offenders from nonoffenders were associated with psychopathy scores and scores for lifelong aggressive behavior. The GM volumes of the orbitofrontal cortex and prefrontal cortex that distinguished the men with SUDs from the men without SUDs were correlated with scores for response inhibition.

CONCLUSIONS
These findings suggest that a greater GM volume in the mesolimbic reward system may be associated with violent behavior and that reduced GM volumes in the prefrontal cortex, orbitofrontal cortex, and premotor area characterize men with SUDs.


Writing and speaking are the productive skills of a language and share similar components. However, there has been little attempt to investigate the impact of writing practice on the speaking proficiency of the learners. The present study using a pretest-posttest controlled group design in a quasi-experimental approach investigated the effect of guided writing practice on the speaking proficiency of Iranian EFL students. Two elementary intact classes which were classified based on the institute's placement test were selected for the study. The homogeneity of the learners was checked through Key English Test (2007) as the pretest of the study, and the classes were randomly assigned into the experimental group (n=26) and the comparison group (n=26). The experimental group was provided with 10 guided writing worksheets in the last 15 to 20 minutes of the class, whereas the comparison group went through the procedure of a typical institute class in which they worked on workbook exercises during the mentioned time. The quantitative analysis of the posttest using an independent samples t-test indicated that not only writing proficiency, but also the speaking proficiency of the experimental group had significantly improved. Moreover, an end of the term a semi-structured interview sought the experimental group learners' attitudes toward the role of writing practice in improving their speaking skill. The content analysis of the interview transcripts revealed that the learners held positive attitudes toward the guided writing worksheets at the end of the term, though they did not have the same attitude at the beginning.


Overbreadth in criminal liability rules, especially in federal law, is abundant and much lamented. Overbreadth is avoidable if it results from normative mistakes about how much conduct to criminalize or from insufficient care to limit open texture in statutes. Social planners cannot so easily avoid overbreadth if they cannot reach behaviors for which criminalization is well justified without also reaching behaviors for which it is not. This mismatch problem is acute if persons engaging in properly criminalized behaviors deliberately alter their conduct to avoid punishment and have resources to devote to avoidance efforts. In response to such efforts, legal actors are apt to expand liability rules further, feeding a cycle of evasion and overbreadth that characterizes important areas of contemporary criminal law. Lawmakers cannot purge the resulting overbreadth from liability rules without producing underbreadth, at significant cost to regulatory objectives. I conclude that, in some areas of expanding substantive criminal law, answers to "overcriminalization" therefore lie not in reducing the scope of conduct rules but in greater reliance on mens rea doctrines, redesign of enforcement institutions, and modification of sentencing practices.


This paper explores the influence and application of Perec's work within site-specific dance practice. It considers how Perec's methods and prose might encourage creative dance approaches engaging with and reflecting on subjective encounters with space and place. It questions how approaches articulated in Species of Spaces (1974) and An Attempt at Exhausting a Place in Paris (1975) may inform site-dance artists reflecting on what we might learn from Perec's (1989) techniques of recording the 'infra ordinary' in a new context.  Discourses of embodiment and multiplicity that approach subjective processes of being-in-the world from holistic and immersive perspectives inform the discussion. Through doing so, it aligns with Deleuzian-informed, non-representational theories that prioritise the 'event-ness' of human-nonhuman interactions in real-world environments (Greenhough 2010).  In revealing the infra ordinary Perec invites us to ponder further the extraordinary nature of human-spatial interactions and associated journeyings between the real, imagined and associated landscapes they invoke. For site-dance practitioners, Perecquian geographies inform understandings of holistic site responses in which the interrelated body-self and the site world event phenomenon is identified as the locus of site-subject relations.  Through a discussion of Perecquian informed movement scores site-body entwinements implicating the experiencer and the spatial species under investigation in a co-constitutive dance of knowing and unknowing, fixing and unfixing, advancing and retreating are articulated. This is conceptualized as a dance of 'being here and there' - a duet between body-self and site-world in which these elements move along and emerge in relation to one another leading to enhanced awareness and developed understandings of being-in-the-world.


Populations of grassland birds in North America have declined greatly in the past five decades. Hypothesized drivers of decline include habitat loss, fragmentation, and adverse impacts from human activities. At a remnant fescue grassland in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan numbers of Savannah Sparrow ( Passerculus sandwichensis ), Western Meadowlark ( Sturnella neglecta ), Brewer's Blackbird ( Euphagus cyanocephalus ), and Vesper Sparrow ( Pooecetes gramineus ) have been stable. Numbers of clay-colored Sparrow ( Spizella pallida ) have increased since the 1960s. Sprague's Pipit ( Anthus spragueii ), Upland Sandpiper ( Bartramia  longicauda ), and Burrowing Owl ( Athene cunicularia ) are no longer present. Baird's Sparrow ( Ammodramus bairdii ), Bobolink ( Dolichonyx oryzivorus ), and Horned Lark ( Eremophila alpestris ) have become irregular visitors. In the past 50 years, 91 species have been observed displaying territorial behaviour, feeding, nesting, or migrating at this remnant native grassland. With encroaching urban development and increased human influence at the prairie and surrounding area, the impacts on the bird communities at the site in the future are unknown.


The Quantum Mechanics Conceptual Survey (QMCS) is a 12-question survey of students' conceptual understanding of quantum mechanics. It is intended to be used to measure the relative effectiveness of different instructional methods in modern physics courses. In this paper we describe the design and validation of the survey, a process that included observations of students, a review of previous literature and textbooks and syllabi, faculty and student interviews, and statistical analysis. We also discuss issues in the development of specific questions, which may be useful both for instructors who wish to use the QMCS in their classes and for researchers who wish to conduct further research of student understanding of quantum mechanics. The QMCS has been most thoroughly tested in, and is most appropriate for assessment of (as a posttest only), sophomore-level modern physics courses. We also describe testing with students in junior quantum courses and graduate quantum courses, from which we conclude that the QMCS may be appropriate for assessing junior quantum courses, but is not appropriate for assessing graduate courses. One surprising result of our faculty interviews is a lack of faculty consensus on what topics should be taught in modern physics, which has made designing a test that is valued by a majority of physics faculty more difficult than expected.


As the quality of natural language generated by artificial intelligence systems improves, writing interfaces can support interventions beyond grammar-checking and spell-checking, such as suggesting content to spark new ideas. To explore the possibility of machine-in-the-loop creative writing, we performed two case studies using two system prototypes, one for short story writing and one for slogan writing. Participants in our studies were asked to write with a machine in the loop or alone (control condition). They assessed their writing and experience through surveys and an open-ended interview. We collected additional assessments of the writing from Amazon Mechanical Turk crowdworkers. Our findings indicate that participants found the process fun and helpful and could envision use cases for future systems. At the same time, machine suggestions do not necessarily lead to better written artifacts. We therefore suggest novel natural language models and design choices that may better support creative writing.


This study compares patient propensity towards proactive health behaviour of South Africans and Americans. While the health care system of South Africa is severely stretched to deliver medical services, the United States maintains high levels of medical services for their countrymen, hence enjoying a much higher life expectancy. The South Africa data consisted of a snowball social media campaign resulting in 180 responses while the United States data consists of 1,031 responses from the general adult population of the country. Some were analysed from the United States. Both groups display a propensity towards proactive health behaviour while differing only on how ill they really are before deciding to see a doctor. The more important factors in South Africa were: Health is my own responsibility, Preventative health, and Information on illnesses, while the Americans identified: Early diagnosis, Preventive treatment and Consulting electronic information. Although both groups are sensitive to proactive attitudes and behaviours, there are differences between the latent variables the importance of the variables. The Americans seem to be much more inquisitive, and they seem to gather more information on health issues than the South Africans. The Americans also tend to react faster to arising health issues.


Renewable energy is starting to be used as the panacea for solving climate change or global warming problems. Therefore in the starting of 21st century, Government, utilities and research communities are working together to develop a climate-friendly power generation systems for a sustainable society by increasing large-scale energy generation from renewable energy sources. However, due to the intermittent nature of renewable energy sources creates a number of potential challenges in integrating renewable energy with the existing grid. Harmonic distortion, voltage fluctuation, voltage management, demand assessment, and load rejection are the major potential issues concerning the application of photovoltaic - Distributed Generation. This paper develops a model using PSS SINCAL to investigate the impacts on integrating photovoltaic panel on the utility grid.


Childhood obesity rates have tripled over the last thirty years and currently one in three children are overweight or obese. Primary care providers identify and provide counseling to parents with overweight and obese children. There is evidence that primary care providers advice is strongly variable, counseling is met by many barriers, and that few providers are familiar with recommended professional guidelines for prevention and treatment of obesity. Additionally, large disparities in pediatric obesity exist, especially within particular minority groups and little is known regarding the perceptions, barriers and strategies of providers working with these groups. In this study medical providers from a diverse, low-income community health clinic (n=32) were interviewed regarding their perceptions, barriers, and strategies in weight management discussions. This sample included: pediatricians, nurse practitioners, registered nurses, certified medical assistants, certified nursing assistants, as well as registered dietitians. Semi-structured interviews were performed in site during working hours, were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Inductive content analysis and open coding were used to analyze transcriptions and identify themes. Themes were identified as weak, consistent or strong. Medical providers in this sample reported being very comfortable discussing weight and initiated conversations by the age of two. A variety of tools were used to initiate conversations and included: growth charts, family history, risk factors, and open-ended questions. Most providers counseling focused on physical activity, some on nutrition and specific advice was found to vary between each provider. Providers rarely observed patient lifestyle changes. The strongest perceived barrier to counseling reported were parents/families with time and culture/language also reported as barriers, however parents were also reported as the strongest influence on patient behaviors. In conclusion, parents may prevent or support counseling efforts and success of weight management by primary care providers.


This article is an in-depth treatment of the fractionation, or co-ownership, problem in American Indian land tenure. The purpose of this work is twofold. First, the article establishes that fractionation is more than just inconvenient or unfortunate, but is instead a serious problem with major implications for modern tribal sovereignty. Second, the article proposes major reform that would remove unnecessary federal regulation of intratribal transactions and abolish the formulaic intestate division of property in favor of a more flexible case-by-case model that I call equitable distribution, with little added administrative expense.The article proceeds by examining the historical roots of the problem, surveying its modern scope, analyzing fractionation's many problematic consequences, and proposing several steps toward a more lasting solution.


Shaped concrete barriers about 800 mm high, with a lower slope angled at 55 degrees to the horizontal and a nearly vertical upper slope, are used extensively in the USA on narrow central reserves and as bridge parapets, the most popular being the New Jersey profile. Tests have shown that the New Jersey profile does not overturn Leyland Mini cars which strike the barrier at a speed and angle of 90 km/h degrees appropriate to that which can be generated when a car veers across a two-lane carriageway. However at an approach of 113 km/h and 20 degrees, appropriate to a three-lane carriageway, a Mini car was rolled over towards the barrier. Lowering the height of the New Jersey barrier by 75 mm prevented rollover of the Mini at 113 km/h and 20 degrees, so that this barrier shape, essentially the same as the American Configuration F, is considered to be acceptable on most roads in the UK. Overlays of the road surface will minimise the benefits of the profile in casual impacts. When the New Jersey barrier was raised 75 mm in relation to the road surface the results indicated that the Leyland Mini will rollover away from the barrier even at an approach of 90 km/h and 20 degrees appropriate to a two-lane carriageway. /Author/


I. INTRODUCTION The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods1 (CISG or "Convention") is considered one of the greatest achievements of modern legal history.2 Even before its ratification by the United States Congress in 1987, it was widely hailed as an international Uniform Commercial Code capable of reducing international transaction costs and bringing unity to an extremely disorganized branch of law. Since Canada, Mexico, and most of the larger European nations have also adopted the CISG,3 the Convention governs a majority of all foreign transactions conducted by the United States.4 In addition, some countries have adopted the CISG as their domestic sales law,5 and in the United States, the Permanent Editorial Board for the Uniform Commercial Code has used the Convention as a constructive model for reforming the UCC.6 In short, the Convention governs virtually all sales transactions "between parties whose places of business are in different" signatory States.7 Nevertheless, the CISG has largely been avoided or ignored by international attorneys in the United States for over a decade. Accordingly, federal courts in the United States have encountered "surprisingly few cases"8 in which the CISG has even been referred to. One federal court notes "that there is little to no case law on the CISG in general."9 There is so little, in fact, that as of May 1998, only thirteen federal cases had even mentioned the Convention; of those thirteen, ten cited the Convention in only a single paragraph or footnote; just one of the remaining three devoted extended analysis to the Convention text.10 In contrast, approximately 464 cases governed by the CISG have been decided in courts around the world. Of those 464, only 32 involved an American company as a party; of those 32 suits, only 11 were initiated by the party from the United States.11 These statistics suggest that federal courts have not made a significant effort to interpret the CISG, even when presented with the opportunity to do so. As a result, many practitioners seem wary of making or enforcing agreements based on the laws of that Convention. It is of little wonder that many feel that "ft]he lack of judicial interpretation or construction of [the] CISG permits great leeway for anyone undertaking" the formation and enforcement of CISG agreements.12 In MCC-Marble Ceramic Center v. Ceramica Nuova d'Agostino, S.p.A.,l3 the Eleventh Circuit examined the CISG and attempted to interpret it as an independent source of law. The court addressed several issues important in advancing American jurisprudence on the Convention. Specifically, it discussed one of the more troubling aspects of the Convention for American practitioners-the CISG's lack of a parol evidence rule. The court made important comments on the use of domestic law under the Convention and on avoiding parol evidence problems in the future. In so doing, the court specifically disagreed with the holding of the Second Circuit in Beijing Metals & Minerals Import/Export Corp. v. American Business Center, Inc.,14 the only other federal appellate court case discussing parol evidence under the CISG. This Note will identify the progress made in understanding the CISG by examining the court's holding and discussion in MCC-Marble. Part II of this Note points out a number of the CISG's benefits and potential drawbacks, in addition to providing the pertinent factual background to MCC-Marble. Part III explains why the Court properly held that the CISG rejected the parol evidence rule, despite arguments in favor of harmonizing the rule with the Convention text. Part IV discusses two significant problems, which the court did not satisfactorily resolve: the possibility that one party may fabricate parol evidence for trial, and the potential ineffectiveness of a merger clause in avoiding parol evidence disputes. Part V stresses that while an independent interpretation of the Convention is crucial, a last resort to domestic law serves an essential gap-filling function necessitated by the brevity of the Convention. …


The UK economy is becoming increasingly digital with high levels of smartphone and internet penetration, a growth in e-commerce, the emergence of new technologies and an enhanced ability to capture and analyse large amounts of data.

Fintech is supporting this shift by enabling new players and business models to enter the market. This could increase competition, meet unfulfilled customer needs, reduce inefficiencies and change financial services. Overall, this could create a more efficient, effective and resilient financial system. At the same time, new risks to financial stability may emerge and existing risks could be amplified.

The Bank of England's mission is to promote the good of the people of the UK by maintaining monetary and financial stability. As such, it seeks to understand what fintech means for the stability of the financial system, the safety and soundness of financial firms, and its ability to perform its operational and regulatory roles.

The Bank of England is committed to embracing fintech to deliver its mission. As such, it is upgrading its hard infrastructure — particularly its payments architecture — to enhance security and support innovation, while also updating its 'soft infrastructure' — including rules and regulations — to mitigate potential risks. The Bank of England is also applying new technology to enhance its own capabilities.


Purpose of the article: Palladium is presently used for producing electronics, industrial products or jewellery, as well as products in the medical field. Its value is raised especially by its unique physical and chemical characteristics. Predicting the value of such a metal is not an easy matter (with regard to the fact that prices may change significantly in time).
Methodology/methods: To carry out the analysis, London Fix Price PM data was used, i.e. amounts reported in the afternoon for a period longer than 10 years. To process the data, Statistica software is used. Linear regression is carried out using a whole range of functions, and subsequently regression via neural structures is performed, where several distributional functions are used again. Subsequently, 1000 neural networks are generated, out of which 5 proving the best characteristics are chosen.
Scientific aim: The aim of the paper is to perform a regression analysis of the development of the palladium price on the New York Stock Exchange using neural structures and linear regression, then to compare the two methods and determine the more suitable one for a possible prediction of the future development of the palladium price on the New York Stock Exchange.
Findings: Results are compared on the level of an expert perspective and the evaluator's – economist's experience. Within regression time lines, the curve obtained by the least squares methods via negative-exponential smoothing gets closest to Palladium price line development. Out of the neural networks, all 5 chosen networks prove to be the most practically useful.
Conclusions: Because it is not possible to predict extraordinary situations and their impact on the palladium price (at most in the short term, but certainly not over a long period of time), simplification and the creation of a relatively simple model is appropriate and the result is useful.


Atmospheric plasma treated carbon fiber filaments (10 micrometer) were used as the base substrate in the design of a probe intended for use within intravascular access devices. The microfiber probe was further functionalized with a polyplumbagin layer through which the line pH could be determined voltammetrically and therein provide the potential for obtaining diagnostic information relating to bacterial colonization of the line. The redox processes attributed to the immobilized polymer are characterized and a methodology developed to enable the acquisition of a redox signal that is selective and sensitive to pH. The applicability of the composite probe was demonstrated through examining the direct response in whole blood.


This text argues that because new nations need new pasts, they create new ways of commemorating and recasting select historic events. The author, Yael Zerubavel, illuminates this process by examining the construction of Israeli national tradition. In the years leading to the birth of Israel, Zerubavel shows, Zionist settlers in Palestine consciously sought to rewrite Jewish history by reshaping Jewish memory. Zerubavel focuses on the nationalist reinterpretation of the defense of Masada against the Romans in 73 CE and the Bar Kokhba revolt of 133-135; and on the transformation of the 1920 defense of a new Jewish settlement in Tel Hai into a national myth. Zerubavel demonstrates how, in each case, Israeli memory transforms events that ended in death and defeat into heroic myths and symbols of national revival. Drawing on a broad range of official and popular sources and original interviews, Zerubavel shows that the construction of a new national tradition is not necessarily the product of government policy but a creative collaboration between politicans, writers and educators. Her discussion of the politics of commemoration demonstrates how rival groups can turn the past into an arena of conflict as they posit competing interpretations of history and opposing moral claims on the use of the past. Zerubavel analyzes the emergence of counter-memories within the reality of Israel's frequent wars, the ensuing debates about the future of the occupied territories, and the embattled relations with Palestinians. This book should appeal to historians, sociologists, anthropologists, political scientists and folklorists, as well as to scholars of cultural studies, literature and communication.


On July 21, 2004, President Bush signed the Project Bioshield Act, which authorizes the spending of $5.6 billion to advance the development and acquisition of vaccines and other countermeasures to biological agents. While the funding and progress are welcome signs for our national biodefense strategy, the failure of the federal Phase I smallpox vaccination program demonstrated that other serious obstacles remain to the implementation of a successful pre-event vaccine immunization program. Specifically, as demonstrated by a field study of several states' health departments, performed at the ANSER Institute for Homeland Security, the federal government's inability to provide both sufficient liability protection and adequate compensation to first responders seriously jeopardizes the success of pre-event vaccination programs. Although the cost of providing both liability protection and adequate compensation at the pre-event stage may seem large, it pales in comparison to what the cost would be should a smallpox outbreak occur without the benefit of vaccinated first responders. This Article analyzes past and current vaccine liability and injury compensation schemes as a basis for suggesting changes that the federal government must put in place for future pre-event vaccination programs to be successful.


Historically, the expansion of soy plantations has been a major driver of land-use/cover change (LUCC) in Brazil. While a series of recent public actions and supply-chain commitments reportedly curbed the replacement of forests by soy, the expansion of the agricultural commodity still poses a considerable threat to the Amazonian and Cerrado biomes. Identification of areas under high risk of soy expansion is thus paramount to assist conservation efforts in the region. We mapped the areas suitable for undergoing transition to soy plantations in the Legal Amazon with a machine-learning approach adopted from the ecological modeling literature. Simulated soy expansion for the year 2014 exhibited favorable validation scores compared to other LUCC models. We then used our model to simulate how potential future infrastructure improvements would affect the 2014 probabilities of soy occurrence in the region. In addition to the 2.3 Mha of planted soy in the Legal Amazon in 2014, our model identified another 14.7 Mha with high probability of soy conversion in the region given the infrastructure conditions at that time. Out of those, pastures and forests represented 9.8 and 0.4 Mha, respectively. Under the new infrastructure scenarios simulated, the Legal Amazonian area under high risk of soy conversion increased by up to 2.1 Mha (14.6%). These changes led to up to 11.4 and 51.4% increases in the high-risk of conversion areas of pastures and forests, respectively. If conversion occurs in the identified high-risk areas, at least 4.8 Pg of CO2 could be released into the atmosphere, a value that represents 10 times the total CO2 emissions of Brazil in 2014. Our results highlight the importance of targeting conservation policies and enforcement actions, including the Soy Moratorium, to mitigate future forest cover loss associated with infrastructure improvements in the region.


Defined as a systemic vasculitis developing in a particular genetic background, uveitis is one of the hallmarks to diagnose Behcet's disease and also one of the important clinical criteria to start systemic treatment. Isolated anterior non granulomatous uveitis with hypopyon, even though a classic clinical picture, actually develops in a minority of cases. In most patients, uveitis is posterior, associated to small vessel occlusive retinal vasculitis, carrying a high risk of permanent retinal damage and subsequent severe visual loss. The guarded natural prognosis of the disease has positively changed in the last decennials with the introduction of biologic immunosuppressant agents in the field of uveitis. Vision can be preserved in most cases provided a prompt early diagnosis and adequate therapy. The potential role of oral bacteria as a triggering factor for autoinflammation in predisposed hosts is interesting, opening the door to prevention in this still not well-understood severe uveitis.


This thesis focuses on the development and application of Bayesian inference techniques for early-Universe signals and on the advancement of mathematical tools for information retrieval.
A crucial quantity required to gain information from the early Universe is the primordial scalar potential and its statistics. We reconstruct this scalar potential from cosmic microwave background data. Technically, the inference is done by splitting the large inverse problem of such a reconstruction into many, each of them solved by an optimal linear filter.
Once the primordial scalar potential and its correlation structure have been obtained the underlying physics can be directly inferred from it. Small deviations of the scalar potential from Gaussianity, for instance, can be used to study parameters of inflationary models. A method to infer such parameters from non-Gaussianity is presented. To avoid expensive numerical techniques
the method is kept analytical as far as possible. This is achieved by introducing an approximation of the desired posterior probability including a Taylor expansion of a matrix determinant.
The calculation of a determinant is also essential in many other Bayesian approaches, both apart from and within cosmology. In cases where a Taylor approximation fails, its evaluation is usually challenging. The evaluation is in particular difficult, when dealing with big data, where matrices are to huge to be accessible directly, but need to be represented indirectly by a computer routine implementing the action of the matrix. To solve this problem, we develop a method to calculate the determinant of a matrix by using well-known sampling techniques and an integral representation of the log-determinant.
The prerequisite for the presented methods as well as for every data analysis of scientific experiments is a proper calibration of the measurement device. Therefore we advance the theory of self-calibration at the beginning of the
thesis to infer signal and calibration simultaneously from data. This is achieved by successively absorbing more and more portions of calibration uncertainty into the signal inference equations. The result, the Calibration-Uncertainty
Renormalized Estimator, follows from the solution of a coupled differential equation.


GPR with a suspended 1 GHz horn antenna was deployed in the greenhouse and field for measurement of near-surface hydrologic parameters over bare and wheat canopy covered soils. Analyses of time-domain (TD) surface reflections (SR) and signal propagation times (PT) to reflective layers underlying plant canopy or a soil layer showed that SR values progressively decreased with increasing canopy biomass according to Beer-Lambert type relationships, while PT values remained unaffected. TD GPR measurements also showed the effects of soil texture on water content dynamics. Conversions of GPR reflections from TD to frequency domain (FD) showed differing dynamic responses for scattering from specific canopy and soil elements and entire profiles for varying soil types and conditions at 1.26 GHz (L-band) and 430 MHz (P-band), frequencies which are used by air- and spaceborne radar platforms. In general, L-band was more affected by surface (0-1 cm depth) soil water content conditions and vegetation than P-band, as expected. This demonstrates the usefulness of a 1 GHz center frequency horn antenna GPR for (1) characterization of vegetation canopy effects and subcanopy water content measurements within a well-defined footprint, and (2) calibration and verification of radar imagery using a single sensor.


Abstract Epithemia hirudiniformis and three morphologically related taxa, described in Rhopalodia by O. Müller from material collected in East Africa at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century were re-evaluated and lectotypes designated. Rhopalodiella as a new subgenus is proposed which refines O. Müller's infrageneric classification and to which all these taxa belong. In addition, the type of Epithemia rhopala, described by Ehrenberg from Egypt, was studied to examine the assumed synonymy, introduced by Hustedt, with some of Müller's species. This study, using light and scanning electron microscopy, was not only based on historic material but also more recent material from Africa, including samples from the Island of Reunion from which the new species Epithemia vandevijveri is described. The distribution of Epithemia subg. Rhopalodiella, known to be restricted to tropical Africa, is discussed based on literature data and own observations. Corresponding to recent molecular-based studies, Rhopalodia is given a new status as subgenus.


This paper investigates the effect of shifting taxes from labor income to consumption on labor supply and the distribution of income in Germany. We simulate stepwise increases in the value‐added tax (VAT) rate, which are compensated by revenue‐neutral reductions in income‐related taxes. We differentiate between the personal income tax (PIT) and social security contributions (SSC). Based on a dual data base and a microsimulation model of household labor supply behavior, we find a regressive impact of such a tax shift in the short run. When accounting for labor supply adjustments, the adverse distributional impact persists for PIT reductions, while the overall effects on inequality and progressivity become lower when payroll taxes are reduced. This is partly due to increases in aggregate labor supply, resulting from higher work incentives.


While bodily practice has become a major area of investigation in cultural anthropology, its connection to ethnicity remains to be explored. Among the Yucatec Maya, however, one cultural value, tranquility, is enacted through bodily practices and also serves as an axis for ethnic distinction. Moreover, a specific logic associating tranquility with morality serves as an incisive critique of wealthier Others, all the more important as the Maya are incorporated into the global economy at the bottom of the class hierarchy. An understanding of ethnicity is incomplete without an ethnography of bodily practice and an investigation into how ethnic identity emerges daily in relation to embodied experiences. (Mexico, Maya, ethnicity, social class, embodiment) ********** Visitors to the Mayan village of Dzitnup, in Yucatan, Mexico, are told by virtually everyone they meet that Dzitnup is a wonderful place because it is "tranquil," and that "everyone gets along here." These repeated assertions are puzzling in view of the fact that the village has two political factions, people argue over the national political parties, and Catholics and Protestants accuse each other that their ways are contrary to the will of God. This article explores the ways these Yucatecans talk about tranquility, which involves its demonstration in bodily practice, and its importance for ethnic and class identities. It concludes with a call for a wider investigation into relationships between bodily practice and ethnicity, particularly the behavioral correlates of ethnic identities. After three centuries of Spanish colonial rule, and arguably two centuries of neocolonialism, how Maya-speaking people configure social identity and difference has aroused scholarly interest. Concern in these matters intensified in the 1980s and 1990s during the civil war that pitted a Guatemalan army against Maya villagers, and again with the Zapatista rebellion of 1994 in Mexico and the military occupation of Chiapas that continues to this day. Some ethnographers suggest that romanticism about the Maya--involving tourists, archaeologists, cultural anthropologists, and National Geographic magazine illustrations--has placed constraints on how Mayan people assert their ethnic identity (Castaneda 1996; Hervik 1999). Others have stressed the creative articulation of ethnicity in the context of struggles for indigenous rights under state military power (Alonso Caamal 1993; Fischer 1999, 2001; Fischer and McKenna 1996; Hale 1994; Nash 1995, 1997, 2001; Warren 1992, 1998; Watanabe 1995; Wilson 1995). Still others focus on the correspondence between ethnic identities and class realities (Gabbert 2004), or examine how identities emerged in relationship to colonial and state administrative procedures (Castaneda 2004:42; Eiss 2004; Fallaw 2004; Restall 2004; Watanabe 2000). Berkley (1998) points to the relationship between language ideology and ethnic identity, as does Castaneda (2004:41), who cautions against eliding the realities of cultural and ethnic diversity because "the terms 'Indian,' 'ladino,' 'mestizo,' 'indigenous' are not equivalent across the Maya world [and] do not have any stable meaning" (emphasis in original). Attention in this essay is given to a relatively neglected area: the relationship between identity and bodily experience. In Santiago Chimaltenango, Guatemala, Watanabe (1992) found that a sense of community emerged through the experience of collective action, and argued for a study of the relationship between identity and experience (Watanabe 1995; see also Fischer 1999). How bodily practice (as distinguished from body adornment [cf. Turner 1995]) relates to perception and identity has become an area of anthropological concern (Bourdieu 1984; Csordas 1990; Farnell 1999; Lock 1993; Martin Alcoff 1999; Merleau-Ponty 1962; Van Wolputte 2004). It is useful to understand how perceptions and feelings that emerge with bodily experience relate to how Maya think about themselves and others. …


We study a strategic market game in which traders are endowed with both a good and money and can choose whether to buy or sell the good. We derive conditions under which a non-autarkic equilibrium exists and when the only equilibrium is autarky. Autarky is 'nice' (robust to small perturbations in the game) when it is the only equilibrium, and 'very nice' (robust to large perturbations) when no gains from trade exist. We characterize economies where autarky is nice but not very nice; that is, when gains from trade exist and yet no trade takes place.


Epidemic algorithms have recently been proposed as an effective solution for disseminating information in large-scale peer-to-peer (P2P) systems and in mobile ad hoc networks (MANET). In this paper, we present a modeling approach for steady-state analysis of epidemic dissemination of information in MANET. As major contribution, the introduced approach explicitly represents the spread of multiple data items, finite buffer capacity at mobile devices and a least recently used buffer replacement scheme. Using the introduced modeling approach, we analyze seven degrees of separation (7DS) as one well-known approach for implementing P2P data sharing in a MANET using epidemic dissemination of information. A validation of results derived from the analytical model against simulation shows excellent agreement. Quantitative performance curves derived from the analytical model yield several insights for optimizing the system design of 7DS.


OBJECTIVE
We tested the hypothesis that systemic administration of an A2AR agonist will reduce multiorgan IRI in a porcine model of ECPR.

SUMMARY BACKGROUND DATA
Advances in ECPR have decreased mortality after cardiac arrest; however, subsequent IRI contributes to late multisystem organ failure. Attenuation of IRI has been reported with the use of an A2AR agonist.

METHODS
Adult swine underwent 20 minutes of circulatory arrest, induced by ventricular fibrillation, followed by 6 hours of reperfusion with ECPR. Animals were randomized to vehicle control, low-dose A2AR agonist, or high-dose A2AR agonist. A perfusion specialist using a goal-directed resuscitation protocol managed all the animals during the reperfusion period. Hourly blood, urine, and tissue samples were collected. Biochemical and microarray analyses were performed to identify differential inflammatory markers and gene expression between groups.

RESULTS
Both the treatment groups demonstrated significantly higher percent reduction from peak lactate after reperfusion compared with vehicle controls. Control animals required significantly more fluid, epinephrine, and higher final pump flow while having lower urine output than both the treatment groups. The treatment groups had lower urine NGAL, an early marker of kidney injury (P = 0.01), lower plasma aspartate aminotransferase, and reduced rate of troponin rise (P = 0.01). Pro-inflammatory cytokines were lower while anti-inflammatory cytokines were significantly higher in the treatment groups.

CONCLUSIONS
Using a novel and clinically relevant porcine model of circulatory arrest and ECPR, we demonstrated that a selective A2AR agonist significantly attenuated systemic IRI and warrants clinical investigation.


This memo provides an analysis of the architectural aspects of multi-
homing support for the IPv6 protocol suite. The purpose of this
analysis is to provide a taxonomy for classification of various
proposed approaches to multi-homing. It is also an objective of this
exercise to identify common aspects of this domain of study, and also
to provide a framework that can allow exploration of some of the
further implications of various architectural extensions that are
intended to support multi-homing. This memo provides information for
the Internet community.


Delivery of neurotransmitter produces on a synapse a current that flows through the membrane and gets transmitted into the soma of the neuron, where it is integrated. The decay time of the current depends on the synaptic receptor's type and ranges from a few (e.g., AMPA receptors) to a few hundred milliseconds (e.g., NMDA receptors). The role of the variety of synaptic timescales, several of them coexisting in the same neuron, is at present not understood. A prime question to answer is which is the effect of temporal filtering at different timescales of the incoming spike trains on the neuron's response. Here, based on our previous work on linear synaptic filtering, we build a general theory for the stationary firing response of integrate-and-fire (IF) neurons receiving stochastic inputs filtered by one, two, or multiple synaptic channels, each characterized by an arbitrary timescale. The formalism applies to arbitrary IF model neurons and arbitrary forms of input noise (i.e., not required to be gaussian or to have small amplitude), as well as to any form of synaptic filtering (linear or nonlinear). The theory determines with exact analytical expressions the firing rate of an IF neuron for long synaptic time constants using the adiabatic approach. The correlated spiking (cross-correlations function) of two neurons receiving common as well as independent sources of noise is also described. The theory is illustrated using leaky, quadratic, and noise-thresholded IF neurons. Although the adiabatic approach is exact when at least one of the synaptic timescales is long, it provides a good prediction of the firing rate even when the timescales of the synapses are comparable to that of the leak of the neuron; it is not required that the synaptic time constants are longer than the mean interspike intervals or that the noise has small variance. The distribution of the potential for general IF neurons is also characterized. Our results provide powerful analytical tools that can allow a quantitative description of the dynamics of neuronal networks with realistic synaptic dynamics.


Originally published in 1981 but now with a new preface, this volume provided the first detailed comparative analysis of how local authorities in the UK and W. Germany faced up to the challenge of trying to help local industry and improve employment prospects. Based on the results of case-studies the book considers the powers and resources available to local authorities and examines how the authorities are organized for this type of economic activity. The authors' analysis of the interplay of political and administrative factors will be particularly important for student and professionals in comparative public policy and public finance. The study shows how economic policy making in local government is constrained both by the higher levels of government in both countries and by the conditions in the economy operating both locally and nationally.


The Death of Klinghoffer (1991), which has been equally criticized as "trivial trash" and a "sad solace of truth," is an intricate work that chronicles the events of the 1985 hijacking of the Achille Lauro cruise ship. However, because of untraditional dramaturgical choices made by the co-creators John Adams, Alice Goodman, and Peter Sellars, the story has been largely interpreted out of historical context and therefore heavily denounced since its premiere. This study is an attempt to recontextualize Klinghoffer, and to consider it within the historical and stylistic traditions with which it engages. Instead of the traditional operatic narrative, this opera employs multiple layers of narration to convey the plot, where aria-driven mimetic drama is juxtaposed with allegorical choruses and retrospective accounts of the hijacking. This model nods more to the oratorio and Passion tradition than to a traditional opera, which elevates the events to a higher place, one in which meditation, reflection, and remembrance can flourish. Klinghoffer's genre-blurring quality is achieved and permissible through its unique position within the postmodern era, in which self-reference and historical acknowledgment are key. The resulting disjunction, evident in the narrative layers, genre juxtaposition, and musical language, is dramatically appropriate to the work, as it reflects the overall chaos and confusion of both the events and the turbulent history to which it belongs. Through the musical and generic historical references, and in the relevance and urgency of the subject matter, Klinghoffer interacts with the past while calling for action and meditation in the present, pointing to an uncertain and ever-changeable future.


The oxidation behavior of Cr–Cr3(Si1−XGeX) alloys with the composition range Cr85GeXSi1−X (0 < X < 15) was studied at 1350 °C. Thermogravimetric measurements showed improved oxidation kinetics by alloying up to 2 at% of Ge, but a significant weight loss was observed when higher Ge was added. Phase analysis and composition of the spalled oxide scales and subscale alloy substrates revealed that eskolaite (Cr2O3) forms the protective scale, while SiO2 (cristobalite) is locally formed below the chromia scale. Addition of up to 2 at% altered the morphology of locally formed silica and subsequently affected the spallation of chromia scale. The morphological observations of the different chromia scales are discussed for all alloys oxidized at 1350 °C.


This paper presents methods and results of county-level population estimation using Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) images of Denton County and Collin County in Texas. Landsat TM images acquired in March 2000 were classified into residential and non-residential classes using maximum likelihood classification and knowledge-based classification methods. Accuracy assessment results from the classified image produced using knowledge-based classification and traditional supervised classification (maximum likelihood classification) methods suggest that knowledge-based classification is more effective than traditional supervised classification methods. Furthermore, using randomly selected samples of census block groups, ordinary least squares (OLS) and geographically weighted regression (GWR) models were created for total population estimation. The overall accuracy of the models is over 96% at the county level. The results also suggest that underestimation normally occurs in block groups with high population density, whereas overestimation occurs in block groups with low population density.


It is often assumed that transferring land to rural households will provide people with valuable assets that can be productively used to enhance their livelihoods. Unfortunately, few rural people or land reform beneficiaries are perceived to be using land productively because they do not engage in significant commercial production for the market. Transferring land to subsistence users is therefore seen as a waste of resources. However, an examination of land use in communal areas and amongst land reform beneficiaries indicates that resource-poor rural people do use land productively and resourcefully, but the constraints to production and participation in agricultural markets they encounter limit their livelihoods to survivalist mode. Land reform can enhance rural livelihoods beyond this survivalist mode if it is integrated into a broader rural development programme aimed at providing subsistence land users with the support they need to overcome the constraints to production, and to connect them to the markets.


The occupation of waste picker has taken on new importance as a livelihood, especially since the last global economic downturn. Increasingly, waste pickers are being recognized for their valuable contributions to urban sustainability and development. Drawing from scholarship on waste pickers, and findings from a recent study conducted in five cities across three continents, this paper discusses the environmental and economic contributions of informal waste pickers to cities. This paper argues for the re-conceptualization of solid waste management systems that integrate waste pickers as partners, as key to building just, inclusive and livable cities for all. It also presents a specific model in which informal waste workers are integrated as key stakeholders as one example of best practice in this area, thus contributing to current discussions on integrated and inclusive solid waste models.


The Paris Agreement has set out ambitious climate goals aiming to keep global warming well-below 2 °C by 2100. This requires a large-scale transformation of the global energy system based on the uptake of several technological options to reduce drastically emissions, including expansion of renewable energy, energy efficiency improvements, and fuel switch towards low-carbon energy carriers. The current study explores the role of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) as a mitigation option, which provides a dispatchable source for carbon-free production of electricity and can also be used to decarbonise industrial processes. In the last decade, limited technology progress and slow deployment of CCS technologies worldwide have increased the concerns about the feasibility and potential for massive scale-up of CCS required for deep decarbonisation. The current study uses the state-of-the-art PROMETHEUS global energy demand and supply system model to examine the role and impacts of CCS deployment in a global decarbonisation context. By developing contrasted decarbonisation scenarios, the analysis illustrates that CCS deployment might bring about various economic and climate benefits for developing economies, in the form of reduced emissions, lower mitigation costs, ensuring the cost efficient integration of renewables, limiting stranded fossil fuel assets, and alleviating the negative distributional impacts of cost-optimal policies for developing economies.


Abstract Controllability of longer-term interest rates requires that the persistence of their deviations from the central bank's policy rate (i.e. the policy spreads) remains sufficiently low. This paper applies fractional integration techniques to assess the persistence of policy spreads of euro area money market rates along the yield curve. Independently from anticipated policy rate changes, there is strong evidence for all maturities that policy spreads exhibit long memory. We show that recent changes in the operational framework and the communication strategy of the European Central Bank (ECB) have significantly decreased the persistence of euro area policy spreads and, thus, have enhanced the ECB's influence on longer-term money market rates.


The phase matching of quantum paths in high-order harmonic generation is investigated in a two-color laser field. Our results show that the phase-matching properties of the short and long trajectories can be modulated effectively by adding a weak second harmonic field. This scheme can not only achieve the quantum path selection, but more importantly it can achieve on-axis phase matching for both of the two trajectories simultaneously. A bright interference pattern induced by the simultaneously phase-matched two trajectories can be observed by placing a near-field on-axis filter, which has great potential for experimentally characterizing the full single-atom dipole moment.


Current technological solutions that enable content creation and sharing during group discussion meetings are often cumbersome to use, and are commonly abandoned for traditional paper-based tools, which provide flexibility in supporting a wide range of working styles and task activities that may occur in a given meeting. Paper-based tools, however, have their own drawbacks; paper-based content is difficult to modify or replicate. We introduce a novel digital meeting room design, the NiCE Discussion Room, which integrates digital and paper tools into a cohesive system with an intuitive pen-based interface. The combination of digital and paper media provides groups with a flexible design solution that enables them to create, access, and share information and media from a variety of sources to facilitate group discussions. This paper describes the design solution, along with results from a user study conducted to evaluate the usability and utility of the system.


The Ward Method of music instruction based on Gregorian chant and developed long ago would seem to be experiencing a revival, because of the recent relaxation of the regulations concerning the celebration of the so-called Tridentine Mass by Pope Benedict XVI. Pope Pius X had established Gregorian chant as the one true music of the Catholic Church in his 1903 Motu Proprio, Tra le sollecitudini and in some ways this helped the scholarship and editions by the monks of Solesmes to gain precedence over all others. Early in the twentieth century, the stage was set for Justine Bayard Cutting Ward, who quickly solidified her contacts with the Sisters of the Sacred Heart, the hierarchy of the Catholic Church, the monks at Solesmes, and the Catholic University of America. Ward developed the educational product, recognized a readymade distribution system in the world-wide organization of Catholic schools, and marshaled the devoted, religious consumer-workers in the field to train Catholic youth as dedicated participants in the liturgy through music. STATEMENT OF PURPOSE The purpose of this study is to shed light on the character of Justine Ward, her relationship with the Pius X School of Liturgical Music at Manhattanville College, and the rapid rise to prominence and dissemination of the Ward Method. It will also examine the fracture in the relationship between Ward and the Sisters of the Sacred Heart, which resulted in her increased promotion of a prominent center for Gregorian chant study at Catholic University in Washington, while the work she had begun at the Pius X School was left in the hands of her erstwhile friend, Mother Georgia Stevens, R.S.C.J. (Religious of the Sacred Heart of Jesus). There is also the matter of the Ward Method's influence throughout the United States and, because of the close association in the early years with the Pius X School, the conflation of her work and reputation with that of the school, which lingered for some time after the break. Who was this remarkable woman, Justine Ward? How did she go about creating and establishing her method of music instruction intimately linked to Gregorian chant and Catholic liturgy? What happened to dissolve her relationship with the Pius X School of Liturgical Music? In what ways has her sphere of influence changed over the years? YOUTH AND EDUCATION Justine Bayard Cutting, the second of four children of William Bayard Cutting and Olivia Peyton Murray, was born in Morristown, New Jersey, on August 7, 1879. This was no ordinary family, nor was she an ordinary child. Her father, heir to a large financial empire consisting of a number of railroads and other business interests, was involved in numerous arts and philanthropic organizations. Her mother moved in social circles commensurate with their wealth. Brother Bronson went on to become Republican senator from New Mexico, where he had gone to alleviate certain health problems. Another brother, Bayard, became private secretary to Joseph Choate, the American ambassador to England. When her father died on March 1, 1912, his estate was valued at $10,906,480, enormous wealth for that time. In 1936, Westbrook, the Long Island family mansion, now known as the Bayard Cutting Arboretum, was donated to the Long Island State Park Commission along with some 690 acres of property. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] At first, Justine was tutored at home, as was the norm at the time for well-to-do young women. Subsequently, she attended the Brearley School from the fall of 1893 through the spring of 1897 but did not receive a diploma. (1) Her parents thought that "having a child that was musical was like having an epileptic in the family or a hunchback." (2) Having acquired some skill at the piano, she wanted to study music in Europe but was frustrated by the mores of the time. That avenue being closed, she pursued lessons in "composition, orchestration, harmony, counterpoint, and form" privately in New York with Hermann Hans Wetzler (1870-1943) from 1895 to 1901. …


Fowl cholera is highly prevalent bacterial disease in poultry population of India. Several areas of India have been reported with outbreaks of fowl cholera. Fowl cholera severely affects the health of flocks, causes morbidity and mortality. Drop in egg production with worsened egg quality also results due to poor health of flock. The disease is also prevalent in village chicken and vaccination is the effective tool to control the prevalence of the disease. In present research, 30 specific pathogen free birds were divided into vaccinated (Group 1; 20 birds) and control (Group 2; 10 birds) groups. Birds from group 1 were vaccinated with inactivated fowl cholera vaccine and 14 days later given booster dose. After 21 days of booster dose, both groups were challenged with virulent strain of fowl cholera disease. At 7 days interval blood was collected and serology was performed for presence of antibodies against the disease with ELISA technique. The vaccine was found effective with respect to serum titre and challenge study as well. From the research, it can be concluded that effective vaccination programs can control the prevalence fowl cholera disease.


This paper presents a new robust microphone array to enhance speech signal under the influence of noise and jammer(s). The proposed structure comprises of a soft con-strained subband beamformer, a blocking system and a non-coherent processing technique. The soft constrained beamformer enhances the desired speech signal in a specified region by suppressing all side-lobes. This enhanced signal is then used as a reference signal by the blocking system to estimate the interference spectrum. Finally, the beamformer's output is spectral subtracted using the estimated interference spectrum. Simulations in a real office environment show higher interference suppression level compared to those obtained using the soft constrained beamformer only. Most importantly, this is achieved with negligible expense on target signal distortion.


The Web plays a significant role in the everyday life of people, yet many sites have inadequate usability and accessibility. Automated evaluation has gained prominence as a way to help web site builders to produce more usable and accessible sites. But what does it mean to automate web site evaluation? How effective are automated evaluation approaches and tools? Where do they fit into web practitioners' work practices? This book is a culmination of over five years of Melody Ivory's research and practical experience in the Web domain. It is the first in-depth look at automated web site evaluation methodologies and existing software tools from both the researcher's and practitioner's perspectives. Ivory documents the current state of the field and highlights promising research and tool development directions. She summarizes surveys and analyses of automated web site evaluation methodologies and tools, describes a novel automated evaluation approach that she developed (the WebTango approach), and presents results from empirical studies of automated evaluation tools and of the web site design process itself. She discusses the role of automated evaluation tools in practitioners' work practices, reports on tool usage, and compares tools along several dimensions.


Are entrepreneurial opportunities discovered or created? The debate around this question has crucial implications for successful organizational change management in the business world. The present conceptual paper transcends this debate by embedding the concept of the entrepreneurial opportunities within a Luhmannian systems – theoretical framework which accentuates the unique role of organization and change in the age of functional differentiation. The purpose of this paper is to show how the strategic navigation of the borders between function systems such as politics, science, education, religion, art, or, of course, economy leads to the discovery or creation new opportunities for both business and social entrepreneurship.,The paper combines Niklas Luhmann's theory of social differentiation with Kim and Mauborgne's Blue Ocean Strategy. The key argument is that the alternative regimes of social differentiation, such as segmentation, centralization, stratification, and functional differentiation, create distinct pools of entrepreneurial opportunities to be discovered, created, and exploited by adequate business models. (Business) Organizations, therefore, need to strategically adjust the amount of attention they devote to the different forms of social differentiation. The argument is buttressed with illustrative examples of business models related to the regime of functional differentiation.,A paradoxical finding is that the multifunctional business models which explicitly draw on the value creation potential of the most recent form of social differentiation, functional differentiation, remain little known even though they infuse business organizations with a unique capacity of new venture discovery and creation in the modern society.,Multifunctional business models have so far remained unexplored in entrepreneurship theory and practice. This paper develops a first strategic approach to the discovery or creation of both multifunctional business models and a broader framework of multifunctional organization models.


Few studies to date have demonstrated widespread biological impacts of ocean acidification (OA) under conditions currently found in the natural environment. From a combined survey of physical and chemical water properties and biological sampling along the Washington–Oregon–California coast in August 2011, we show that large portions of the shelf waters are corrosive to pteropods in the natural environment. We show a strong positive correlation between the proportion of pteropod individuals with severe shell dissolution damage and the percentage of undersaturated water in the top 100 m with respect to aragonite. We found 53% of onshore individuals and 24% of offshore individuals on average to have severe dissolution damage. Relative to pre-industrial CO2 concentrations, the extent of undersaturated waters in the top 100 m of the water column has increased over sixfold along the California Current Ecosystem (CCE). We estimate that the incidence of severe pteropod shell dissolution owing to anthropogenic OA has doubled in near shore habitats since pre-industrial conditions across this region and is on track to triple by 2050. These results demonstrate that habitat suitability for pteropods in the coastal CCE is declining. The observed impacts represent a baseline for future observations towards understanding broader scale OA effects.


"A large proportion of people who experience drug problems also experience a range of mental health problems. Similarly, many people who experience mental health problems engage in hazardous drug use. The experience of these co-occurring disorders increases use of treatment services, but is associated with poorer prognosis. The implementation of effective responses has been hindered by the disaggregated systems of care that have been adopted in many countries; many problems are the outcome of poorly organised systems of care that do not reflect the needs of a large proportion of clients who experience various problems.

There is a dearth of quality research to guide the development of evidence-based responses to co-occurring drug and mental health problems. This book introduces the reader to the issues, guided by a series of questions. These encourage the reader to consider the evidence about the nature and prevalence of co-occurring disorders and the challenges they create for individuals, the community and service providers. The diverse range of expertise of the contributors provides the opportunity to consider the challenges of navigating the various systems of care from the perspective of consumers, parents and clinicians. Researchers and clinicians examine the available evidence about the links between the various disorders and discuss the implications for treatment through a series of case studies. The reader is guided through evidence-based clinical decision-making.

 The editor and contributors argue that, while our knowledge and expertise is improving, there is a need to better resource and integrate treatment services to foster the adoption of evidence-based and effective responses. Poor systems of care don't necessarily cause co-occurring mental health and drug problems, but they can contribute to poor outcomes."--Publisher website


The application of immobilized yeast for lactose hydrolysis was investigated. The enzyme stability was tested as a function of pretreatment. The stability of K. lactis CBS 2357 cells after treatment with glutaraldehyde (GA) and the ~-galactosidase activity of whole cells after immobilization in alginate bead and corn particles were studied. Permeabilization using ethanol and chloroform (10% and 2%, respectively) at 37 °C and 120 rpm for 5 min, followed by stabilization with 10 mM glutaraldehyde at 30 °C for 1 hour with gently shaking deactivated 2.5% of the initial whole cells ~-galactosidase activity, tested with the ONPG method. The glutaraldehyde treatment could significantly maintain ~-galactosidase activity in phosphate buffer pH 6.5 containing 0.1 mM MnC!i. Manganese and potassium ions in the Mn-Buffer were found to be essential to enhance the activity. The biomass activity of GA stabilized cells in Mn-Buffer can be maintained above 70% during 72 hours of incubation at 30 °C. An increase of incubation temperature from 30 to 37 °C deactivated 10% of biomass activity after 72 hours. Direct stabilization of alginate biocatalyst with glutaraldehyde caused a significant reduction of ~-galactosidase activity with the resulting deactivation depending on glutaraldehyde and alginate concentrations. When 40 g of biocatalyst containing 2x 10 cells/g alginate was stabilized in 100 ml of O to 4 mM glutaraldehyde, the optimum range of glutaraldehyde concentration was between 0.5 to 1.0 mM. When this concentration range was applied to stabilize 2%to 3%-alginate biocatalyst, the average biocatalyst activity remained within 56-74% of the initial activity. It was shown that the adsorption of K. lactis on corn particles through a "double liquid cultivation stage" followed by permeabilization of biocatalyst gave a higher activity. The activity obtained was 0.84 μmol lactose hydrolyz;ed /rnin/g biocatalyst under the conditions tested. This activity was about 5 times higher than the case without permeabilization and about 2 times higher than that of the permeabilized biocatalyst prepared with a "single liquid cultivation stage". When tested in the packed-bed reactor, during the initial stages the degree of hydrolysis (d.h.) was 45% within the operational conditions tested. Free enzyme was detected during the first 5 hours of operation, especially when non-stabilized corn biocatalyst was used. After 5 hours, free enzyme was no longer detected in the reactor outlet, suggesting that direct adsorption might have rendered good cell confinement inside the corn particles. Bismillaahirrahmaanirrahiim (In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful)


Injury prevention researchers, advocates and practitioners have made extraordinary progress in identifying the risk factors for injury and in proposing interventions to tackle those risks. In several fields, however, we have been less successful at actually formulating, enacting, implementing or enforcing some of those interventions. For example, failure to store firearms in the home so that children are unable to gain access to them has been identified as a risk factor for suicide and unintentional injury.1–4 But laws requiring safe gun storage have been enacted in only 18 US states, and most of these laws provide only modest sanctions.5,6 More generally, both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Atlanta, Georgia, US) and the National Institutes of Health (Bethesda, Maryland, US) have increasingly recognized the importance of improving the translation of research findings into practical interventions.7,8

There are, of course, many different categories of injury interventions, including efforts to modify behavior, products, the physical environment or the social environment to reduce risks.9,10 One important way to achieve any of these intervention goals is through policy change. Policies may be particularly effective because they can be designed to affect large numbers of individuals or institutions at once.

What do we mean by "policy"? Different definitions of policy have been proposed depending on the context. One broad definition from the health politics literature is "a series of more or less related activities and their intended and unintended consequences for those concerned".11 In its influential report The Future of Public Health , the Institute of Medicine identified the three core functions of public health as "assessment, policy development and assurance". The Institute of Medicine defined policy development as "the process by which society makes decisions about problems, chooses goals and the proper means to …


After introducing the concept of multiple monitors, which is a computer system with a physically partitioned but virtually contiguous display space (a single computer with many monitors attached), we discuss open Human-Computer Interaction multiple-monitor research areas including window management. We argue to conduct a high-level study of window management practices and a low-level study specifically comparing single-monitor and multiple-monitor window management practices. When combined with other field work on multiple monitors, the studies suggest that there is an increasingly crucial distinction between input focus (where the active window is) and user focus (where the user is actually looking on-screen) since multiple monitors encourage users to display reference information in non-active windows to aid interaction in the active window. To further explore this distinction we constructed three tools: Snip; Snap; and Mudibo. We deployed Snip and Snap in a field study, finding that participants used Snip in many of the ways that we expected though Snap did not appear to be as useful. Results from our follow-up laboratory-based study indicated that Snip can provide multiple-monitor users with dramatic time savings for referencing the snipped windows as compared to regular, overlapping windows. A laboratory-based study of Mudibo, a dialog box placement interface, provided further motivation of the tool and uncovered key interface improvements necessary to make Mudibo suitable for everyday multiple-monitor screen interaction. The findings support the original conclusion about the initial field work, namely that understanding the potentially larger gap between input focus and user focus necessitates appropriately targeted user interface development and evaluation.


We have performed an in situ test of Raven's prediction that there is a reversal of the relationship between cell size and maximum achievable growth rate in unicellular algae at the low end of size classes. In a natural population of marine phytoplankton, including the smallest picoeukaryote known to date, and under both nutrient sufficiency and deficiency, we find a maximum in growth rate (4.8 and 3.3 divisions d−1, respectively) in the 2–3–µm size class represented by coccoid Chlorella‐like cells, with lower growth rates in both higher and lower size classes. This 2–3–µm size class is also the most robust under nutrient deficiency, reducing its growth rate by 14% only relative to nutrient‐sufficient conditions, versus 50‐60% for the lowermost and uppermost size classes, respectively.


Signal Statistics of Phase Dependent Optical Time Domain Reflectometry. (December 2006) Aleksander K. Wójcik, B.S., Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey; M.Eng., Texas A&M University Co–Chairs of Advisory Committee: Dr. Chin B. Su Dr. Henry F. Taylor The statistics of the phase dependent optical time-domain reflectometer have been analyzed. The optical fiber is modeled by the use of a discrete set of reflectors positioned randomly along the fiber. The statistics of the reflected light from a traveling pulse are derived. The statistics of the signal are used to calculate the characteristics of shot noise in the photodetector, and the probability that noise of certain intensity will occur. An estimation of the backscattered power is made by calculating the fraction of the backscattered power that is captured in a guiding mode. Upper power limits are calculated by considering nonlinear optical effects. An estimation of noise from thermally excited sound waves, amplified by Brillouin scattering, is derived. This noise considers the parameters of a photodetector, giving a model for the noise in the measurable photocurrent. Two models are used to describe the fading probability of the signal. The first model, based on the Fabry-Perot interferometer with a random phase perturbation in the middle, is used to calculate the probability that the whole signal vanishes for any value of phase perturbation. The second model, by calculating the correlation between two signals, one perturbed and one unperturbed, predicts the fading of the signal of interest. The present work gives the theoretical basis for the phase dependant Optical Time Domain Reflectometry, allowing its optimization and setting the fundamental limitations to the performance


The video streaming service over Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs) is an attractive feature for live streaming and video conversation when disaster occurs. The path construction with the conventional metrics e.g., throughput, latency, or packet loss rate, suffers from the repeated waiting time due to the CSMA/CA since paths are concentrated on nodes with good metric. As a consequence, it brings about throughput fluctuation of video streaming service. We propose two metrics that reflect on the magnitude of CSMA/CA interference around a node in order to select a path that the throughput of video streaming session will get stable. The first metric is calculated from the number of received Request To Send (RTS)/Clear To Send (CTS) frames. Since the number of RTS/CTS reflects on the frequency of the packet transmission around a node, a source node can chooses a path which does not make a node waiting for constant time due to the CSMA/CA on the existing path that might use streaming service. The second metric uses the number of neighbor nodes and we set the larger metric value as more nodes exist. The idea comes from the fact that a node which has few neighbor nodes does not much interfere other established paths. The proposed metrics can be easily installed into Hybrid Wireless Mesh Protocol (HWMP) which is a de facto standard path selection protocol defined in IEEE802.11s. We show that the proposed metrics can achieve lower rate of throughput fluctuation than that of conventional metric by using the networks simulator Qualnet.


Dopamine is an important neurotransmitter responsible for regulating various brain functions such as learning and cognition. Dysfunctions within the dopaminergic system are implicated in many neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders. To understand such a complex system, biologically realistic multiscale computational models are necessary. Such models require the extraction of relevant and important factors or processes from one scale to bridge and interact with systems at other scales. In this paper, we analyze an influential computational model of dopamine synthesis and release within a pre-synaptic terminal by systematically perturbing its variables/substrates. Based on the relative changes in steady states and the time to reach the new perturbed steady states, we found that the substrates within the cascade of intracellular biochemical reactions can vary widely in terms of influence and timescale. We then categorize the substrates according to their relative timescales and changes in steady states. The perturbation results are then used to guide our selection for the most appropriate equations and functions to be approximated in developing reduced models of the original model. Our preliminary simulation results show that either a slow or fast version of the reduced model can be simulated significantly faster than the original model. Our work demonstrates, through perturbation analysis, the feasibility of reduced models of the dopaminergic presynaptic terminal to improve computational efficiency, implement in multiscale modelling, and in silico neuropharmacology.


Methylmercury contamination of fish is a global threat to environmental health. Mercury (Hg) monitoring programs are valuable for generating data that can be compiled for spatially broad syntheses to identify emergent ecosystem properties that influence fish Hg bioaccumulation. Fish total Hg (THg) concentrations were evaluated across the Western United States (US) and Canada, a region defined by extreme gradients in habitat structure and water management. A database was compiled with THg concentrations in 96,310 fish that comprised 206 species from 4262 locations, and used to evaluate the spatial distribution of fish THg across the region and effects of species, foraging guilds, habitats, and ecoregions. Areas of elevated THg exposure were identified by developing a relativized estimate of fish mercury concentrations at a watershed scale that accounted for the variability associated with fish species, fish size, and site effects. THg concentrations in fish muscle ranged between 0.001 and 28.4 (μg/g wet weight (ww)) with a geometric mean of 0.17. Overall, 30% of individual fish samples and 17% of means by location exceeded the 0.30 μg/g ww US EPA fish tissue criterion. Fish THg concentrations differed among habitat types, with riverine habitats consistently higher than lacustrine habitats. Importantly, fish THg concentrations were not correlated with sediment THg concentrations at a watershed scale, but were weakly correlated with sediment MeHg concentrations, suggesting that factors influencing MeHg production may be more important than inorganic Hg loading for determining fish MeHg exposure. There was large heterogeneity in fish THg concentrations across the landscape; THg concentrations were generally higher in semi-arid and arid regions such as the Great Basin and Desert Southwest, than in temperate forests. Results suggest that fish mercury exposure is widespread throughout Western US and Canada, and that species, habitat type, and region play an important role in influencing ecological risk of mercury in aquatic ecosystems.


This is Yukawa's autobiography of his early years, written in Japanese when he was fifty years old. It describes his family background and the education and experience, both social and intellectual, that helped to form his character and direct his career. Especially valuable to the historian of science are his discussions of scientific relationships with his colleague Sin-Itiro Tomonaga, with his teacher Yoshio Nishina, and with his students (who later became his collaborators): Sakata, Taketani, and Kobayashi. The Story ends with the writing of his first scientific paper in English, being the birth of the meson theory of nuclear forces.Also included are the original paper of the meson theory by Prof H Yukawa and an introduction by Prof L M Brown.