The project of creating a Banking Union is designed to overcome the fatal link between sovereigns and their banks in the Eurozone. As part of this project, political agreement for a common supervision framework and a common resolution scheme has been reached with difficulty. However, the resolution framework is weak, underfunded and exhibits some serious flaws. Further, Member States' disagreements appear to rule out a federalized deposit insurance scheme, commonly regarded as the necessary third pillar of a successful Banking Union. This paper argues for an organizational and capital structure substitute for these two shortcomings that can minimize the systemic distress costs of the failure of a large financial institution. We borrow from the approach the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has devised in the implementation of the "Orderly Liquidation Authority" under the Dodd Frank Act. The FDIC's experience teaches us three important lessons: first, systemically important institutions need to have in their liability structure sufficient unsecured (or otherwise subordinated) term debt so that in the event of bank failure, the conversion of debt into equity will be sufficient to absorb asset losses without impairing deposits and other short term credit; second, the organizational structure of the financial institution needs to permit such a debt conversion without putting core financial constituents through a bankruptcy, and third, a federal funding mechanism deployable at the discretion of the resolution authority must be available to supply liquidity to a reorganizing bank. On these conditions, a viable and realistic Banking Union would be within reach — and the resolution of global financial institutions would be greatly facilitated, not least in a transatlantic perspective.


Recent news reveal a powerful attacker which breaks data confidentiality by acquiring cryptographic keys, by means of coercion or backdoors in cryptographic software. Once the encryption key is exposed, the only viable measure to preserve data confidentiality is to limit the attacker's access to the ciphertext. This may be achieved, for example, by spreading ciphertext blocks across servers in multiple administrative domains—thus assuming that the adversary cannot compromise all of them. Nevertheless, if data is encrypted with existing schemes, an adversary equipped with the encryption key, can still compromise a single server and decrypt the ciphertext blocks stored therein. In this paper, we study data confidentiality against an adversary which knows the encryption key and has access to a large fraction of the ciphertext blocks. To this end, we propose $\mathrm{Bastion}$ Bastion , a novel and efficient scheme that guarantees data confidentiality even if the encryption key is leaked and the adversary has access to almost all ciphertext blocks. We analyze the security of $\mathrm{Bastion}$ Bastion , and we evaluate its performance by means of a prototype implementation. We also discuss practical insights with respect to the integration of $\mathrm{Bastion}$ Bastion in commercial dispersed storage systems. Our evaluation results suggest that $\mathrm{Bastion}$ Bastion is well-suited for integration in existing systems since it incurs less than 5 percent overhead compared to existing semantically secure encryption modes.


In this paper, we address the problem of learning the structure of a pairwise graphical model from samples in a high-dimensional setting. Our first main result studies the sparsistency, or consistency in sparsity pattern recovery, properties of a forward-backward greedy algorithm as applied to general statistical models. As a special case, we then apply this algorithm to learn the structure of a discrete graphical model via neighborhood estimation. As a corollary of our general result, we derive sufficient conditions on the number of samples n, the maximum node-degree d and the problem size p, as well as other conditions on the model parameters, so that the algorithm recovers all the edges with high probability. Our result guarantees graph selection for samples scaling as n = Ω(d2 log(p)), in contrast to existing convex-optimization based algorithms that require a sample complexity of Ω(d3 log(p)). Further, the greedy algorithm only requires a restricted strong convexity condition which is typically milder than irrepresentability assumptions. We corroborate these results using numerical simulations at the end.


Recent experimental studies of two-dimensional boundary layers undergoing bypass transition have been reviewed to attempt to characterize the effects of free-stream turbulence level, acceleration, and wall curvature on bypass transition. Results from several studies were cast in terms of «local» boundary layer coordinates (momentum and enthalpy thickness Reynolds numbers) and compared. In unaccelerated flow on flat walls, skin friction coefficients were shown to match those from a laminar integral solution before transition and quickly adjusted to match those from a fully turbulent correlation after transition. Stanton number data also matched a correlation in the laminar region, but do not match correlation values so well in the turbulent region. The data showed that the relationship between skin friction coefficient and momentum thickness Reynolds number is unaffected by streamwise acceleration. Stanton numbers were strongly affected by acceleration, however, indicating a breakdown in Reynolds analogy. Concave curvature caused the formation of Gortler vortices, which strongly influenced the skin friction. Convex curvature had an opposite, and lesser effect. The location and length of the transition region generally followed the expected trends as free-stream turbulence level, curvature, and acceleration were varied; the onset location and the transition length were intended by acceleration and convex curvature and reduced by concave curvature and enhanced turbulence. When individual cases were compared, some inconsistencies were observed. These inconsistencies indicate a need to characterize the flows to be compared more completely. Better spectral and length scale measurements of the free-stream disturbance would help in this regard. Within the transition region, the intermittency data from all the cases on flat walls (no curvature) were consistent with an intermittency distribution from the literature. Turbulent spot production rates were shown to be mostly dependent on free-stream turbulence, with a noted increase in spot production rate due to concave curvature and little effect of convex curvature. The acceleration effect on spot production rate was small for the cases studied


Increasing the salience of schooling in countering the Aids epidemic suggests the need to confront many of the challenges posed by current education and school systems. The author considers these and proposes the ideal of schools that have been transformed into multipurpose development and welfare institutions that provide, among other things, formal and non-formal education. Although this poses many challenges, it can be accomplished through a willingness to think differently, a thorough reexamination of the meaning and purpose of education in a world with HIV and Aids, the establishment of effective partnerships, and the dynamic involvement of communities.


PHOTOTROPIN2 (PHOT2) is a unique photoreceptor involved in chloroplast avoidance movement and also regulates blue light (BL) responses, such as phototropism and leaf flattening, together with PHOTOTROPIN1 (PHOT1) in Arabidopsis thaliana. Previous work showed that the defect of the phot2‐1 mutant in chloroplast avoidance movement was a semidominant trait. In the present study, we examined PHOT2 dose dependency of BL responses using the phot1‐5 phot2‐1 double mutant expressing an AtPHOT2‐GFP (P2G) fusion protein. Chloroplast avoidance and phototropic responses of P2G transgenic lines were enhanced in a manner dependent on the P2G levels, whereas the leaf flattening phenotype was simply complemented by P2G equivalent to the wild type (WT) PHOT2 level. The chloroplast avoidance velocity of P2G transgenic lines exhibited enhanced sensitivity to BL in comparison with WT. In contrast, the defect of the phototropic response was rescued by P2G expression equivalent only to the response of the phot1 mutant. These results collectively indicate that each BL response has distinct threshold levels of PHOT2 requirement.


Photocatalytic degradation of Methyl Ethyl Ketone (MEK) was carried out in gas phase using TiO2 supported on different adsorbents. Based on size and surface area, three different adsorbents, montmorillonite, β-zeolite and MCM-41 were tested. A fluidised bed annular photoreactor fitted with either 254 or 365 nm lamps was used for the photodegradation studies. The removal rates of MEK were higher for the catalysts supported on the adsorbent as compared to bare TiO2 (Degussa P25 and sol-gel TiO2) due to both improved adsorption and photocatalytic degradation. The photocatalytic activity of the supported TiO2 was maximum around 50 wt.% loading of TiO2. Among all the adsorbents tested, montmorillonite showed better removal rate than MCM-41 and β-zeolite. Some limited experiments were conducted with Trichloroethylene (TCE) to evaluate the effect of polarity of the organic compound on overall degradation using the supported catalysts.


: Quantifying urban heat island effect often requires the observation of air temperature distribution
over the whole city. Satellite or aircraft mounted radiometers, car mounted temperature sensors and GPS
loggers or fixed point monitoring have been employed in previous studies for urban heat island effect analysis.
Above methods often are very expensive, labour intensive and have its own limitations. This paper proposes a
novel approach to measure in real-time, and most importantly to predict urban heat island effect and indoor
overheating through weather forecast data feeds services, such as the UK Met Office DataPoint service, which
releases 3-hourly site-specific forecast for nearly 6,000 locations in the UK. The geographic high resolution
weather forecasts are made available for over 300 locations around London, which provides rich dataset for
urban heat island effect study and indoor overheating study. In this paper, authors have compared the observed
temperatures with next 24-hour forecasts from 7 difference forecast providers. The relatively small difference
(often less than 1oC) provides us confidence in creating 'true' temperatures for locations that do not have
weather observation stations. This enables built environment researchers and industrial partners to predict
indoor temperature and mitigate indoor overheating risks effectively.


This paper presents advances in Google's hidden Markov model (HMM)-driven unit selection speech synthesis system. We describe several improvements to the run-time system; these include minimal latency, high-quality and fast refresh cycle for new voices. Traditionally unit selection synthesizers are limited in terms of the amount of data they can handle and the real applications they are built for. That is even more critical for reallife large-scale applications where high-quality is expected and low latency is required given the available computational resources. In this paper we present an optimized engine to handle a large database at runtime, a composite unit search approach for combining diphones and phrase-based units. In addition a new voice building strategy for handling big databases and keeping the building times low is presented.


This work shows the research and development involved in solving essential problems in the emerging field of surgical simulation. It focuses on a haptics-based Augmented Reality surgical simulation platform known as ImmersiveTouch®, which implements technologies patented by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois.
Through the nine chapters of this thesis, a gradual transition to new paradigms in surgical simulation is naturally developed, starting from methods to create patient-specific 3D models for training and pre-operative planning, continuing with the development of a voxel-based haptics algorithm, its performance evaluation, and extensions for multipoint collision detection; followed by the introduction of graphics and haptics techniques that are combined to simulate bone-removal procedures, and culminating in the successful implementation of surgical simulation modules on the ImmersiveTouch®
Multiple validation experiments are also presented, where some of the contributions in this thesis are used in simulation modules that are evaluated in surgical training scenarios with promising and encouraging outcomes. Multi-disciplinary collaboration is one of the highlights of this work, with scientifically sound results published in prestigious peer-reviewed engineering and medical journals and conferences.


The boundary element method (BEM) involves field nodes interacting with each other. Solving the ensuing matrix equations often requires an iterative solver to be used at a cost that scales with the second power of the number of nodes per iteration. This limits the size of the problem that can be solved. The fast multipole method (FMM), introduces hubs to reduce the number of direct interactions between field nodes in the BEM. The cost of calculating the matrix-vector multiplication using the FMM scales linearly with problem size. This paper contains a brief mathematical description of the FMM for Laplace's equation in which a Taylor series expansion is used to model Green's function. The computational performance of the FMM applied to modelling an impressed current cathodic protection (ICCP) system of a naval vessel is then investigated and the results compared to those of a commercial BEM solver and experimental (physical scale model) results. For this relatively small example model, it is shown that the cost benefit of the FMM is eight times greater than that of the commercial solver. Greater savings will be obtained on larger models. The results confirm that larger, more detailed, corrosion problems can be solved faster using the FMM. It is also shown that the capabilities of the FMM offer the choice between reduced processing time and enhanced accuracy. This provides the user with the opportunity to sacrifice accuracy in order to run less computationally expensive problems, for example during parametric studies.


Cassini's final phase of exploration The Cassini spacecraft spent 13 years orbiting Saturn; as it ran low on fuel, the trajectory was changed to sample regions it had not yet visited. A series of orbits close to the rings was followed by a Grand Finale orbit, which took the spacecraft through the gap between Saturn and its rings before the spacecraft was destroyed when it entered the planet's upper atmosphere. Six papers in this issue report results from these final phases of the Cassini mission. Dougherty et al. measured the magnetic field close to Saturn, which implies a complex multilayer dynamo process inside the planet. Roussos et al. detected an additional radiation belt trapped within the rings, sustained by the radioactive decay of free neutrons. Lamy et al. present plasma measurements taken as Cassini flew through regions emitting kilometric radiation, connected to the planet's aurorae. Hsu et al. determined the composition of large, solid dust particles falling from the rings into the planet, whereas Mitchell et al. investigated the smaller dust nanograins and show how they interact with the planet's upper atmosphere. Finally, Waite et al. identified molecules in the infalling material and directly measured the composition of Saturn's atmosphere. Science, this issue p. eaat5434, p. eaat1962, p. eaat2027, p. eaat3185, p. eaat2236, p. eaat2382 INTRODUCTION Ring material has long been thought to enter Saturn's atmosphere, modifying its atmospheric and ionospheric chemistry. This phenomenon, dubbed "ring rain," involves the transport of charged dust particles from the main rings along the planetary magnetic field. RATIONALE At the end of the Cassini mission, measurements by onboard instruments tested this hypothesis as well as whether ring material falls directly into the equatorial atmosphere. The final 22 orbits of the Cassini mission sent the spacecraft through the gap between the atmosphere and the innermost of the broad ring system, the D-ring. RESULTS The Magnetospheric Imaging Instrument—designed to measure energetic neutral atoms, ions, and electrons—recorded very small dust grains [8000 to 40,000 unified atomic mass units (u), or roughly 1- to 3-nm radius] in two sensors. At 3000-km altitude, a peak rate of ~300,000 counts s–1 was detected by one sensor as Cassini crossed the equatorial plane. At lower altitude (1700 to 2000 km), a second sensor recorded positively charged dust in the upper atmosphere and ionosphere over a size range of ~8000 to 40,000 u (~1 to 2 nm, assuming the density of ice). Consistent with this observation, larger dust in the 0.1- to 1-µm range was detected by the Cassini Dust Analyzer and the Radio and Plasma Wave Science instrument. CONCLUSION We modeled the interaction of dust with the H and H2 exospheric populations known to populate the gap. Collisions between small dust grains and H atoms provide sufficient drag to de-orbit the dust, causing it to plunge into the atmosphere over ~4 hours. The analysis indicates that at least ~5 kg s−1 of dust is continuously precipitating into the atmosphere. At 3000-km altitude, the dust is distributed symmetrically about the equator, mostly between ±2° latitude with a peak density of ~0.1 cm−3. On the wings of the distribution, consistent with ring rain transport along the magnetic field, almost all of the dust was observed to be charged. At the 2000 to 1700 km altitude, the dust has reached a diffusive terminal velocity and, although showing some bias toward the equator, is ordered mostly by a scale height of ~180 km in altitude. The most probable source for this dust population is the innermost bright ringlet of the D-ring, known as the D68 ringlet. We predict that this kinetic process generates a highly anisotropic neutral hydrogen population, concentrated near the equatorial plane with periapses between ~4000 and 7000 km, and apoapses ranging to as high as 10 Saturn radii, with a small fraction on escape trajectories. Ring dust. (Top left) Data and model fits for the equatorial dust population near 3000-km altitude for three orbits through the D-ring gap. HV, plate detector high voltage. Red line uses left scale (percent). (Bottom left) Dust counts (blue) from ~2000 to 1700 km (modulated by sensor energy/charge steps, green), ordered by altitude and latitude, consistent with diffusive transport. (Right) Model trajectory of a dust particle in three frames of reference, as collisions with exospheric hydrogen degrade its velocity. Saturn has been shrunk to expand the gap for clarity. The sizes of Saturn's ring particles range from meters (boulders) to nanometers (dust). Determination of the rings' ages depends on loss processes, including the transport of dust into Saturn's atmosphere. During the Grand Finale orbits of the Cassini spacecraft, its instruments measured tiny dust grains that compose the innermost D-ring of Saturn. The nanometer-sized dust experiences collisions with exospheric (upper atmosphere) hydrogen and molecular hydrogen, which forces it to fall from the ring into the ionosphere and lower atmosphere. We used the Magnetospheric Imaging Instrument to detect and characterize this dust transport and also found that diffusion dominates above and near the altitude of peak ionospheric density. This mechanism results in a mass deposition into the equatorial atmosphere of ~5 kilograms per second, constraining the age of the D-ring.


Forty oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) dura x pisifera (DxP) crosses derived from the North Carolina Mating Design 1 (NCM 1) were evaluated in six locations (Kudat, Sabah; Beaufort, Sabah; Teluk Intan, Perak; Carey Island, Selangor; Kepong, Selangor and Kluang, Johor). Fifteen pisifera palms were chosen as male parents and each was crossed to two to four dura female parents. Environmental factors contributed to the phenotypic variability in all the agronomic characters. Hence, the variation in performance of the genotypes in the different locations was partly a reflection of the differences in soil type, soil fertility and rainfall. Generally, Carey Island and Teluk Intan were the more favourable environments for yield than the marginal environments, such as Kudat and Kluang. The results showed that the environment had a great influence on the genetic variance components. In general, the heritability estimates for yield and its components and bunch quality characters fluctuated from location to location. However, the estimates for vegetative characters were fairly consistent and higher than those for yield and its components, and bunch quality characters.


Abstract This study investigates the innovation behaviour of graduate start-ups at the individual level. It bridges the graduate enterprise literature and innovative entrepreneurship literature to put forward three arguments that ascertain why highly educated graduate entrepreneurs are not always innovative in starting new businesses. First, anchoring on the individual opportunity costs–entrepreneurial rewards nexus, it argues that graduate entrepreneurs will exploit opportunities innovatively if they expect the levels of entrepreneurial rewards that match their high human capital and high opportunity costs. Second, it is argued that entrepreneurial innovativeness is conditional on psychological factors such as students' managerial self-efficacy and overconfidence. Third, it is also argued that the nonlinear relationship between entrepreneurial innovativeness and entrepreneurial rewards will drive graduate entrepreneurs to exploit even riskier opportunities in search for high rewards. This study operationalizes the theoretical framework with an empirical model and estimates it using a graduate entrepreneur sample from a questionnaire survey in China. Our results suggest that innovation behaviour of graduate start-ups is influenced by the quantity of human capital, psychological make-up and expectations of entrepreneurial rewards.


Vision is the sense that provides precise information about one's position in the environment in relation to objects. The visual system is essential to guide people safely when moving around in the environment. The perception that an individual gets from a particular scene of her/his surroundings is accomplished by eye movements.The current study aims to identify differences in visual strategies between 15 women and 15 men within the age range of 18-24 years, who have been given a task to walk through an obstacle course drawn on the laboratory´s floor. They should start and finish at a predefined location. Twelve pylons were used as obstacles to be avoided during the walking.The participants' eye movements were recorded using the Mobile Eye model 1.35.The Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney Test was used for the statistical analysis. Significant differences occurred between men and women, in the duration of fixations: the men spend more time observing the finishing area than women (z=-1.929, p=.054); and in the number of fixations: before starting the task, the men fixate more often the middle phase of the obstacle course (z=-2.085, p=.037). Once they commence, the women fixate more the points outside the obstacle course than the men (z=-2.093, p=.036). Key Words: Eye Movements, Number of Fixation, Fixation Duration, Visual Search, Visual Attention.


Patents form part of a statutory right of an inventor to commercially exploit the sale and licensing of his/her patent exclusively. This is of the nature of a right granted by the Government. Section 47 and 100 of the Patents Act however are powers reserved with the Central Government which permits it to use any patent of the patentee for government use. While a few cases have determined and laid down limitations to the use of such a patent by the government and circumstances under which they may not be used by the Central Government, there is still growing ideas and room for misuse and colorable exercise of power by the Government. While it is generally accepted that Section 47 is narrow in scope of power granted to government, Section 100 affords a wider range of powers calling for an analysis in order to understand how these two provisions are fundamentally different in approach and why analysis of these provisions is essential in order to arrive at a conclusion as to how powers are reserved with the Central Government over the same. Furthermore, a comparative analysis is sought to be conducted to analyze how Patent jurisprudence is evolving in India in a skewed socialist manner with Compulsory Licensing and increasing use of power by the Central Government in exercise and depriving the Patent owners a right to commercially exploit their product. The authors inter alia seek to make an analysis of the recent judgment of the Hyderabad's court on the same. The authors seek to make a research in light of emerging jurisprudence in comparative jurisdictions and also in light of the Privacy Judgment, how the courts have reemphasized the need to protect Intellectual Property Rights by way of understanding the importance of disclosure in a regime that protects Privacy.


Despite the ecological and economic importance of ecotourism in supporting conservation, degradation of natural ecosystems remains a matter of concern, which emphasizes the need to understand the perception and attitudes of local communities towards ecotourism as a conservation strategy. This study was conducted at Lake Natron to examine local communities' perception of ecotourism and the influence of ecotourism benefits on local support for conservation. Questionnaire survey and interviews were conducted on the local residents living in the adjacent villages to the lake. Data were analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. Findings indicate that, local communities' perception of ecotourism and attitudes towards conservation varied across the study villages as ecotourism investments, activities and benefits were concentrated in only one village. The study recommends the right balance to be struck over ecotourism benefits in order to ensure increased local support for conservation.


There are several theories of executive function(s) that tend to share some theoretical overlap yet are also conceptually distinct, each bolstered by empirical data (Norman and Shallice, 1986; Shallice & Burgess, 1991; Stuss and Alexander, 2007; Burgess, Gilbert, & Dumentheil, 2007; Burgess & Shallice, 1996; Miyake et al., 2000). The notion that executive processes are supervisory, and most in demand in novel situations was an early conceptualization of executive function that has been adapted and refined over time (Norman & Shallice, 1986; Shallice, 2001; Burgess, Gilbert & Dumentheil, 2007). Presently there is general consensus that executive functions are multi-componential (Shallice, 2001), and are supervisory only in the sense that attention in one form or another is key to the co-ordination of other hierarchically organized 'lower' cognitive processes. Attention in this sense is defined as (i) independent but interrelated attentional control processes (Stuss & Alexander, 2007); (ii) automatic orientation towards stimuli in the environment or internally–driven thought (Burgess, Gilbert & Dumontheil, 2007); (iii) the automatically generated interface between tacit processes and strategic conscious thought (Barker, Andrade, Romanowski, Morton and Wasti, 2006; Morton and Barker, 2010); and (iv) distinct but interrelated executive processes that maintain, update and switch across different sources of information (Miyake et al., 2000).

One problem is that executive dysfunction or dysexecutive syndrome (Baddeley & Wilson, 1988) after brain injury typically produces a constellation of deficits across social, cognate, emotional and motivational domains that rarely map neatly onto theoretical frameworks (Barker, Andrade & Romanowski, 2004). As a consequence there is debate that conceptual theories of executive function do not always correspond well to the clinical picture (Manchester, Priestley & Jackson, 2004). Several studies have reported cases of individuals with frontal lobe pathology and impaired daily functioning despite having little detectable impairment on traditional tests of executive function (Shallice & Burgess, 1991; Eslinger & Damasio, 1985; Barker, Andrade & Romanowski, 2004; Andres & Van der Linden, 2002; Chevignard et al., 2000; Cripe, 1998; Fortin, Godbout & Braun, 2003). There is also some suggestion that weak ecological validity limits predictive and clinical utility of many traditional measures of executive function (Burgess et al, 2006; Lamberts, Evans & Spikman, 2010; Barker, Morton, Morrison, McGuire, 2011). Complete elimination of environmental confounds runs the risk of generating results that cannot be generalized beyond constrained circumstances of the test environment (Barker, Andrade & Romanowski, 2004). Several researchers have concluded that a new approach is needed that is mindful of the needs of the clinician yet also informed by the academic debate and progress within the discipline (McFarquhar & Barker, 2012; Burgess et al., 2006). Finally, translational issues also confound executive function research across different disciplines (psychiatry, cognitive science, and developmental psychology) and across typically developing and clinical populations (including Autism Spectrum Disorders, Head Injury and Schizophrenia – Blakemore & Choudhury, 2006; Taylor, Barker, Heavey & McHale, 2013). Consequently, there is a need for unification of executive function approaches across disciplines and populations and narrowing of the conceptual gap between theoretical positions, clinical symptoms and measurement.


This article offers an unprecedented empirical window into prosecutorial discretion drawing on long-term participatory research between 2013 and 2017. The central finding is that jurors play a vital role in federal prosecutors' decision-making, professional identities, and formulations of justice. This is because even the remote possibility of lay scrutiny creates an opening for prosecutors to make common sense assessments of (1) the evidence in their cases, (2) the character of witnesses, defendants and victims, and (3) their own moral and professional character as public servants. By facilitating explicit consideration of the fairness of their cases from a public vantage point, I argue that imagined jurors serve as an ethical resource for prosecutors. Part I reviews contemporary legal and interdisciplinary research on the declining number of jury trials and prosecutorial discretion in the United States. Part II describes the ethnographic research method deployed in this case study, noting its unique capacity to document off the record decision-making practices. Part III presents the empirical findings of this study with attention to how hypothetical jurors inform prosecutors' evaluations of their cases, evidence, investigations, and plea agreement discussions. Part IV considers several explanations for hypothetical jurors' perceived relevance to prosecutors' work beyond their instrumental and strategic value. Part V concludes that the U.S. Attorney's Office that is the subject of this study models the democratizing potential of lay decision-makers, even in hypothetical form. This finding contributes a novel rationale for fortifying the U.S. jury system and a novel perspective to the study of prosecutorial ethics.


Mobile computing and new input methods have increased the need to create multiple interfaces for one functional core. Automatic generation of user interfaces attempts a solution for this problem. Existing approaches either generate interfaces on the base of a detailed task model or use domain models in conjunction with interface specific annotations and transformation rules. While task models are very time consuming to create and cannot easily be reused domain models lack the flexibility for use cases which are not covered or in conflict with used transformation rules. Based on an overview of existing approaches this paper sets out a conceptual framework which combines both task model and ontology based concepts. It is shown that the proposed combination leads to more abstract and reusable task models.


The article attempts to show that there are critical differences in the political economy of import-substitution industrialization (ISI) in the Philippines and Brazil. First, one must contrast the decolonization process in the two countries. Second, Philippine industrialization came later, and lacked the depth of industrialization in Brazil. Moreover, there are variations in the role played by foreign capital. Third, the populism found in Brazil was absent in the Philippines, labor was a weaker force in Philippine society, and appeals to curd the power of the oligarchy and foreign firms were not prominent among Philippine government leaders who formulated ISI policies. Fourth, unlike in Brazil, Philippine state enterprises were curbed rather than promoted during the ISI period, and the military was a marginal force in the process of industrialization. Finally, agrarian interests remained far more powerful in the Philippines than their Brazilian counterparts and were even able to regain a dominant role in the 1960s. Although outside the scope of this study, one could also examine how the nature of the regime that followed the declaration of martial law in 1972, as well as the direction of economic change it pursued, varied substantially from that of the bureaucratic-authoritarian regime that came to power in Brazil in 1964. What difference do all these differences make? This analysis hopes to highlight important problems in drawing close parallels between the political economy of the Philippines and the political economies of the Latin American newly-industrialized countries. Correctly situating the Philippines is critical to our understanding of the Philippine political economy.


Simple unpaved roads consist of a layer of coarse granular material placed directly onto the surface of weak or compressible ground. It is thought that the construction of such roads can be considerably improved by the incorporation of a geogrid at the base of the granular fill layer.

Geogrids are a type of geotextile, distinguished by their relatively large aperture size. Laying out a geogrid on the surface of the ground before placing the fill layer may in many cases allow a reduced thickness of fill material to be used, and may also substantially increase the load required to cause a complete failure of the system. No generally accepted design method exists for the construction of reinforced unpaved roads, due to the complex mechanisms which govern deformations in the system. The primary aim of this dissertation was to investigate the performance, in such a construction, of a particular geogrid, namely Tensar, manufactured by Netlon Ltd.

A detailed model study into failure mechanisms was undertaken using laboratory apparatus constructed to conduct work at 1/4 full scale. Simple plane-strain, monotonic footing tests were carried out on systems consisting of a fill layer compacted onto a consolidated clay subgrade, both with and without the incorporation of a model grid at their interface. The testing technique included a comprehensive study of photographs taken of marker movements in the clay through the transparent sides of the test-box during tests.

The relevant failure mechanisms associated with reinforced and unreinforced systems were established. In addition the significance of shear stresses acting at the subgrade surface was recognised and a concept whereby the appropriate subgrade bearing capacity factor is related to these shear stresses was developed. The modelling techniques adopted in this work obviated the need for a centrifuge.


Most users find it difficult to remember traditional text-based passwords. In order to cope with multiple passwords, users tend to adopt unsafe mechanisms like writing down the passwords or sharing them with others. Recognition-based graphical authentication systems (RBGSs) have been proposed as one potential solution to minimize the above problems. But, most prior works in the field of RBGSs make the unrealistic assumption of studying a single password. It is also an untested assumption that RBGS passwords are resistant to being written down or verbally communicated.
The main aim of the research reported in this thesis is to examine the memorability of multiple image passwords and their guessability using written descriptions (provided by the respective account holders). In this context, the thesis presents four user studies. The first user study (US1) examined the usability of multiple RBGS passwords with four different image types: Mikon, doodle, art and everyday objects (e.g. images of food, buildings, sports etc.). The results obtained in US1 demonstrated that subjects found it difficult to remember four RBGS passwords (of the same image type) and the memorability of the passwords deteriorated over time. The results of another usability study (US2) conducted using the same four image types (as in US1) demonstrated that the memorability of the multiple RBGS passwords created by employing a mnemonic strategy do not improve even when compared to the existing multiple password studies and US1. In the context of the guessability, a user study (GS1) examined the guessability of RBGS passwords (created in US1), using the textual descriptions given by the respective account holders. Another study (GS2) examined the guessability of RBGS passwords (created in US2), using descriptions given by the respective account holders. The results obtained from both the studies showed that RBGS passwords can be guessed using the password descriptions in the experimental set-up used.
Additionally, this thesis presents a novel Passhint authentication system (PHAS).The results of a usability study (US3) demonstrated that the memorability of multiple PHAS passwords is better than in existing Graphical authentication systems (GASs). Although the registration time is high, authentication time for the successful attempts is either equivalent to or less than the time reported for previous GASs. The guessability study (GS3) showed that the art passwords are the least guessable, followed by Mikon, doodle and objects in that order. This thesis offers these initial studies as a proof of principle to conduct large scale field studies in the future with PHAS. Based on the review of the existing literature, this thesis identifies the need for a general set of principles to design usability experiments that would allow systematic evaluation and comparison of different authentication systems.
From the empirical studies (US1, US2 and US3) reported in this thesis, we found that multiple RBGS passwords are difficult to remember, and the memorability of such passwords can be increased using the novel PHAS. We also recommend using the art images as the passwords in PHAS, because they are found to be the least guessable using the written descriptions in the empirical studies (GS1, GS2 and GS3) reported in this thesis.


Brand personality, as one of the major components of brand identity, is a significant determinant of brand equity. This study investigates the configural invariance of a 42-item brand personality scale that was suggested by Aaker (1997) by extending its use from her U.S. sample to Anglophone and Francophone ethnic groups and some popular brands in Canada. Following a translation of the brand personality scale from English to French and two pilot studies for selecting 30 brands for the study, a stratified area sampling plan was executed to collect data from Anglophones and Francophones in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. 1959 questionnaires were distributed by field workers using area sampling within each selected census tract and 596 usable responses were received by mail. After classifying the respondents into Anglophones or Francophones in terms of their responses to a multi-item scale involving language use and self-identification of ethnicity, confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to assess the configural invariance of the brand personality scale. The results suggest that the factor structure for both ethnic groups are different than the structure suggested by Aaker (1997) for her U.S. study. Exploratory factor analysis of the data for each ethnic group suggests five factors as in Aaker's study. However, the composition of the factors in terms of the items of the scale is different from hers. The orthogonal rotation of the factor pattern matrices to congruence shows that the factor loadings for the two Canadian ethnic groups are very similar.


Kerberos is a distributed authentication system that many organizations use to handle domain-wide password security. Although it has been known for quite some time that Kerberos is vulnerable to brute-force password searches, there has so far been little analysis of the scope and extent of this vulnerability. This paper discusses the nature of this weakness in detail and attempts to quantify the severity of the danger it poses to existing Kerberized installations. The results of a controlled experiment, in which a large number of passwords from a Kerberos realm were broken o -line and subjected to analysis, will be presented. The author explores possible strategies for repairing this security hole, the most viable of which is the use of Kerberos V5 preauthentication coupled with a secure password authentication protocol such as SRP,


Early intervention for psychotic disorders, a growing international priority, typically targets help-seeking populations with emerging psychotic ("positive") symptoms. We assessed the nature of and degree to which treatment of individuals at high risk for psychosis preceded or followed the onset of positive symptoms. The North American Prodrome Longitudinal Study (NAPLS)-2 collected psychosocial treatment histories for 745 (98%) of 764 high-risk participants (mean age = 18.9, 57% male, 57.5% Caucasian, 19.1% Hispanic) recruited from eight North American communities. Similar to prior findings, 82% of participants reported psychosocial treatment prior to baseline assessment, albeit with significant variability across sites (71-96%). Participants first received treatment a median of 1.7 years prior mean sample age differed significantly by site, age at initial treatment (M = 14.1, SD = 5.0) did not. High rates of early treatment prior to syndrome onset make sense in light of known developmental precursors to psychotic disorders but are inconsistent with the low rates of treatment retrospectively reported by first episode psychosis samples. Findings suggest that psychosis-risk studies and clinics may need to more actively recruit and engage symptomatic, but non-help-seeking individuals and that community clinicians be better trained to recognize both positive and non-specific indicators of emerging psychosis. Improved treatments for nonspecific symptoms as well as the characteristic attenuated positive symptoms are needed.


The kinase PBL27 links activation of a pathogen recognition receptor to activation of immune signaling in Arabidopsis thaliana. Upon binding to microbe-derived molecules, pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) initiate immune responses, which in plants include the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway. LYK5 and CERK1 are Arabidopsis thaliana PRRs that form a complex and induce MAPK signaling in response to binding to the fungal cell wall component chitin. Yamada et al. found that the CERK1-associated cytoplasmic kinase PBL27 enabled the LYK5-CERK1 complex to directly activate MAPK signaling. PBL27 interacted with the C-terminal domain of the MAP kinase kinase kinase MAPKKK5 in a yeast two-hybrid assay. Compared with wild-type Arabidopsis and similar to pbl27 mutant plants, mapkkk5 mutants exhibited reduced phosphorylation (activation) of MAPK in response to chitin treatment and increased susceptibility to infection by a fungal pathogen. The expression of immune response markers following chitin treatment was also altered in mapkkk5 mutants compared with wild-type control plants. Tagged forms of PBL27 and MAPKKK5 coimmunoprecipitated from membrane fractions when expressed in tobacco leaves or in cultured Arabidopsis protoplasts (dissociated cells devoid of cell walls). PBL27 phosphorylated MAPKKK5 in vitro, and the addition of CERK1 to the in vitro kinase assay increased PBL27-mediated phosphorylation of MAPKKK5. PBL27 phosphorylated several residues in the C-terminal domain, not the kinase domain, of MAPKKK5, and a form of MAPKKK5 in which these residues were mutated did not restore chitin-induced MAPK activation in mapkkk5 mutants. These results shed light on how a plant pathogen recognition system elicits MAPK signaling and suggest that MAPK signaling in plants can be initiated independently of receptor-mediated recruitment and activation of guanosine triphosphatases. K. Yamada, K. Yamaguchi, T. Shirakawa, H. Nakagami, A. Mine, K. Ishikawa, M. Fujiwara, M. Narusaka, Y. Narusaka, K. Ichimura, Y. Kobayashi, H. Matsui, Y. Nomura, M. Nomoto, Y. Tada, Y. Fukao, T. Fukamizo, K. Tsuda, K. Shirasu, N. Shibuya, T. Kawasaki, The Arabidopsis CERK1‐associated kinase PBL27 connects chitin perception to MAPK activation. EMBO J. 35, 2468–2483 (2016). [PubMed]


Efficient numerical solvers for sparse linear systems are crucial in science and engineering. One of the fastest methods for solving large-scale sparse linear systems is algebraic multigrid (AMG). The main challenge in the construction of AMG algorithms is the selection of the prolongation operator -- a problem-dependent sparse matrix which governs the multiscale hierarchy of the solver and is critical to its efficiency. Over many years, numerous methods have been developed for this task, and yet there is no known single right answer except in very special cases. Here we propose a framework for learning AMG prolongation operators for linear systems with sparse symmetric positive (semi-) definite matrices. We train a single graph neural network to learn a mapping from an entire class of such matrices to prolongation operators, using an efficient unsupervised loss function. Experiments on a broad class of problems demonstrate improved convergence rates compared to classical AMG, demonstrating the potential utility of neural networks for developing sparse system solvers.


E-Portfolios are a new type of software and it is still relatively vague to determine, which functions are obligatory – that is which functions constitute characteristic features – and which functions are just optional ("nice to have"). This article describes the concept and the preliminary results of a research project which was conducted to evaluate E-Portfolio software, and aims at providing decision guidance for implementing E-Portfolios in higher education first and foremost from the pedagogical perspective. Which recommendations can be made to an institution which now wants to implement electronic portfolios with a certain objective?


This paper addresses the following question: how reliable is it to use the unbounded path-loss model G(d) = d-alpha, where alpha is the path-loss exponent, to model the decay of transmitted signal power in wireless networks? G(d) is a good approximation for the path-loss in wireless communications for large values of d but is not valid for small values of d due to the singularity at 0. This model is often used along with a random uniform node distribution, even though in a group of uniformly distributed nodes some may be arbitrarily close to one another. The unbounded path-loss model is compared to a more realistic bounded path-loss model, and it is shown that the effect of the singularity on the total network interference level is significant and cannot be disregarded when nodes are uniformly distributed. A phase transition phenomenon occurring in the interference behavior is analyzed in detail. Several performance metrics are also examined by using the computed interference distributions. In particular, the effects of the singularity at 0 on bit error rate, packet success probability and wireless channel capacity are analyzed.


Many natural and man-made signals can be described as having a few degrees of freedom relative to their size due to natural parameterizations or constraints; examples include bandlimited signals, collections of signals observed from multiple viewpoints in a network-of-sensors, and per-flow traffic measurements of the Internet. Low-dimensional models (LDMs) mathematically capture the inherent structure of such signals via combinatorial and geometric data models, such as sparsity, unions-of-subspaces, low-rankness, manifolds, and mixtures of factor analyzers, and are emerging to revolutionize the way we treat inverse problems (e.g., signal recovery, parameter estimation, or structure learning) from dimensionality-reduced or incomplete data. Assuming our problem resides in a LDM space, in this thesis we investigate how to integrate such models in convex and non-convex optimization algorithms for significant gains in computational complexity. We mostly focus on two LDMs: $(i)$ sparsity and $(ii)$ low-rankness. We study trade-offs and their implications to develop efficient and provable optimization algorithms, and--more importantly--to exploit convex and combinatorial optimization that can enable cross-pollination of decades of research in both.


[ANGLES] With the increasing carbon dioxide emission in the atmosphere, there has been an
interesting interest in CCS (Carbon Capture and Storage). Mineral carbonation was
considered as a better option for storage atmospheric CO2 to slow climate change down.
It's a better method for storing CO2 without re-releasing CO2 in the atmosphere. The
reaction rate of carbonation is too slow to be used at industrial scale under natural
conditions containing ambient temperature and pressure. Several pilots were done to
study and observer the reaction rate of carbonation with various conditions. In this
study, we used the ultramafic igneous rock (such as pyroxene and dunite) containing
amounts of magnesium and calcium which could react with atmospheric CO2 to form
stable carbonates into geological formations.
We did the gas-solid carbonation experiment without water-dissolution that was used by
amounts of researches in the worldwide to observer change rate of carbonate produced
under various CO2 pressures. By understanding of the previous researches and papers,
we knew mineral carbonation in situ has higher carbonation rate relative to rate at 25OC
in atoms CO2 saturated water at 1 bar. We used X-ray Diffraction to understand
compounds of the sample in the depth and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy to
investigate carbonates produced change in the surface of the samples during the mineral
carbonation process. The main aim of this thesis is to evaluate characterization of the
sample (including Pyroxene and Dunite) and mineral carbonation procedure in various
pressures at 185 OC. The quantitative ratio [CO3
2-]/C for each sample in different
reaction conditions has been determined from an analysis of the C 1s spectra of XPS.
The XPS observations showed the same behaviors for the two types of ultramafic
igneous rock: the ratio of carbonate to carbon in the surface of the samples at 5 bars is
higher than at 1 bar. In addition the ratio of carbonates to carbon after the heating
treatment decreases a little, and then the value would increase after the carbonation
procedure. That means the carbonates were removed by the heating treatment.


Abstract. We review mechanisms and studies of exchange between the north-east Atlantic and the adjacent shelf seas. Well-developed summer upwelling and associated filaments off Portugal and north-west Spain give exchange O(3 m2/s per unit length of shelf). Prevailing westerly winds further north drive exchange O(1 m2/s). Poleward flow along most of the upper slope has associated secondary circulation O(1 m2/s), meanders and eddies. Eddies are shed from slope waters into the Bay of Biscay, and local exchanges occur at shelf spurs and depressions or canyons (e.g. dense-water cascading of order 1 m2/s). Tidal transports are larger, but their reversal every six hours makes exchange largely ineffective except where internal tides are large and non-linear, as in the Celtic Sea where solitons carry water with exchange O(1 m2/s). These various physical exchanges amount to an estimated 2–3 m2/s per unit length of shelf, between ocean and shelf. A numerical model estimate is comparable: 2.5×106 m3/s onto and off the shelf from Brittany to Norway. Mixing controls the seasonal thermocline, affecting primary production and hence fluxes and fate of organic matter. Specifically, CO2 take-up by primary production, settling below the thermocline before respiration, and then off-shelf transport, make an effective shelf-sea "pump" (for CO2 from the atmosphere to the deep ocean). However, knowledge of biogeochemical fluxes is generally sparse, giving scope for more measurements, model validation and estimates from models.


The primary objective of the research in this dissertation is to develop a system in which any person, regardless of ability or disability, can efficiently, anonymously, and independently write-in a candidate's name during an election. This research is designed to be beneficial to voters during elections. Not only does this research embrace the needs of the 36 million United States (U.S.) citizens who are disabled [64], but it also affords voters the opportunity to properly write-in a candidate's name as intended. The method presented here utilizes multimodal interaction, i.e. speech, touch, and switch, to allow voters to privately spell the name of the candidate they intend to write-in. This method also implements name prediction, increasing the efficiency and accuracy of the write-in voting process. In accordance with the standards for usability set by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) [31], the hypothesis of this research is that the system designed would be effective, efficient, and provide user satisfaction. An experiment was performed to evaluate the system against these measures. The results of the experiment show that the system designed is an effective and efficient solution to writing-in a candidate's name, and with minor adjustments, will be more than satisfactory for voters to utilize.


Michael Moore believes there are deontological constraints on actors' pursuit of good consequences. He believes these constraints are best conceived of as agent-relative prohibitions such as "you must not intentionally kill, batter, rape, steal, etc." I, joined in recent years by Kimberly Ferzan, believe that the best interpretation of deontological constraints — the interpretation that best accounts for our intuitions about certain stock cases — is that they are constraints on the causal means by which good consequences may be achieved. We believe those constraints can be unified under a single deontological principle, what we call the "means principle." It forbids actors from achieving otherwise good consequences by using, without their consent, others' bodies, labor, talents, or the resources that are rightfully theirs. The means principle can be viewed as a jurisdictional limitation on the reach of strong (legitimately enforceable) moral obligations. Its focus is on the causal structure of how good consequences are to be achieved, not on the mental states of those attempting to achieve them. Actors' mental states can affect their culpability but not whether their acts are morally permissible. Even with respect to culpability, actors' beliefs rather than their intentions are the primary determinants. Their intentions can affect only the level of their culpability if they are culpable, but cannot render an otherwise nonculpable act culpable. Thus, the means principle is a stark contrast to Moore's agent-relative, intention-focused account of deontological constraints.


We analyze the effects of outsourcing in the presence of a minimum wage by presenting a general-equilibrium model with an oligopolistic export sector and a competitive import-competing sector. An outsourcing tax is politically popular because it switches jobs to unemployed natives. It is also economically sound because it raises national income. An export subsidy may or may not be justified on welfare grounds. Increased international competition has no effect on the level of outsourcing, but the direction of its effect on unemployment and national income depends on the relative factor intensities of the two sectors.


This article describes an attempt to bring disciplinary historical inquiry into the social studies classroom. This work emerges from a five-school 6-month intervention in San Francisco, 'Reading like a Historian', which found main effects for student learning across four quantitative measures: historical thinking, factual knowledge, general reasoning, and reading comprehension. The purpose here is to describe the pedagogical practices that were at the heart of the intervention; in particular, a lesson structure that is called the Document-Based Lesson. The Document-Based Lesson organized existing forms of social organization that typify social studies classrooms (e.g. lecture, recitation, seatwork, group-work, whole-class discussion), into a predictable and repeatable sequence that engaged students in the processes of historical inquiry. Rather than uproot the conventional norms and structures that define classroom behaviour, this study preserved the traditional role of the teacher and the signature activities that stand as landmarks of social studies instruction. Moreover, by providing classroom-ready materials and activities that married content knowledge and disciplinary inquiry, the Document-Based Lesson attempted to reconcile the fundamental tension in history instruction between depth and coverage.


Brachial plexus injury in neonates is a rare obstetrical complication, but it can cause huge anxiety to parents if occurring and sometimes leading to legal disputes in obstetrical practice. Trauma during birth delivery is mainly due to the over-stretch of fetal neck which is the main cause of brachial plexus injury in infants. However, those injuries are self-limited and most of them will self-recover. We conducted a retrospective analysis on ten cases diagnosed of post-delivery brachial plexus injury under monitoring at Tu Du Hospital from January to November 2018. Such factors as maternal obstetrical history, labor characteristics, mode of delivery, clinical symptoms and treatment approach of those cases were collected and analyzed. The risk factors of brachial plexus injury in our study included large fetus, interventional delivery, prolonged second stage of labor and shoulder dystocia. All the cases were treated with physiotherapy and recovered after 3 – 6 months. Family counseling and infants' recovery played an important role in the management of those cases.


The UK is leading in online retail and mobile adoption. However, there is a dearth of information relating to mobile apparel retail, and developing an understanding about consumer browsing and purchase behaviour in m-retail channel would provide apparel marketers, mobile website and app developers with the necessary understanding of consumers' needs. Despite the rapid growth of mobile retail businesses, no published study has examined shopping behaviour on fashion mobile apps and websites. A mixed method approach helped to understand why fashion consumers prefer websites on smartphones, when diverse mobile apps are also available. The following research methods were employed: survey, eye-tracking experiments, observation, and interview with retrospective think aloud. The mobile gaze tracking device by SensoMotoric Instruments was used to understand frustrations in navigation and other issues facing consumers in mobile channel. This method helped to validate and compliment other traditional user-testing approaches in order to optimize user experience and enhance the development of mobile retail channel. The study involved eight participants - females aged 18 to 35 years old, who are existing mobile shoppers. The participants used the Topshop mobile app and website on a smart phone to complete a task according to a specified scenario leading to a purchase. The comparative study was based on: duration and time spent at different stages of the shopping journey, number of steps involved and product pages visited, search approaches used, layout and visual clues, as well as consumer perceptions and expectations. The results from the data analysis show significant differences in consumer behaviour when using a mobile app or website on a smart phone. Moreover, two types of problems were identified, namely technical issues and human errors. Having a mobile app does not guarantee success in satisfying mobile fashion consumers. The differences in the layout and visual clues seem to influence the overall shopping experience on a smart phone. The layout of search results on the website was different from the mobile app. Therefore, participants, in most cases, behaved differently on different platforms. The number of product pages visited on the mobile app was triple the number visited on the website due to a limited visibility of products in the search results. Although, the data on traffic trends held by retailers to date, including retail sector breakdowns for visits and views, data on device splits and duration, might seem a valuable source of information, it cannot explain why consumers visit many product pages, stay longer on the website or mobile app, or abandon the basket. A comprehensive list of pros and cons was developed by highlighting issues for website and mobile app, and recommendations provided. The findings suggest that fashion retailers need to be aware of actual consumers' behaviour on the mobile channel and their expectations in order to offer a seamless shopping experience. Added to which is the challenge of retaining existing and acquiring new customers. There seem to be differences in the way fashion consumers search and shop on mobile, which need to be explored in further studies.


OBJECTIVES
To describe the methodology for the preparation of two additives derived from human milk, liquid and powdered, and to compare this composition with the commercial additive FM85®.

METHODS
For the preparation of the liquid and powdered supplements, 40 samples of human milk were used. Both supplements have been through three preparation phases: skimming, evaporation and lactose removal. After these phases, the liquid supplement is ready, and the powdered requires a fourth phase - lyophilization. To each sample of the liquid and powdered supplements were added, respectively, 80 mL (group I) and 100 mL (group II) of pooled banked human milk. For comparison, 20 samples of 100 mL of the pool were added to 5 g of the FM85® supplement (Nestlé) (group III). Analyses of carbohydrates, protein, lipids, calcium, phosphorus, sodium, osmolality and caloric content were performed, considering a significant difference p < 0.05.

RESULTS
Groups I, II, and III showed, respectively, the following results: protein = 1.81, 2.38 and 1.96 g/dL (p < 0.001); carbohydrates = 6.70, 7.25 and 10.06 g/dL (p = 0.006); fat = 3.75, 3.75 and 3.73 g/dL (p = 0.96); calcium = 36.92, 44.75 and 79.37 mg/dL (p = 0.001); phosphorus = 20.02, 23.28 and 56.30 mg/dL (p = 0.02); sodium = 14.32, 14.40 and 20.33 mEq/L (p = 0.143); osmolality = 391.45, 412.47 and 431.00 mOsmol/kgH(2)O (p = 0.074); and caloric content = 67.78, 72.27 and 81.65 kcal (p = 0.001).

CONCLUSION
The studied additives differ significantly from the commercial additive FM85® in some of its components, and its composition may or may not meet the quantity of nutrients suggested by the most recent recommendations.


A large, sea-going water tunnel was used in various studies of shark swimming performance. The critical swimming velocity (Ucrit, an index of aerobically sustainable swimming speed) of a 70 cm long lemon shark ( Negaprion brevirostris Poey) was determined to be 1.1 Ls−1, where L is body length. The Ucrit of the leopard shark ( Triakis semifasciata Girard) was found to vary inversely with body size; from about 1.6Ls−1in 30–50cm sharks to 0.6LS−1 in 120cm sharks. Large Triakis adopt ram gill ventilation at swimming speeds between 27 and 60cms−1, which is similar to the speed at which this transition occurs in teleosts. Analyses of tail-beat frequency (TBF) in relation to velocity and body size show that smaller Triakis have a higher TBF and can swim at higher relative speeds. TBF, however, approaches a maximal value at speeds approaching Ucrit, suggesting that red muscle contraction velocity may limit sustained swimming speed. The TBF of both Triakis and Negaprion rises at a faster rate with swimming velocity than does that of the more thunniform mako shark ( Isurus oxyrinchus Rafinesque). This is consistent with the expectation that, at comparable relative speeds, sharks adapted for efficient swimming should have a lower TBF. The rates of O2 consumption of swimming lemon and mako sharks are among the highest yet measured for elasmobranchs and are comparable to those of cruise-adapted teleosts.


Carcinoma is a type of cancer that develops from epithelial cells. Specifically, a carcinoma is a cancer that begins in a tissue that lines the inner or outer surfaces of the body, and that generally arises from cells originating in the endodermal or ectodermal germ layer during embryogenesis. Carcinomas occur when the DNA of a cell is damaged or altered and the cell begins to grow uncontrollably and become malignant.


The work in this touring solo exhibition was generated by a period of research, supported by an Arts Council England Encore Award (£10,000). The exhibition's curators (Bushnell, Shalgosky and Dean) worked closely with Bowen to develop different selection and installation solutions for the works in relation to the space and real light of each venue. An associated residency was hosted jointly by Angel Row Gallery and the Museum of Costume and Textiles, Nottingham, and the project as a whole attracted funding of £30,000. The sixteen large-scale drawings Bowen produced during the Encore Award period, established the researchers interest in display as a creative activation of (and intervention into) the 'real' experiences of the viewer. This output helps translate professional experience into effective art school research and during the project, Bowen was committed to leading symposia, workshops, and gallery talks. Tony Godfrey and Angela Kingston also gave talks on writing about Bowen's work. An exhibition publication included essays by Francis McKee and Sacha Craddock (Aspex Arts Trust). Press reviews include: 'Siân Bowen/Susanna Heron', Robert Clark, The Guardian, Jan 2003; 'Ream', Jessica Lack, The Guardian, November 2002; 'Ream', John Cornell, Art Review, March, 2003. In 2001 Bowen's was awarded second prize at the Jerwood Drawing Prize Exhibition (Prince's Trust Gallery, and national tour), for work which laid the foundation for 'Ream' and was acquired by the British Museum, London. Bowen was further selected for a number of 'overviews' of contemporary British drawing including; The Jerwood Drawing Prize, 2002 and 2003; Drawing: The Process, Kingston University, 2003; 5 x 20 Drawings FEST, Eagle Gallery, London, 2003).


A large variety of C-terminally modi fi ed peptides was obtained by nucleophilic cleavage of the ester bond in solid phase linked peptide esters of 4-hydroxymethyl benzamide (HMBA). The developed methods provided peptides, C-terminally functionalized as esters, amides and thioesters, with high purity directly from the resin in a single reaction step. A comprehensive screening of the reaction conditions and scope for nucleophilic cleavage of peptides from the HMBA linker was performed.


Introduction: Prediabetes is considered as significant risk factor of overt diabetes. Gamma glutamyl transferase is an oxidative stress marker that is synthesized in liver. Oxidative stress causes impaired insulin secretion from beta cells of pancreas. Serum Gamma glutamyl transferase level increases in persons with diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
Objective: To find out the association of serum Gamma glutamyl transferase and impaired fasting glucose.
Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional analytical study was carried out among 120 subjects aged 25–55 years in the Biochemistry department of Sir Salimullah Medical College, Dhaka during the period of March 2018 to February 2019. The subjects of the study were grouped as normal fasting glucose and impaired fasting glucose as per the criterion of WHO. Blood was collected to perform OGTT. Serum was separated to measure Gamma glutamyl transferase (GGT) and lipid profile.
Results: GGT levels were significantly greater (p<0.01) in impaired fasting glucose (IFG) group than normal fasting glucose (NFG) group (67.2±14.4 vs 24.2±8.4). Odds Ratio (OR) for IFG were 4.1 and 20.3 with GGT tertile 2 (24.0-42.0) U/L and tertile 3 (>42.0) U/L where T1 (< 24.0) U/L was considered as reference category. Multiple regression analysis was done to find out the relation between Fasting plasma glucose (FPG) and serum GGT by adjustment of other factors, which revealed that IFG was significantly (p< 0.01) associated with serum GGT.
Conclusion: Subjects with IFG have higher serum GGT than NFG subjects and higher serum GGT level is associated with greater risk of IFG. Moreover, GGT has strong independent relationship with FPG. The association of serum GGT with IFG suggests that it can be used as adjuvant marker for risk assessment of DM and screening tool for economically underdeveloped country like Bangladesh.
JAFMC Bangladesh. Vol 17, No 2 (December) 2021: 57-60


The abundant and widespread emergent annual grass, Oryza meridionalis, is crucial to the floodplain food chain on wetlands in monsoonal Australia. The floodplains are a dynamic habitat, driven by the annual cycle of wetting and drying. They are also under increasing pressure from anthropogenic change. Although the annual wet season is a reliable occurrence, variability between years in the timing of onset, total amount and the pattern of rainfall as well as the duration of flooding, potentially present risks for aquatic biota. This thesis investigates the population ecology of this important plant species, in order to understand the strategies by which populations persist, despite the expected risks associated with the annual wetting and drying cycle. Field monitoring and experiments showed that great plasticity allows O. meridionalis plants to survive and reproduce under a range of inundation regimes. Increased flooding was shown to significantly increase seedling mortality and reduce plant seed production. However, benefits from increased flooding were protection of seed from post-dispersal predators, and potential for prolonged seed production by stems recumbent on lingering floodwaters in years of greater rainfall. Thus, there was a trade-off between advantage and disadvantage for different stages of the life-cycle, in various inundation regimes. A simple linear stochastic population model confirmed that this trade-off could result in population persistence, even when factors such as flooding events, inundation level and post-dispersal seed loss were increased well above those levels recorded in the field. Modelling demonstrated that density-dependent population regulation underpins population stability and persistence for O. meridionalis. This work focussed on the behaviour of mono-specific populations. Future studies could focus on the behaviour of O. meridionalis populations in multi-species settings.


Objectives: The current study aims to assess the perception towards use of online health-related information among hospital pharmacists practicing at public healthcare institutes of Quetta city, Pakistan. Methods: This was a questionnaire based cross sectional survey. Sampling frame of this study was all hospital pharmacists practicing at public hospitals of Quetta city, Pakistan. The data instrument consisted of three sections namely perception towards online health-related information, type of online health-related information used and barriers encountered while retrieving online health-related information. The data was coded and transferred to Statistical Package for Social Science v 20.0 and whereas both descriptive and inferential statistics were used for data elaboration. Results: Out of 116 hospital pharmacists, eight one responded with a response rate of 69.8%. Majority (86.4%) of the respondents agreed that the Internet provides useful and updated health-related information. Nearly 70% of the respondents were also of the opinion that it is their practice to visit an established website. The most sought out information was about drugs followed by general healthcare and disease-related information (92.5%, 74.0% and 61.7% respectively). The main barrier (40, 49.3%) was profusion of health-related information that at times becomes a barrier in obtaining the right information retrieve to scan through from the Internet. Statistical significant differences (p<0.05) were reported among educational status and certain items of the questionnaire whereby postgraduate pharmacists were more in agreement to the statements. Conclusion: It is evident that our respondents are connected to Internet for professional usage and integrate Internet as an adjunct support in their practice. However, certain barriers and limitations were also indentified. For an effective usage of internet based learning, the barriers need to be addressed and facilities should be provided to the hospital pharmacists so that they can utilize an important source of information during their professional practice.


Chilean Patagonia is experiencing an increase in the use of soil and coastal ocean and accelerated melting of some glaciers. One of the future scenarios is that the adjacent fjiords would receive variable quantities of freshwater and inorganic nutrients. We studied the response of phytoplankton assemblages, of Reloncavi Fjord in winter and Comau Fjord in spring to the addition of nitrate and silicic acid in microcosm experiments. Phytoplankton assemblages responded to nutrient addition with increases in cell abundance, autotrophic biomass (chlorophyll-a) and with changes phytoplankton species composition, emphasizing alternation of pennate diatoms to centric chain-forming diatoms. These results provide evidence on the factors affecting natural microalgal communities in a climate change scenario and human intervention in Northern Patagonia.


Background: No study has been undertaken on people of Asian Indian origin to investigate the age and sex variation in the prevalence of cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors. Objectives: To investigate the age and sex variation in the prevalence of CVD risk factors among the people of Asian Indian origin. Materials and Methods: A total of 682 (302 males and 380 females) participants aged 25–85 years took part in the study. The subjects were categorized into 4 groups, namely, Group I (25–34 years), Group II (35–44 years), Group III (45–54 years), and Group IV (55 years and above). Height, weight, and the circumferences of minimum waist (MWC) and maximum hip were collected using standard techniques. Waist–hip ratio (WHR) was then calculated. Percentage of body fat (%BF) and body mass index (BMI) were measured using an Omron body fat analyzer. Left arm systolic (SBP) and diastolic (DBP) blood pressure were taken from each participant with the help of an Omron MI digital electronic blood/pulse monitor. Metabolic profiles, namely, total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), high (HDL), low (LDL), very low-density lipoprotein (VLDL), and fasting blood glucose (FBG) were also measured using an autoanalyzer. Results: One-way analysis of variance revealed significant differences for age, BMI, MWC, WHR, SBP, DBP, TC, TG, LDL, VLDL, and TC:HDL and TG:HDL ratios across the groups. It was observed that there were significant sex-specific group differences (male [χ2 (12)] =29.22, P < 0.01 and female [χ2 (12)] =56.69, P < 0.001) for obesity, high BP, high TC, high TG, and high FBG. But no significant group-specific sex difference was evident for either of the risk factors, except for Group IV. Conclusion: Age irrespective of sex modulates CVD risk factors and warranted prevention as early as middle age.


Currently, integration of energy harvesting and storage devices is considered to be one of the most important energy-related technologies due to the possibility of replacing batteries or at least extending the lifetime of a battery. This review aims to describe current progress in the various types of energy harvesters, hybrid energy harvesters, including multi-type energy harvesters with coupling of multiple energy sources, and hybridization of energy harvesters and energy storage devices for self-powered electronics. We summarize research on recent energy harvesters based on the piezoelectric, triboelectric, pyroelectric, thermoelectric, and photovoltaic effects. We also cover hybrid cell technologies to simultaneously generate electricity using multiple types of environmental energy, such as mechanical, thermal, and solar energy. Energy harvesters based on the coupling of multiple energy sources exhibit enhancement of power generation performance with synergetic effects. Finally, integration of energy harvesters and energy storage devices is introduced. In particular, self-charging power cells provide an innovative approach to the direct conversion of mechanical energy into electrochemical energy to decrease energy conversion loss.


Many different approaches have been proposed towards the goal of flexible distributed heterogeneous interoperation of software systems using service composition techniques. Recent approaches are described in terms of higher level models rather than be coded at low level.
 Current practice, however, sees the service process specifications, written in BPEL or other languages, again as being largely hard-coded rather than exploiting the potential flexibility offered. We propose an approach that is influenced by related fields of model-driven development, conceptual modeling of business processes and workflows, semantic process descriptions and service matching through constraint satisfaction. They can be utilized in a complementary way to support dynamic, instance-based selection and composition of Web services, during runtime and extends this to provide self-modifying adaptation when circumstances change.


Telecom networks are composed of very complex software-controlled systems. In recent years, business and technology needs are pushing vendors towards service agility where they must continuously develop, deliver, and improve such software over very short cycles. Moreover, being critical infrastructure, Telecom systems must meet important operational, legal, and regulatory requirements in terms of quality and performance to avoid outages. To ensure high quality software, processes and models must be put in place to enable quick and easy decision making across the development cycle. In this chapter, we will discuss the background and recent trends in software quality assurance. We will then introduce BRACE: a cloud-based, fully-automated tool for software defect prediction, reliability and availability modeling and analytics. In particular, we will discuss a novel Software Reliability Growth Modeling (SRGM) algorithm that is the core of BRACE. The algorithm provides defect prediction for both early and late stages of the software development cycle. To illustrate and validate the tool and algorithm, we also discuss key use cases, including actual defect and outage data from two large-scale software development projects from telecom products. BRACE is being successfully used by global teams of various large-scale software development projects.


We assess the extent to which firms in an environment of decreasing transport costs and industrial transformation value the benefits of proximity to a historic CBD and agglomeration economies in their location decisions. Taking a hybrid perspective of classical bid-rent theory and a world where clustering of economic activity is driven by between-firm spillovers, Berlin, Germany, from 1890 to 1936 serves as a case in point. Our results suggest that the average productivity effect of a doubling of between- firm spillovers over the study period increases from 3.5% to 8.3%. As the city transforms into a service-based economy, several micro agglomerations emerge. Their locations close to the CBD still make the city look roughly monocentric. This is in line with a hysteresis effect in which second-nature geography drives the ongoing strength of a historic city center even though the importance of the originally relevant first-nature geography has vanished.


With the emergence of cyberspace as the fifth domain of warfare, the prospects of cyber conflicts have increased significantly. Around 300 state-sponsored cyber operations have been conducted since 2005. The future uncertainty of cyber-warfare has prompted calls for necessary measures to regulate the actions of states in cyberspace. In this regard, cyber-peacekeeping has also emerged as a significant research area to distinctively deal with the cyber component of future conflicts. Although, a number of challenges exist regarding materialization of full fledge cyber-peacekeeping force, it can be easily integrated into the current United Nations (UN) peacekeeping organizational structure. In legal terms, operationalization of cyber-peacekeeping force will depend on the mandate of peace operations approved by the UN Security Council (UNSC). This paper discusses the challenges confronting the creation of a cyber- peacekeeping force and also offers recommendations by presenting a general framework regarding how such a force can be operationalized. Despite the fact that a dedicated cyber-peacekeeping force seems a far sighted idea in present times, a distinct cyber unit can certainly be formed and integrated into UN peace operations in near future.


The vertical intensity, I(_v), and exponent of the angular distribution, n, (where I(_o) = I(_v)cos(^n) 0), of muons underground have been measured using simple telescopes comprising plastic scintillators, geiger counters and neon flash tubes at depths of 816, 1812 and 4110 m.w.e. in the Kolar Gold Fields, India. The observed values of n are 1.92 ± 0.33, 3.26 ± 0.10 and 5.33 ± 0.50 respectively, and those of I(_v) are (2.29 ± 0.09)10(^-6), (1.98 ± 0.05)10(^-7) and (4.47 ± 0.34)10(^-9) cm(^-2)sr(^-1)sec(^-1). These results have been compared with the results of other workers and the intensity-depth relation of Osborne et al (1964). The agreement is quite good at 816 and 4110 m.w.e. but the observed intensity is higher by ~30% at 1812 m.w.e. The integral sea-level muon intensities have been inferred from the range-energy relation, allowing for fluctuations in energy losses. From comparison with ɤ - ray cascade data it is shown the K/π ratio is sensibly constant at ~30% over the range of primary energy 10(^3) – 10(^6_) GeV. No significant non-Poissonian contribution to the distribution of time intervals between the arrival of successive events underground was noted indicating that the phenomenon of bursts of particles at short time intervals reported by Cowan et al (1964) has not been observed in the present experiment. The probability of electromagnetic interactions of muons in rock and lead was found to Increase (with increasing depth) demonstrating the growing Importance of energy losses by bremsstrahlung and direct pair production. Analysis of multiple penetrating particle events shows that they cfm be attributed to the production o muons (via pions) in extensive air showers, and to the nuclear interaction of muons in rock. Several neutrino induced muons and atmospheric muons have been detected in a new experiment, still in operation, at 7600 m.w.e. The vertical intensity of muons has been derived from the latter and compared with that inferred from the South African neutrino experiment at 8500 m.w.e. Finally, a best estimate of the intensity depth relation is given.


Optically homogeneous pseudomorphs occur in high-Pressure metapelites from the Alpine Rif chain, Morocco, along with talc and kyanite. Further characterization using optical microscopy, electron microprobe, single-crystal X-ray diffraction, and HRTEM reveals a complex metamorphic replacement sequence of a previous high-pressure metamorphic mineral, possibly magnesiochloritoid. Within the pseudomorphs, three zones are recognized based on the occurrence of distinct layer silicates, which crystallized under different P-T conditions along the retrograde metamorphic P-T path. These layer silicates are, from core to rim: (1) a relic mixture of margarite and chlorite, (2) oriented chlorite-smectite intergrowths+ or -pyrophyllite, and (3) chlorite and abundant smectite (at the periphery of the pseudomorph). These pseudomorphs represent an uncommon record of the retrograde metamorphic P-T path because the earliest smectite formed while the rocks still experienced P-T conditions in the stability field of pyrophyllite. This observation suggests that clay minerals may crystallize as regional metamorphic products, and that their stability field might not be restricted to late shallow-depth alteration.


To investigate the possibility of in vivo transplantation of Leydig cells as a new biologic androgen replacement therapy, the Leydig cells procured from 6 week-old male Sprague-Dawley rats were autotransplanted, and the level of testosterone secretion and histostructural changes were observed. The renal subcapsular and intraperitoneal transplant showed higher levels of testosterone compared to subcutaneous or scrotal counterparts, and the number of transplanted cells was correlated with the level of measured testosterone. Furthermore, if the Leydig cells were transplanted intraperitoneally after the uptake on synthetic collagen, testosterone levels were higher than the ones simply transplanted without synthetic collagen uptake, resulting in 27 fold increase at 3 months. The activity of 125I-hCG decreased 20 to 40% at each month after transplantation compared to the normal levels, but no statistical significance was noted among different periods. The histologic examination revealed neovascularized capillaries and well demarcated sheet-like group of eosinophilic Leydig cells were observed at 4 weeks. But the evidence of destructive changes such as a focal inflammation with central dystropic ossification could be noted after 3 month. On electron microscopy, the marked indentation of nucleus and presence of lipochrome pigment were seen, and the number and size of smooth endoplasmic reticulum and mitochondria were reduced after 3 month. In conclusion, testosterone output could be increased to the physiologic range by increasing the number of transplant cells or utilizing collagen uptake but further effort is necessary on delaying or preventing the structural and functional decrement of Leydig cells.


Much of the work in intercultural communication studies in the past decade, especially in the field of applied linguistics, has been devoted to 'disinventing' the notion of culture. The problem with the word 'culture' as it has been used in anthropology, sociology, and in everyday life, it has been pointed out, is that it is used as a noun, conceived of as something 'solid,' an essential set of traits or characteristics of certain people or groups, something people 'have' rather than something they 'do' (Scollon, Scollon, & Jones, 2012). Among the most famous statements of this position is Brain Street's classic paper 'Culture is a Verb' (1993), in which he argues that culture should be treated as 'a signifying process the active construction of meaning rather than the static and reified or nominalizing' sense in which the word is often used in anthropology, some linguistics circles, and in everyday conversation.


This thesis rests on the argument that the social internet as a commercial space is basically subtended by the appropriation of user labour, in the form of what has come to be called "user-generated content" or UGC. Especially it seems for younger people engaged in the labour of UGC, online content creation also inculcates them into an economy of creative labour. As a kind of apprenticeship for more formal creative industry careers, UGC creates value for both online platforms and for the users' development of a branded online identity.

Identity work – which in this investigation mainly entails negotiating dimensions of age and gender (and to a lesser extent, class, race and ability) – constitutes an integral part of the value of UGC for individual careers as well as for commercial platforms, but also for the broader civic reverberations of online cultural production. Networked production and sociality are becoming more and more central to conceptions of contemporary citizenship alongside those of economic agency. To this end, the commercial imperatives of the social internet that tend to determine persona rights online, namely rights around privacy and intellectual property, demand re-evaluation in light of UGC as a labour practice.

Legislative protections for Canadians' persona rights are currently under debate, but internet regulation faces a number of challenges and thus should be accompanied by other strategies for bolstering people's persona rights online. Ultimately, this thesis seeks to enumerate recommendations for policymaking around privacy and intellectual property in UGC environments, but also to suggest ways for young people to retain their persona rights while engaging in the UGC labour of online cultural production.

The research questions guiding this thesis follow from its central goal of re-evaluating internet regulation from the point of view of UGC as apprenticeship labour. As such, the overarching research question asks, how might new media policy approach the issue of user labour in online cultural production to protect persona rights? This question invites an answer in the form of recommendations for policymakers, but the structural constraints of policy as a top-down protective mechanism requires alternative modes of addressing persona rights issues from the bottom-up, for instance in media and policy literacy initiatives as well as in participatory technology design. These conclusions stem from the project's overview of policy research and scholarly work, but also from its analysis of four case studies that illustrate some of the activities and experiences of users in their early-20s, who are deeply engaged in the labour of UGC.