Aims. We examine the uncertainties in current planetary models and quantify their impact on the planet cooling histories and massradius relationships. Methods. These uncertainties include (i) the differences between the various equations of state used to characterize the heavy material thermodynamical properties, (ii) the distribution of heavy elements within planetary interiors, (iii) their chemical composition, and (iv) their thermal contribution to the planet evolution. Our models, which include a gaseous H/He envelope, are compared with models of solid, gasless Earth-like planets in order to examine the impact of a gaseous envelope on the cooling and the resulting radius. Results. We find that, for a fraction of heavy material larger than 20% of the planet mass, the distribution of the heavy elements in the planet's interior substantially affects the evolution and thus the radius at a given age. For planets with large core mass fractions (>50%), such as the Neptune-mass transiting planet GJ 436b, the contribution of the gravitational and thermal energy from the core to the planet cooling history is not negligible, yielding a ∼10% effect on the radius after 1 Gyr. We show that the present mass and radius determinations of the massive planet Hat-P-2b require at least 200 M⊕ of heavy material in the interior, at the edge of what is currently predicted by the core-accretion model for planet formation. As an alternative avenue for massive planet formation, we suggest that this planet, and similarly HD 17156b, may have formed from collisions between one or several other massive planets. This would explain these planets unusually high density and high eccentricity. We show that if planets as massive as ∼25 MJ can form, as predicted by improved core-accretion models, deuterium is able to burn in the H/He layers above the core, even for core masses as high as ∼100 M⊕. Such a result highlights the confusion provided by a definition of a planet based on the deuterium-burning limit. Conclusions. We provide extensive grids of planetary evolution models from 10 M⊕ to 10 MJup, with various fractions of heavy elements. These models provide a reference for analyzing the transit discoveries expected from the CoRoT and Kepler missions and for inferring the internal composition of these objects.


The editors of "The University as Urban Developer" now extend that work's groundbreaking analysis of the university's important role in the growth and development of the American city to the global view. Linking the fields of urban development, higher education, and urban design, "Global Universities and Urban Development" covers universities and communities around the world, including Germany, Korea, Scotland, Japan, Mexico, South Africa, Finland - 13 countries in all.The book features contributions from noted urban scholars, campus planners and architects, and university administrators from all the countries represented. They provide a wide-angled perspective of the issues and practices that comprise university real estate development around the globe. A concluding chapter by the editors offers practical evaluations of the many cases and identifies best practices in the field.


Topic and topicalization are key notions to understand processes of syntactic and prosodic readjustments in Romance. More specifically, topicalization refers to the syntactic mechanisms and constructions available in a language to mark an expression as the topic of the sentence. Despite the lack of a uniform definition of topic, often based on the notions of aboutness or givenness, significant advances have been made in Romance linguistics since the 1990s, yielding a better understanding of the topicalization constructions, their properties, and their grammatical correlates. Prosodically, topics are generally described as being contained in independent intonational phrases. The syntactic and pragmatic characteristics of a specific topicalization construction, by contrast, depend both on the form of resumption of the dislocated topic within the clause and on the types of topic (aboutness, given, and contrastive topics). We can thus distinguish between hanging topic (left dislocation) (HTLD) and clitic left-dislocation (ClLD) for sentence-initial topics, and clitic right-dislocation (ClRD) for sentence-final dislocated constituents. These topicalization constructions are available in most Romance languages, although variation may affect the type and the obligatory presence of the resumptive element.
 Scholars working on topic and topicalization in the Romance languages have also addressed controversial issues such as the relation between topics and subjects, both grammatical (nominative) subjects and 'oblique' subjects such as dative experiencers and locative expressions. Moreover, topicalization has been discussed for medieval Romance, in conjunction with its alleged V2 syntactic status. Some topicalization constructions such as subject inversion, especially in the non-null subject Romance languages, and Resumptive Preposing may indeed be viewed as potential residues of medieval V2 property in contemporary Romance.


Background and aims: learning plays an important role in developing nursing skills and right care-taking. The Present study aims to evaluate two learning methods based on team –based learning and lecture-based learning in learning care-taking of patients with diabetes in nursing students. Method: In this quasi-experimental study, 64 students in term 4 in nursing college of Bukan and Miandoab were included in the study based on knowledge and performance questionnaire including 15 questions based on knowledge and 5 questions based on performance on care-taking in patients with diabetes were used as data collection tool whose reliability was confirmed by cronbach alpha (r=0.83) by the researcher. To compare the mean score of knowledge and performance in each group in pre-test step and post-test step, pair –t test and to compare mean of scores in two groups of control and intervention, the independent t- test was used. Results: There was not significant statistical difference between two groups in pre terms of knowledge and performance score (p=0.784). There was significant difference between the mean of knowledge scores and diabetes performance in the post-test in the team-based learning group and lecture-based learning group (p=0.001). There was significant difference between the mean score of knowledge of diabetes care in pre-test and post-test in base learning groups (p=0.001). Conclusion: In both methods team-based and lecture-based learning approaches resulted in improvement in learning in students, but the rate of learning in the team-based learning approach is greater compared to that of lecture-based learning and it is recommended that this method be used as a higher education method in the education of students.


M J Franz

Ms M J Franz, Nutrition Concepts by Franz Inc, Minneapolis, MN, USA; email@example.com

What are the most effective interventions for weight loss in overweight and obese adults?

### Data sources:

PubMed (1997 to Sep 2004) and reference lists.

### Study selection and assessment:

English-language, randomised controlled trials (RCTs) that evaluated weight loss interventions in overweight or obese adults and had ⩾1 year follow-up. 80 RCTs (n = 26 455, mean age 23–69 y, 0–100% men) met the selection criteria. At baseline, mean weight was 77–131 kg and mean body mass index was 29–43 kg/m2. The interventions included advice only (28 RCTs), exercise (6 RCTs), diet (51 RCTs), diet plus exercise (17 RCTs), meal replacements (7 RCTs), very-low-energy diet (11 RCTs), orlistat (13 RCTs), and sibutramine (7 RCTs). No RCT on …


This paper shows how Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) can implement the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) elements on their websites and make them visible on the search engines. Four SMEs have been considered in this study. Two SMEs had absolutely no web presence whereas the other two had operational e-commerce websites. For the first two SMEs new websites were created, SEO techniques were implemented and these websites became visible on Google. On the other hand, advanced SEO techniques were implemented for the existing e-commerce websites which enabled them to gain higher ranking on search engines for their targeted keywords. On gaining these rankings on search engines the SMEs established their identity on the web, which would ultimately help them attract visitors and prospective clients searching for their products or services on the search engines. By undertaking this process it was shown that the websites' visibility on search engines have a positive contribution for the growth of SMEs' businesses.


This thesis investigates the development of digital audio watermarking in addressing issues such as copyright protection. Over the past two decades, many digital watermarking algorithms have been developed, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. The main aim of this thesis was to develop a new watermarking algorithm within an existing Fast Fourier Transform framework. This resulted in the development of a Complex Spectrum Phase Evolution based watermarking algorithm. In this new implementation, the embedding positions were generated dynamically thereby rendering it more difficult for an attacker to remove, and watermark information was embedded by manipulation of the spectral components in the time domain thereby reducing any audible distortion. Further improvements were attained when the embedding criteria was based on bin location comparison instead of magnitude, thereby rendering it more robust against those attacks that interfere with the spectral magnitudes.
However, it was discovered that this new audio watermarking algorithm has some disadvantages such as a relatively low capacity and a non-consistent robustness for different audio files. Therefore, a further aim of this thesis was to improve the algorithm from a different perspective.
Improvements were investigated using an Singular Value Decomposition framework wherein a novel observation was discovered. Furthermore, a psychoacoustic model was incorporated to suppress any audible distortion. This resulted in a watermarking algorithm which achieved a higher capacity and a more consistent robustness.
The overall result was that two new digital audio watermarking algorithms were developed which were complementary in their performance thereby opening more opportunities for further research.


This research investigated the efficient utilization of wireless bandwidth in Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) systems that support multiple data rates with Orthogonal Variable Spreading Factor (OVSF) codes. The specific problem being addressed was that currently proposed public-domain algorithms for assigning OVSF codes make inefficient use of wireless bandwidth for bursty data traffic sources with different Quality of Service (QoS) requirements. The purpose of this research was to develop an algorithm for the assignment of OVSF spreading codes in a Third-Generation (3G) Wideband CDMA (WCDMA) system. The goal of this algorithm was to efficiently utilize limited, wireless resources for bursty data traffic sources with different QoS requirements.
The key contribution of this research was the implementation and testing of two code sharing techniques which are not implemented in existing OVSF code assignment algorithms. These techniques were termed statistical multiplexing and dynamic code sharing. The statistical multiplexing technique used a shared channel to support multiple bursty traffic sources. The dynamic code sharing technique supported multiple data users by temporarily granting access to dedicated channels. These techniques differed in terms of both complexity and performance guarantees.


The Reformed and Anabaptist traditions ignore each other at the best of times, yet there are genuine contributions to be gained from bringing elements of these traditions into dialogue. Perhaps the Anabaptist attention to the association of Satan with earthly kingdoms in Scripture may enrich the Reformed understanding of antithesis. In this paper, the author makes efforts towards a Biblical Theology of Satan's kingdom by examining the instances where Satan or the Devil is associated with earthly states in the Bible. For the purpose of this paper, a state refers to refer to a socio-political organisation of human beings in a physical location structured hierarchically and characterising an inward and outward dimension. It is argued that Scripture pervasively identifies not only unbelievers but also unbelieving institutions with Satan. The paper concludes with a reflection on the relationship between churches and the State via 2 Corinthians 6:15-7:1.


Measuring the performance of automatic speech recognition (ASR) systems requires manually transcribed data in order to compute the word error rate (WER), which is often time-consuming and expensive. In this paper, we propose a novel approach to estimate WER, or e-WER, which does not require a gold-standard transcription of the test set. Our e-WER framework uses a comprehensive set of features: ASR recognised text, character recognition results to complement recognition output, and internal decoder features. We report results for the two features; black-box and glass-box using unseen 24 Arabic broadcast programs. Our system achieves 16.9% WER root mean squared error (RMSE) across 1,400 sentences. The estimated overall WER e-WER was 25.3% for the three hours test set, while the actual WER was 28.5%.


Prior work on multilingual question answering has mostly focused on using large multilingual pre-trained language models (LM) to perform zero-shot language-wise learning: train a QA model on English and test on other languages. In this work, we explore strategies that improve cross-lingual transfer by bringing the multilingual embeddings closer in the semantic space.
Our first strategy augments the original English training data with machine translation-generated data. This results in a corpus of multilingual silver-labeled QA pairs that is 14 times larger than the original training set. In addition, we propose two novel strategies, language adversarial training and language arbitration framework, which significantly improve the (zero-resource) cross-lingual transfer performance and result in LM embeddings that are less language-variant. Empirically, we show that the proposed models outperform the previous zero-shot baseline on the recently introduced multilingual MLQA and TyDiQA datasets.


This essay examines the song "Hotel California" by The Eagles, which has garnered legions of fans (and detractors) and taken on a variety of meanings as it has made its way around the globe. Well known in China and India, among other places, it even made a cameo appearance in the American spy plane incident of 2001, when Chinese guards asked members of the U.S. crew of a downed surveillance jet to tell them the words to this well known song from their country. The essay looks at the song's popularity abroad, and the power of music in forming memories and conjuring a sense of place and time.


With the increasing size of today's data sets, nding the right parameter configuration in model selection via cross-validation can be an extremely time-consuming task. In this paper we propose an improved cross-validation procedure which uses nonparametric testing coupled with sequential analysis to determine the best parameter set on linearly increasing subsets of the data. By eliminating underperforming candidates quickly and keeping promising candidates as long as possible, the method speeds up the computation while preserving the power of the full cross-validation. Theoretical considerations underline the statistical power of our procedure. The experimental evaluation shows that our method reduces the computation time by a factor of up to 120 compared to a full cross-validation with a negligible impact on the accuracy.


Safe reinforcement learning (SRL) problems are typically modeled as constrained Markov Decision Process (CMDP), in which an agent explores the environment to maximize the expected total reward and meanwhile avoids violating certain constraints on a number of expected total costs. In general, such SRL problems have nonconvex objective functions subject to multiple nonconvex constraints, and hence are very challenging to solve, particularly to provide a globally optimal policy. Many popular SRL algorithms adopt a primal-dual structure which utilizes the updating of dual variables for satisfying the constraints. In contrast, we propose a primal approach, called constraint-rectified policy optimization (CRPO), which updates the policy alternatingly between objective improvement and constraint satisfaction. CRPO provides a primal-type algorithmic framework to solve SRL problems, where each policy update can take any variant of policy optimization step. To demonstrate the theoretical performance of CRPO, we adopt natural policy gradient (NPG) for each policy update step and show that CRPO achieves an $\mathcal{O}(1/\sqrt{T})$ convergence rate to the global optimal policy in the constrained policy set and an $\mathcal{O}(1/\sqrt{T})$ error bound on constraint satisfaction. This is the first finite-time analysis of SRL algorithms with global optimality guarantee. Our empirical results demonstrate that CRPO can outperform the existing primal-dual baseline algorithms significantly.


N o international organization has been more successful in promoting global health and well-being in the past half century than the World Health Organization (WHO). It has been at the forefront of advances that have allowed people to live longer and healthier lives that are far less threatened by infectious diseases. It has also improved access to good quality health care and diminished ignorance about public health, biology, and medicine. These improvements also contribute indirectly to living standards by promoting increased productivity, income, gender equity, and accumulation of human capital.

United States support of WHO has always been justified on grounds of national self-interest and humanitarian concern. Given the disrespect that diseases have for national boundaries, the increasing depth and complexity of our participation in the world economy only reinforce this argument. The case for U.S. support is further buttressed by the phenomenal strength of the U.S. economy and the enormously promising initiatives that WHO is undertaking under the leadership of Gro Harlem Brundtland. She has, in a few months, "reinvented" WHO to better address long-standing and emerging health problems, giving high priority to addressing the health needs of the poor, attacking emerging threats to health, strengthening health systems, and increasing knowledge to be used for decision-making. Preventing malaria and avoidable blindness, reducing addiction to tobacco among the young, controlling tuberculosis, working with the United Nations (UN) AIDS program on HIV prevention and AIDS care, and eliminating as public health problems such diseases as polio, leprosy, guinea worm disease, and Chagas disease are also top priorities for the "new" WHO. However, we regret to note that the United States is over $35 million in arrears in assessed dues to WHO. Furthermore, the U.S. position of resisting even nominal increases in its contribution to the regular budget of WHO compromises America's vital interest in global health, violates the spirit of American generosity, and represents the antithesis of global leadership.

WHO has two sources of funds for financing its operations: regular budgetary contributions (the assessed contribution) and extrabudgetary contributions. In terms of real purchasing power, WHO's regular budget ($843 million for the current biennium) has declined by an estimated 20% during the past decade, jeopardizing its ability to carry out its mission and programs. In 1998, the United States gave WHO $46.1 million in extrabudgetary contributions. Although it is the largest contributor to specific programs, it ranks on both a per-person basis and as a share of gross domestic product far below Norway, Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada. We believe that the United States should reverse this situation. If matched by other donors, a 3.7% increase in our assessed contribution, which would amount to less than $4 million annually, would allow WHO to cover the price increases and exchange rate fluctuations it can reasonably be expected to face. On economic, political, and humanitarian grounds, U.S. support for WHO must not be allowed to erode.

The U.S. government has vigorously criticized international agencies for ineffectiveness and for failing to exercise leadership in the past and has often said that U.S. support for the UN should be linked to reform and performance. WHO is exemplary in this regard. For example, it has reduced its administrative costs this year by 15%. Given WHO's record of success and its new vision, it is incumbent upon us to pay our arrears and enlarge our financial contribution so that WHO can fulfill its global mandate.

Representatives of all WHO member states will meet at the World Health Assembly in Geneva on 17 to 25 May 1999 to decide WHO's budget and member states' assessments. The United States will express its position at that meeting. We urge readers to contact their congressional representatives to convey their views on U.S. funding of WHO.


Background: We are witnessing increasing demand from governments and society for all sciences to have relevant social impact and to show the returns they provide to society.Aims and objectives: This paper reports strategies that promote social impact by Social Sciences
 and Humanities (SSH) research projects.Methods: An in-depth analysis of six Social Sciences and Humanities research projects that achieved social impact was carried out to identify those strategies. For each case study, project documents were analysed and qualitative fieldwork was
 conducted with diverse agents, including researchers, stakeholders and end-users, with a communicative orientation.Findings: The strategies that were identified as contributing to achieving social impact include a clear focus of the project on social impact and the definition of
 an active strategy for achieving it; a meaningful involvement of stakeholders and end-users throughout the project lifespan, including local organisations, underprivileged end-users, and policy makers who not only are recipients of knowledge generated by the research projects but participate
 in the co-creation of knowledge; coordination between projects' and stakeholders' activities; and dissemination activities that show useful evidence and are oriented toward creating space for public deliberation with a diverse public.Discussion and conclusions: The strategies
 identified can enhance the social impact of Social Sciences and Humanities research. Furthermore, gathering related data, such as collaboration with stakeholders, use of projects' findings and the effects of their implementation, could allow researchers to track the social impact of
 the projects and enhance the evaluation of research impact.


Future advanced artificial hands will require the automatic holding of objects using feedback control. To achieve this aim will require sensors of various types, one of which should be capable of detecting the relative movement between the surface of a grasped object and the hand (slip). A low-cost sensor, using thick-film technology, has been developed which detects slip using the piezoelectric effect. Experimental evaluation of the sensor has been carried out using a test apparatus whereby a block of aluminium representing an object slides past the sensor. Attached to the object surface is a Perspex sheet with repeating groves cut into the surface. Two different separations of the groves have been tested. The results show that the slip sensor detects the relative velocity between a moving object and the sensor surface. The sensor has a frequency response into the kilohertz which makes it an excellent candidate for a slip sensor. The sensor is able to detect slip with and without a cosmetic material covering the sensor. Computer simulations of the mechanical modes of vibration have shown that the frequency of the lowest fundamental mode is much higher than the electronic signal output from the sensor.


This paper is about the evaluation of a system that generates short text summaries of voicemail messages, suitable for transmission as text messages. Our approach to summarization is based on a speech-recognized transcript of the voicemail message, from which a set of summary words is extracted. The system uses a classifier to identify the summary words, with each word being identified by a vector of lexical and prosodic features. The features are selected using Parcel, an ROC-based algorithm. Our evaluations of the system, using a slot error rate metric, have compared manual and automatic summarization, and manual and automatic recognition (using two different recognizers). We also report on two subjective evaluations using mean opinion score of summaries, and a set of comprehension tests. The main results from these experiments were that the perceived difference in quality of summarization was affected more by errors resulting from automatic transcription, than by the automatic summarization process.


There are national and international expectations for nurses to be role models in health promoting behaviour despite little existing research exploring or defining the concept within nursing theory. This study aimed to i) promote theoretical clarity for the concept of the nurses being role models in health promoting behaviour and ii) investigate student nurses, nurse educators and registered nurses' experiences and perceptions of the concept. A hybrid, concept analysis and development framework was developed for this study which involved a theoretical, fieldwork and final analytical phase. The theoretical phase of the study firstly involved analysis of multi-disciplinary literature to determine uses of the term 'role model' and secondly, analysis of nursing literature to identify antecedents, attributes and consequences to the concept of nurses as role models in health promoting behaviour. The fieldwork phase involved a qualitative study of six focus groups and one interview, which included participants from a range of NHS Trusts and independent organisations across London and South East England. Student nurses, nurse educators and registered nurses' (RNs) were recruited to capture opinions and experiences about being healthy role models from across the profession and to explore their understanding of what the concept actually means. Thematic analysis of qualitative data contributed to further identification of antecedents, attributes and consequences and identification of model, contrary, borderline and related cases. The final analytical phase involved integrating findings from fieldwork and theoretical phases and considering: i) the relevance of the concept, ii) if the selection of the concept seems justified, and iii) to what extent the theoretical and empirical analysis support the presence and frequency of the concept within the population under study The adapted hybrid framework developed for this study went beyond analysis of literature to provide the following definition: Being a role model in health promoting behaviour involves being an exemplar, portraying a healthy image (being fit and healthy), and championing health and wellness. Personal attributes of a role model in health promoting behaviour include being: caring, 8 non-judgemental, trustworthy, inspiring and motivating, self-caring, knowledgeable and self- confident, innovative, professional and having a deep sense of self. Thematic analysis of qualitative data provided insight into factors perceived to affect the ability or desire to act as healthy role models. Thus qualitative data highlighted perceived personal, educational, societal and organisational complexities surrounding the requirement to be role models. Many participants in this study were unaware of the NMC requirement to be role models in health promoting behaviour and did not understand what is meant by the concept. Although most participants perceived being a healthy role model as important to their role as a nurse many considered that working as a nurse did not support their own health and considered working environments unhealthy. Some participants disagreed with the requirement to be a healthy role model and many felt undervalued by their organisations, which they considered a barrier to being a healthy role model. If nurses continue to be expected to act as healthy role models, understanding of the complexities identified in this study can help inform nurses, nurse educators, health care organisations and policy makers to support the profession to meet that expectation.


The Asian Vegan Kitchen is a collection of recipes from across Asia, featuring the spices and the many tasty ingredients that have made these cuisines popular world-wide. It caters to the growing segment of people of all ages who have chosen to eschew animal products, yet still want to add some global spice and excitement to their diet. There is one big difference between this and many other vegan cookbooks. These dishes do not use replacement ingredients for traditional recipes. Instead, author Hema Parekh - a noted teacher of vegetarian cooking styles in Tokyo - has selected recipes that were traditionally vegetarian, and have been enjoyed by diners for decades, even centuries. In doing so, she has had to make only minor changes, if any, for these recipes to be deliciously appealing to everyone: vegan, vegetarian or otherwise. Over 200 dishes have been selected to cover a wide variety of tastes. Here readers will find vegan-ready recipes for everything from Japanss sushi to northern Indian curries, from Vietnamese spring rolls, to red-hot tofu, Chinese-style. Soups, noodle dishes and some desserts are also included. The recipes are simple, with detailed explanations. Also included are over 50 mouth-watering photos and a comprehensive glossary. Vegan cooking just became a lot more interesting. A long-time vegetarian, Hema Parekh has been teaching vegetarian cooking in Tokyo for almost twenty years. She has written two popular books on vegetarian cooking in Japanese A Touch of Spice and Indian Vegetarian Cooking and is working on a third. Parekh has lived in Japan for 27 years.


Purpose:  The purpose of this paper is to review the literature, for both theoretical foundations and empirical research, in order to establish relationships between the variables related to human factors and their impact on productivity. Design/methodology/approach:  The strategy employed corresponds to a descriptive non-experimental design, which is the establishment of three criteria for the literature review, in order to narrow down the topic to research works relating productivity with the human factor. This was investigated in databases and journals dealing with related topics, in addition to consulting doctoral theses and published books concerning the influence of human factors on productivity. About 250 papers which were considered the most relevant for the research were selected. Findings:   As a result of this exploration the classification of the factors in two dimensions that are manifested in people when they act in organizations was highlighted: the psychological and the psychosocial dimension. Human factors included in these dimensions are: individual factors (motivation, skills, job satisfaction, identification, commitment and involvement with the organization), group factors (participation, cohesion and management conflict) and organizational factors (organizational culture, organizational climate and leadership). All these factors have an impact on the productivity of the organization and are addressed in this research. Originality/value:  The selected variables were used to formulate a model that incorporates the human factors identified and considers the phenomenon in a comprehensive manner. It will be addressed through multivariate analysis, with the possible application of structural equations in order to assess the causal relationships that may exist between factors and productivity.


The integration of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) integrity augmentation functionalities in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) Sense-and-Avoid (SAA) architectures has the potential to provide an integrity-augmented SAA solution suitable for cooperative and non-cooperative scenarios. In this paper, we evaluate the opportunities offered by this integration, proposing a novel approach that maximizes the synergies between Avionics Based Integrity Augmentation (ABIA) and UAV cooperative/non-cooperative SAA architectures. In the proposed architecture, the risk of collision is evaluated by setting a threshold on the Probability Density Function (PDF) of a Near Mid-Air Collision (NMAC) event over the separation area in both cooperative and non-cooperative cases. When the specified thresholds are exceeded, an avoidance manoeuvre is performed by implementing a heading-based Differential Geometry (DG) or Pseudospectral (PS) optimization to generate a set of optimal trajectory solutions free of near mid-air conflicts. The selection of DG or PS is based on the time available to perform the avoidance maneuver as dictated by the relative dynamics of the host and intruder platforms. The trajectory is optimized by implementing a cost function with minimum time constraints and fuel penalty criteria weighted as a function of separation distance. The optimised avoidance trajectory also considers the constraints imposed by the ABIA in terms of UAV platform dynamics and GNSS constellation satellite elevation angles and thus prevents degradation or loss of navigation data during Track, Decide and Avoid (TDA) processes of a SAA loop. Therefore, real-time trajectory corrections are performed to re-establish the Required Navigation Performance (RNP) when actual GNSS accuracy degradations and/or data losses take place. The performance of this Integrity- Augmented SAA (IAS) architecture was evaluated by simulation case studies involving cooperative and non-cooperative scenarios. The selected host platform was the AEROSONDE UAV and the simulation cases were performed in a representative crosssection of the UAV operational flight envelope. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed IAS architecture is capable of performing high-integrity conflict detection and resolution when GNSS is considered as the primary source of navigation data.


Snakebite envenoming is a common but neglected public health problem, particularly in impoverished rural regions of sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and Latin America. The only validated treatment for this condition is passive immunotherapy with safe and effective animal-derived antivenoms. However, there is a long-lasting crisis in the availability of these life-saving medications, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Asia. We herein advocate a multicomponent strategy to substantially improve the availability of safe and effective antivenoms at the global level. This strategy is based on: (i) preparing validated collections of representative venom pools from the most medically dangerous snakes in high-risk regions of the world; (ii) strengthening the capacity of national antivenom manufacturing and quality control laboratories and their regulatory authorities and establishing new facilities in developing countries through technology transfer, as an integral part of efforts to develop their biological products industry; (iii) getting established laboratories to generate antivenoms for various regions of the world; and (iv) getting governments and relevant organizations to give snakebite envenoming due recognition within national and international public health policy frameworks. These ways of making antivenom available should be complemented by actions to improve health information systems, the accessibility of antivenoms, the training of medical and nursing staff, and community-based education. Such a multicomponent strategy involving stakeholders on many levels could help consolidate sustainable improvements in antivenom availability worldwide.


The first midsummer survey of surface-nesting seabirds at Prince Edward Island was conducted during December 2001. It was also the first census for most species since the early 1980s. Despite concerns about the impacts of longline fishing mortality on various albatrosses and giant petrels, there was no evidence that populations of these species had decreased. Indeed, the estimate of wandering albatrosses Diomedea exulans (Vulnerable) has increased significantly, making Prince Edward Island equal with Marion Island as supporting the largest single-island populations of this species. Species that underwent significant decreases were macaroni penguins Eudyptes chrysolophus (Vulnerable), Crozet shags Phalacrocorax [atriceps] melanogenis and Kerguelen terns Sterna virgata (Near-Threatened). The reasons for these decreases are unclear, but for macaroni penguins may be partly a consequence of competition for space with the burgeoning population of fur seals Arctocephalus spp. The 2001 survey increased the population estimates for Subantarctic skuas Catharacta antarctica, lightmantled sooty albatrosses Phoebetria palpebrata (Vulnerable) and southern giant petrels Macronectes giganteus (Vulnerable), mostly as a result of greater coverage than for previous counts. The 2001 survey confirms that Prince Edward Island remains a globally important breeding site for seabirds.


Background and objectives: Before any nutritional intervention, it is necessary to have the prospect of eating habits of people with cardiovascular risk factors. In this study, we assessed the adherence of healthy diet based on Mediterranean dietary pattern and related factors in adults in the north of Iran. Methods: This study was conducted on 550 men and women with cardiovascular risk factors that referred to Heshmat hospital in Rasht, northern Iran. Information was collected by interview and reading medical history and measuring anthropometric indexes. The Mediterranean Diet Adherence Screener was used for assessing dietary adherence, this screener was modified according to religious beliefs and culture of Iran. Results: The mean age of participants was 58±0.38 years. The mean of body mass index was 27±0.01 kg/m, and the mean of waist circumference was 98±0.2 cm. The mean of dietary adherence was 5.76±0.07. 45% of participants had low adherence, and just 4% had suitable adherence. The mean of dietary adherence in men was significantly higher than women (p=0. 07). Participants in rural area and high educational participants insignificantly had an unsuitable dietary Adherence. There was no significant association between some cardiovascular disease risk factors and dietary adherence. Conclusion: Education to different group about dietary intake correction and using a Mediterranean dietary pattern that is similar to dietary intake in the north of Iran, for controlling cardiovascular disease is necessary. Keywords—Dietary adherence, Mediterranean dietary pattern, cardiovascular disease, north of Iran.


The Pennsylvania Patient Safety Reporting System is a confidential, statewide Internet reporting system to which all Pennsylvania hospitals, outpatient-surgery facilities, birthing centers, and abortion facilities must file information on incidents and serious events.Safety Monitor is a column from Pennsylvania's Patient Safety Authority, the authority that informs nurses on issues that can affect patient safety and presents strategies they can easily integrate into practice. For more information on the authority, visit www.patientsafetyauthority.org. For the original article discussed in this column or for other articles on patient safety, click on "Patient Safety Advisories" and then "Advisory Library" in the left-hand navigation menu.


In the production of chocolate, only cocoa seeds are used, generating by-products that are generally discarded, increasing the risk of environmental contamination. Given fiber, carbohydrates, proteins, and flavonoid content the use of cacao pod husks can generate nutraceutical products for human consumption. In contrast, obesity represents a major public health problem worldwide. Cacao derivatives are able to modulate overweight and lipid disorders. The objective of present work was to prepare and characterize products using cacao by-products and analyze their effects on altered cardiometabolic risk markers in an obesity model induced by high fat diet and fructose ingestion in rats. The effects of a pellet and extracts made with outer pod husk and kernel husk for 5 weeks were analyzed in an obesity rat model. The treatments significantly decreased body weight by 39%, systolic blood pressure by 27%, triglycerides by 55%, total cholesterol by 24%, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol by 37%, and the triglycerides/high-density lipoprotein ratio by 54%. Cacao by-products improved the metabolic function of obese animals, without causing secondary effects.


In this paper we investigate the use of a digital holographic microscope, with partial spatial coherent illumination, for the automated detection and tracking of spermatozoa. This in vitro technique for the analysis of quantitative parameters is useful for assessment of semen quality. In fact, thanks to the capabilities of digital holography, the developed algorithm allows us to resolve in-focus amplitude and phase maps of the cells under study, independently of focal plane of the sample image. We have characterized cell motility on clinical samples of seminal fluid. In particular, anomalous sperm cells were characterized and the quantitative motility parameters were compared to those of normal sperm.


Low complexity realizations of Least Mean Squared (LMS) error, Generalized Sidelobe Cancellers (GSCs) applied to adaptive beamforming are considered. The GSC method provides a simple way for implementing adaptive Linear Constraint Minimum Variance (LCMV) beamformers. Low complexity realizations of adaptive GSCs are of great importance for the design of high sampling rate, and/or small size and low power adaptive beamforming systems. The LMS algorithm and its Transform Domain (TD-LMS) counterpart are considered for the adaptive processing task involved in the design of optimum GSC systems. Since all input signals are represented by complex variables, complex valued arithmetic is utilized for the realization of GSC algorithms, either on general purpose computers, or on dedicated VLSI ASICs. Using algorithmic strength reduction (SR) techniques, two novel algorithms are developed for efficient realizations of both LMS GSCs and TD-LMS GSC schemes. Both of the proposed algorithms are implemented using real valued arithmetic only, whilst reducing the number of multipliers by 25% and 20%, respectively. When VLSI implementation aspects are considered, both the proposed algorithms result in reduced power dissipation and silicon area realizations. The performance of the proposed realizations of the LMS based GSC methods is illustrated in the context of typical beamforming applications.


British colonial thinking was already well developed before the
Stamp Act crisis of 1765-6 and this work traces the evolution of such
thought from a period of relative neglect through a period of virtual
renaissance in the 1750s to the formation of the North Ministry. Based
upon both private and public opinion, the analysis concludes that the
vision of Empire developed by 1770 was, in essence, the mercantile
conceptualism which first encouraged the birth of Empire itself. Thus
the work illustrates the strong degree of continuity in British colonial thinking, while at the same time, it
provides a basis from which
to interpret later British responses to the final crisis of Empire.
Colonial theory did not exist in a political vacuum divorced from
action, expediency or interest. The successive agencies which aided an
awareness of colonial problems - the Board of Trade, the colonial
expert, the Seven Years War, the Canada-Guadeloupe debate and the
Stamp Act crisis are investigated in a series of interlinked chapters.
The advocates of all interests constantly justified their relative
positions through an appeal to history, precedent and preconception.
This prevented any real progress in British attitudes towards Empire.
Paradoxically, as British opinion became more concerned with the Empire
its vision had little to do with colonial actualities. In short, even
colonial expert opinion was illusory.


: Urban consumption patterns and lifestyles are increasingly important for the sustainability of cities today and in the future. However, considerations of consumption issues, social norms, behaviour and lifestyles within current urban sustainability research and practices are limited. Much untapped potential for the reduction of the environmental footprint of cities exists in combined production and consumption-based approaches, particularly in the "demand" areas of mobility, housing, food, and waste. To change unsustainable consumption and production patterns in cities, research needs to be transdisciplinary, actively involving stakeholders through co-creation processes. This paper builds on the premise that the perspectives and approaches of Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) for cities require the involvement of non-traditional stakeholders that are generally not included in urban planning processes such as social change initiatives, citizen groups and informal sector representatives. We present a transdisciplinary research and engagement framework to understand and advance the transition to sustainable SCP patterns and lifestyles in cities. This transdisciplinary approach to SCP transformations in cities combines co-creation, participatory visioning processes and back-casting methods, participatory urban governance and institutional change, and higher-order learning from small-scale community initiatives. We illustrate our conceptual framework through three empirical case studies in cities which take an integrative approach to lowering ecological footprints and carbon emissions.


In June 2012, the Canadian government ushered in sweeping reforms to Canada's refugee system. These reforms brought debates about Canadian refugee protection to the forefront of legal and political discourse. In advancing these reforms, the Canadian government has asserted that Canada's refugee system is among the most generous and compassionate in the world. Canada's doors, the Canadian government has stated, remain open to legitimate refugees. This report evaluates these claims by examining the U.S.-Canada Safe Third Country Agreement and border measures implemented under the rubric of the Multiple Borders Strategy, and analyzing their effects on asylum seekers. A detailed examination of these measures is necessary to evaluate the generosity of Canada's refugee system, and to accurately frame debates about Canadian refugee protection. This report concludes that through the Safe Third Country Agreement and the Multiple Borders Strategy, Canada is systematically closing its borders to asylum seekers, and circumventing its refugee protection obligations under domestic and international law. While Canada has a valid interest in regulating its borders to ensure refugee protection is reserved only for genuine refugees, neither the Safe Third Country Agreement nor the Multiple Borders Strategy effectively serve this interest. Instead, these measures deter, deflect, and block asylum seekers from lawfully making refugee claims in Canada in arbitrary and unprincipled ways, and do not effectively serve the goal of protecting the integrity of the Canada-U.S. border. Examining these measures, this report finds:1. Canada is systematically closing its borders to asylum seekers and avoiding its refugee protection obligations under domestic and international law; 2. Through the Safe Third Country Agreement, Canada jeopardizes asylum seekers' ability to obtain fundamental legal protections by returning them to the United States despite clear deficiencies in the U.S. asylum system; 3. The Safe Third Country Agreement has prompted a rise in human smuggling across the Canada-U.S. border, making the border more dangerous and disorderly, and raising security concerns for Canada and the United States.


We present a novel approach to automatically extracting summary excerpts from audio video and video. Our approach is to maximize the average similarity between the excerpt and the source. We first calculate a similarity matrix by comparing each pair of time samples using a quantitative similarity measure. To determine the segment with highest average similarity, we maximize the summation of the self-similarity matrix over the support of the segment. To select multiple excerpts while avoiding redundancy, we compute the non-negative matrix factorization (NMF) of the similarity matrix into its essential structural components. We then build a summary comprised of excerpts from the main components, selecting the excerpts for maximum average similarity within each component. Variations integrating segmentation and other information are also discussed, and experimental results are presented.


An abstract of the thesis of Alexander York Bigazzi for undergraduate honors in Civil Engineering presented June 10, 2009. Title: Carbon sponsoring: a new idea in personal carbon trading, direct carbon offset pledges for travel. Public and political consensus expresses the need for broad action to mitigate climate change. To this end, different forms of carbon trading exist to initiate carbon reduction projects. This thesis proposes the idea of carbon sponsoring, a new tool for personal carbon trading. Unlike carbon offsets, the main option for individuals wishing to mitigate their carbon footprint, carbon sponsoring is a purely social instrument involving carbon-reducing pledges. Carbon sponsoring is intended for individuals who seek immediate, direct carbon offsets for their personal emissions. It is not meant as a broad tool correcting the various deficiencies of the carbon trading markets, but a specialized mechanism with a small role in the struggle against climate change. As a demonstration project, an online implementation for carbon sponsoring of personal travel was crafted with the following objectives: 1. Increase awareness of size of carbon footprint from personal travel and activities 2. Increase awareness of personal carbon reduction strategies 3. Facilitate personal carbon reductions 4. Familiarize users with carbon trading A three-week initial study period of the new tool showed good results, with participants reporting increased awareness of person carbon footprints, carbon reduction strategies, and carbon trading. While the overall results were positive, the website created for this study has some deficiencies related to the visual design and ease of navigation. These shortcomings are not central to the idea of carbon sponsoring, and skilled web designers can rectify them as a next step. Carbon sponsoring sustains some of the problems of carbon offsetting, including insufficient quality control and lack of third-party verification of carbon reductions. Carbon sponsoring also offers new benefits and improvements in the areas of equity, user costs and co-benefits, and carbon reduction time accounting. Carbon sponsoring also accesses personal emissions reductions in a way that indirect, upstream methods cannot. This benefit, especially, secures carbon sponsoring a convincing role in broad mitigation efforts to address climate change. Carbon sponsoring might only lead to a small volume of carbon reductions with respect to the entirety of anthropogenic emissions, but it can provide important assistance in efforts to promote public awareness of carbon footprints, carbon reduction strategies, carbon budgeting, and carbon trading. CARBON SPONSORING: A NEW IDEA IN PERSONAL CARBON TRADING, DIRECT CARBON OFFSET PLEDGES FOR TRAVEL by ALEXANDER YORK BIGAZZI A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for UNDERGRADUATE HONORS in CIVIL ENGINEERING Portland State University 2009


An intense Bouguer gravity anomaly minimum extending across much of Wisconsin cannot be explained by the surface Phanerozoic sedimentary strata, the basement Precambrian geology, or the topography of the region. The most intense ({minus}100 mgal) part of the minimum coincides with the 1.47 Ga anorogenic granitic Wolf River batholith of northeastern Wisconsin. In southern Wisconsin, however, the densities of the Precambrian basement rocks, which are older than the batholith, provide no clue to the origin of the anomaly. The gradients of the minimum indicate that the source of the anomaly is in the upper crust. Furthermore, nearby deep seismic reflection data indicate that lower crustal structures do not significantly contribute to the gravity minimum. Thus, the minimum is appropriately interpreted as originating from the low-density Wolf River batholith that crops out only in northeastern Wisconsin but is buried beneath a veneer of older rocks in the southern and central parts of the state. Gravity modeling suggests that the batholith is at least 10 km thick and encompasses an area of {approximately}50,000 km{sup 2}. This interpretation provides an important clue to the origin of similar negative gravity anomalies of the Phanerozoic strata-covered craton. Also, the presence of this massive granitic bodymore » appears to have influenced the evolution of the craton - e.g., by controlling the location of the 1.1 Ga Midcontinent rift system and the Paleozoic Wisconsin arch. The fact that the Wolf River batholith is mostly buried suggests that central Wisconsin has been tectonically stable for the past 1.47 b.y. and that the Precambrian basement has been minimally eroded.« less


Neuromorphic spike event-based dynamic vision sensors (DVS) offer the possibility of fast, computationally efficient visual processing for navigation in mobile robotics. To extract motion parallax cues relating to 3D scene structure, the uninformative camera rotation must be removed from the visual input to allow the un-blurred features and informative relative optical flow to be analyzed. Here we describe the integration of an inertial measurement unit (IMU) with a 240×180 pixel DVS. The algorithm for electronic stabilization of the visual input against camera rotation is described. Examples are presented showing the stabilization performance of the system.


Objectives Online patient feedback is a growing phenomenon but little is known about health professional attitudes and behaviours in relation to it. We aimed to identify the characteristics, attitudes and self-reported behaviours and experiences of doctors and nurses towards online feedback from their patients or their carers. Methods We conducted a cross-sectional self-completed online questionnaire of 1001 registered doctors and 749 nurses and midwives involved in direct patient care in the United Kingdom. Results Just over a quarter (27.7% or 277/1001) of doctors and 21% (157/749) of nurses were aware that patients/carers had provided online feedback about an episode of care in which they were involved, and 20.5% (205/1001) of doctors and 11.1% (83/749) of nurses had experienced online feedback about them as an individual practitioner. Feedback on reviews/ratings sites was seen as more useful than social media feedback to help improve services. Both types of feedback were more likely to be seen as useful by nurses compared with doctors and by hospital-based professionals compared with those based in community settings. Doctors were more likely than nurses to believe that online feedback is unrepresentative and generally negative in tone. The majority of respondents had never encouraged patients/carers to leave online feedback. Conclusions Despite enthusiasm from health policymakers, many health care professionals have little direct experience of online feedback, and rarely encourage it, as they view it as unrepresentative and with limited value for improving the quality of health services. The difference in opinion between doctors and nurses has the potential to disrupt any use of online patient feedback. The findings have implications for policy and practice in how online patient feedback is solicited and acted upon.


Most fleas infest their host temporarily then pass to another of the same kind, while others move from one to a different host species. Although the comprehensive list of fleas reported from Iran, but there still exists considerable gap in our knowledge of zoonotic aspect of flea infestation. The present study was undertaken to determine correlation between domestic animals and man as host of fleas. Methods: The questionnaires on the base of flea infestation of animals flock and animal care- man were prepared and distributed to veterinary stations of all provinces. A total of 553 questionnaires sheets and 168 flea samples were collected from sixteen provinces. Results: One hundred fifty six specimens of Pulex irritans were collected from sheep, goats, cattle, chicken and human, which consisted of 92.8% of all recovered fleas. Chickens infested by three species of fleas including Pulex irritans (84.6%), Ctenocephalides canis (12.9%) and Ceratophilus gallinae (2.5%). Two hundred and eighty nine cases of animal and 244 cases of human infestation were recorded among the suspicious populations, the most prevalence of infestation was found in sheep and goat herds whilst chicken flocks infested with the lowest rate and cattle were infested moderately. The major health problem was occurred in farmers, animal care-men and their relatives. The observations showed they had different skin reactions to flea's bites. Conclusion: The results showed that fleas are approximately a widespread parasite of farm animals and it seems that they may play an important role in occurring of zoonotic infestation in Iran.


This paper examines the relationship between age-related cognitive decline and three potential workplace outcomes: 1) coping with increased job difficulty; 2) shifting to a less cognitively demanding job; and 3) retiring early. It uses data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) and the O*NET database. Critical components of the analysis are the metric used to measure cognitive decline, inclusion of cognitive reserve as an independent variable, and the use of overlapping 10-year observation windows. A key limitation is that the study cannot conclusively discern a causal relationship between cognitive decline and workforce exit. The paper found that: - About 10 percent of workers between the ages of 55 and 69 experienced steep cognitive decline over a 10-year period. - Workers experiencing steep cognitive decline were more likely to "downshift" to a less demanding job or retire than workers experiencing no cognitive decline. - Workers experiencing steep cognitive decline retired significantly earlier than planned, compared to workers who experienced no change in cognitive ability. - Workers without cognitive reserves were more likely to exit the workforce and retire earlier than planned, compared to workers with cognitive reserves. The policy implications of the findings are: - Cognitive decline might prevent a significant minority of older individuals from working to their planned retirement ages, and thus should be considered when assessing reforms that incent delayed retirement. - Policies that support "downshifting" to a cognitively less demanding job might help workers at risk of steep cognitive decline to remain in the labor force. - Further research is needed to identify whether workers in specific occupations are more susceptible to age-related decline than others, and whether anything can be done to moderate the effect of age-related decline in work ability.


This essay reviews Hilton Als' 2019 exhibition God Made My Face: A
 Collective Portrait of James Baldwin at the David Zwirner Gallery.
 The show visually displays Baldwin in two parts: "A Walker in the
 City" examines his biography and "Colonialism" examines
 "what Baldwin himself was unable to do" by displaying the work of
 contemporary artists and filmmakers whose works resonate with Baldwin's
 critiques of masculinity, race, and American empire. Mirakhor explores how
 Als' quest to restore Baldwin is part of a long and deep literary and
 personal conversation that Als has been having since he was in his teens, and in
 this instance, exploring why and how it has culminated via the visual, instead
 of the literary. As Mirakhor observes, to be in the exhibit is not to just
 observe how Als has formed and figured Baldwin, but to see how Baldwin has
 informed and made Als, one of our most lyrical and impassioned contemporary
 writers and thinkers.


This paper is summary of our Ph.D. thesis, a work that proposes an analysis on the player-game system relationship through the perspective of an action-oriented framework. This framework is centred on the existence of actors, which are the entities through which action is enacted in the game, and in which the player and the game system are a part of. The grounding principles of this framework are seeded on a transition of action into experience, based on communicational systems that structure the dynamic formation of networks of actors from which distinct behaviours emerge, which, in their turn, promote the enactment of diverse sequences of events establishing narrative, which is a source of experience of the player. Chronology, responsiveness, thinking and actuation, transcoding, focus, depth, and traversal are the 7 dimensions we unveiled by focusing on the relationship of the player-game system pair through the lens of this action-oriented framework, a framework that, despite seeing both as actors, is able to consider their distinct natures and roles. We do not consider this work to be an ultimate theory of action. Above all, it is a proposal that video games can be regarded as action-based artefacts, a call to awareness for game designers that when designing for action they are working with the fundaments on which video games are built upon.


Abstract By claiming that "just war is just war," critics suggest that just war theory both distracts from and sanitizes the horror of modern warfare by dressing it up in the language of moral principles. However, the phrase can also be taken as a reminder of why we need just war theory in the first place. It is precisely because just war is just war, with all that this implies, that we must think so carefully and so judiciously about it. Of course, one could argue that the rump of just war scholarship over the past decade has been characterized by disinterest regarding the material realities of warfare. But is this still the case? This essay examines a series of benchmark books on the ethics of war published over the past year. All three exemplify an effort to grapple with the hard facts of modern violent conflict, and they all skillfully bring diverse traditions of just war thinking into conversation with one another.


In this study we investigate the physics of a relativistic radiating star undergoing dissipative collapse in the form of a radial heat flux. Our treatment clearly demonstrates how the presence of shear affects the collapse process; we are in a position to contrast the physical features of the collapsing sphere in the presence of shear with the shear-free case. We first consider a particular exact solution found by Thirukkanesh et al [1] which is expanding, accelerating and shearing. By employing a causal heat transport equation of the Maxwell-Cattaneo form we show that the shear leads to an enhancement of the core stellar temperature thus emphasizing that relaxational effects cannot be ignored when the star leaves hydrostatic equilibrium. We also employ a perturbative scheme to study the evolution of a spherically symmetric stellar body undergoing gravitational collapse. The Bowers and Liang [2] static model is perturbed, and its subsequent dynamical collapse is studied in the linear perturbative regime. We find that anisotropic effects brought about by the differences in the radial and tangential pressures enhance the perturbations to the temperature, and that causal and non–causal cases yield identical profiles.


This paper provides insight into the effects of cross-border infrastructure and logical interconnections in Africa on both intra-country and cross-border latency on end-to-end Internet paths, by comparing Internet performance measurements between different countries. We collected ICMP pings between countries using Speedchecker and applied a community detection algorithm to group countries based on round trip times (RTTs) between countries. We observed three main latency clusters: East and Southern Africa; North Africa; and West and Central Africa. An interesting observation is that these clusters largely correspond to countries that share the same official languages or past colonial history. The cluster in Eastern and Southern Africa is the most strongly clustered: these countries have the lowest inter-country latency values. We also found that some countries have a much higher intra-country latency than expected, pointing to the lack of local peering or physical infrastructure within the country itself. This finding underscores the importance of physical networking infrastructure deployment and inter-network relationships at a country and regional level.


In this paper we consider the problem of computing an $\epsilon$-optimal policy of a discounted Markov Decision Process (DMDP) provided we can only access its transition function through a generative sampling model that given any state-action pair samples from the transition function in $O(1)$ time. Given such a DMDP with states $\states$, actions $\actions$, discount factor $\gamma\in(0,1)$, and rewards in range $[0, 1]$ we provide an algorithm which computes an $\epsilon$-optimal policy with probability $1 - \delta$ where {\it both} the run time spent and number of sample taken is upper bounded by \[ O\left[\frac{|\cS||\cA|}{(1-\gamma)^3 \epsilon^2} \log \left(\frac{|\cS||\cA|}{(1-\gamma)\delta \epsilon} \right) \log\left(\frac{1}{(1-\gamma)\epsilon}\right)\right] ~. \] For fixed values of $\epsilon$, this improves upon the previous best known bounds by a factor of $(1 - \gamma)^{-1}$ and matches the sample complexity lower bounds proved in \cite{azar2013minimax} up to logarithmic factors. We also extend our method to computing $\epsilon$-optimal policies for finite-horizon MDP with a generative model and provide a nearly matching sample complexity lower bound.


In an age that has become interested in urban issues at the planetary scale, it is advantageous for architectural design research to bridge the micro, meso and macro scales of the built environment. This article addresses the macro by comparing metrics of global urbanization, and then outlines the disparities between 'the urban condition(s)' found in North and South America. A more nuanced description of the uneven conditions of geographical development found in formal and informal constructions in Latin America sheds light on the context of this study, which sets the stage for a presentation of research that investigates several socially disjointed environments that represent the spatiotemporal conditions present in much of the contemporary Latin American urban landscape. This work has involved the participation of undergraduate students, graduate architecture students and faculty at Universidad Piloto de Colombia. The design research addresses the conditions of the emergent conditions of Latin American cities through participatory action research. Aspects of this research have been introduced into a design research studio setting where students have mapped the urban conditions and levels of forced displacement. Over the past 4 years, a network of private and public institutions and a NGO have worked with a vulnerable community located at the southern periphery of Bogota, Colombia to articulate alternative visions for future development than what has been scripted by the local planning department. The physical transformation of several strategic points of their neighborhood has begun through processes of 'autoconstruccion'. This paper outlines these processes and the observed impact that the transformation of the built environment has fostered in the community.


The Convention on diversity of cultural expressions (CDCE), adopted by UNESCO in 2005, became a main mechanism within the multilayered global governance of cultural industries, establishing new practices regarding the cultural sector. My article encourages an original view on norm diffusion and implementation focusing on two regions: Mercosur (Southern Common Market) and ASEAN (Association of the Southeast Asian Nations). Through the analysis of the CDCE's transfer from international level to Mercosur and ASEAN regions, my article seeks to explore four key questions: why do actors engage in norm transfer? Who are the key actors involved in the norm transfer process? What is transferred and why? What restricts or facilitates the norm transfer process? Key-words: norm diffusion, regions, Mercosur, ASEAN, UNESCO, non-governmental organisations, cultural industries, cultural diversity.


The initial matching relationships between underwriters and bonds/issuing firms and the certification quality of underwriters, as determined by changes in the issuing firm's financial strength post issue, are the two primary research topics in this dissertation. Based on total underwriter syndicate market share, two distinct categories, low market power (LMP) syndicates and high market power (HMP) syndicates were defined. Firm financial strength is examined based on a new factor developed in this research. A comparison of the two underwriting categories, or pools, indicates that the HMP underwriters take on firms of lower initial financial strength and additionally, the issuing firms decline more in financial strength two years following bond issuance than do firms using LMP underwriters. Notwithstanding these results, the more interesting findings are the relationships within each of these pools. In the LMP pool of underwriters, financially stronger firms used the larger LMPs to underwrite their bonds, while the weaker firms used smaller LMPs. In contrast, among HMP underwriters, the largest HMPs aligned with the firms of relatively lower financial strength. The relationships in both pools reverse when changes in financial strength are examined. Larger LMPs are associated with greater issuing firm financial decline while larger HMPs correlate with lower levels of decline in firm financial strength. Divergent patterns in initial underwriter-issuer matching and underwriter certification found in this research indicate that there are true differences in the "small" underwriting syndicates as compared to the larger syndicates. These patterns should be considered by both issuing firms and investors as both constituencies contemplate the corporate bond market.


Abstract The spatial relationship between different rock types and relevant structural features is an important aspect in the characterization of ore-forming systems. Our knowledge about this geological architecture is often captured in 3D structural geological models. Multiple methods exist to generate these models, but one important problem remains: structural models often contain significant uncertainties. In recent years, several approaches have been developed to consider uncertainties in geological prior parameters that are used to create these models through the use of stochastic simulation methods. However, a disadvantage of these methods is that there is no guarantee that each simulated model is geologically reasonable – and that it forms a valid representation in the light of additional data (e.g. geophysical measurements). We address these shortcomings here with an approach for the integration of structural geological and geophysical data into a framework that explicitly considers model uncertainties. We combine existing implicit structural modelling methods with novel developments in probabilistic programming in a Bayesian framework. In an application of these concepts to a gold-bearing greenstone belt in Western Australia, we show that we are able to significantly reduce uncertainties in the final model by additional data integration. Although the final question always remains whether a predicted model suite is a suitable representation of accuracy or not, we conclude that our application of a Bayesian framework provides a novel quantitative approach to addressing uncertainty and optimization of model parameters.


Volumes of George Cruikshank's Scraps and Sketches, a publication of miscellaneous images vaguely intended to be cut and pasted in home-made albums and scrapbooks; a catalogue of the 1857 Manchester Art Treasures Exhibition customised by the doodles and marginalia of its owner and her friends; a job-lot of nineteenth-century illustrated children's publications, in which the magic lantern show is miniaturized into the format of the book – the objects featured in the lead articles of this issue of 19 evoke the contents of a house sale more than a scholarly journal. Akin to the type of material described by Walter Benjamin as 'booklike creations from fringe areas', they don't add up to any of the cohesive themes featured in previous issues, such as history, literature, or sentimentality. They have been, however, 'salvaged' by collectors and thus given a chance to 'renew the old world'. The essays and reviews in this issue have been selected or developed from papers and workshops given at the conference The Verbal and the Visual in Nineteenth-Century Culture (23-24 June 2006) organised by the Birkbeck Centre for Nineteenth-Century Studies. Given the wealth of papers on far more canonical literary and visual practices featured at that conference, our selection might seem perverse in its insistence on odds and ends...


A great variety of optical instruments has been developed for use in biology. The microscope and its many special types are part of them. In this article, a survey is given of the history, development, current status, and future outlook of general microscopy, microspectroscopy, interference microscopy, and electron and x-ray microscopy.


This thesis/exegesis and practical project component focuses on the impact and development of key aspects of cultural production that changed the making, viewing and textual reading of art. It explores the context and the legacy of two significant artistic innovations. Firstly, Marcel Duchamp's introduction of the "readymades" as objects taken from the "everyday" environment and redefined as "art". Secondly, Pop art is investigated in relation to the movement's embrace of commodity and consumerism. Combined, these related movements not only dismantled notions of what art might be but also served as precursors to the complex and overarching concepts of "Postmodernism" and "Post-Postmodernism".

Recent developments in art, popular media, technology, design and critical theory are analysed to demonstrate the continued relevance and legacy of the readymades and Pop art. Drawing from the work of Nicholas Bourriaud, in particular, this exegesis foregrounds the cultural influence of design and how it continues to shape contemporary art and its impact upon my own visual arts practice.

The use of objects from the everyday are, by their very nature, manufactured and designed, thus embedded within commodity culture. Artists like myself who utilise these products are fusing elements popularised by the readymades and Pop art to re-create the materials into aesthetic and thematic objects and installations. These generative artworks implicitly interpret the fabricated world in which we live.

The project component consists of two solo exhibitions, Kaleidoscope (2009) and Zakka♥ (2012), and the duo showing (with artist Dawn Gamblen) of Plasticity (2010) which then developed into Synthetic (2011). Each exhibition explored ideas related to Pop art and the readymade by manipulating everyday items such as paper
and plastic objects. The works have a "zakka" (Japanese for "many things") aesthetic which emphasises the everyday through the use of products to create wall works, site-specific and sculptural installations. These pieces demonstrate zakka — the beauty and significance of the manufactured — together with the relational dynamics of collaboration and the context of architectural space. Each exhibition utilised product multiples, echoing the manufactured and utilitarian nature of consumer goods as media for art-making. Collectively, the works of the artists I investigate in this thesis, alongside my own production component, can be considered "ZakkaART" — art that remixes industrial culture and its influences.


"Why can't a man be more like a woman?" seems to be the catchcry of modern management gurus. They claim to be revaluing feminine "soft" skills as qualities necessary for corporate success. This book looks behind the rhetoric and investigates the gender relations of senior management in a post-equal opportunities world. The proportion of women managers has risen dramatically in the last twenty years, yet there are still very few women "getting to the top". Based on a major study of five multinational corporations with model equality policies, this book takes a critical look at women's and men's experience in a changing corporate climate. Wajcman brings to bear feminist theories on equality and difference in employment, together with organisational analysis, in her assessment of whether women really do bring a distinct feminine style of management to tomorrow's organisations. The main focus is on the process of masculine organizational culture that sexualizes women and excludes them from senior management. But how comfortable are men with the masculinity of management? This book presents fascinating material on the private lives of managers and looks at the interconnections between home and work for men as well as women. The author reveals how relations between the sexes are negotiated in the corridors of power and at the kitchen sink. The book will be of interest to undergraduates, postgraduates and academics in the fields of sociology, gender studies and management.


In this report, we describe a previously unidentified component in the murine Ia antigen complex. SDS-PAGE analysis of anti-Ia immunoprecipitates prepared from spleen cells biosynthetically labeled with 35S-sulfate showed no detectable incorporation of 35SO4 into alpha, beta, or Ii chains but did not reveal the presence of a novel sulfate-bearing molecule of considerable molecular weight heterogeneity (46-69-kdaltons). The 46-69-kdalton molecule could be precipitated with monoclonal antibodies specific for I-A, I-E, and Ii glycoproteins but was not seen in control precipitates, nor in association with IgG or class I MHC molecules. Preliminary biochemical characterization indicated that the 46-69-kdalton product is extremely polydisperse, both in charge and apparent molecular weight, is sensitive to proteases, and bears the sulfate moiety on a large pronase-resistant structure. These results suggested this component might be a proteoglycan. Definitive identification of this component as a proteoglycan was accomplished by selective enzymatic degradation experiments which showed that the sulfate-bearing component of the 46- 69-kdalton molecule is chondroitin 6-sulfate.


Given the importance of resident in ensuring sustainability in tourism destinations, the purpose of the current study is to evaluate the residents' opinions about the sustainability of tourism in Selimiye Village, where there are intense tourism activities. To this end, the answers to the questions "What are the residents' opinions about the sustainability of tourism activities in Selimiye Village?" and "Do the residents think that tourism activities in Selimiye Village are sustainable?" were sought in the current study. Located within the borders of Datca-Bozburun Special Protection Area, Selimiye Village is a coastal village in southwest Anatolia. As a result of the developing access to the village on land, the village has experienced a fast growth in the last two decades. In the current study, data were collected through the face-to-face in-depth interview technique using a semi-structured interview form. As a result of the descriptive analysis of the residents' opinions, it was concluded that unless the necessary precautions are taken, the tourism in Seimiye Village cannot go on in a sustainable manner. Keywords: Sustainable Tourism, Residents, Local People, Selimiye Village, Marmaris, Turkey


Electro-active switchable ultrafiltration membranes are of great interest due to the possibility of external control over permeability, selectivity, anti-fouling and cleaning. Here, we report on hybrid single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT)-polyaniline (PANi) nanofibers synthesized by in situ polymerization of aniline in the presence of oxidized SWCNTs. The composite nanofibers exhibit unique morphology of core-shell (SWCNT-PANi) structures with average total diameters of 60 nm with 10 to 30 nm thick PANi coatings. The composite nanofibers are easily dispersed in polar aprotic solvents and cast into asymmetric membranes via a nonsolvent induced phase separation. The hybrid SWCNT-PANi membranes are electrically conductive at neutral pH and exhibit ultrafiltration-like permeability and selectivity when filtering aqueous suspensions of 6 nm diameter bovine serum albumin and 48 nm diameter silica particles. A novel flash welding technique is utilized to tune the morphology, porosity, conductivity, permeability and nanoparticle rejection of the SWCNT-PANi composite ultrafiltration membranes. Upon flash welding, both conductivity and pure water permeability of the membranes improves by nearly a factor of 10, while maintaining silica nanoparticle rejection levels above 90%. Flash welding of SWCNT-PANi composite membranes holds promise for formation of electrochemically tunable membranes.


Partial Discharge (PD) measurement is a new approach to find out insulation condition in power cables.Partial discharge (PD) inception test using conventional techniques covered in IEC 60270 and perform on the newly produced Cross linked poly ethylene XLPE cable. This test carried in PD lab Faraday cage where outer noise and electromagnetic fields not disturbed for testing fundamental condition. In PD testing main resonance reactor or HV transformer (LVDT) required for applying high voltage on cable, coupling capacitor, blocking capacitor with inductor for filtering harmonics.


Abstract. It is demonstrated that the statistical mechanical partition function can be used to construct various different forms of phase space distributions. This indicates that its structure is not restricted to the Gibbs–Boltzmann factor prescription which is based on counting statistics. With the widely used replacement of the Boltzmann factor by a generalised Lorentzian (also known as the q-deformed exponential function, where κ = 1∕|q − 1|, with κ, q ∈ R) both the kappa-Bose and kappa-Fermi partition functions are obtained in quite a straightforward way, from which the conventional Bose and Fermi distributions follow for κ → ∞. For κ ≠ ∞ these are subject to the restrictions that they can be used only at temperatures far from zero. They thus, as shown earlier, have little value for quantum physics. This is reasonable, because physical κ systems imply strong correlations which are absent at zero temperature where apart from stochastics all dynamical interactions are frozen. In the classical large temperature limit one obtains physically reasonable κ distributions which depend on energy respectively momentum as well as on chemical potential. Looking for other functional dependencies, we examine Bessel functions whether they can be used for obtaining valid distributions. Again and for the same reason, no Fermi and Bose distributions exist in the low temperature limit. However, a classical Bessel–Boltzmann distribution can be constructed which is a Bessel-modified Lorentzian distribution. Whether it makes any physical sense remains an open question. This is not investigated here. The choice of Bessel functions is motivated solely by their convergence properties and not by reference to any physical demands. This result suggests that the Gibbs–Boltzmann partition function is fundamental not only to Gibbs–Boltzmann but also to a large class of generalised Lorentzian distributions as well as to the corresponding nonextensive statistical mechanics.


In this paper we discuss the notions of hypertext, blog, wiki and cognitive mapping in order to find a solution to the main problems of processing text data stored in these forms. We propose the structure and architecture of Novelle as a new environment to compose texts. Its flexible model allows the collaboration for contents and a detailed description of ownership. Data are stored in a XML repository, so as to use the capabilities of this language. To develop quickly and efficiently we choose AJAX technology over the Ruby on Rails framework.


There is growing interest in policies, programs and tariffs that encourage customer loads to provide demand response (DR) to help discipline wholesale electricity markets. Proposals at the retail level range from eliminating fixed rate tariffs as the default service for some or all customer groups to reinstituting utility-sponsored load management programs with market-based inducements to curtail. Alternative rate designs include time-of-use (TOU), day-ahead real-time pricing (RTP), critical peak pricing, and even pricing usage at real-time market balancing prices. Some Independent System Operators (ISOs) have implemented their own DR programs whereby load curtailment capabilities are treated as a system resource and are paid an equivalent value. The resulting load reductions from these tariffs and programs provide a variety of benefits, including limiting the ability of suppliers to increase spot and long-term market-clearing prices above competitive levels (Neenan et al., 2002; Boren stein, 2002; Ruff, 2002). Unfortunately, there is little information in the public domain to characterize and quantify how customers actually respond to these alternative dynamic pricing schemes. A few empirical studies of large customer RTP response have shown modest results for most customers, with a few very price-responsive customers providing most of the aggregate response (Herriges et al., 1993; Schwarz et al., 2002). However, these studies examined response to voluntary, two-part RTP programs implemented by utilities in states without retail competition.1 Furthermore, the researchers had limited information on customer characteristics so they were unable to identify the drivers to price response. In the absence of a compelling characterization of why customers join RTP programs and how they respond to prices, many initiatives to modernize retail electricity rates seem to be stymied.


Survivability is by no means a new concept to ocean engineering; ships must remain stable and structurally intact in violent sea states; the same is true for offshore oil and gas structures. While knowledge from the ship and offshore sectors can be valuable for designing wave energy converters (WECs) for survival in rough seas, the unique scale, siting and operational characteristics of WECs pose a distinct set of engineering challenges. This paper seeks to provide a review of methods for modeling the loading and dynamic response of WECs and analogue marine structures, such as ships and offshore structures, in large nonlinear waves. We identify current knowledge gaps in our understanding of WEC survivability and provide recommendations for future research to close these gaps.


We report on a novel and simple light source for short-wavelength two-photon excitation fluorescence microscopy based on the visible nonsolitonic radiation from a photonic crystal fiber. We demonstrate tunability of the light source by varying the wavelength and intensity of the Ti:Sapphire excitation light source. The visible nonsolitonic radiation is used as an excitation light source for two-photon fluorescence microscopy of tryptophan powder.


This paper attempts to derive predictions of consumer behaviour from nonlinear dynamics and local rule theory. In particular, a model that was originally formulated to predict performance in the stock market was applied to anticipate the effects of price changes to car parking behaviour. The degree of crowd influence and fundamental bias were designated as the key determinants of consumer responses. The results revealed that small price changes to parking fees created a transient pattern of unstable behaviour. Ultimately, parking behaviour returned to the baseline pattern but at a different level. These findings could be readily accommodated by, and generally predicted from, the tenets of complexity theory.


Boolean functions in Answer Set Programming have proven a useful modelling tool. They are usually specified by means of aggregates or external atoms. A crucial step in computing answer sets for logic programs containing Boolean functions is verifying whether partial interpretations satisfy a Boolean function for all possible values of its undefined atoms. In this paper, we develop a new methodology for showing when such checks can be done in deterministic polynomial time. This provides a unifying view on all currently known polynomial-time decidability results, and furthermore identifies promising new classes that go well beyond the state of the art. Our main technique consists of using an ordering on the atoms to significantly reduce the necessary number of model checks. For many standard aggregates, we show how this ordering can be automatically obtained.


Most work on supply chain design begins with cost, delivery time, quality and efficiency and frequently ignores the human factor interacting with that decision. In this study we explore the relative importance of various supply chain product components to reveal the decision-making trade-off that occurs when buyers select an outsourced service provider . Our research approach overcomes many of the limitations seen in prior studies that rely on simple rankings by survey respondents by identifying directly the customer's utility for different service provider attributes. The results confirm the importance of various performance-level attributes and point us towards a new set of higher order capabilities based on professionalism and proactive innovation.


Early failure in peer relations is widely recognized as predictive of maladjustment, and numerous studies have identified social skill deficits as an important factor contributing to difficulties with peers. The present study examined the social behavioural correlates of children (9-11 years old) at risk in peer relations, identified as extreme on the aggression and/or withdrawal factors of the Pupil Evaluation Inventory (PEI; Pekarik et al., 1976). Playground observations revealed social entry profiles (Study 1) for the peer-identified Aggressive group and the Withdrawn group consistent with the groups' extreme ratings on global PEI factors. Withdrawn boys and girls initiated interaction at a relatively low rate, exhibited the least aversive social entry style, and were comparable to an "average" Contrast group on a measure of peer likeability. Aggressive boys and girls exhibited elevated rates of aggressive and inappropriate social entry, but only Aggressive girls were significantly different from the Contrast group in this respect. Aggressive boys were more successful in peer relations than Aggressive girls, possibly due to the degree to which girls' aggression is inconsistent with same-sex normative playground behaviour. In contrast, Aggressive-withdrawn boys and girls exhibited a social entry profile that was not significantly different from Contrast peers, and which failed to account for the group's significantly lower likeability scores. Analysis of peer nominations on individual items of the PEI (Study 2) provided additional information on the Aggressive and Withdrawn groups, and revealed a distinct social profile for the Aggressive-withdrawn children. The PEI item profiles for Withdrawn children were consistent with the observational findings and provided evidence of the self-isolated nature of the group. While aggressive threats were characteristic of Aggressive boys and girls, the Aggressive boys' profile also revealed several "competent" modes of seeking attention which may further account for their success with peers relative to Aggressive girls. Finally, Aggressive-withdrawn boys and girls were clearly characterized by PEI items reflecting immaturity, disruptiveness, and emotional lability, suggesting that low likeability and rejection may follow from the degree to which Aggressive-withdrawn children interfere with group activities. Social behavioural profiles are discussed with respect to the relative risk status of the groups, implications for intervention, and the degree of correspondence between sociometrically and behaviourally defined risk classifications.


Abstract. We use secondary organic aerosol (SOA) production data from an ensemble of unburned fuels measured in a smog chamber to test various SOA formation models. The evaluation considered data from 11 different fuels including gasoline, multiple diesels, and various jet fuels. The fuels are complex mixtures of species; they span a wide range of volatility and molecular structure to provide a challenging test for the SOA models. We evaluated three different versions of the SOA model used in the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model. The simplest and most widely used version of that model only accounts for the volatile species (species with less than or equal to 12 carbons) in the fuels. It had very little skill in predicting the observed SOA formation (R2 = 0.04, fractional error = 108%). Incorporating all of the lower-volatility fuel species (species with more than 12 carbons) into the standard CMAQ SOA model did not improve model performance significantly. Both versions of the CMAQ SOA model over-predicted SOA formation from a synthetic jet fuel and under-predicted SOA formation from diesels because of an overly simplistic representation of the SOA formation from alkanes that did not account for the effects of molecular size and structure. An extended version of the CMAQ SOA model that accounted for all organics and the influence of molecular size and structure of alkanes reproduced the experimental data. This underscores the importance of accounting for all low-volatility organics and information on alkane molecular size and structure in SOA models. We also investigated fitting an SOA model based solely on the volatility of the precursor mixture to the experimental data. This model could describe the observed SOA formation with relatively few free parameters, demonstrating the importance of precursor volatility for SOA formation. The exceptions were exotic fuels such as synthetic jet fuel that expose the central assumption of the volatility-dependent model that most emissions consist of complex mixtures with similar distribution of molecular classes. Despite its shortcomings, SOA formation as a function of volatility may be sufficient for modeling SOA formation in chemical transport models.


The detection and characterization of rare circulating tumor cells (CTCs) from the blood of cancer patients can potentially provide critical insights into tumor biology and hold great promise for cancer management. The ability to collect a large number of viable CTCs for various downstream assays such as quantitative measurements of specific biomarkers or targeted somatic mutation analysis is increasingly important in medical oncology. Here, we present a simple yet reliable microfluidic device for the ultra-high-throughput, label-free, size-based isolation of CTCs from clinically relevant blood volumes. The fast processing time of the technique (7.5 mL blood in less than 10 min) and the ability to collect more CTCs from larger blood volumes lends itself to a broad range of potential genomic and transcriptomic applications. A critical advantage of this protocol is the ability to return all fractions of blood (i.e., plasma (centrifugation), CTCs and white blood cells (WBCs) (size-based sorting)) that can be utilized for diverse biomarker studies or time-sensitive molecular assays such as RT-PCR. The clinical use of this biochip was demonstrated by detecting CTCs from 100% (10/10) of blood samples collected from patients with advanced-stage metastatic breast and lung cancers. The CTC recovery rate ranged from 20 to 135 CTCs mL(-1) and obtained under high purity (of 1 CTC out of every 30-100 WBCs which gives ∼4 log depletion of WBCs). They were identified with immunofluorescence assays (pan-cytokeratin+/CD45-) and molecular probes such as HER2/neu.


This paper analyzes the effect of including a spatial component in models that predict monthly county-level unemployment in Missouri. The initial analysis seeks to explore the general spatial structure of unemployment using spatial covariance measures, correlation statistics, and Moran's I, which is the most commonly used measure of spatial association. The effects of counties being similar in nature are also considered. Following these analyses, regression models are estimated that predict monthly unemployment for counties using both spatial and non-spatial, both fitting separate models for each county and model that constrain parameters to be similar across counties. In addition to investigating the importance of spatial ties, models that investigate the extent to which similarities in industry or related characteristics can be used in models. Finally, the accuracy of out-of-sample forecasts is examined for both spatial and nonspatial models. It is found that while evidence of a spatial component does appear in the results, its ability to contribute to statistical modeling or forecasting accuracy is mixed.