Abstract:In spite of their informal and substandard nature, Chinese urban villages are actually part of the infrastructure that institutionalizes and normalizes China's uneven development by providing cheap dormitory-style accommodations to the country's vast army of unskilled rural migrants who flock to cities as precarious laborers. This extended photo essay uses an urban village renewal project in the southern city Guangzhou to analyze the politics of eviction, demolition, resistance, and gentrification in light of the region's shift from low-value to high-tech industries. When urban villagers appropriated ideas of tradition, lineage, and socialist collectivism to fight against the government and the developer, their purpose was to acquire greater compensation and even symbolic capital in order to secure an urban middle-class future for themselves. In the process, however, they have further foreclosed the futures of many rural migrants whose survival in the city rely on cheap accommodation in these slum-like enclaves, even though survival in this context often implies dull and dead-end jobs with little prospect of social mobility. Drawing on the author's visual project called Where There Is No Room for Fiction, the selected photographs here provide a visual ethnographic account of the contested landscape of an urban village under siege. As well, these images explore the possibility of a critical aesthetics in order to engage the official vision of urban modernity that is saturated with spectacle and speculation.


Structured-light 3D sensors are widely used in reverse engineering, medical imaging and digital archive. Especially, structured-light methods adopting binary patterns are good for reconstructing accurate 3D structures of static objects so that many scanners in the market are using binary patterns. However, when image noise and inter-reflection on the surface occur, it can be failed to estimate correct binary codes only which can be utilized to calculate precise 3D structures. In this paper, we propose a novel filtering algorithm that can eliminate miss-estimated binary codes caused by noise and inter-reflection. The experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.


Jim Nelson runs Camp Joy Gardens, a sunny, redwood-ringed 4.5-acre farm in Santa Cruz County's San Lorenzo Valley. One of the Santa Cruz area's first farms to shun chemical pesticides and fertilizers, Camp Joy was inspired by the example of Nelson's mentor, Alan Chadwick. Employing biodynamic principles, the farm grows a bountiful harvest of fruits, vegetables, flowers, and other products using home-grown hay mulch, cover crops, fertilizer from on-farm goats and chickens, and other organic inputs. A community supported agriculture program distributes weekly produce baskets to twenty-five local families. As a non-profit educational organization, Camp Joy offers tours and programs for local schools, presents workshops for adults, and hosts apprentices from all over the world. Locals flock to the annual spring plant sale and fall open house to wander the colorful orchards and gardens and to buy seedlings, fresh bouquets, dried wreaths, honey, jams, candles, and other farm products. Nelson was an early protege of Alan Chadwick at the UCSC Garden, where he met his first wife, Beth Benjamin. After leaving the Garden, the couple briefly experimented with farming in Canada. They eventually returned to Santa Cruz, where one day Chadwick shared with them a letter he had received from a Boulder Creek landowner, Cressie Digby, who expressed interest in providing four acres for young organic farmers to cultivate. In 1971, Nelson and Benjamin established Camp Joy Garden on Digby's land In this interview, conducted by Sarah Rabkin in Jim Nelson's home at Camp Joy Gardens in Boulder Creek, California, on August 20th and October 23rd, 2008, Nelson talked about the founding and early days of the UCSC Garden, his experiences with Alan Chadwick, the creation and evolution of Camp Joy, and his philosophy as a farmer-educator. Two farm dogs slept nearby on the living-room floor, and the scent of ripe pears drifted in from the kitchen, which was filled with crates of newly harvested fruit.


Title of Dissertation: COLLEGE IMPACT ON SOCIAL PERSPECTIVE TAKING: MEASURING THE EFFECT OF FRATERNITY/SORORITY AFFILIATION Matthew L. Supple, Doctor of Philosophy, 2015 Directed By: Assistant Professor Julie J. Park, Department of Counseling, Higher Education, and Special Education The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between fraternity/sorority affiliation and social perspective taking. Social perspective taking (SPT) is the ability to see how things look both cognitively and emotionally from another's point of view, and SPT has been determined to be a necessary but not sufficient prerequisite for moral reasoning. As individuals go to college and their social environments become more complex, it is reasonable to expect this change will stimulate the consideration of perspectives that are different than their own and lead to higher-level moral reasoning. One aspect of the college experience that has the potential to foster moral development and its developmental predecessor, SPT, is fraternity/sorority affiliation. Fraternities and sororities are values-based organizations that should be enhancing the moral development of members, as evidenced by frequent inclusion of moral and ethical principles in their founding values. The 2009 Multi-institutional Study of Leadership (MSL) served as the dataset for this study. The MSL was designed to examine the influences of higher education on college student leadership development, including leadership-related outcomes such as cognitive skills and social perspective taking. Within this dataset, a sample of 44,207 participants completed the SPT scale. Using an adapted version of Astin's (1993) InputEnvironment-Outcome college impact model as the conceptual framework for this study, six research questions were analyzed to determine the relationship between SPT scores and several environmental variables. Analyses of variance and blocked hierarchical regression were used to analyze the data. Based on the findings of the current study, it is clear fraternities and sororities attract students with lower SPT scores. In addition, fraternity/sorority affiliation has a statistically significant negative association with SPT scores. It is therefore incumbent on national fraternity/sorority headquarters, as well as colleges and universities, to identify ways to foster social perspective taking skills among members of fraternities and sororities. The current study found that taking part in socio-cultural issues discussions, regularly doing community service, participating in service or advocacy groups, and getting involved in several student organizations all contribute to higher SPT skills. COLLEGE IMPACT ON SOCIAL PERSPECTIVE TAKING: MEASURING THE EFFECT OF FRATERNITY/SORORITY AFFILIATION


This study was performed to obtain information on yolk utilization in fasted and fed ostrich chicks posthatching. The fasted trial lasted for 7 d, whereas the fed trial continued for 16 d. Fasted ostrich chicks showed a decrease of 31.3 g of BW, with yolk weight decreasing by 28.9 g daily after hatching. Yolk weight comprised 28% of 1-d-old ostrich chick BW and decreased to 12% at 7 d of age. Only 44.4% of the fasted ostrich chick yolk was assimilated over the trial period. Crude protein content of the yolk decreased by 13.2 g daily. Fat content increased by 1.77% daily, whereas total yolk fat weight decreased with 8.91 g daily. Slaughter weight of fed ostrich chicks increased, with yolk weight decreasing by 16.3 g daily. Yolk content for fed ostrich chicks was 26% of BW at 2 d of age. Ostrich chicks absorb 30% of yolk over the first 4 d, 67% after 8 d, and only deplete the yolk after 14 d posthatch. Fasted ostrich chicks absorbed the yolk content at a rate of 28.9 g/d, compared with 22.3 g/d over the first 8 d and 16.3 g/d over the 16 d for fed ostrich chicks. The CP content of the yolk decreased by 6.84 g daily in fed ostrich chicks, whereas fat content of the yolk increased by 1.39% daily, although total yolk fat weight decreased by 6.61 g daily. Yolk weight and total CP decreased faster over the first 7 d in the fasted ostrich chicks compared with the fed ostrich chicks, which indicated that the decrease in yolk weight could be attributed to absorption of protein from the yolk. Fat content decreased faster over the first 8 d from the yolk of the fed ostrich chicks compared with that from the yolk of the fasted ostrich chicks, which could indicate that external feed has a positive influence on the absorption of fat from the yolk content.


A functional observational battery (FOB) is recommended as the first-tier neurotoxicity screening in the preclinical safety pharmacology testing guidelines. Minipigs have increasingly been used in regulatory toxicology studies; however, no current FOB protocol is available for neurotoxicity testing in these species. Hence, a minipig FOB instrument was developed. A complete crossover study with Sinclair minipigs was performed to evaluate physiologic, neurologic, and behavioral effects of amphetamine, ketamine, and diazepam. The treated minipigs were first observed in their home cage, were video-recorded for 10 minutes in an open field, and then went through a complete neurologic examination. Both ketamine and diazepam were shown to reduce the freezing and behavior shifts of treated minipigs, while increasing their exploratory behaviors. Both drugs also caused muscular and gait impairment. The effects of ketamine and diazepam were consistent with their roles as central nervous system (CNS) suppressants. Unique effects were also observed with ketamine and diazepam treatments, which may reflect their unique mechanisms of action. Consistent with its role as a CNS stimulant, amphetamine caused the treated minipigs to be hyperactive and to display increased freezing and behavior shifts and reduced exploring activities. These effects of amphetamine were opposite to those observed with ketamine and diazepam. Amphetamine also increased locomotion in the treated minipigs. The present effects of amphetamine, ketamine, and diazepam are in agreement with observations by others. In conclusion, the minipig is a suitable species for FOB evaluation of pharmaceuticals in preclinical safety pharmacology testing.


Previous plankton models for the Great Lakes have considered
the interactions among dissolved nutrients,
chlorophyll a, and total zooplankton. These models have
been developed primarily for the purpose of predicting the
gross effects of nutrient input control and urban growth on
the phytoplankton standing crop. However, more complex
ecological problems, such as the effect of eutrophication on
the forage fish and the effect of foreign marine fish species
on the plankton composition, require complex food web models.
The purpose of this report is to justify, develop, and verify
a preliminary lower food web model for Lake Michigan.


Large scale developmental projects firstly require the selection of one or more cities to be developed. In Libya, the selection process is done by selected organizations, which is highly influenced by human judgement that can be inconsiderate of socioeconomic and environmental factors. In this study, we propose an automated selection process, which takes into consideration only the important factors for city (cities) selection. Specifically, a geospatial decision-making tool, free of human bias, is proposed based on the fuzzy overlay (FO) and technique for order performance by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) techniques for development projects in Libya. In this work, a dataset of 17 evaluation criteria (GIS factors) across five urban conditioning factors were prepared. The dataset served as input to the FO model to calculate weights (importance) for each criterion. A support vector machine (SVM) classifier was then trained to refine weights from the FO model. TOPSIS was then applied on the refined results to rank the cities for development. Experimental results indicate promising overall accuracy and kappa statistics. Our findings also show that highest and lowest success rates are 0.94 and 0.79, respectively, while highest and lowest prediction rates are 0.884 and 0.673, respectively.


ABSTRACT Geological models of fluvial reservoirs are often constructed with object-based modellling techniques. This approach requires a specification of the distribution of channel sizes determined traditionally from core and well log data. The problem with these data is that they only show the apparent thicknesses of the channel objects: sometimes the thicknesses are too small because the well intersects the channel at the edge and sometimes the thicknesses are too large because channels are stacked. This paper proposes a new approach to determine reasonable fluvial channel sizes with indicator variograms. The relationship between the channel geometry and the variogram is established. The relationship is verified with synthetic examples. The calculated indicator variogram range is shown to be insensitive to channel width and width/thickness ratio. Two real reservoir examples show how the approach works in practice.


Natural resources often stretch across borders that separate modern nation states. This can create conflict and limit opportunities for regulated consumption of their goods and services, but also provide opportunities for joint multinational efforts that exceed single country capabilities. This book illustrates the diversity of transborder natural resources, the pressures that they experience or the opportunities that exist for multinational regulatory regimes, monitoring and enforcement. It presents ten case studies of transborder natural resources that are of interest to two or more neighboring countries, and that are subject to, or in need of bilateral or multinational coordinated management. The case studies include the exploitation of specific marine resources in international waters, rivers that travel through several countries and contiguous tropical forests across national borders, and where commodities, nature conservation or even territorial integrity are at stake. They are drawn from across the globe, including flood management in Western Europe, tropical forests in the Western Amazon, hydropower development in the Mekong region of South-east Asia, forest conservation in Central Africa and marine resource and fisheries exploitation in the waters of Japan, South-east Asia and Australia. Together the chapters provide a review of a wide range of transborder natural resource examples, and the diverse regulatory regimes that need to be devised to achieve successful management. An introductory chapter provides a conceptual and theoretical underpinning that can guide future research efforts on similar cases and a concluding chapter draws major conclusions and implications for related concepts and theories.


The social profitability of a railway investment is decided by how it is used. This is in contrast to road investment. The use of a road is decided by users themselves: the demand is essentially decided by the characteristics of the physical investment and the surrounding network (and variables such as fuel prices etc.). But knowledge about the physical rail network is meaningless without information about the traffic supply on it: train frequencies, running times etc. Different timetables have different social efficiency, in the sense that they will yield different total social surplus. If the social efficiencies of the assumed timetables with and without a suggested investment are different, the outcome of an investment appraisal is essentially arbitrary. Virtually any outcome can be obtained by choosing the two timetables ("before" and "after" the investment) to achieve a desired result. For example, to get a high benefit/cost ratio, one can assume a highly socially efficient timetable "after" the investment, and a highly inefficient timetable "before" the investment. Note in particular that the same timetable will have different social efficiency "before" and "after" an investment. Obviously, this leaves plenty of room for appraisal analysts to be strategic. Assumptions about the future traffic fed into the appraisal is usually made by the planning agency carrying out the appraisal. In practice, it is the analyst (or possibly a group of analysts) who decide how the rail infrastructure is assumed to be used, both in the "with" and "without" investment case. This means that the analyst has a large degree of freedom to, in practice, decide what the outcome of a cost-benefit analysis of a suggested investment will be. This phenomenon seems to be not widely understood or appreciated. To the authors' knowledge, despite the fact that many countries have official, detailed appraisal guidelines, none of these guidelines specify explicit principles for constructing the timetables used in cost benefit analysis (CBAs). This paper explains the phenomenon in some detail, using simplified but realistic examples. Further, the authors discuss what implications for CBA results different approaches to timetable design will have - including the more or less implicit principles that are used in current Swedish railway CBA. Finally, the authors suggest tentative principles for CBA timetable design, and a tentative roadmap for further research to refine such principles.


Abstract. We present PCR-GLOBWB 2, a global
hydrology and water resources model. Compared to previous versions of
PCR-GLOBWB, this version fully integrates water use. Sector-specific water
demand, groundwater and surface water withdrawal, water consumption, and
return flows are dynamically calculated at every time step and interact
directly with the simulated hydrology. PCR-GLOBWB 2 has been fully rewritten
in Python and PCRaster Python and has a modular structure, allowing easier
replacement, maintenance, and development of model components. PCR-GLOBWB 2
has been implemented at 5 arcmin resolution, but a version parameterized at
30 arcmin resolution is also available. Both versions are available as
open-source codes on https://github.com/UU-Hydro/PCR-GLOBWB_model
(Sutanudjaja et al., 2017a). PCR-GLOBWB 2 has its own routines for
groundwater dynamics and surface water routing. These relatively simple
routines can alternatively be replaced by dynamically coupling PCR-GLOBWB 2
to a global two-layer groundwater model and 1-D–2-D hydrodynamic models.
Here, we describe the main components of the model, compare results of the 30
and 5 arcmin versions, and evaluate their model performance using Global
Runoff Data Centre discharge data. Results show that model performance of the
5 arcmin version is notably better than that of the 30 arcmin version.
Furthermore, we compare simulated time series of total water storage (TWS) of
the 5 arcmin model with those observed with GRACE, showing similar negative
trends in areas of prevalent groundwater depletion. Also, we find that
simulated total water withdrawal matches reasonably well with reported water
withdrawal from AQUASTAT, while water withdrawal by source and sector provide
mixed results.


Rh0(D) positive red cells treated with periodate or mumps virus were not agglutinated by anti-Rh sera containing specific saline agglutinins. Agglutinability was restored by trypsinization. Eluates from periodate or mumps-treated Rh0(D) erythrocytes or stromata inhibited agglutination of both normal and trypsinized Rh0(D) cells by specific antiserum. Eluates from Rh0(D) negative cells or stromata were not inhibitory. No inhibition was demonstrable with eluates from Rh0(D) cells treated with influenza or Newcastle disease viruses. Eluates from periodate or mumps-treated Rh0(D) cells or stromata formed precipitates when mixed with anti-Rh0(D) serum. The virus-treated cell eluates were more effective in producing precipitation. Titers of anti-Rh inhibitor in eluates from virus-treated stromata fluctuated considerably in samples obtained at various intervals during prolonged treatment. Similar fluctuations in the titer of anti-Rh inhibitor in samples of eluates from periodate-treated stromata occurred only for a short time after treatment was begun, no inhibition being demonstrable in later samples. Both titer and the fluctuations of inhibitor in eluates from mumps-treated stromata were affected by the stromata-virus ratio and by pH. Fluctuations in the titer of anti-Rh inhibitor were correlated with fluctuations in the viral hemagglutinin titers of eluates. Fluctuations in the inhibitor titer of virus-cell eluates were abolished by addition of antimumps serum and by inactivation of virus by heat. The subsequent addition of living virus to heated eluates was followed by the reappearance of the characteristic fluctuations of inhibitor titer. The anti-Rh inhibitor in both types of eluates was tentatively identified as Rh0(D) antigen chiefly on the basis of its serologic specificity. It was proposed that antigen existed in different forms in the two eluates. A carbohydrate complex having a dual antigen-receptor function was postulated for the virus cell eluate.


Purpose - The purpose of this study is to examine dividend policies in an emerging capital market, in a country undergoing a transitional period. Design/methodology/approach - Using pooled cross-sectional observations from the top 50 listed Egyptian firms between 2003 and 2005, this study examines the effect of board of directors' composition and ownership structure on dividend policies in Egypt. Findings - It is found that there is a significant positive association between institutional ownership and firm performance, and both dividend decision and payout ratio. The results confirm that firms with a higher return on equity and a higher institutional ownership distribute higher levels of dividend. No significant association was found between board composition and dividend decisions or ratios. Originality/value - This study provides additional evidence of the applicability of the signalling model in the emerging market of Egypt. It was found that despite the high institutional ownership and the closely held nature of the firms, which imply lower agency costs, the payment of higher dividend was considered necessary to attract capital during this transitional period.


Background Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) has been associated with lower socioeconomic status (SES), but the reasons for this are not known. Objectives To examine childhood SES measures, SES trajectory and other perinatal factors in relation to RA. Methods The sample included 50 884 women, aged 35–74 (84% non-Hispanic white) enrolled 2004–9 in a US national cohort study. In baseline questionnaires, cases (N=424, 0.8%) reported RA diagnosis after age 16, ever use of disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs or steroids for RA and ≥6 weeks bilateral joint swelling. Childhood SES measures are presented as OR and 95% CI adjusted for age and race/ethnicity. Analyses of perinatal factors also adjusted for childhood SES, and joint effects of childhood and adult SES and smoking exposures were evaluated. Results Patients with RA reported lower childhood household education (<12 years vs college degree; OR=1.7; 95% CI 1.1 to 2.5), food insecurity (OR=1.5, 95% CI 1.1 to 2.0) and young maternal age (<20 vs 20–34 years; OR=1.7, 95% CI 1.2 to 2.5), with a trend (p<0.0001) for increasing number of adverse factors (OR=3.0; 95% CI 1.3 to 7.0; 4 vs 0 factors) compared with non-cases. Low birth weight (<2500 g) and preconception paternal smoking were independently associated with RA. Together, lower childhood SES and adult education (<college degree) were associated with RA (interaction p=0.03), with a joint effect magnitude similar to a history of paternal and adult smoking. Conclusions RA was associated with low childhood SES sustained into adulthood, with cumulative effects across multiple measures, suggesting the importance of other unmeasured factors linking SES and RA.


Macroeconomic shocks such as movements in exchange rates or the terms of trade not only affect the overall economy but also affect different areas in a country in different ways, thus creating a spatial distribution of the shock. The effect on some regions is often larger than the national effect as regions differ in terms of resource endowments, economic activities, physical and human capital. The standard national CGE-Microsimulation framework is a useful approach to capture the distributional impacts of macro shocks on households at national and state and territory levels. However, the CGE-Microsimulation framework does not capture the distributional impact of a policy change or an external shock on small geographical areas of interest. To overcome this limitation, this paper extends the framework by linking a spatial microsimulation model to the national CGE-microsimulation framework in a top-down manner to capture the distribution of income in small areas of a macro shock. We simulate a potential decline in Australian terms of trade over 2012-13 to 2017-18 and find significant differences in the spatial distribution of the impacts of the shock.


Epidemiological studies show a convincing long-term and dose-dependent protection of coffee and decaffeinated coffee against developing type 2 diabetes. The mechanisms of this effect are still not understood even though several have been proposed, including a potential effect on blood glucose by chlorogenic acids. However, there is minimal effect of decaffeinated coffee on postprandial blood glucose and insulin when consumed with carbohydrates, although there may be effects on incretin hormones, but these have been measured in only a few studies. Although chlorogenic acids do not affect carbohydrate digestion directly, they may affect glucose absorption and subsequent utilisation, the latter through metabolites derived from endogenous pathways or action of the gut microbiota. To advance understanding of the protective effect of coffee chlorogenic acids, more chronic intervention studies are needed on decaffeinated coffee, coupled with mechanistic studies in vitro using more realistic concentrations of the relevant chlorogenic acid metabolites.


This paper investigates the structural behavior of reinforced concrete (RC) arch-shaped members without transverse reinforcement subjected to bending. Such members have typical applications in tunnels, cut-and-cover structures, shells, vaults, ducts, silos, tanks, and off-shore structures. Although such members are mostly subjected to axial forces, bending moments may also develop when the shape of the structure does not perfectly match the ideal funicular shape. In this case, when the intrados reinforcement is in tension, deviation forces developed by the reinforcement increase the splitting stresses originated by bond and can lead to spalling of the reinforcement cover. Such a failure mode is particularly brittle and dangerous, leading to a sudden loss of load-carrying capacity of the structure. In this paper, a series of six tests on 400 mm (15.7 in.) thick arch-shaped beams are presented. They are aimed at investigating spalling failures before and after yielding of the tensile reinforcement. These results, as well as others taken from the literature, were compared to an analytical model accounting for the interaction between bond and deviation forces, showing a good agreement and explaining the various failure modes observed. On that basis, a practical formula for the design of such members is proposed.


This study assesses how users employ the WhatsApp status updates tool to share COVID-19 relevant information, their motivation for this behaviour, and its influence on their adherence to the prevention messages about the disease. By employing the Technology Acceptance Model, in-depth interviews were used to examine how young adult undergraduate communication students aged between 18-25 years old in Ghana use WhatsApp status updates to share COVID-19 relevant messages. A thematic analysis revealed that participants use this tool to attract attention and engender interaction with people on COVID-19 preventive messages among their phone contacts. This paper concludes that WhatsApp status updates are a useful tool for sharing COVID-19 relevant messages among young adult undergraduate communication students in Ghana.


This book is about a theory of language that combines two observations (1) that language is based on an extensive cognitive infrastructure (cognitivism) and (2) that it is functional for its user (functionalism). These observations are regarded as two dimensions of one phenomenon that both need to be accounted for, simultaneously and coherently, in accounting for language. Chapter 1 presents the cognitivist and functionalist points of view and their interrelation and discusses the integration of language research under a cognitive umbrella; the issue of defining 'functions of language', and the formalism-functionalism debate. Chapter 2 criticizes the Chomskyan formalist conception of language and cognition from the perspective of cognitive-pragmatic theory. The focus is on different aspects of the competence-performance dichotomy, and in particular on the nature of linguistic knowledge. The ontogenesis and phylogenesis of language are also discussed. Chapter 3 deals with the potential contribution of a functional-linguistic grammar to an integrated conception of the cognitive systems of language, viz. Dik's Functional Grammar, and introduces the concept of a Functional Procedural Grammar as a more integrative model for language production. Special attention is also paid to the nature of conceptual knowledge and the relationship between language production and interpretation. The debate is illustrated by an analysis of negative-raising.


Despite previous historical failed attempts to abolish the Electoral College at the federal level, in the months following the 2000 election, several lawyers, politicians, and academics concocted a novel plan to abolish the College at the State level. The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact would be enacted State by State and require each enacting State to give its electoral votes to the winner of a plurality of the national popular vote. This Article does not attempt to address the merits or drawbacks of the system as a matter of policy. Instead, Part I begins with a brief history of the Electoral College, how the Compact works, and the current state of affairs regarding the Interstate Compact. In Part II, the Article analyzes the Compact Clause in Article I section 10 clause 3 of the United States Constitution. It first explores the history of the Clause, with roots that can be found in the Articles of Confederation. It then looks to three different theories of interpretation of the Clause: the Boundary Compact Clause, the Non-Political Compact Clause, and the Political Consent Compact Clause, which are progressively more permissive and have been adopted sequentially in some fashion by the Court, most recently accepting the most expansive interpretation. In adopting the Political Consent Compact Clause theory, the Supreme Court has acknowledged that Congress must consent to a Compact that increases State political power at the expense of federal supremacy, but the Court and commentators have been less forthright when addressing the need for consent when a compact implicates the interests of non-compacting sister States. This Article concludes that non-compacting States are a fundamental concern of the Compact Clause alongside concerns of federal supremacy. In Part III, the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact is examined and found constitutionally deficient. The Compact is actually a compact under the Compact Clause of the Constitution, because the Court has broadly construed what makes a compact. In particular, because the Compact is not effective until a critical mass of States have enacted it, and because States are constrained from withdrawing from the Compact too close to a presidential election, the Compact falls under constitutional scrutiny. Additionally, the Compact addresses a political matter that affects the interests of non-compacting sister States, and the compacting States enhance their political power at the expense of other States. The Article examines the various defenses of the Compact but finds that none of them overcome the political interests of sister States. Therefore, barring congressional consent, the Interstate Compact would fail.


Existing deep learning-based interactive image segmentation approaches typically assume the target-of-interest is always a single object and fail to account for the potential diversity in user expectations, thus requiring excessive user input when it comes to segmenting an object part or a group of objects instead. Motivated by the observation that the object part, full object, and a collection of objects essentially differ in size, we propose a new concept called scale-diversity, which characterizes the spectrum of segmentations w.r.t. different scales. To address this, we present MultiSeg, a scale-diverse interactive image segmentation network that incorporates a set of two-dimensional scale priors into the model to generate a set of scale-varying proposals that conform to the user input. We explicitly encourage segmentation diversity during training by synthesizing diverse training samples for a given image. As a result, our method allows the user to quickly locate the closest segmentation target for further refinement if necessary. Despite its simplicity, experimental results demonstrate that our proposed model is capable of quickly producing diverse yet plausible segmentation outputs, reducing the user interaction required, especially in cases where many types of segmentations (object parts or groups) are expected.


The design of a double-null divertor for use in JT-60SU is presented. The free-boundary equilibrium code EFIT is used to establish a symmetric highly triangular double-null plasma shape. The baffle shapes are highly contoured to match the equilibrium, with the plasma-facing surfaces intersecting the flux surfaces at steep angles in the regions of high heat flux. These contoured surfaces also provide a tightly baffled design with small-aperture pumping gaps near both the inner and outer divertor strike points. The gaps provide adequate throughput of D2 gas for active control of impurity entrainment at reasonable pressures. The structural design is shown to be consistent with both forces from disruptions and thermal stress during vacuum vessel bakeout.


This thesis investigates electric current signals generated spontaneously in specimens of Carrara marble during deformation under crustal conditions. It extends previous work where similar currents were observed during uniaxial deformation of marble. Since marble is a non-piezoelectric material, one of the main questions is how these currents are related to the mechanical processes of deformation. Another question is whether it is possible to extract from these electric currents information about the deformation dynamics. This is particularly important in light of recent claims that geoelectric anomalies observed in the field are related to crustal deformation and can inform us about changes in the organisation of the fault network in a focal region prior to an earthquake. Using an approach that combines rock deformation experiments and statistical modelling, I examine how these electric currents evolve with deformation at the laboratory scale and make several original discoveries regarding their behaviour. To establish how the current signals varied with experimental condition and deformation mechanism across the brittle-ductile transition, I conducted constant strain rate triaxial compression experiments recording differential electric current flow through the rock samples at various confining pressures, strain rates and pore fluid conditions. I acquired mechanical data, ultrasonic velocities and acoustic emissions simultaneously, along with electric current, to constrain the relationship between electric current and deformation. For the statistical modelling, I used a novel entropy-based model, derived from non-extensive statistical mechanics (Tsallis, 1988), which has the advantage of including a term to account for interactions in the system. Interactions are effectively modelled by the non-extensive q-parameter. Small (nanoAmpere) electric currents are generated and sustained during deformation under all the conditions tested. Spontaneous electric current flow in the dry samples is seen only in the region of permanent deformation and is due to the presence of localised electric dipoles. This current flow is correlated to the damage induced by microcracking, with a contribution from other intermittent ductile mechanisms. Current and charge densities are consistent with proposed models of crack separation charging and migrating charged edge dislocations. The onset of current flow occurs only after a 10% reduction in P-wave velocity, implying that some degree of crack damage and/or crack connectivity is required before current will flow through the samples. Electric current evolution exhibits three separate time-scales of behaviour, the absolute and fluctuating components of which can be related to the evolution of stress, deformation mechanism, damage and localisation of deformation leading up to sample failure. In the brittle regime, electric current exhibits a precursory change as the stress drop accelerates towards failure, which is particularly distinct at dynamic strain rates. Current and charge production depend strongly on the experimental conditions. Power-law relationships are seen with confining pressure and strain rate, with the first corresponding to increased microcrack suppression and the second to time-dependent differences in deformation mechanism across the brittle-ductile transition. In the presence of an ionic pore fluid, electrokinetic effects dominate over solid-state mechanisms but development of the crack network and charge contribution from solid-state deformation processes drive the variation in electrokinetic parameters. Current flow in the dry samples is approximately proportional to stress within 90% of peak stress. In the fluid-saturated samples, proportionality holds from 40% peak stress, with a significant increase in the rate of current production from 90% peak stress, and is associated with fluid flow during dilatancy. This proportionality, together with the power-law relationship between current and strain rate is reminiscent of power-law creep, where deformation rate varies as a power-law function of stress, and suggests that the electric signals could be used as a proxy for stress. High frequency fluctuations in the electric current signal can be described by `fat-tailed' q-Gaussian statistics, consistent with an origin in non-extensive statistical mechanics. These distributions can be explained as arising from superstatistical dynamics (Beck, 2001; Beck and Cohen, 2003), i.e., the superposition of local mechanical relaxations in the presence of a slowly varying driving force. The macroscopic distribution parameters provide an excellent prediction of the experimentally observed mean energy dissipation rate of the system (as modelled by the superstatistical β-parameter), particularly at slow strain rates. Furthermore, characteristic q-values are obtained for different deformation regimes across the brittle-ductile transition, and the evolution of q during deformation reveals a two-stage precursory anomaly prior to sample failure, consistent with the stress intensity evolution as modelled from fracture mechanics. These findings indicate that the dynamics of rock deformation are reflected in the statistical properties of the recorded electric current. My findings support the notion that electric currents in the crust can be generated purely from deformation processes themselves. Scaling up the laboratory results to large stressed rock volumes at shallow crustal pressures and constant crustal strain rates, deformation induced transient telluric current systems may be as large as 1 MA, even accounting for >99% dissipation, which corresponds to a huge accumulated net charge of 10 ZC. This implies that a significant amount of charge from deforming tectonic regions contributes to the Earth's telluric currents and electric field, although due to conduction away from the stressed rock volume, it is unlikely that accumulated charge of this quantity would ever be measured in the field. Electric current evolution and its precursory characteristics can be related to models for electric earthquake precursors and fault-zone damage organisation, developed from field observations, providing experimental support for them. However, given the oscillatory nature of the current evolution observed during cataclastic flow processes in the laboratory, there is a high probability of false alarms. Furthermore, the potential for electric anomalies to be useful as earthquake precursors remains contentious due to the difficulties of separating deformation-induced signals from other telluric noise and the wider issue of establishing a statistically significant link with earthquakes.


Transient bridges of DNA have been used to direct the self-assembly of colloidal particles into interesting soft materials, but the particle binding kinetics are often slow or anomalous. Using line optical tweezers, we quantify the dynamics of two DNA-coated microspheres as a function of DNA density and strength of the DNA-induced pair interaction potential. At high DNA density, the binding kinetics is limited by the rate of microsphere diffusion and displays the expected dependence on the interaction potential energy. At low DNA density, the particle binding kinetics is set by single molecular binding events and exhibits bound times having a non-exponential distribution, suggesting that individual DNA bridges may also have intrinsic non-exponential kinetics. A dynamic model that includes such dispersion in the lifetimes of molecular bridges reproduces our observations, while an alternative model based on fluctuations in DNA density does not.


abstract: assuming forecasting procedures to be consistent with the assumptions of the rational expectations hypothesis, a set of economic forecasts published by the austrian institute for economic research is tested for informational efficiency. first, the relationship between the concepts "optimal prediction" and "rational expectations" is discussed and the appropriate testing methodology described. in applying the tests, considerable care has been expended to circumvent possible methodological pitfalls. three of the seven series tested are found to be informationally inefficient. it is suggested that such a result could be caused by pessimistic attitudes among forecasters, or in technical terms, that forecasters exhibit asymmetric loss functions. additionally, the results of the paper demonstrate that the standard criteria for evaluating forecasting accuracy should be supplemented with tests for informational efficiency because judgements based on the standard criteria generally donot take into account the stochastic nature of the time series to be forecasted.;


Nutrient limitation of Staphylococcus aureus induces a starvation-survival state which enables it to survive until sufficient nutrients become available to support growth. The response of starved S. aureus cells to nutritional upshift was analysed to characterize the recovery mechanism which results in the resumption of rapid growth. S. aureus 83254 starved for 7 d in a chemically defined medium limited for glucose was able to resume growth upon the addition of complex medium (brain heart infusion broth) or a mixture of amino acids and glucose. The addition of either glucose or amino acids alone did not lead to recovery of cells. Prior to the first cell division event, a lag period of about 120-150 min was observed, the duration of which was independent of the length of starvation survival. During this lag period, RNA synthesis increased immediately upon the addition of nutrients whilst protein synthesis was delayed by approximately 5 min. Cells rapidly enlarged within 30 min of recovery, and initiation of chromosome replication could be detected after 90 min. Changes in the profile of proteins expressed during the recovery period revealed that several starvation-specif ic proteins were downregulated within 30 min, whilst other proteins were common to both starvation and recovery. Two proteins were identified which were only transiently expressed during the first 60 min of recovery. Protein synthesis could be detected during recovery even if the cells had been treated with the RNA synthesis inhibitor rifampicin for 30 min prior to the addition of recovery nutrients, demonstrating that several proteins are translated from long-lived mRNA transcripts present in starved cells.


A considerable part of the epistemological studies in the field of Information Science, in Brazil, bears on a vector interdisciplinarity. However, some cases betray the difficulties of disciplinary integration and epistemological consolidation. These are based on construction of bibliometric indicators, excluding the discourse functions that reflect the sense effects arising there from. The objective of this paper is to understand the implicit and latent effects in the constitution of this discourse and the potential epistemological barriers to the consolidation of Information Science. The analytical corpus is based on 12 articles selected from the scientific Brazilian production which discuss the disciplinary integration in Information Science. Selection of the articles was based on an analysis developed in a previous phase of this research, seeking the construction of its object and discursive processes. The analysis and discussions were based on discourse analysis of French tradition. The discourse of interdisciplinarity, in information science, is permeated by more than one discursive formation, but is anchored by the dominant discourse which has as its vector the determinations of the informational development mode. This discourse uses naturalizing and generalizing strategies to mask its ideological contour. The fragility in the processes of disciplinary integration translates itself into a difficulty in the epistemological establishment and consolidation of Information Science.


Title of Dissertation: ESSAYS IN BEHAVIORAL ECONOMICS: APPLYING PROSPECT THEORY TO AUCTIONS Anmol Ratan, Doctor of Philosophy, 2010 Directed By: Prof. Andreas Lange Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics I explore the implications of reference-dependent preferences in sealed-bid auctions. In the first part, I develop a Prospect theory based model to explain bidding in first-price auctions. I show that bidding in induced-value first-price sealed-bid auctions can be rationalized as a combination of reactions to underlying ambiguity and anticipated loss aversion. Using data from experimental auctions, I provide evidence that in induced-value auctions with human bidders, this approach works well. In auctions with prior experience and /or against risk-neutral Nash rivals where ambiguity effects could be altogether irrelevant, anticipated loss aversion by itself can explain aggressive bidding. This is a novel result in the literature. Using data from experiments, I find that ambiguity effects become negligible in auctions with experienced human bidders against (i) experienced human rivals and (ii) Nash computer rivals, when loss aversion is taken in consideration. The estimates for loss aversion are similar in auctions with human bidders (with or without experience). Next, I extend my approach of anticipated loss aversion to address bidding outcomes in firstand second-price sealed-bid auctions. As shown in first part, the model predicts overbidding in first-price induced-value auctions consistent with evidence from most laboratory experiments. However, substantially different bidding behavior could result in commodity auctions where money and auction item are consumed along different dimensions of the consumption space. Differences also result in second-price auctions. The study thereby indicates that transferring qualitative behavioral findings from induced-value laboratory experiments to the field may be problematic if subjects are loss averse and anticipate such losses at the time of bidding. Finally, I explore the effect of resale or procurement opportunities, to which bidders have heterogeneous market access, on bidding in firstprice sealed-bid auctions. My models suggest that in auctions with resale, loss aversion causes underbidding with respect to the risk-neutral-Nash prediction. Bidders with greatest level of market access are least affected by loss aversion and therefore bid closer to the risk-neutral-Nash than bidders with smaller market access. In auctions with procurement, the effect of loss aversion is such that it causes overbidding (underbidding) for bidders with respect to the risk-neutral-Nash. Bidders with greatest level of market access are again least affected by loss aversion and therefore bid much conservatively and closer to the risk-neutral-Nash than bidders with very low market access. If market access is interpreted as a proxy for experience, the predictions of my model are qualitatively similar to the findings in List (2003, 2004). Since these indirect effects are obtained without altering reference-dependent preferences, it raises the possibility that the effects obtained in List (2003, 2004) in field settings may not arise entirely due to the direct effect of experience on reference-dependent preferences. This calls for a more careful reexamination of the underlying issues. ESSAYS IN BEHAVIORAL ECONOMICS: APPLYING PROSPECT THEORY TO AUCTIONS


Policy interest in the role of volunteering as a route to employment is enduring, with an assumption that links between volunteering, employability and employment are positive and straightforward. This has largely been supported by existing evidence, although there have been few longitudinal studies testing the theory. Analysing data from the British Household Panel Survey, we used multivariate techniques to explore the effects of volunteering on moves from being out of work into work; and on retention and wage progression for people in employment. We suggest that the relationship is complex: volunteering may have a positive effect on the labour market position of some individuals in some circumstances; for others it may have a negative, or no, effect. We offer some suggestions for the variations we found: the limitations of the dataset and our analysis; a limited concept of employability; and too narrow a view of volunteering and its impact.


OBJECTIVE
To use an advance in data envelopment analysis (DEA) called congestion analysis to assess the trade-offs between quality and efficiency in U.S. hospitals.

STUDY SETTING
Urban U.S. hospitals in 34 states operating in 2004.

STUDY DESIGN AND DATA COLLECTION
Input and output data from 1,377 urban hospitals were taken from the American Hospital Association Annual Survey and the Medicare Cost Reports. Nurse-sensitive measures of quality came from the application of the Patient Safety Indicator (PSI) module of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Quality Indicator software to State Inpatient Databases (SID) provided by the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP).

DATA ANALYSIS
In the first step of the study, hospitals' relative output-based efficiency was determined in order to obtain a measure of congestion (i.e., the productivity loss due to the occurrence of patient safety events). The outputs were adjusted to account for this productivity loss, and a second DEA was performed to obtain input slack values. Differences in slack values between unadjusted and adjusted outputs were used to measure either relative inefficiency or a need for quality improvement.

PRINCIPAL FINDINGS
Overall, the hospitals in our sample could increase the total amount of outputs produced by an average of 26 percent by eliminating inefficiency. About 3 percent of this inefficiency can be attributed to congestion. Analysis of subsamples showed that teaching hospitals experienced no congestion loss. We found that quality of care could be improved by increasing the number of labor inputs in low-quality hospitals, whereas high-quality hospitals tended to have slack on personnel.

CONCLUSIONS
Results suggest that reallocation of resources could increase the relative quality among hospitals in our sample. Further, higher quality in some dimensions of care need not be achieved as a result of higher costs or through reduced access to health care.


Given the inaccessibility of the marine environment, the closest many of us come to viewing it is at public aquariums. Aquariums also provide us with rich aesthetic experiences, but it is not clear whether we appreciate the marine environment at aquariums. I present the dilemma of aquarium appreciation as an inconsistent triad: 1) we treat aquariums as places to appreciate marine environments, 2) aquariums are artifacts, not natural objects, and 3) nature and art should be appreciated differently. I argue that aquarium displays are scientific models of marine environments with aesthetic, educational, and scientific aims. My solution to the dilemma involves accepting the paradox and modifying 2. By appreciating displays as the kind of artifacts they are, we are better able to appreciate the marine environment.


Stimulation of beta2-adrenergic receptors on the cell surface by adrenaline or noradrenaline leads to alterations in the metabolism, excitability, differentiation and growth of many cell types. These effects have traditionally been thought to be mediated exclusively by receptor activation of intracellular G proteins. However, certain physiological effects of beta2-adrenergic receptor stimulation, notably the regulation of cellular pH by modulation of Na+/H+ exchanger (NHE) function, do not seem to be entirely dependent on G-protein activation. We report here a direct agonist-promoted association of the beta2-adrenergic receptor with the Na+/H+ exchanger regulatory factor (NHERF), a protein that regulates the activity of the Na+/H+ exchanger type 3 (NHE3). NHERF binds to the beta2-adrenergic receptor by means of a PDZ-domain-mediated interaction with the last few residues of the carboxy-terminal cytoplasmic domain of the receptor. Mutation of the final residue of the beta2-adrenergic receptor from leucine to alanine abolishes the receptor's interaction with NHERF and also markedly alters beta2-adrenergic receptor regulation of NHE3 in cells without altering receptor-mediated activation of adenylyl cyclase. Our findings indicate that agonist-dependent beta2-adrenergic receptor binding of NHERF plays a role in beta2-adrenergic receptor-mediated regulation of Na+/H+ exchange.


Recent experiments have perfectly verified the fact that quantum correlations between two entangled particles are stronger than any classical, local pre-quantum worldview allows. This is famously called the EPR paradox first conceived as a thought experiment and decades later realized in the lab. We discuss in depth the nature of the paradox and show that the problematics it presents is first and foremost epistemological. After briefly exploring resolutions to the paradox that after many decades of discourse still remain controversial, we argue that the paradox is rooted in the failure of our current metaphysical scheme, being the foundation of our knowledge, to accommodate and cohere our knowledge of the phenomena of entanglement. We then develop and make the case for a novel and more fundamental resolution of the paradox by changing the underlying metaphysical foundation from one based on individuals to a one based on individuation. We discuss in detail how in the light of this new scheme concepts central to the paradox such as realism, causality and locality are adjusted to the effect that the paradox is resolved without giving up these concepts so fundamental to our thinking. We conclude with a brief note about the important role of metaphysics to the progress of knowledge and our understanding of reality.


L-663,581 [FG 8205; 7-chloro-4,5-dihydro-5-methyl-3-(5-(1-methylethyl)- 1,2,4-oxadiazol-3-yl)6H-imidazo(1,5-A)(1.4)-benzodiazepine-6-one] is an investigational partial agonist of benzodiazepine receptors for possible application in the treatment of anxiety. Previous studies have shown that the drug is eliminated mainly by biotransformation in rats, dogs and monkeys. Two metabolites, mono- and bis-hydroxy analogs were demonstrated to be active in vitro. The potency of benzodiazepine receptor binding (Ki) is 3.7 nM for the parent drug, 3.3 nM for the mono-hydroxylated metabolite and 1.2 nM for the bishydroxylated metabolite, respectively. Although the metabolites are as potent as, or more so than the parent drug in vitro, they are inactive in rats in a conditioned emotional response model. This study was designed to explore the underlying mechanisms responsible for the discrepancy between in vitro and in vivo activity of the metabolites. After i.v. administration of L-663,581 or its preformed metabolites, the metabolites were cleared more slowly than the parent drug. After i.p. administration at the same dose, the areas under the curve of the metabolites were 2 to 5 times that of the parent drug. Thus, the lack of in vivo activity of the metabolites cannot be explained by the absorption and/or elimination kinetics. Brain uptake studies indicated that the permeability of the blood-brain barrier is high for L-663,581 but very poor for the metabolites; the brain extraction ratio was about 0.6 for L-663,581 and less than 0.03 for the metabolites.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


Introduction.Part I: Colonial Origins: Race and Slavery:Introduction.Documents:A. The First Blacks Arrive In Virginia (1619).B. Slavery Becomes A Legal Fact In Virginia (17th Century Statutes).C. South Carolina Restricts The Liberty Of Slaves (1740).Article: Philip D. Morgan, Two Infant Slave Societies In The Chesapeake And The Lowcountry (From Slave Counterpoint, 1998).Part II: From African To African-American: Slave Adaptation To The New World:Introduction.Documents:A. Olaudah Equiano Describes His Capture (1760).B. Slave Cargo List, South Carolina (1730).C. List Of Fugitive Slave Skills, Virginia (18th Century).Article: Ira Berlin, The Plantation Generation Of African Americans (From Many Thousands Gone, 1998).Part III: The Formation of The Master Class:Introduction.Documents:A. William Byrd Ii Describes The Patriarchal Ideal (1726).B. Reverend Jarratt Observes The Life-Style Of Virginia's Planters (1750).C. Thomas Jefferson Gives Instructions To His Overseer (1774-1790).Article: Kathy Brown, Masters And Mistresses In Colonial Virginia (From Good Wives, Nasty Wenches, And Anxious Patriarchs, 1996).Part IV: Slavery and The American Revolution:Introduction.Documents:A. Lord Dunmore's Proclamation Freeing Slaves In Virginia (1775).B. Virginia's Manumission Law (1782).C. Thomas Jefferson Expresses His Unease Over Slavery (1782).Article: Peter Kolchin, Slavery And The American Revolution (From American Slavery, 1993).Part V: The Growth of The Cotton Kingdom:Introduction.Documents:A. Joseph Baldwin On Cotton Planters In Alabama And Mississippi (1836).B. James Henry Hammond On Agriculture In The Upper South (1841).C. Frederick Law Olmsted On The Profitability Of Cotton (1856).Article: Mark Smith, Debating The Profitability Of Antebellum Southern Agriculture (From Debating Slavery, 1998).Part VI: The World of The Planters:Introduction.Documents:A. John Lyde Wilson, "The Code Of Honor" (1838).B. George Fitzhugh On The Benefits Of Slavery (1857).C. George Cary Eggleston Remembers Aristocratic Life In Virginia (1875).Article: Eugene Genovese, The Slaveholders' Dilemma Between Slavery And Progress (From The Slaveholders' Dilemma, 1992).Part VII: Life Within The Big House:Introduction.Documents:A. Adele Petigru Is Reminded Of The Mistress' Duties By Her Aunt (C. 1830s).B. Rosalie Roos On Marriages In South Carolina (1854).C. Mary Chesnut Describes The Effects Of Patriarchy (1861).Article: Marli Wiener, Mistresses And Slaves In A Patriarchal World (From Mistresses And Slaves (1998).Part VIII: Masters And Slaves: Paternalism And Exploitation:Introduction.Documents:A. James Henry Hammond Battles Slave Illness (1841).B. Rules On The Rice Estate Of Plowden C. Weston (1846).C. Charles Manigault Instructs His Overseer About "My Negroes" (1848).Article: Walter Johnson, The Chattel Principle (From Soul By Soul, 1999).Part IX: Life In The Slave Quarters:Introduction.Documents:A. Frederick Douglass Remembers His Childhood (1845).B. Tempie Herndon Remembers Her Wedding (1860).C. Daniel Drake Remembers A Corn-Shucking Ceremony (1870).Article: Brenda Stevenson, Slave Marriage And Family Life In Antebellum Virginia (From Life In Black And White, 1996).Part X: Slave Resistance And Slave Rebellion:Introduction.Documents:A. Excerpts From Denmark Vesey's Trial Transcript (1822).B. Frederick Douglass Remember Resisting His Overseer (1845).C. Frederick Law Olmsted On Slave Runaways In Virginia (1856).Article: John Hope Franklin And Loren Schweninger, The Impact Of Runaway Slaves On The Slave System (From Runaway Slaves, 1999).Part XI: The Abolitionist Impulse:Introduction.Documents:A. William Lloyd Garrison, "I Will Be Heard" (1831).B. Massachussets Anti-Slavery Society Resolution (1843).C. Frederick Douglass Discusses The Fourth Of July (1852).Article: Paul Goodman, Abolitionists And The Origins Of Racial Equality (From Of One Blood, 1998).Part XII: The Politics of Slavery:Introduction.Documents:A. John C. Calhoun's Address To The People Of The United States (1832).B. The New York Tribune On The Radical Origins Of Republicans (1855).C. Abraham Lincoln's House Divided Speech (1858).Article: Don E. Fehrenbacher, Slavery And Territorial Expansion (From The Slaveholding Republic, 2001).Part XIII: Secession and Civil War:Introduction.Documents:A. South Carolina's Ordinance Of Secession (1860).B. Mary Chesnut Recalls The Beginning Of The War (1861).C. Gertrude Thomas On The Role Of Slave Mistresses During The War (1863).Article: Drew Faust, Confederate Women In The Crisis Of The Slaveholding South (From Mothers Of Invention, 1996).Part XIV: Emancipation and The Destruction Of Slavery:Introduction.Documents:A. Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation (1863).B. Frederick Douglass, "Men Of Color, To Arms" (1863).C. Selections Of Documents On The Black Military Experience (1863-1865).Article: Ira Berlin Et Al., The Destruction Of Slavery (From Slaves No More, 1992)


The design of a safety system is critical if functionality is to be maximised and
consequences reduced. There is often a trade off between the performance
obtainable and the resources available. To address these balancing issues,
which are usually impractical by hand for a designer, multi-objective
optimisation techniques can be used. When considering safety systems there
is often the situation of dependencies between components, for example with
regard to maintenance. To evaluate the system behaviour in these situations
an appropriate analysis method is required. The aim of this paper is to
present an optimisation approach which integrates traditional methods of
system failure evaluation. The combined method uses the fault tree analysis
technique to represent the causes of failure on demand of the system, the
binary decision diagram and Markov methods for system quantification (for
independent and dependent sections of the fault tree respectively), and the
Improved Strength Pareto Evolutionary Approach (SPEA2) to find the most
optimal design solution. The end product is a mechanism to yield the best
design option for safety systems incorporating dependencies. The paper
presents the principles of the method and a case study to illustrate how the
method is applied. The results produced, along with conclusions are
provided.


Aim: The aim of this study was to evaluate the practicality and accuracy of tonometers used in routine clinical practice for established keratoconus (KC). Methods: This was a prospective study of 118 normal and 76 keratoconic eyes where intraocular pressure (IOP) was measured in random order using the Goldman applanation tonometer (GAT), Pascal dynamic contour tonometer (DCT), Reichert ocular response analyser (ORA) and TonoPen XL tonometer. Corneal hysteresis (CH) and corneal resistance factor (CRF), as calculated by the ORA, were recorded. Central corneal thickness (CCT) was measured using an ultrasound pachymeter. Results: The difference in IOP values between instruments was highly significant in both study groups (p<0.001). All other IOP measures were significantly higher than those for GAT, except for the Goldmann-correlated IOP (average of the two applanation pressure points) (IOPg) as measured by ORA in the control group and the CH-corrected IOP (corneal-compensated IOP value) (IOPcc) measures in the KC group. CCT, CH and CRF were significantly less in the KC group (p<0.001). Apart from the DCT, all techniques tended to measure IOP higher in eyes with thicker corneas. Conclusion: The DCT and the ORA are currently the most appropriate tonometers to use in KC for the measurement of IOPcc. Corneal factors such as CH and CRT may be of more importance than CCT in causing inaccuracies in applanation tonometry techniques.


Police reform is widely undertaken in developing and post-authoritarian countries. The starting point for analysis of this phenomenon, it is suggested, is the absence of public trust in police that characterizes police-community relations in these countries. Without public trust in police, 'policing by consent' is difficult or impossible and public safety suffers. The nature of trust is examined in general terms and related to the problem of trust in governance. Then, the problematic nature of trust of the police is considered; structural features as well as performance aspects are invoked to explain distrust of police. In the penultimate section, the question of how to build trustworthy police forces is examined in the light of what has been learnt about the difficulties of maintaining or establishing trust in police. Process as well as substantive improvements each play a role here. In addition to building trust, ways of institutionalizing distrust are needed. The article concludes by pointing to some inherent limits or constraints upon trust-building, including the impact of the wider environment in which policing occurs, and the need to trust the tools we use for building trust.


Tertiary pre-employment skills based programmes are designed to assist students in gaining the skills and academic qualifications needed to gain employment. This study explores the skills and attributes needed to gain employment in the business administration field. It explored this from the perspective of students and also from prospective employers' points of view. This research included a review of literature within the field of study and also focused on the delivery, material and outcomes of some business administration programmes. The teaching rationale of one polytechnic was also included as it showed how the way students learn and the desired outcomes have influenced the method of delivery. Integral to this study was the use of questionnaires that students and prospective employers filled out, and interviews with three employers and three students. This brought to light their views on skills and attributes, along with what they perceived as being important in gaining and giving employment opportunities. The research makes recommendations, from an educator's perspective, on what is required to enhance students' opportunities for employment within this field , and how programmes can be developed to allow opportunities for students to develop skills and attributes valued in business occupations.


The article deals with the change of paradigms in European urban thinking through time. The principles of Modern City Planning of the first half of the 20th century, which despised the classical ideals of the European city and of historical urban environments, as well as the subsequent advent of their counterplot, i.e. the approach of integrated conservation and preservation planning, are seen as the two main opposing tendencies of city development in the last 100 years. They have preceded and prepared the way for a new urban consciousness which puts emphasis on the principles of sustainable development in both global and local terms. While the pressing demands for sustainability have been taken into consideration and even recorded in the law on a certain level in most European countries at the turn of this century, there are still many other new-type urban phenomena which express the present-day tendencies of change in our city-life. The breaking of the traditional space-time relationship due to the arrival of the Internet and the multicultural post-modern urban nomadism, which both go together with a tremendous worldwide economic, social, and environmental restructuration, are among them. As a result, the concept of place has lost its former meaning as an explicitly physical scene. At the same time, mentally, socially and culturally processed issues, such as the identity of a place, have become more and more important putting emphasis on the type of interaction between different people and the places of their lives. Thus the question of dwelling and the expression of multi-cultural identities have become fundamental urban issues. Today in Europe city planning is often less concerned with building new environments than with transforming extant environments and creating interaction and synergy between old and new. Multicultural and tolerant living environments with different historical, social and cultural layers function as magnets for creative people and for inspiring city-life. CV: Kaisa Broner-Bauer is an architect D.Sc. (Tech./Arch.), and professor emerita of Architecture at the University of Oulu, Finland. She has studied and worked in Finland, France, the United States, and Japan and is the author of numerous publications on architecture, historic preservation, and urban studies. Her present research interests include the questions of identity and transcendence in architecture and the built environment.


This dissertation describes the design, implementation, and performance of two mechanisms that address reliability and system management problems associated with parallel computing clusters: thread migration and checkpoint/recovery. A unique aspect of this work is the integration of these two mechanisms. Although there has been considerable prior work on each of these mechanisms in isolation, their integration offers synergistic benefit to both functionality and performance. Used in, conjunction, these mechanisms facilitate failure recovery, and node addition and removal with minimal disruption of executing applications. Our implementation differs from previous work in the following ways. First, by using thread migration instead of process migration, the overhead of moving computation among nodes is reduced. Second, because our implementation of checkpoint/recovery separates computation and data, it is possible to distribute data and threads among other nodes during recovery. This is possible because the underlying support for thread migration in the system allows the recovery of a thread from any checkpoint on any node. Third, our implementation does not require repartitioning of a running parallel application when resources are added or removed.
Finally, the checkpoint/recovery and thread migration mechanisms are both implemented at user-level. The benefits of a user-level implementation include ease of development since operating system source code is not required, adaptability to other platforms, and simple upgrades to new versions of the underlying operating system and hardware. The prototype implementation described in this thesis was developed as an extension to the Brazos software distributed shared memory system. Brazos allows multithreaded parallel applications to execute on networks of multiprocessor servers running the Windows NT/2000 operating system.


We analyse the behaviour of Norwegian households using tax return data that covers debt, income, financial assets and housing wealth. In the period from 2004 to 2008 borrowing in Norwegian households increased significantly. Behaviour changes after 2008. The Financial Supervisory Authority of Norway has recommended that banks impose stricter LTV (loan-to-value) requirements. We find that debt-to-housing value (DTV) has fallen from 2008 to 2012, especially among younger households. High income groups have been able to maintain a high level of debt to income, but have increased their holdings of liquid financial assets. Lower income groups take on less debt relative to income and have not been able to increase holdings of financial assets.


Proviral copies of mouse mammary tumor virus (MMTV) are known to be amplified in certain T-cell lymphomas. Transcription of the amplified MMTV proviruses was studied in detail in two T-cell lymphoma lines and showed the production of deletions and premature termination of env mRNAs and the premature termination of gag transcripts. EL-4 cells produce three env mRNAs, and sequence analysis of cDNAs of the two smaller transcripts revealed large deletions encompassing the 3' half of the env gene. The deletion in at least one of the altered transcripts appeared to be produced by a splicing mechanism. T-cell lymphoma line ML of DBA/2 mice also synthesizes two smaller env transcripts, both of which result from premature termination of transcription. Both lines transcribe high levels of gag mRNAs of about 0.8 kilobases in length, terminating at the end of the region encoding MMTV phosphoprotein pp21. Restriction enzyme BamHI analysis of the amplified proviruses of EL-4 and ML cells as well as of additional non-mammary tumor cell types containing amplified MMTV proviruses suggested that the amplified proviruses were derived from exogenous viruses, or activated endogenous provirus MTV-1 in the case of DBA/2 strain tumor cells.


Digitalisation is in everyone's hands. During the last nine years the smartphone tremendously changed private lifestyle. Anytime and everywhere we are connected, we have options for decision making and controlling in real-time. Producer of hardware as well as software service provider of platforms are driving these current structural change's aspects. However - although less visible publicly - digital transformation also includes traditional industry, this is what the buzzword "Industrie 4.0" stands for. The political and public debate on necessary control of this transformation is as much hallmarked by the search for starting points as by heated demands for targeted competition law based interventions. In this context, it has to be noted that the digital transformation's different aspects are neither adequately differentiated nor systematically captured. That is the task this contribution tackles. A classification for digital business models is developed, in order to analytically exploit the different scopes and consistently infer politico-economic need for action.


This Article will analyze the various approaches courts follow when deciding if a nonparty can be compelled to produce documents located outside the judicial district where a rule 45 subpoena duces tecum is issued. Part I will review the procedure for nonparty document discovery and discuss the decisional law applying the enforcement provisions of rule 45. Part II will analyze the jurisdictional principles used by federal district courts to determine when documents under the control of nonparties, and not located within the territorial limits of the court, should be produced for discovery purposes. Part III will recommend the appropriate approach to be followed by federal district courts when asked to enforce the nonparty subpoena provisions of rule 45.


Curently, urea kinetic modeling is routinely accepted to evaluate peritoneal dialysis (PD) through the calculation of Kt/V (normalized whole body urea clearence) and nPNA (normalized protein equivalent of total nitrogen appearence). In paedriatrics, the exact meaning and target values for these parameters are still under debate. Objective: to evaluate the mean values and correlations between ureaKt/V and nutritional parameters in chronic paedriatric peritoneal dialysis. Patients and Methods: 186 nitrogen balance studies in a 6-12 month period were prospectively performed in patients on PD. Daily protein intake (DPI) was assessed by nutritional evaluation. Protein, albumin, urea and creatinine were analysed in dialysate and urine, collected once a month. Dialysis adequacy was evaluated through monthly measurements of ureaKt/V and creatinine clearence (CCr) in urine and dialysate. All statistical comparasons were done with paired t-test, and 2 way ANOVA for repeated measures was used to calculate correlations, p < 0.05 was considered significant. Results: 20 patients, mean age 5,1 ± 4,7 years, range 3 months to 14,8 years, 15 males were included. DPI was 3,52 ± 1,1 g/kg/day. Weekly total and residual ureaKt/V were 3,1 ± 1,35 and 1,69 ± 1,46 respectively, CCr was 72,4 ± 70 and 45 ± 44L respectively. PCR was 0,84 ± 0,33 showing a net nitrogen balence (NB= IDP-PCR) of +1,37 ± 0,4gr/kg/day and mean nPNA was 1,38 ± 0,40, with a positive correlation with DPI, PCR and total Kt/V p < 0.001). Total Kt/V showed a significant positive correlation with PCR and nPNA (p < 0.001) but not to NB and DPI. A negative correlation was found between all urea kinetic parameters vs plasma bicarbonate p < 0.001. Conclusions: ureaKt/V and nPNA were found to be higher than the recommended values in adults. The positive correlation between ureaKt/V and nPCR and nPNA could not be demonstrated with DPI or NB, suggesting that it could be the result of a mathematical association. The negative correlation between plasma bicarbonate and urea kinetic variables suggests a negative impact of acidosis on the nutritional status of these patients.


With this publication, the Landesarchiv Schleswig-Holstein and the Danish State Archives celebrate the 75th anniversary of the signing of the German-Danish Archives Agreement. As is already a tradition in German-Danish archival cooperation, this is done in German and Danish. All texts of the publication are therefore available in both languages. The former archivist Hans Kargaard Thomsen, Copenhagen, wrote a detailed report in the 1990s entitled "Arkivoverenskomsten med Tyskland 1933 og dens forhistorie" ("The Archives Agreement with Germany of 1933 and its Prehistory"). It forms the core of the publication. This is followed by guidelines on the use of archival material exchanged in 1936 under the agreement between Germany and Denmark. The archivists Malte Bischoff, Landesarchiv Schleswig-Holstein, and Hans Schultz Hansen, Landsarkivet for Sønderjylland, are the authors of these texts. The annex contains the wording of the German-Danish archive agreement.


Atypical anxiolytics such buspirone have been reported to produce fewer disruptive effects on complex behaviors than some typical anxiolytics from the benzodiazepine class. To extend this analysis, several drugs from both drug classes were directly compared in two species (rhesus monkeys and rats) using a repeated-acquisition procedure. In monkeys responding under a multiple schedule of reinforcement consisting of acquisition (learning) and performance components, buspirone (0.032-0.52 mg/kg), 8-hydroxy-dipropylaminotetralin (8-OH-DPAT;0.032-0-56 mg/kg), chlordiazepoxide (CDZP; 1-56 mg/kg) and alprazolam (0.032-0.32 mg/kg) produced dose-dependent decreases in overall response rate in all subjects. However, with buspirone and 8-OH-DPAT, these rate-decreasing effects occurred in acquisition at lower doses than in performance. The effects on overall accuracy (i.e., percent errors) in monkeys were variable across drugs and drug classes. Both 8-OH-DPAT and alprazolam produced large increases in percent errors in acquisition at doses that had little or no effect on errors in performance. Buspirone also had differential effects on percent errors across components, but the error-increasing effects in acquisition were smaller. CDZP administered either orally or intramuscularly produced only small increases in errors, and these occurred at doses that substantially decreased the overall rate of responding in both components of the multiple schedule. In rats responding under a repeated-acquisition procedure, buspirone (1-5.6 mg/kg), 8-OH-DPAT (0.056-3.2 mg/kg) and CDZP (1.8-32 mg/kg) produced dose-dependent decreases in overall response rate. Similar to acquisition data in monkeys, buspirone and 8-OH-DPAT also increased percent errors to a greater extent than CDZP. These data indicate that learning is sensitive to disruption by drugs with 5-HT1A agonist properties, and that atypical anxiolytics with 5-HT1A agonist properties are no less disruptive to "cognitive" processes than typical anxiolytics such as the benzodiazepine alprazolam.


Acoustics is a branch of science whose mathematical models require a great effort of abstraction and spatial visualization. There are several pieces of computational software that allow us to represent these phenomena by means of graphical animations. Some of them enhance their capacity of calculation obtaining more rigorous graphical representations of the acoustic phenomena. Others enhance graphical functions making quicker animations. Software used for specific acoustic situations are also analysed. Very different software has been chosen for the comparative study, with a brief analysis of their operations and their potential as resources for teaching. Some of these have a very extensive scope of applicability, as can be Mathematica software. Some examples of animations that justify the scope of application of each program are illustrated.


We present a web based eLearning system to support software modeling exercises in large-scale software engineering courses. Students get the task to create a domain model based one given textual specification of an application domain. They have to specify the domain model by a UML class diagram and import it into the eLearning system. The system verifies the student's solution and compares it with a set of predetermined sample solutions. This approach is a first step towards an automatic testing of object-oriented models under the conditions of university classes with a large number of students. We discuss it and report about initial experiences in using the eLearning system.


The thermal decomposition of methyl radicals proceeds ia two competitive channels:

with
 an energy difference of about 13 kJ mol−1
 favoring the CH and H2 channel (R1). In the low-pressure
 regime only the reaction channel with the lowest threshold should be open, while with increasing total pressure
 the channel with the higher threshold may compete. Collisional transfer of both energy and angular
 momentum controls this competition in the fall-off range. We investigated the thermal decomposition of
 methyl radicals behind reflected as well as behind incident shock waves at pressures between 100 and 4800
 mbar and temperatures between 2000 and 4000 K. The CH3 radicals were prepared by thermal decomposition
 of a few ppm of two different precursor molecules, azomethane and acetone, respectively, diluted in argon. The
 formation of H atoms during the decomposition was detected by atomic-resonance-absorption spectroscopy
 (ARAS) at 121.6 nm. We found pronounced incubation times in the H atom formation when the unimolecular
 decomposition of methyl radicals follows the very fast decomposition of the methyl precursor under identical
 shock wave conditions. We observed unexpectedly high H atom yields leading to branching ratios up to 70%
 for the channel (R2), depending on the experimental conditions. Both, the observed incubation times as well as
 the branching ratios in the methyl decomposition were analyzed in terms of master equation modeling using
 statistical unimolecular rate theories for the decomposition channels and a simple model for collisional energy
 transfer.


As the incidence of skin cancer is still increasing worldwide, there is a high demand for early, non-invasive and inexpensive skin lesion diagnostics. In this article we describe and combine two skin imaging methods: skin autofluorescence (AF) and multispectral criterion p'. To develop this method, we used custom made prototype with 405 nm, 526 nm, 663 nm and 964 nm LED illuminations, perpendicular positioned linear polarizers, 515 nm filter and IDS camera. Our aim is to develop a skin lesion diagnostic device for primary care physicians who do not have experience in dermatology or skin oncology. In this study we included such common benign lesion groups as seborrheic keratosis, hyperkeratosis, melanocytic nevi and hemangiomas, as well two types of skin cancers: basal cell carcinoma and melanoma. By combining skin AF and multispectral p' imaging methods, we achieved 100% sensitivity and 100% specificity for distinguishing melanoma (3 histologically confirmed cases) from seborrheic keratosis (13 dermatologically confirmed cases), hyperkeratosis (8 histologically and 1 dermatologically confirmed case), melanocytic nevi (23 dermatologically confirmed cases ), basal cell carcinomas (2 histologically and 16 dermatologically confirmed cases) and hemangiomas (8 dermatologically confirmed cases). Unfortunately, currently this method cannot distinguish the basal cell carcinoma group from benign lesion groups.


INTRODUCTION
To compare Engerix-B and Fendrix hepatitis B virus for primo vaccination in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

METHODS
Patients with IBD were randomized 1:1 to receive Engerix-B double dose or Fendrix single dose at months 0, 1, 2, and 6. Anti-HBs titers were measured 2 months after the third and fourth doses. Response to vaccination was defined as anti-HBs ≥100 UI/L. Anti-HBs titers were measured 2 months after the third and fourth doses and again at 6 and 12 months after the fourth dose.

RESULTS
A total of 173 patients were randomized (54% received Engerix-B and 46% Fendrix). Overall, 45% of patients responded (anti-HBs ≥100 IU/L) after 3 doses and 71% after the fourth dose. The response rate after the fourth dose was 75% with Fendrix vs 68% with Engerix-B (P = 0.3). Older age and treatment with steroids, immunomodulators, or anti-tumor necrosis factor were associated with a lower probability of response. However, the type of vaccine was not associated with the response. Anti-HBs titer negativization occurred in 13% of patients after 6 months and 20% after 12 months. Anti-HBs ≥100 IU/L after vaccination was the only factor associated with maintaining anti-HBs titers during follow-up.

DISCUSSION
We could not demonstrate a higher response rate of Fendrix (single dose) over Engerix-B (double dose). A 4-dose schedule is more effective than a 3-dose regimen. Older age and treatment with immunomodulators or anti-tumor necrosis factors impaired the success. A high proportion of IBD patients with protective anti-HBs titers after vaccination loose them over time. The risk of losing protective anti-HBs titers is increased in patients achieving anti-HBs <100 IU/L after the vaccination.


If, as Walter Benjamin claimed, "it is the function of artistic form … to make historical content into a philosophical truth," then it is the function of criticism to recover and to complete that truth. Never has this been more necessary or more difficult than with respect to contemporary art. Contemporary art is a point of condensation of a vast array of social and historical forces, economic and political forms and technologies of image production. Contemporary art expresses this condition, Osborne maintains, through its distinctively postconceptual form. These essays—extending the scope and arguments of Osborne's Anywhere or Not at All: Philosophy of Contemporary Art—move from philosophical consideration of the changing temporal conditions of capitalist modernity, via problems of formalism, the politics of art and the changing shape of art institutions, to interpretation and analysis of particular works by Akram Zataari, Xavier Le Roy and Ilya Kabakov, and the postconceptual situation of a crisis-ridden New Music.


In tree fruits, proper crop management during bloom is essential for producing disease-free fruit. Tree fruits are often grown in heterogeneous landscapes; however, few studies have assessed whether landscape context and crop management affect the floral microbiome, which plays a critical role in shaping plant health and disease tolerance. ABSTRACT Crop-associated microbiota are a key factor affecting host health and productivity. Most crops are grown within heterogeneous landscapes, and interactions between management practices and landscape context often affect plant and animal biodiversity in agroecosystems. However, whether these same factors typically affect crop-associated microbiota is less clear. Here, we assessed whether orchard management strategies and landscape context affected bacterial and fungal communities in pear (Pyrus communis) flowers. We found that bacteria and fungi responded differently to management schemes. Organically certified orchards had higher fungal diversity in flowers than conventional or bio-based integrated pest management (IPM) orchards, but organic orchards had the lowest bacterial diversity. Orchard management scheme also best predicted the distribution of several important bacterial and fungal genera that either cause or suppress disease; organic and bio-based IPM best explained the distributions of bacterial and fungal genera, respectively. Moreover, patterns of bacterial and fungal diversity were affected by interactions between management, landscape context, and climate. When examining the similarity of bacterial and fungal communities across sites, both abundance- and taxon-related turnovers were mediated primarily by orchard management scheme and landscape context and, specifically, the amount of land in cultivation. Our study reveals local- and landscape-level drivers of floral microbiome structure in a major fruit crop, providing insights that can inform microbiome management to promote host health and high-yielding quality fruit. IMPORTANCE Proper crop management during bloom is essential for producing disease-free tree fruit. Tree fruits are often grown in heterogeneous landscapes; however, few studies have assessed whether landscape context and crop management affect the floral microbiome, which plays a critical role in shaping plant health and disease tolerance. Such work is key for identification of tactics and/or contexts where beneficial microbes proliferate and pathogenic microbes are limited. Here, we characterize the floral microbiome of pear crops in Washington State, where major production occurs in intermountain valleys and basins with variable elevation and microclimates. Our results show that both local-level (crop management) and landscape-level (habitat types and climate) factors affect floral microbiota but in disparate ways for each kingdom. More broadly, these findings can potentially inform microbiome management in orchards for promotion of host health and high-quality yields.


When Ni(NO3)2·6H2O and N,N′-di(4-pyridyl)-1,4,5,8-naphthalenetetracarboxydiimide (DPNDI) are reacted, a one-dimensional coordination polymer (1) is formed. However, analogous reactions with either terephthalic acid (2) or 2,6-naphthalenedicarboxylic acid (3) and DPNDI affords two-dimensional, pillared metal–organic frameworks. 2 and 3 contain rectangular voids of different dimensions which are dictated by the carboxylate ligand and the arrangement of the {[M(k2-O2NO)]2(μ2-O2CR)2} secondary building unit (SBU) that forms the nodes of the framework. The role of SBU geometry, intermolecular face-to-face π–π and lone pair–π interactions involving the DPNDI ligands are discussed.


Subpart F currently taxes US shareholders on deemed dividends of Subpart F income from controlled foreign corporations (CFCs), rather than taxing the CFCs directly. This approach is based on a similar approach taken in the 1930s to taxing US shareholders in foreign personal holding companies (FPHCs). The reason for this approach was that in 1937, when the FPHC regime was first enacted, the Treasury took the view that it would be a breach of international law to tax a foreign person (the FPHC) directly on foreign source income. However, today it is clear that the US can in fact tax US-controlled foreign persons on foreign source income, as evidenced by the application of the personal holding corporation (PHC) regime to foreign corporations. Moreover, the deemed dividend approach leads to considerable complexity and planning opportunities, as evidenced in the Brown Group case and in Enron's Apache transaction. Instead of trying to close these loopholes one by one, Congress should substitute direct taxation of CFCs (and repeal the FPHC regime, which is obsolete). This can be done without resolving the continuing debate on what should be the scope of Subpart F income.


This thesis considers the feasibility of using an inexpensive Real-Time Kinematic Global Positioning System (RTK-GPS) unit to provide position data to support a high precision landing of an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) into a net. Both dynamic- and stationary-net platforms were considered and custom guidance controllers were designed for both applications. Fully functioning, the system is intended to remove the need of a pilot when operating UAVs from confined platforms. The ArduPilot Mega (APM) was the selected micro-controller for providing the approach guidance. It already supported autonomous waypoint flight, based on absolute GPS-based position reference. Accommodation of the new RTK-GPS distance vector, a measure of the relative distance between base station and UAV, in custom guidance algorithms constituted the main bulk of work. Real-Time Kinematic Library (RTKLIB), an open source RTK software, was used for calculation of the relative distance vector, also known as baseline vector. The custom guidance controllers utilized model-less controller logic, and the longitudinal and lateral axes were completely uncoupled. The longitudinal controller, governing throttle- and pitch setpoints, was comprised of two Proportional, Integral and Derivtive (PID) controllers. The lateral controller, a non-linear lookahead-based controller, produced a setpoint for the desired aircraft roll. Other main topics of the thesis were; HIL-simulation based on the software XPlane and MissionPlanner and real-life testing with the model aircraft X8 Skywalker. HIL-simulations confirmed the feasibility of the guidance controllers, while real-life testing showed sufficient precision of the entire system, baseline vector and custom guidance controllers combined, for retrieval of a UAV in a 3 m high by 5 m wide net.


This 'dossier' is dedicated to Marcel L'Herbier, a seminal figure in twentieth-century French cinema who, although very prolific, remains little known outside France. It grows out of the 4th Fashion in Film Festival,1 a film season which celebrated L'Herbier's unique position in French cinema – and cinema more generally – as a driving force behind many significant artistic collaborations, with an emphasis on the extraordinarily fruitful years between 1918 and 1932. Spanning the silent and early sound eras, this was the period in which L'Herbier most succeeded in his vision to enrich cinema by 'synthesising' a wide range of creative fields, including painting, sculpture, architecture, music, furniture, textiles, costume design and, of course, fashion.

Like the festival, this dossier is aimed at an English-speaking audience, and we hope above all to generate more interest outside France in L'Herbier's remarkable but rarely seen work. The dossier assembles newly commissioned essays as well as an array of quotations (compiled by Marlene Van de Casteele), photographs, illustrations and other documentary material. We wanted to spotlight texts from the period because only very little of this material has been translated into English.


A 180-km-diameter semicircular band of abundant karst sinkholes (Ring of Cenotes) in northwest Yucatan, Mexico, coincides approximately with a concentric ring of the buried Chicxulub structure, a circular feature manifested in Cretaceous and older rocks, that has been identified as the product of the impact of a bolide. The ring, expressed in Tertiary rocks, marks a zone of high permeability as shown by (1) the sinkholes themselves, (2) breaks in the coastal dune system and high density of springs where the ring intersects the coast, and (3) water-level transects characterized by a decline in water level toward the ring. Any direct relation that exists between the Ring of Cenotes and the Chicxulub structure bears on regional hydrogeology. If the layer or zone responsible for the ring is deeply buried, it may act as a barrier to the movement of ground water across the main flow direction. Shallower zones of horizontal permeability could result in less complete diversion of ground water. Through its influence on Yucatan aquifer characteristics, the ring may provide a link between modern environmental problems and astrogeology. Possible origins for the Ring of Cenotes are (1) faulting, perhaps reactivated by post-Eocene–mid-Miocene basin loading, (2) permeability in a buried reef complex developed in the shallow Paleocene sea around the crater rim, or (3) breccia collapse occasioned by consolidation or by solution of evaporite components. If the ring developed on ancient faults, it may outline hydrothermal systems and mineral deposits produced during Paleocene cooling of the Chicxulub melt sheet.