Despite Argentina's legacy of welfare payments to support the needy, 23.4 percent of the country's population remains below the poverty line. Microfinance, which provides credit solutions for the very poor, has the potential to improve the situation of the impoverished. Though the microfinance sector has existed in Argentina since 1997, it remains largely underdeveloped. Over time, government support for microfinance has increased substantially, as evidenced by the creation of organizations like FONCAP (Social Capital Fund), a private-public fund that provides capital for commercial microfinance banks, and CONAMI (National Commission for Microcredit). Now the government is the single largest funder of microfinance in the country. Yet microfinance opportunities are still lacking. However, a mere increase in the quantity of funds available to the microfinance sector will not wholly solve the problems with microfinance in Argentina. The government's present system of heavily regulated money disbursements threatens to suffocate the very industry it seeks to bolster. To be truly effective, public initiatives must provide a greater quantity of funds to institutions, but more crucially, these funds must come with much fewer strings attached. The demand for microfinance services certainly exists, but Argentina's government has not dedicated enough resources to the sector for the young industry to meet that demand or even to satisfy its growth projections. In the province of Buenos Aires alone, a December 2006 study found that 440,000 people would be interested in microfinance services, but at that time, the whole country's loan portfolio was only 30,000 loans. Although at that point the Andares Foundation, a reputable microfinance think tank, predicted a 62 percent annualized rate of microfinance portfolio growth for the next seven years, such impressive growth has yet to occur. While the government cannot reasonably bear all the blame for the failure to meet projections and address demand, it can help solve these problems. Microfinance depends largely on scale. The more money a microfinance institution (MFI) receives, the more loans it can give. And the more loans an MFI gives, the less overall risk it incurs. In addition, as a bank caters to more borrowers, per-unit costs decline. With less risk and lower costs, the bank can offer even more loans. Then once the industry reaches a certain size, MFIs can issue debt and equity capital in national and international markets to finance their activities. But the Argentine industry has yet to reach that point. For this reason, the government may play a crucial role in the small and underdeveloped microfinance sector by providing additional funds that allow the industry to grow until it becomes self-sustainable. The microfinance sector also faces the problem of excessive government regulation. While the regulation is in place to prevent abuse of funds and corruption, FONCAP and CONAMI funds often come with so many strings attached that beneficiaries question their decision to accept the money. For example, beneficiaries must fill out extraordinary amounts of endless and unnecessary paperwork, a process that wastes time and money. But particularly problematic is the fact that these organizations cap the interest rates that banks can charge their borrowers. …


The construction and maintenance of highways creates a demand for high quality paving aggregates, which are becoming scarce in many parts of the country. Taconite industry waste rock and tailings are a potential new source of virgin aggregates. Currently there is limited information available for implementing these products in construction specifications. The goal of this project was to assess available taconite aggregate resources that could supply a high quality, low cost aggregate for roadway use, especially in areas where aggregates are becoming scarce. This report summarized the work completed under a government-academia-industry partnership that investigated the use of taconite aggregates for pavement applications. The following results were learned from this study: (1) Taconite aggregates can be used successfully to construct high quality aggregate base, asphalt, and concrete pavement layers; (2) The test sections constructed at MnROAD have performed as well as or better than those built using conventional aggregates; (3) A demonstration project was successfully completed in which microwave technology was used to patch a pothole on a local county road, and that pothole patch performed well over time; and (4) Several laboratory tests performed on taconite aggregates or on asphalt mixtures consisting of taconite aggregates have shown very good performance.


My thesis consists of three chapters that are motivated by policy-relevance and contribute to the study of crime choices among young individuals. Chapter 2 studies the determinants of youth crime using a dynamic discrete choice model of crime and education. We allow past education and criminal activities to affect current crime and educational decisions. We take advantage of a rich panel dataset on serious juvenile offenders, the Pathways to Desistance. Using a series of psychometric tests, we estimate a model of cognitive and social/emotional skills which feed into the crime and education model. This allows us to separately identify the roles of state dependence, returns to experience, and heterogeneity in driving crime and enrollment decisions among youth. We find small effects of experience and stronger evidence of state dependence and heterogeneity for crime and schooling. We provide evidence that, as a consequence, policies that affect individual heterogeneity (e.g., social/emotional skills), and those that temporarily keep youth away from crime, can have important and lasting effects even if criminal experience has already accumulated. Chapter 3 documents empirical facts about the criminal and legal labour sector for disadvantaged young individuals, and investigates the factors driving the transitions between sectors. I focus on the role of heterogeneity, earnings, human capital, and criminal capital in determining transitions across the criminal and legal labour sectors. The data I employ comes from the Pathways to Desistance Study. I find that disadvantaged young individuals face two low-quality employment alternatives. On the one hand, jobs in the legal labour sector are characterized by short average duration and low wages. Consistent with their low quality, these jobs present small returns to legal experience. Activity in the criminal sector presents similar features as legal jobs and it offers an earnings premium relative to the legal labour sector, which partially compensates for the inherent risk of the activity. I provide evidence that earnings in the criminal and legal labour sectors play a significant role on the transitions across sectors. This implies that choices in the criminal and legal labour sectors are strongly related and, as a result, they should not be studied in isolation of each other. Motivated by the findings in Chapter 3, Chapter 4 analyzes the legal employment and crime choices for disadvantaged youth. The labour market for this population group is usually studied ignoring the presence of the criminal sector, and yet a large share of them participate in crime. To study these outcomes jointly and explore how they relate, I build and estimate a two-sector search model allowing for a rich set of interactions between the two sectors. I estimate the model using monthly data from the Pathways to Desistance. Search frictions in the legal labour sector are found to be significant, with these individuals being offered low-quality legal jobs that are characterized by low earnings and large destruction rates. The criminal sector provides an attractive alternative to the legal labour sector, offering an earnings premium. Nevertheless, crime brings a higher probability of incarceration and fewer opportunities in the legal labour sector. I find that there are sizable interactions across sectors, and that policies in one sector can have important effects on the other sector. I provide evidence that policies targeting the legal labour sector (e.g., wage subsidy) can reduce crime and boost legal employment among disadvantaged youth. Furthermore, a policy that reduces the arrival rate of crime opportunities (e.g., via increasing the number of police), compared to extending the average sentence length,


Executive Summary
All public policy involves behaviour change of some kind. This typically takes the form of direct intervention through setting rules and regulations and enforcing them, setting incentives in the form of benefits or taxation, and/or trying to persuade those targeted by policies through information and marketing campaigns.
However, changing people's behaviour through policy is not simply a matter of setting rules and incentives and providing information, and expecting people to follow them rationally. While reasoning and rational calculus inform a large part of people's behaviour, it is also constantly influenced by shortcuts, inaccuracies, intuition and various rough rules-of-thumb. In short, people will not only base their decisions on thinking that is fully rational in weighing all the available information, but also on thinking that is easily accessible to them.
This is a vital starting point for those concerned with policy-making. Knowing about how people live their lives in practice helps to account not just for poor individual choices but also for the regular patterns in individuals' choices. People often pay attention to messages that emanate from messengers they find credible, and ignore others. They are loss averse, unwilling to admit failure, distracted by others they relate to, and shun overly complex things. Crucially, without external stimulus, they are unlikely to want to change habitual behaviour and choose a new default.
This report outlines the architecture of choice and decisions that results from this picture. It explains the implications for policy-makers, distinguishing between doing things better and doing better things. This creates various opportunities and additional levers to consider for policy-makers seeking more positive policy impacts, greater efficiency and changes that are organic and self-sustaining.
The report begins by introducing a pragmatic view of human behaviour, applies this perspective to how change takes place in different sectors, and emphasises the benefits of targeting change at a fence-sitting middle that copies leaders and isolates laggards.
Thereafter, the report applies these principles and concepts in three specific policy areas: developing the next phase of an existing policy to build equalities leadership among the private sector; scoping a strategy to ensure engagement with smaller firms on workplace equalities issues; and stimulating governmental and private sector interventions to deliver improved outcomes for female entrepreneurs.
The report then assembles eight high level practical lessons for policy-makers. These range from some effective tools that recur in 'nudge' interventions across government (typically refinements in communication with public service users) through to interventions to redesign policy and the way in which it is delivered. These lessons include illustrations from the field of equalities policy as well as other policy domains.
The main conclusions are threefold: first, designing policies, processes, institutions and delivery around people's behavioural quirks is promising; second, there is considerable potential in the application of these insights to the field of equalities policy, including in areas where policy impacts have previously been limited; and finally, the practical tools and pointers that are delivered are central to improving policy professionals' capabilities, underpinning open policy-making and wider civil service reform.


Improved functionality of fermented milk is mediated by the synbiotic interaction between Cudrania tricuspidata leaf extract and Lactobacillus gasseri strains Abstract This study was designed to investigate the cooperative effect of selected Lactobacillus gasseri strains and Cudrania tricuspidata (CT) leaf extract in enhancing the health-promoting activities of fermented milk. Addition of CT increased total bacterial counts and proteolysis during fermentation of milk with L. gasseri strains. Antioxidant capacities were determined by measuring the ABTS, DPPH, and peroxyl radical scavenging activities and ferric reducing power. The antioxidant capacity of CT-supplemented milk was greater than that of milk without supplementation; moreover, the antioxidant activity of CT-supplemented milk was syner-gistically improved by fermentation with L. gasseri strains. In particular, CT-supplemented milk fermented by L. gasseri 505 showed the highest antioxidant activity. The phenolic compounds in CT, such as neo-chlorogenic, chlorogenic, and caffeic acid, were metabolized during fermentation with L. gasseri strains, and 3,4-dihydroxy-hydrocinnamic acid was produced as a fermentation metabolite. Moreover, the liberation of bioactive peptides of fermented milk was increased by the proteolytic activity of L. gasseri strains. In particular, six peptides, which were mainly derived from β-casein, were newly identified in this study. These findings suggest that L. gasseri strains metabolize the phenolic acids in the CT and the bioactive peptides released through this interaction improve the antioxidant activity of the fermented milk.


The Kaharoa eruption, the most recent rhyolitic volcanic event in New Zealand, resulted in the deposition of the compositionally distinctive Kaharoa Tephra over at least 30 000 km2 of northern and eastern North Island. The tephra forms an isochronous marker bed for various late-Holocene stratigraphic and palaeoen vironmental studies but is particularly important for evaluating the chronology of New Zealand's notably short prehistory because it was erupted within the last millennium, close to the time of first Polynesian colonization. We derive a definitive radiocarbon age, previously ambiguous, for the Kaharoa Tephra of 665615 BP using cluster analysis of 22 radiocarbon ages relevant to the Kaharoa eruptive episode. The error-weighted mean age obtained on unscreened ages, minus outliers, is supported by statistically identical ages obtained from three sets of screened ages selected to minimize the effects of inbuilt age or contamination. Based on the intercepts method and 1 sigma range of Northern Hemisphere calibration curves, and after subtraction of 27 years for the interhemispheric offset, the radiocarbon age 665615 BP corresponds to calibrated dates ranging fromc. 650–560 cal. BP (i.e. cal. ad 1300–1390). The approximate midpoint of this range provides a colloquial calen dar date for the Kaharoa Tephra ofc. 600 cal. BP (c. cal. ad 1350).


According to prior research, local food purchases at anchor institutions (AIs) support community development and food system resilience. AIs are placed-based organizations, such as schools, universities, and hospitals, that support their communities by virtue of their mission. The COVID-19 pandemic presents a unique opportunity to examine how these institutions can support food system resilience during a period of increasing food insecurity and supply chain disruptions. This study uses mixed methods, including interview and survey data, to investigate how foodservice operations at New England AIs adapted to COVID-19 and supported local food systems throughout the pandemic. The findings demonstrate that AIs experienced shortages of everyday food items among their broadline distributors—large, national distributors that carry a wide variety of food products. However, AIs adapted to these shortages and found alternate sources for these products thanks to mutually beneficial relationships with local producers. Having relationships with both local and national distributors was an important source of functional redundancy within institutional food supply chains, reducing institutions' reliance on a single supplier and enhancing their resilience. This finding suggests that local purchasing relationships help AIs adapt to systemic disruptions, further incentivizing farm-to-institution programs. This study also found that AIs engaged in a wide array of food access initiatives during the pandemic, including pop-up grocery stores and serving free or reduced-price meals. These initiatives supported staff members and communities through food shortages and increased food insecurity. We suggest that these diverse food access initiatives, some of which were created in response to COVID-19 and many of which were in place before the pandemic, are an accessible way for AIs to support food system resilience in capacities beyond procurement.


Bones are one of the most common sites of cancer metastasis, which usually causes pain and impairs quality of life. Radiation therapy combined with opioids is the standard treatment for painful bone metastases. This treatment achieves effective pain control in 60-74% of patients, but limited treatment choices with limited benefits are available for recurrent or residual painful bone metastases after radiotherapy. More than 40% of patients still experience moderate to severe bone pain after reirradiation. Magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound (MRgFUS) combines high-intensity focused ultrasound, which achieves thermal ablation of bone metastases and subsequent pain reduction, with real-time magnetic resonance (MR) thermometry to monitor the temperature of anatomic MR images, with an accuracy of 1 °C, spatial resolution of 1 mm, and temporal resolution within 3 s. As well as being increasingly used clinically for controlling metastatic bone pain, the use of MRgFUS for other diseases has also been tested. However, the use of MR software as a thermometer is the only technique available to verify the accuracy of the software and assure energy delivery. Here, we describe an efficient method of quality assurance we developed for thermal detection and energy delivery before each MRgFUS treatment and also propose a modified workflow to expedite the treatment course as well as to reduce patients' pain during the procedure.


OBJECTIVES
To assess the alterations of autonomic nervous functions and sympathovagal balance of the subjects with spinal cord injuries (SCIs) in different levels by heart rate variability analysis.

DESIGN
Prospective, observational study.

SETTING
All participants were recruited from the outpatient clinic from National Taiwan University Hospital, which is a tertiary referral center.

PARTICIPANTS
Thirty-one patients with traumatic chronic complete SCI (more than 6 months): 14 with paraplegia (Group A), and 17 with tetraplegia (Group B).

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Heart rate variability assessed by 24-hour Holter monitoring.

RESULTS
Two patients in Group A and 1 in Group B were excluded from final data analysis because of poor recording data. Two time domain variables, the standard deviation (SD) of all normal RR intervals (SDNN) and the mean of the SDs of all normal RR intervals for all 5-minute intervals (SDNNi), over 24 hours were decreased in Group B. All time domain variables, SDNN, SDNNi, root mean square of the successive normal RR interval difference (rMSSD), and the percentage of RR intervals differing >50msec from the preceding one (pNN50), were decreased during the nighttime recordings (all p < .05) in Group B. The very-low-frequency, low-frequency (LF), and high-frequency (HF) components of the power spectrum of the RR intervals were also decreased in Group B (p < .05), irrespective of the daytime and nighttime recordings. The LF-to-HF ratio did not differ significantly in these two groups, indicating the maintained sympathovagal balance in the chronic SCI patients.

CONCLUSION
These findings suggested that the autonomic nervous system activity was depressed in the patients with chronic tetraplegia, but the autonomic nervous system still maintained homeostasis.


Bimodal WC-Co hardmetals were produced using novel technology - reactive sintering. Milled and activated tungsten and graphite powders were mixed with commercial coarse grained WC-Co powder and then sintered. The microstructure of produced materials was free of defects and consisted of evenly distributed coarse and fine tungsten carbide grains in cobalt binder. The microstructure, hardness and fracture toughness of reactive sintered bimodal WC-Co hardmetals is exhibited. Developed bimodal hardmetal has perspective for demanding wear applications for its increased combined hardness and toughness. Compared to coarse material there is only slight decrease in fracture toughness (K 1c is 14.7 for coarse grained and 14.4 for bimodal), hardness is increased from 1290 to 1350 HV units. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ms.21.3.7511


Y2WO6: RE, Y2O2S: RE, Gd2O2S: RE phosphors have been prepared using the urea homogeneous precipitation method and firing. Stokes luminescence properties of Y2WO6: RE excited with a FRED (frequency doubled argon ion) UV laser (257 nm) have been studied. The emissions have been assigned to their corresponding energy levels. Differences in the emission spectra of Y2WO6: RE, Y2O2S: RE, Gd2O2S: RE and Y2O3: RE have been attributed to the different site symmetries of the rare earth ions and to the different phonon energies of the lattices.

Fine nanostructures present within butterfly wing scales have been faithfully replicated using a precursor Y2O3: Eu phosphor solution. Monodisperse polystyrene spheres and SiO2 spheres were synthesised and they were used to synthesise well ordered bare opal templates. Photonic phosphor crystals of Y2O3: Eu, Tb, Gd and Y2O3: Tm were synthesised using these templates to study the photonic band gap properties. Nano-sized Y2O3: Eu phosphors have been successfully incorporated into mono-dispersed silica spheres which have been assembled into photonic crystals. It has been observed that when light-emitting phosphors (e.g. Y2O3: Eu) and dyes (e.g. acid red dye) are incorporated into the opal structures, their emission spectra are modified when the stopbands of the opals overlap the emission bands of the light-emitting materials.


Objectives Despite being commonly used in research and clinical practice, the evidence regarding the factor structure of the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) remains equivocal and this has implications on how the scale scores should be aggregated. Researchers continue to debate whether the BDI-II is best viewed as a unidimensional scale, or whether specific subscales have utility. The present study sought to test a comprehensive range of competing factor analytic models of the BDI-II, including traditional non-hierarchical multidimensional models and confirmatory bifactor models. Method Participants (n=370) were clinical outpatients diagnosed with either depressive episode or adjustment disorder. Confirmatory factor analysis and confirmatory bifactor modelling were used to test 15 competing models. The unidimensionality of the best fitting model was assessed using three strength indices (explained common variance, percentage of uncontaminated correlations and ω hierarchical). Results Overall, bifactor solutions provided superior fit than both unidimensional and non-hierarchical multidimensional models. The best fitting model consisted of a general depression factor and three specific factors: cognitive, somatic and affective. High factor loadings and strength indices for the general depression factor supported the view that the BDI-II measures a single latent construct. Conclusions The BDI-II should primarily be viewed as a unidimensional scale, and should be scored as such. Although it is not recommended that scores on individual subscales are used in isolation, they may prove useful in clinical assessment and/or treatment planning if used in conjunction with total scores.


Abstract Multi-proxy analysis of a sediment core spanning 1600 years from Walden Pond, Massachusetts (USA), reveals substantial changes in the nutrient status over the past ∼250 years resulting from anthropogenic impacts on the lake and watershed. Following a period of environmental stability from about 430 AD to 1750 AD, the abundance of the diatom Cyclotella stelligera increased, the chrysophyte cyst to diatom ratio decreased, organic content declined, bulk organic δ13C decreased, and bulk organic δ15N increased. These changes coincided with logging in the watershed, and are mainly attributed to an increase in detrital input of inorganic sediment and delivery of dissolved soil decomposition products from the watershed. With the beginning of intensive recreational development of Walden Pond in the early 20th century, oligotrophic diatom species were largely replaced by disturbance indicators and the diatom-inferred lake pH increased by 0.5 units, while the bulk organic carbon and nitrogen stable isotope composition markedly shifted to lower and higher values, respectively. These changes reflect inorganic inputs from erosion related to trails, beaches, and construction, as well as increased nutrient inputs by wastewater seepage into groundwater and extensive recreational usage. Diatom-inferred total phosphorus increased only slightly, probably because oligotrophic species still persist during spring and autumn, when Walden Pond has lower nutrient concentrations due to reduced recreational activity. During the last 25 years, diatom assemblages stabilized, suggesting that management measures have been effective in reducing the rate of eutrophication. Notably, the changes observed over the past 250 years are well beyond the range of natural variability of the past 1600 years, yet the pre-disturbance record provides a useful target for developing additional restoration and conservation measures to ensure future environmental protection of this historical site.


ABSTRACT Motor activity in healthy young humans displays intrinsic fluctuations that are scale-invariant over a wide range of time scales (from minutes to hours). Human postmortem and animal lesion studies showed that the intact function of the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) is required to maintain such scale-invariant patterns. We therefore hypothesized that scale invariance is degraded in patients treated for suprasellar tumors that compress the SCN. To test the hypothesis, we investigated 68 patients with nonfunctioning pituitary macroadenoma and 22 patients with craniopharyngioma, as well as 72 age-matched healthy controls (age range 21.0–70.6 years). Spontaneous wrist locomotor activity was measured for 7 days with actigraphy, and detrended fluctuation analysis was applied to assess correlations over a range of time scales from minutes to 24 h. For all the subjects, complex scale-invariant correlations were only present for time scales smaller than 1.5 h, and became more random at time scales 1.5–10 h. Patients with suprasellar tumors showed a larger decrease in correlations at 1.5–10 h as compared to healthy controls. Within healthy subject, gender and age >33 year were associated with attenuated scale invariance. Conversely, activity patterns at time scales between 10 and 24 h were significantly more regular than all other time scales, and this was mostly associated with age. In conclusion, scale invariance is degraded in healthy subjects at the ages of >33 year as characterized by attenuation of correlations at time scales 1.5–10 h. In addition, scale invariance was more degraded in patients with suprasellar tumors as compared to healthy subjects.


Placocystites forbesianus de Koninck, from the Silurian Dudley Limestone, near Dudley, West Midlands, is here interpreted as a primitive chordate with a calcite skeleton of echinoderm type. This agrees with earlier papers by the senior author and disagrees with the work of Ubaghs (1968 etc.). Applying Hennig's terminology, Placocystites probably belongs to the stem group of the vertebrates and therefore throws light on primitive vertebrate anatomy. It also belongs to the group Calcichordata, set up by one of us as a subphylum (Jefferies 1967). The Calcichordata, however, are not comparable in phylogenetic position with the living chordate subphyla, so the word calcichordate will henceforth be used only informally, for any chordate with a skeleton of echinoderm type. Ubaghs, who has developed a totally different interpretation, assigns Placocystites to the subphylum Homalozoa of the phylum Echinodermata. In assigning it to that phylum, Ubaghs's work is more traditional than ours. Within the calcichordates, Placocystites forbesianus belongs to the more advanced group known as mitrates. These are distinguished from more primitive calcichordates (cornutes) by having right gill slits in addition to left ones. Within the mitrates it is possible to suggest the stem groups, in the Hennigian sense, of acraniates, tunicates and vertebrates. The term standard vertebrate is proposed to denote vertebrates in the usual sense, as contrasted with those stem vertebrates included in the mitrates. The two obvious parts of a calcichordate, formerly called theca and stem, or body and tail, are best called head and tail by homology with standard vertebrates. Mitrates correspond to the tunicate-tadpole-like protovertebrate of 'antisegmentationist' morphologists such as Froriep, Starck and Romer. The uniformly segmented protovertebrate of 9segmentationist' morphologists such as Goodrich would represent a real but later stage in the ancestry of standard vertebrates, descended from a mitrate. The somites of standard vertebrates and acraniates can be plausibly identified inside calcichordates. The premandibular and mandibular somites would be located in the head, along with the buccal cavity, pharynx, gill slits and viscera. The left and right mandibular somites were probably represented in mitrates by the left and right anterior coeloms. The paired premandibular somites would be represented by a crescentic body situated in the posterior part of the head just in front of the brain. The hyoidean somites would be the most anterior pair of somites of the tail, totally separated from gill slits and gill bars. More posterior somites would also be in the tail, behind the hyoidean somites. The homologues of the paired eyes of standard vertebrates can also be recognized as having existed in mitrates (cispharyngeal eyes). The presumed premandibular, mandibular and hyoidean somites were grouped round them in an arrangement which could give rise to the extrinsic eye muscles of standard vertebrates. The ears of mitrates were lateral to the hyoidean somites as they are in living vertebrate embryos. The nervous system of Placocystites and its relatives is comparable with that of a fish. The brain was divided into two parts broadly corresponding to the prosencephalon and rhombencephalon of an early standard vertebrate (though the rhombencephalon of vertebrates also includes derivatives of the mitrate tail). The cranial nerves are deduced to have included olfactory, perhaps terminalis, optic, trigeminal and acusticolateralis complexes. The trigeminal complex included opthalmicus superficialis and ophthalmicus profundus branches and a single pair of ganglia. Contrary to classical theory, it was not divided into profundus and 'true' trigeminal subcomplexes. The pharynx of Placocystites and related mitrates was like that of a tunicate, particularly in certain asymmetries. Details of the skeleton strongly indicate that the pharynx in life would have contained an endostylar mucous trap of tunicate or ammocoete type, as classical theory would predict. The neural gland ('hypophysis') seems to have had the same relations as in a fully formed tunicate tadpole, but was probably endodermal in origin, homologous with Seessel's pouch of a vertebrate. The anatomy of the head of the primitive calcichordate Cothurnocystis , which was a cornute, and like other cornutes and larval amphioxus had left gill slits only, is reconstructed by working backwards from mitrates and by direct evidence from its skeleton. The hypothetical latest common ancestor of lampreys and gnathostomes is deduced. The parts derived from the mitrate head can be distinguished from those derived from the mitrate tail. The animal probably possessed a notochordal head region and a trunk. These would have formed when gill slits and viscera migrated backwards ventral to the anterior part of the mitrate tail. The pericardium would have arisen by ventral growth of mitrate tail somites down the gill bars and their fusion ventrally to form a cavity. The visceral coelom arose by the ventral growth of mitrate tail somites round the viscera, accompanied by the development and fusion of cavities in the ventral parts of these somites. The branchial nerves of standard vertebrates are a mixture of placodal elements, probably derived from the mitrate head, and neural crest elements, probably derived from the mitrate tail. This hypothetical animal probably evolved from the mitrates when one of them took to habitual forwards swimming. Placocystites probably crept backwards through the sediment just below the sea bottom, pulled by the tail. A pair of spines near the mouth would serve to cut into the sediment, probably assisted by water squirted along them from the buccal cavity.


In view of the problem of large amount, low temperature, wide distribution, low recovery efficiency and difficult recovery of present low-temperature waste heat. This paper studied the mechanical structure and working mechanism of the new type of low pressure steam power generation device with blower as the core. And developed the embedded control system of the power generation device composed of a substrate board and functional boards using modular design method. The system with the C8051F040 MCU at its core was composed of speed encoder, temperature sensor and other sensors, signals of which were real-time input into the MCU. The MCU received real-time human-machine interface through RS232 bus to supervise and control the control system. The PID power regulator with encoder as the feedback signal is designed, which eliminated the disturbance of waste heat, and regulated the power quality of the generator steadily and reliably .The experimental results show that the control system has good openness, flexibility and stability, and can adjust the power quality, realize that the low-temperature waste heat power generation device efficiently recycle the low-temperature waste heat and conversion of electrical energy.


The witchweed, Striga hermonthica (Del.) Benth., is a major constraint to maize (Zea mays L.) and sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] production in sub-Saharan Africa. Intercropping maize and sorghum with desmodium (Desmodium spp.) effectively controls Striga and enhances grain yields. Studies were thus conducted to assess the potential role of intercropping maize and sorghum with different food legumes for control of Striga. Seasonal Striga counts in the intercrops, other than greenleaf desmodium where the counts consistently remained close to zero, were generally not signifi cantly different from those in the control in both crops. A pooled analysis across seasons, however, showed that intercropping sorghum with cowpea [Vigna ungui culata (L.) Walp.], greengram [Vigna radiata (L.) Wilczek], and crotalaria (Crotalaria ochroleuca G. Don), and maize with crotalaria signifi cantly reduced Striga populations. Within-season analysis showed that it was only the greenleaf desmodium intercrop that maintained signifi cantly enhanced grain yields relative to the control. On the other hand, multiseason analysis showed that it was only the crotalaria, cowpea, and greenleaf desmodium intercrops in maize and greenleaf desmodium intercrop in sorghum that signifi cantly enhanced grain yields. These results indicate that intercropping sorghum with cowpea, greengram, or crotalaria and maize with crotalaria could be combined with other cultural methods for a sustainable control of S. hermonthica.


Nine species of clitambonitoid brachiopods have been described from the Middle and Upper Ordovician of the Oslo Region, Norway. They include, Hemipronites ? sp., Clitambonites schmidti, Clinambon anomalus, Ilmarinia dimorpha, Vellamo oandoensis, Kullervo hibernica, Kullervo aff. parva, Kullervo aff. punctata and Kullarvo cf. lacunata . The palaeobiogeography and palaeoecology of the Upper Ordovician clitambonitoid brachiopods are discussed. The species found in the northern and western parts of the Oslo Region are mostly related to those of the Baltic carbonate platform, despite surprisingly large differences in lithology. The foreland basin (the Oslo-Scania confacies belt of Jaanusson & Bergstrom, 1980) has a different fauna, dominated by pandemic species of Kullervo . This genus is supposed to have developed in parallel in Avalonia (pandemic species and the North American species) and Baltica (all endemic species to Baltica), from an early kullervo of either Baltic or Avalonian origin. The rapid spread ...


The process of planning for disaster risk reduction and disaster management involves an array of ideas and practices when estimating probabilities, calculating effects and imagining uncertainties. Such processes take place with temporalities that are based on past experience, present knowledge and future scenarios. Multiple governmental and non governmental institutions are involved in such a complex field of action enacted by politicians, government officials, scholars and activists. This paper explores the case of the city of Santa Fe in the northeast of Argentina where disastrous flooding is a historical and recurrent problem. In particular it focuses on how past floods and flooding in the past is remembered -and forgotten- within different institutions in order to understand how these processes forge risky people, places, and practices of the urban landscape.


Christmas 2006 was a special event in Rwanda. Just a decade after being ranked as one of the worst countries for road safety, Rwanda's police force watched over the country's first accident-free festive season, a time for reckless driving in many countries.

This transformation has been far from easy to achieve, however. A World Bank situation report, commissioned in 1996, concluded that one accident was taking place every two and a half hours on Rwanda's roads, almost all of which left people injured and 10% of which resulted in deaths.

Urban centres, such as the capital Kigali, saw frequent violent collisions, sometimes because drivers refused to respect others' right of way, according to Dominique Rurangirwa, who works on transport and road safety in Rwanda's Ministry of Infrastructure. Night-times were particularly hazardous "because of the excess speed resulting generally from alcohol consumption," he recalled. In rural areas, where roads are in a far worse condition than those in urban centres, drivers regularly went too fast to maintain control on the uneven carriageway surface.

Rurangirwa said the number of road deaths in Rwanda for a country of some nine million people was found by the World Bank to be among the world's highest in 1996.

But, according to Rurangirwa, the severity of the situation also presented an opportunity. "After the genocide which plunged Rwanda into mourning in 1994, the country knew that one method of rehabilitation was [improving] its road infrastructure, which was damaged during the genocide, leading to many road traffic deaths," he explained.

The 1996 World Bank report echoed this view that Rwanda's incentive for improving road safety was about moving the country forward from responding to a humanitarian crisis after the genocide to efforts focused on development, of which improving infrastructure and road safety were key parts. The desire for post-genocide rehabilitation and development were the major factors behind the big push on road safety.

After reviewing the World Bank situation report, the Rwandan government started a new road-safety programme, financed by the World Bank, and embarked on a complete revision of the country's laws on road conduct. Ministers re-examined the regulations governing the traffic police and the requirements for drivers, consulting widely among transport stakeholders, including unions and regular road users. "We also spoke to pedestrians, in particular the schoolboys and students, to make sure that we consulted at the level of communities," said Rurangirwa.

New regulations, which started to be strictly enforced after 2001, included mandatory wearing of seatbelts, speed limits, vehicle inspections to ensure standards of roadworthiness and limits on blood-alcohol concentrations. These legislative changes were followed up in 2003 by a public awareness campaign and a law introducing further penalties for lack of seatbelt use or failure to wear helmets on motorcycles.

Since 2004, the World Health Organization (WHO) has been working with the Rwandan government to help raise community awareness of road safety, according to WHO Country Health Information Officer Jean Busco Gasherebuka. He said that WHO has negotiated with schools and unions through a campaign organized by the ministries of health and infrastructure, the police force and WHO. "We have held conferences in the secondary schools through the country and distributed material on the road safety," he said.

The new laws had an almost immediate effect, as the number of deaths dropped by about 30%: "Before the strict observation of the law, 1995–2001, the number of deaths per annum reached between 450 and 550 people," explained Rurangirwa. "But under the new law, the deaths dropped to between 320 and 370."

The types of accidents also changed. Before the new law came into force, excessive speed resulted in high rates of pedestrian injuries and deaths. But speed limits and penalties for drunk-driving reduced these incidents. "The installation also of pavements and crossings for pedestrians also contributed to the reduction in these types of accidents," Rurangirwa added.

Enforcement of these substantial changes was a challenge for Rwanda's under-resourced police force. Early success was accompanied by fears that corruption would increase among traffic police, with individuals attempting to bribe their way out of paying harsh fines (the fine for not wearing a seatbelt is equivalent to 20% of a civil servant's monthly salary). Combating these rumours, the government instigated a parallel crackdown on police corruption in 2004, in which more than 100 officers were sacked for taking bribes.

Six years on from the tightening of regulations, most Rwandan citizens are used to the new rules. Now, Rwanda's traffic police, whose ranks have swelled to between 450 and 500 officers, is turning its attention to foreign coach companies, which are frequently involved in crashes in Rwanda. Coach drivers ferrying passengers to Kigali from Kenya and Uganda object to Rwanda's recently introduced national speed limits of 60 kilometres an hour, which is 20 kilometres an hour lower than in neighbouring east African countries.

Countries in WHO's African Region have 40% more road deaths per 100 000 population than other low- and middle-income countries and 50% more than the world average. The worst rates of road traffic deaths in the WHO Region are among the under-25s, according to WHO's Youth and road safety report.

WHO's 2006 African Regional Health Report held up Rwanda as an example of how African countries can improve road safety. "Rwanda has very good, focused leadership in road safety – political will is key," said Dr Olive C. Kobusingye, regional advisor on violence, injuries and disabilities at WHO's Regional Office for Africa.

Rwanda's plans for extending its success in road safety include further reinforcements for the traffic police to better enforce the law, as well as more public education about how to prevent accidents and observe good road conduct. Gasherebuka believes Rwanda's continued commitment to road safety – exemplified by its signing of the Accra declaration on road safety in Africa in February – shows its determination to further reduce road casualties and deaths. ■

Rwandan policeman helps children crossing the road in Kigali. Police supervision of school crossings and visits to schools to teach children about road safety are important elements of the campaign.


In this paper we propose a method to characterize the time series properties of individual consumption, income and interest rates using micro data, as studies in labour economics have characterized the time series properties of hours and earnings. Our approach, however, does not remove aggregate shocks. Having estimated the parameters of a flexible multivariate MA representation we relate the coefficients of our statistical model to structural parameters of theoretical models of consumption behaviour. Our approach offers a unifying framework that encompasses the Euler equation approach to the study of consumption and the studies that relate innovations to income to innovations to consumption, such as those that have found the so-called excess smoothness of consumption. Using a long time series of cross sections to construct synthetic panel data for the UK, we estimate our model and find that the restriction of Euler equations are typically not rejected, while the data show 'excess smoothness'.


This Article exposes a surprising doctrinal distortion that has unfolded since the Supreme Court first established the Sixth Amendment standard for the right to a jury selected from a fair cross-section of the community. A significant number of courts are erroneously applying the test for a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment's equal protection guarantee to Sixth Amendment claims. As a result, criminal defendants are being deprived of the unique Sixth Amendment fair cross-section right, which encompasses more than just protection from discrimination.Under the Sixth Amendment, a defendant need not allege that any state actor discriminated in the jury selection process. Instead, a defendant can establish a prima facie violation by showing that the underrepresentation of a distinctive group in the jury pool is inherent in the selection process, whether by accident or design. The equal protection clause, in contrast, demands evidence of discriminatory intent.This Article reveals that at least ten federal circuits and nineteen states have erroneously denied defendants' Sixth Amendment claims for failure to satisfy the Fourteenth Amendment's discrimination requirement. This Article also uses an original survey of federal and state cases to explore the potential scope of the problem. In over one-third of the relevant cases, courts denied defendants' fair cross-section claims for failing to meet equal protection standards.In contrast to scholarship arguing that the underpinnings of the fair cross-section standard need to be revisited, this Article asserts that the key to enforcing the cross-section guarantee is not to change the standard, but to apply it consistently with the Sixth Amendment and Supreme Court doctrine.


Determining size-resolved chemical composition of aerosols is important for modelling the aerosols' direct and indirect climate impact, for source–receptor modelling, and for understanding adverse health effects of particulate pollutants. Obtaining this kind of information from optical remote sensing observations is an ill-posed inverse problem. It can be solved by variational data assimilation in conjunction with an aerosol transport model. One important question is how much information about the particles' physical and chemical properties is contained in the observations. We perform a numerical experiment to test the observability of size-dependent aerosol composition by remote sensing observations. An aerosol transport model is employed to produce a reference and a perturbed aerosol field. The perturbed field is taken as a proxy for a background estimate subject to uncertainties. The reference result represents the 'true' state of the system. Optical properties are computed from the reference results and are assimilated into the perturbed model. The assimilation results reveal that inverse modelling of optical observations significantly improves the background estimate. However, the optical observations alone do not contain sufficient information for producing a faithful retrieval of the size-resolved aerosol composition. The total mass mixing ratios, on the other hand, are retrieved with remarkable accuracy.


The mechanisms that are involved in maintaining a human pregnancy to term, and the switches that lead to a normal labour and pregnancy outcome or indeed an adverse outcome such as miscarriage, pre-eclampsia (PE), fetal growth restriction (FGR) or preterm labour, are complex but the role of the placenta is crucial to them all. Heat shock proteins (HSPs) play an important role in regulating signal transduction, inhibition of apoptosis and cellular proliferation and differentiation. Apoptosis has been implicated in both PE and labour. In the apoptotic pathway, HSPs act at several stages to prevent cell death initiated by stress-induced damage. Toll-like receptors (TLR) are the principal signalling molecules through which mammals sense infection. Since these pathways play a role in oxidative stress and inflammation, both features of labour and PE, the hypothesis was that placental stress pathways (HSP70, HSP27, HSF1-2, small HSPs family, DNAJAB, HSP60, GRP78, HSP90AA, HSP90B1 and HSP105), inflammatory mediates (TLRs, MyD88 and NF-κB) and apoptotic markers (caspases (CASP) 3, 7 and 9) pathways expression would alter during labour and pregnancies complications such as PE and FGR and this would vary in different placental zones perhaps due to the variation in blood supply to each zone or link to ischemic-reperfusion (IR) injury and are some zones of placenta more susceptible to IR injury. HSPs, TLRs and caspases were examined in placentas obtained from women who delivered by caesarean section (non-labour) and were not in labour and compared to the equivalent zone of placentas obtained from women who delivered vaginally (labour) following an uncomplicated labour. Samples were obtained from 12 sites within each placenta: 4 equally spaced apart pieces were sampled from the inner, middle and outer placental regions. The expression was investigated by Western blotting (HSP70, HSF1, HSP27 and P-HSP27) and real time PCR (HSP families, HSF1-2, TLRs, MyD88, NF-κB and caspases).
The first aim of this study was to examine the spatial expression of HSPs, caspases and TLR genes in placentas. Two HSF1 forms were observed in all samples which, according to the data sheet represent the phosphorylated (P-HSF1) and non-phosphorylated (NP-HSF1) forms. HSP70, HSF1 and HSP27 are expressed in a spatial manner in the placenta with the highest expression being in the middle zone in the labour group (HSF1, both forms) and in both the labour and the non-labour groups (HSP70 and HSP27). HSF1 mRNA expression was spatially distributed in the non-labour group with highest expression being in the outer zone. No spatial differences were noticed in both P-HSP27 protein expression and mRNA expression of other HSPs families, HSF2, TLRs, MyD88, NF-κB and caspases3, 7 and 9 genes.
Human parturition involves interaction of hormonal, neurological, mechanical stretch and inflammatory pathways and the placenta plays a crucial role. The second aim of this study was to determine these genes expression in the non-labour group compare to the labour group at the inner, middle and outer placental zones. When non-labour groups were compared with the labour group at the three zones the changes found can be summarized as follows:
HSP70 protein expression was increased in the labour group compared to the non-labour group and in contrast to that, HSP27 protein and mRNA expression were increased in the non-labour group both at the middle zone.
Phosphorylated-HSP27 (P-HSP27) expression was increased in the non-labour group compared to the labour group at the inner (all ser sites) and outer (ser 15 and 78) zones. No differences were found at the middle zone. HSF1 protein expressions (both forms) was increased in the non-labour, group compared to the non-labour group, paradoxically, HSF1 mRNA expression was increased in in the labour group at the inner zone.
HSPB6, HSP32 and DNAJB1 mRNA expression was increased in the non-labour group compared to the labour group at the middle zone. HSPB2, HSP90AA and HSP90B1 mRNA expression was increased in the labour group compared to the non-labour group at the outer zone. TLR5 and CASP7 mRNA expression was increased in labour group compared to the non-labour group at the middle zone. TLR9-10 mRNA expression was neglectable. No other changes were found for any other genes.
PE is associated with maternal and placental oxidative stress. The third aim was to determine the expression of genes of the same pathways described above in the placenta in pregnancies complicated with PE and FGR compare to the normal pregnancies. HSPs, TLRs and caspases were examined in placentas obtained from non-labouring women who delivered by caesarean section (normal pregnancy and PE) and compared to women who delivered vaginally (normal pregnancy and PE). Samples were obtained from 12 sites within each placenta: Four equally spaced apart pieces were sampled from the inner, middle and outer, however, due to time constraints only the inner and middle zones were investigated in PE group (except HSP27 and HSP70). Samples from FGR placentas were obtained from 8 sites within each placenta represent inner and outer zones. Western blotting and qRT-PCR was used for the analysis as required.
When PE (non-labour and labour) and FGR (labour only) groups were compared with the controls (non-labour and labour) at the two zones, the changes found can be summarized as follows: HSP70 was increased in the non-labour-PE group compared to the non-labour control group at the inner zone. No other differences were found. Non- Phosphorylated-HSF1 (NP-HSF1) protein expression and HSF1 mRNA expression were increased in the PE group (non-labour and labour) compared to the control group (non-labour and labour) at the inner zone. HSP27 and P-HSP27 protein expression was increased in the PE (labour) compared to the control (labour) at the middle zone. No changes were found in the mRNA expression of HSP27. There was a significant increase in P-HSP27 protein expression in labour PE compared to the labour control at the inner (ser 78 and 82) and middle (ser 15) zones.
CASP7 and CASP9 mRNA expression was increased in the non-labour control compared to the non-labour PE at the inner (CASP7) and middle (CASP9) zones. CASP3 mRNA expression was increased in the labour PE compared to labour control at the middle zone.
There was decreased in mRNA expression of HSPB6, TLR5 and TLR1 in the PE group non-labour compared to the controlnon-labour at the inner (HSPB6) and middle (TLR1 and TLR5) zones.
Towards the end of the PhD time preliminary experiments were performed to determine if different zones of the placenta were more susceptible to heat shock and IR injury in vitro. The markers mentioned above were used and pieces of placenta from each zone were exposed to 2% oxygen then 8% oxygen for different time periods to create an IR model. The number of experiments were not sufficient to make definitive conclusions but the pilot data suggest this should be explored more in future studies include more placenta tissue exposed to IR injury and heat shock to understand how placental stress might affect placental function.
Obesity is characterized by a chronic, low-grade inflammation and an impaired intracellular stress defence system. Obesity increases the risk for PE. The last aim was to screen for different HSPs and CASPs families in placentas obtained from 4 BMI groups (non-labour). In general, HSPs expression was reduced whereas caspases expression was increased in the morbid obesity group (BMI>40) compared to the normal BMI group. This indicates reduced cellular protection and increased cellular damage respectively in placentas from obese women.
In summary this thesis has reiterated the importance of controlled sampling of the placenta for studying pregnancy disorders. The results show that spatial changes in inflammatory and stress markers occur in both labour and PE. Trying to make sense of the data is very difficult however the preliminary data from the in vitro studies suggests that further studies exposing different zones of the placenta to stress may help to understand the process that take place during stress. Clearly the bigger aim would be, one day, to try and decide which of the pathways might be targeted for therapy for pre-term labour and PE.


The computational demands of multivariate clustering grow rapidly, and therefore processing large data sets, like those found in flow cytometry data, is very time consuming on a single CPU. Fortunately these techniques lend themselves naturally to large scale parallel processing. To address the computational demands, graphics processing units, specifically NVIDIA's CUDA framework and Tesla architecture, were investigated as a low-cost, high performance solution to a number of clustering algorithms. C-means and Expectation Maximization with Gaussian mixture models were implemented using the CUDA framework. The algorithm implementations use a hybrid of CUDA, OpenMP, and MPI to scale to many GPUs on multiple nodes in a high performance computing environment. This framework is envisioned as part of a larger cloud-based workflow service where biologists can apply multiple algorithms and parameter sweeps to their data sets and quickly receive a thorough set of results that can be further analyzed by experts. Improvements over previous GPU-accelerated implementations range from 1.42x to 21x for C-means and 3.72x to 5.65x for the Gaussian mixture model on non-trivial data sets. Using a single NVIDIA GTX 260 speedups are on average 90x for C-means and 74x for Gaussians with flow cytometry files compared to optimized C code running on a single core of a modern Intel CPU. Using the TeraGrid "Lincoln" high performance cluster at NCSA C-means achieves 42% parallel efficiency and a CPU speedup of 4794x with 128 Tesla C1060 GPUs. The Gaussian mixture model achieves 72% parallel efficiency and a CPU speedup of 6286x. Copyright c © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Any analysis of the behaviour of the pro‐Iranian Hizbollah organisation in Lebanon requires both an understanding of the movement itself, in terms of its decision‐making apparatus and internal clerical factionalism, and the mechanisms of its institutionalised relationship with Iran and, to a lesser extent, Syria through military and civilian channels at work within Lebanon. This article argues that Hizbollah's behaviour is principally governed by the depth and allegiance of closely forged relationships between individual Hizbollah leaders and Iranian clergy as well as the adaptability of a particular Hizbollah leader to suit the movement's activity to specific requirements within Lebanon and in the region. As such, clerical factionalism within Hizbollah can be monitored by the ascendancy or demotion of clergymen over the leadership and is also a guide to the direction of the movement in Lebanon as well as to the affiliation and loyalty of Hizbollah's leadership with clerical factions and institutions in Iran.


We present IllumiWear, a novel eTextile prototype that uses fiber optics as interactive input and visual output. Fiber optic cables are separated into bundles and then woven like a basket into a bendable glowing fabric. By equipping light emitting diodes to one side of these bundles and photodiode light intensity sensors to the other, loss of light intensity can be measured when the fabric is bent. The sensing technique of IllumiWear is not only able to discriminate between discreet touch, slight bends, and harsh bends, but also recover the location of deformation. In this way, our computational fabric prototype uses its intrinsic means of visual output (light) as a tool for interactive input. We provide design and implementation details for our prototype as well as a technical evaluation of its effectiveness and limitations as an interactive computational textile. In addition, we examine the potential of this prototype's interactive capabilities by extending our eTextile to create a tangible user interface for audio and visual manipulation.


At ultraviolet wavelengths the albedo of most natural surfaces is small with the striking exception of snow and ice. Therefore, snow cover is a major challenge for various applications based on radiative transfer modelling. The aim of this work was to determine the characteristic effective UV range surface albedo of various land cover types when covered by snow. First we selected 1 by 1 degree sample regions that met three criteria: the sample region contained dominantly subpixels of only one land cover type according to the 8 km global land cover classification product from the University of Maryland; the average slope of the sample region was less than 2 degrees according to the USGS's HYDRO1K slope data; the sample region had snow cover in March according to the NSIDC Northern Hemisphere weekly snow cover data. Next we generated 1 by 1 degree gridded 360 nm surface albedo data from the Nimbus-7 TOMS Lambertian equivalent reflectivity data, and used them to construct characteristic effective surface albedo distributions for each land cover type. The resulting distributions showed that each land cover type experiences a characteristic range of surface albedo values when covered by snow. The result is explained by the vegetation that extends upward beyond the snow cover and masks the bright snow covered surface.


Parallel lets you run Stata faster, sometimes faster than MP itself. By organizing your job in several Stata instances, parallel allows you to work with out-of-the-box parallel computing. Using the the 'parallel' prefix, you can get faster simulations, bootstrapping, reshaping big data, etc. without having to know a thing about parallel computing. With no need of having Stata/MP installed on your computer, parallel has showed to dramatically speedup computations up to two, four, or more times depending on how many processors your computer has.


In recent years, television's reality shows and talent competitions have offered people a conflicted chance at fame, while various kinds of Web-based social media have pioneered new forms of communication that people increasingly use to perform their private lives as public theater. During the same period, governments worldwide have asserted vast new powers of surveillance, placing unwitting "participants" on an entirely different kind of stage. Against this backdrop, The Talent Show examines a range of relationships between artists, audiences, and participants that model the competing desires for notoriety and privacy marking our present moment. Ranging from seemingly benevolent partnerships to those that appear to exploit their subjects, many of the works in the exhibition animate the tensions between exhibitionism and voyeurism, and raise challenging ethical questions around issues of authorship, power, and control. Curated by Peter Eleey. Artist list: Stanley Brouwn, Chris Burden, Sophie Calle, Peter Campus, Graciela Carnevale, Phil Collins, Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Tehching Hsieh, David Lamelas, Piero Manzoni, Adrian Piper, Amie Siegel, John Smith, Andy Warhol, Gillian Wearing, Hannah Wilke, Shizuka Yokomizo, Carey Young


ABSTRACT Research has demonstrated that strategic planning in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) enhances performance. Top executives of SMEs are faced with three ostensible philosophical contradictions when formulating strategies for their companies: 1) Should strategy formulation be viewed as an art or a science? 2) Should strategies be flexible or remain consistent? 3) Should the process be top-down or bottom-up? This paper examines top and middle managers ' predispositions along these lines. The findings reveal a need for top managers or management teams of SMEs to employ a blend of discipline and innovation and a strong preference for either top-down or bottom-up planning, not an integration of the two methodologies. Implications for future research are also presented. INTRODUCTION The influence of managers on strategy, including their self-interest, personalities, and interpretations, has been linked to the strategy formulation process, and ultimately to performance (Guth & MacMillan, 1986; Janis, 1972; Smircich & Stubbart, 1985; Walsh & Fahey, 1986). Hence, in some respects, strategic management remains an intuitive and philosophical undertaking (Beaver, 2003). Strategic managers of SMEs are faced with making some critical "judgment calls" when formulating strategy for their companies, each of which involves apparent inconsistencies that must be resolved if the firm is to succeed. These formulation issues involve three ostensible philosophical contradictions that are addressed in this paper: 1) Should strategy formulation be viewed as an art or a science? 2) Should strategies be flexible or remain consistent? 3) Should the process be top-down or bottom-up? Although arguments can be made for either of two opposing perspectives along each dimension (e.g., strictly art or strictly science), we contend that effective SME managers should synthesize and balance such extremes when approaching strategic decision-making. Because managers' philosophical perspectives on each issue can greatly influence the role played in strategy formulation, it is argued that the resolution of these concerns should be the result of an established strategic philosophy. The differences in these three dimensions and the reluctance of SME managers to adopt strategic or long-range planning, despite evidence that it is strongly and positively related to success, are addressed. The relationship between strategic planning and performance in SMEs is strong and positive (Peel & Bridge, 1998). However, many top managers of SMEs are reluctant to adopt strategic planning processes for their organizations, and those who do are actually involved more in business planning with a time frame of one year rather than strategic or long-term planning (Stonehouse & Pemberton, 2002). SME managers also frequently encounter barriers to plan implementation (O'Regan & Ghobadian, 2002). This paper empirically examines planning philosophies of top and middle managers of all sizes of organizations in an effort to provide SME managers with some insight into the effect of planning philosophy on performance. PLANNING AND THE SME MANAGER Much has been written regarding strategic planning methods in large corporations throughout the world. Indeed, strategy researchers have tended to focus their energies on studying larger organizations in their quest to further the still-young field of strategic management. The vibrant world of SMEs, however, is fertile ground for management research of planning methodologies and strategic management of organizations in general. Yet O'Regan and Ghobadian (2000) relate that little research has been undertaken that specifically addresses the process of strategic planning and strategy-making in SMEs. In new entrepreneurial firms, formal planning tends to get in the way of the founder's vision of what it will take to be successful (Mintzberg, 1994). As entrepreneurial firms grow and develop, however, a need for some kind of systematic approach to operations becomes obvious. …


We are developing micromirror arrays (MMA) for future generation infrared multiobject spectroscopy (MOS) requiring cryogenic environment. So far we successfully realized small arrays of 5×5 single-crystalline silicon micromirrors. The 100μm ×200μm micromirrors show excellent surface quality and can be tilted by electrostatic actuation yielding 20° mechanical tilt-angle. An electromechanical locking mechanism has been demonstrated that provides uniform tilt-angle within one arc minute precision over the whole array. Infrared MOS requires cryogenic environment and coated mirrors, silicon being transparent in the infrared. We report on the influence of the reflective coating on the mirror quality and on the characterization of the MMA in cryogenic environment. A Veeco/Wyko optical profiler was used to measure the flatness of uncoated and coated mirrors. The uncoated and unactuated micromirrors showed a peak-to-valley deformation (PTV) of below 10nm. An evaporated 10nm chrome/50nm gold coating on the mirror increased the PTV to 35nm; by depositing the same layers on both sides of the mirrors the PTV was reduced down to 17nm. Cryogenic characterization was carried out on a custom built interferometric characterization bench onto which a cryogenic chamber was mounted. The chamber pressure was at 10e-6 mbar and the temperature measured right next to the micromirror device was 86K. The micromirrors could be actuated before, during and after cryogenic testing. The PTV of the chrome/gold coated mirrors increased from 35nm to 50nm, still remaining in the requirements of < lambda/20 for lambda=1μm.


The importance of the early translations, copied or printed, derived from a parallel process that fostered the development of a standard version of the Hungarian language and the norms of literary Hungarian. In Hungary Benedek Komjati, Gabor Pesti and Janos Sylvester fulfilled the Erasmus program of translating and distributing the Hungarian translations of the Holy Scriptures. They knew that to achieve this they had to find the appropriate linguistic form. Therefore, they wrote also pieces in diff erent genres and did prepare Bible translations only. Due to the changes brought about by Reformation people needed new books in the vernacular in all areas of life, for example school books, catechisms, church constitution (Kirchenordnung) and of course the Bible. In the century of the Reformation, the Hungarian Protestant ministers who knew languages followed Erasmus' example and felt their duty to translate the Holy Scriptures into Hungarian. at the end of the century the first complete Bible in Hungarian was published in Vizsoly in 1590, which was prepared by a circle of scholars. The first complete Catholic Bible translation was published in 1626 in Viennna thanks partly to Gyorgy Kaldi and partly to Peter Pazmany.


The implementation of Molecular Dynamics (MD) on FPGAs has received substantial attention. Previous work, however, has consisted of either proof-of-concept implementations of components, usually the range-limited force; full systems, but with much of the work shared by the host CPU; or prototype demonstrations, e.g., using OpenCL, that neither implement a whole system nor have competitive performance. In this paper, we present what we believe to be the first full-scale FPGA-based simulation engine, and show that its performance is competitive with a GPU (running Amber in an industrial production environment). The system features on-chip particle data storage and management, short- and long-range force evaluation, as well as bonded forces, motion update, and particle migration. Other contributions of this work include exploring numerous architectural trade-offs and analysis on various mappings schemes among particles/cells and the various on-chip compute units. The potential impact is that this system promises to be the basis for long timescale Molecular Dynamics with a commodity cluster.


The overall aim of the research presented in this thesis is threefold: To empirically examine monetary transmission to UK retail mortgage rates; to examine why fixed versus variable rate mortgage lending differs across EU-15 countries; and to build a DSGE model which can be used for analysing optimal monetary policy in economies with different proportions of fixed or variable rate mortgage contracts. Chapter 2 investigates the transmission from UK policy and a range of wholesale money market rates to retail mortgage rates using a single-equation error correction model (SEECM) framework, from 1995 to 2009. The results add to previous studies by showing that the UK retail banking sector is imperfectly competitive at the aggregate level. More specifically, discounted rates, and to a lesser extent fixed rates behave competitively, whilst standard variable rates do not, which can be interpreted as evidence of exploitation of inert borrower behaviour. A snap-shot of the relative levels of variable rate lending across EU-15 countries is taken in the next Chapter 3, illustrating general cross-country differences. Risk simulations show that economies more conducive to variable rate mortgages include those with relatively volatile, persistent, and low inflation; low and stable real interest rates; high real income growth; and low correlation between inflation and real interest rate shocks. Regressions show that macroeconomic histories may indeed be important determinants of variable rate mortgage prevalence. The final Chapter 4 integrates a quantity optimising banking sector that lends under either a fixed or variable rate, into a model with borrowing constrained households. This provides a framework that can be used to investigate relationships between the structure of debt contracts and monetary policy. In particular, the propagation of a productivity shock in the non-durable sector under Ramsey monetary policy is presented, and it is demonstrated that the introduction of overlapping debt contracts tempers the effect of the financial multiplier. An appropriate design of the composition of fixed versus variable rate debt contracts, both their length and interest rate composition, could therefore reduce the volatility of key economic variables, and so there are important policy implications.


The deformation conditions in machining of metals and alloys offer a unique route for materials processing with remarkable advantages over conventional deformation processes. The intense shear strain and high strain-rates in machining can be applied to form chips with controlled geometry. That is, the chip formation in machining can be used directly as a materials processing route wherein the chip becomes the product. The technical details for two of these processes — hybrid cutting-extrusion (HCE) and modulation-assisted machining (MAM) — are discussed and recent experimental results are presented. Both processes involve direct control of the shear-based deformation in machining. HCE applies an additional constraint in cutting which converts the otherwise uncontrolled chip thickness to a controlled format of specific size and shape. In HCE processing of sheet and strip, the deformed chip thickness is less than the deformed chip thickness in conventional cutting. The superimposed oscillation in MAM converts the otherwise continuous cutting process into a series of discrete cutting events. The control of the MAM and cutting conditions enable unique control of chip formation and the production of equiaxed, fiber, and platelet powder (particle) morphologies. The HCE and MAM processes demonstrate how chip control in machining can provide a route to applications opportunities in materials manufacturing.


Study Design: This 2-step prospective randomized parallel trial evaluated postural stability in 65 back pain participants (61.6±7.9 y) and 50 nonback pain participants (61.2±8.6 y) in a first step using the MFT-S3-Check. In a second step, postural stability and questionnaires were evaluated in back pain participants before and after therapy with either whole body vibration therapy or classic physiotherapy. Objective: The first aim was to investigate whether the MFT-S3-Check is suitable to evaluate differences in postural stability in back pain and nonback pain participants. The second aim was to evaluate the effect of whole body vibration therapy and classic physiotherapy on postural stability and the influence of depressive symptoms and pain. Summary of Background Data: Objective bodily measurement values in chronic back pain are rare; therefore, the evaluation of effectiveness of different therapies is difficult. Methods: Postural stability was investigated using stability-, sensorimotor-, and symmetry indexes, in standing and seated positions with the MFT-S3-Check. The following standard questionnaires were used to investigate pain and depressive symptoms: HADS, ODI, NASS, SF-36. Results: No significant difference in postural stability was found between back pain participants and the nonback pain group. None of the two training concepts in back pain participants was superior, concerning postural stability and pain. Both treatments showed positive effects, with significant improvements in postural stability in the classic physiotherapy group. Depressive symptoms had a significant correlation with pain intensity in back pain participants. Conclusions: The MFT-S3-Check could not find a significant difference in postural stability between the back pain and nonback pain group in the study setting. Postural stability improved after treatment.


The tracking control of tendon-driven manipulators has recently become a hot topic. However, the flexible elastic tendon introduces greater residual vibration, making it more difficult to control the trajectory tracking of the manipulator. In this paper, a dynamics model of the elastic tendon-driven manipulator (ETDM) that considers motion coupling is established. A hierarchical sliding mode control (HSMC) method is proposed to realize the trajectory tracking control of the ETDM. On the basis of the Lyapunov design method, the actuator sub-sliding manifold is defined as the first sliding manifold. The first sliding manifold is then used to construct the joint side sub-sliding manifold. Furthermore, the total sliding manifold is established based on the joint side sliding manifold and the actuator's sliding manifold. The stability of the proposed HSMC is proved using Lyapunov stability theory. Finally, simulations and experiments are performed on a two-degree-of-freedom ETDM tracking desired trajectories to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed HSMC method. The proposed HSMC exhibits higher tracking accuracy compared with proportional–integral–derivative, and adaptive second-order fast nonsingular terminal sliding mode (SOFNTSM) controls in the simulations. The introduction of different disturbances reveals that HSMC has better robustness than proportional–integral–derivative control. Experimental results show that the maximum error of trajectory tracking is less than 0.025 rad.


Uganda's growth in gross domestic product of the 2000s was accompanied by high growth rates of labor productivity across industries producing tradable goods and services. This came about primarily as a result of investment in equipment and other fixed assets, but also entailed substantial gains in total factor productivity Based on data from two waves of the Uganda Business Indicators survey this paper estimates that economy wide aggregate labor productivity and aggregate TFP grew at average annual rates of 13 t and 3 percent, respectively between survey years 2002 and 2009. Part of the growth in productivity on each measure reflected gains from technical progress made at the establishment level and within narrowly defined industries. But it was also in part the outcome of reallocation of labor and capital within as well as across industries. In particular, the paper estimates that about one-fifth of the aggregate growth in labor productivity between the two years reflected the shifting of labor toward industries and sectors where it was more productive on average and at the margin. The rest of the observed growth in labor productivity reflected gains made within narrowly defined industries. But almost in every case 55 to 90 percent of the observed"within industry"growth in labor productivity represented allocative efficiency gains from the correction of intra-industry inter-firm misallocation of labor. The balance of the observed within-industry growth in labor productivity represented establishment-level gains in technical efficiency.


Pure mucinous breast carcinoma (PMBC) is characterized by clusters of tumor cells floating in abundant extracellular mucin and can be classified into paucicellular (Type A) and hypercellular (Type B) subtypes. However, the clinicopathological and genomic differences between these two subtypes have not been well characterized. We retrospectively investigated the clinicopathologic features of 45 cases of surgically removed PMBC (31 Type A and 14 Type B). We also performed whole-exome sequencing (WES) in eight cases of PMBC. We found that Type B PMBC occurs at an older age and shows more aggressive clinical behavior than Type A. WES analysis revealed that HYDIN was the most frequently mutated gene in both types of PMBC. Although Type B PMBC showed a tendency toward more frequent genetic alterations, there were no statistically significant differences between the two subtypes in single nucleotide variants or insertions or deletions of bases associated with moderate or high effects. Our results provide additional evidence that PMBCs are clinicopathologically and genetically heterogeneous and lack pathognomonic genetic alterations. Further, Type B PMBC is more frequently associated with lymph node metastasis than Type A.


Most VLSI spiking network implementations are constructed using point neurons. However, neurons with extended dendritic structures might offer additional computational advantages. Experimental evidence suggests that dendritic compartments could be considered as independent and parallel computational units. Depending on the synaptic input patterns, the dendritic integration could be either linear or nonlinear. We show the influence of spatio-temporal input patterns on the evoked dendritic integration in an aVLSI neuron chip with programmable dendritic compartments.


When generator stators are rewound or undergo major repairs, there is often a requirement to perform a high potential test. These tests can be completed using d.c., very low frequency or power frequency a.c. test voltages. A.c. power frequency tests are becoming common, but such tests are difficult because of the large kVAr requirement to charge stator insulation capacitance. This is particularly a problem with hydro generator stators because of the physical size of the generator. In many cases, the reactive power and hence the supply current cannot be provided at a local distribution board available within a power station. Resonant circuits are normally employed to minimise the distribution board loadings. In traditional a.c. high potential test sets, large variacs are employed with a high voltage transformer and multiple compensating coils. The U of C has tested many hydro generators in New Zealand. In this paper an open core inductor and transformer is described that can provide high voltage and inductive compensation in an original and most compact manner. In one case the required reactive power was supplied by an open core resonant inductor for testing a 55.5 MVA, 11 kV rewedged hydro-generator. In a second case, an open core high voltage resonant transformer (which functions as both a high voltage transformer and compensating inductor) was used to test a 120 MVA, 15.4 kV rewedged hydro-generator. In a third case, the authors were required to test a stator with just over 1 �� F in capacitance at a voltage of 32 kV. This required a single-phase controllable high voltage source rated at 286 kVAr prior to considering losses. Under such a situation, the large reactive power demand was fulfilled by employing both the open core high voltage resonant transformer as well as the open core inductor. The U of C open core high voltage testing kit not only performed well but also withstood severe electric disturbances and flashovers when multiple stator failures were experienced.


In this paper, we consider a heterogeneous network (eg. Macrocells overlaid with small cells), where users associated with their respective base stations (BS) demand certain rates. These users interfere with each other and one needs an algorithm that satisfies the demands irrespective of the number of interferers and the amount of interference (whenever the demands are within the achievable limits). In our previous paper, we proposed one such iterative power allocation algorithm called UPAMCN (Universal power allocation algorithm for multicell networks), when all the agents update their power profiles at the same rate. Using two time scale stochastic approximation analysis, we analyze the same (UPAMCN) algorithm, when the heterogeneous agents update their power profiles at different rates. We obtain partial analysis of the algorithm using an ODE framework and demonstrate the convergence of the proposed algorithm via numerical examples and simulations.


A self-calibrated gas sensing system for breath analysis is introduced. The system is composed of an array of high sensitivity gas sensor combined with temperature, humidity and flow sensor for calibration. The system is able to diagnose common diseases and help people stop them at early stages. 1. Introduction Breath analysis is a new method for point-of-care health monitoring and diagnosis. Compared to traditional diagnostic techniques like blood test, urine test, biopsy, endoscopy and imaging, it has at least two advantages: complete non-invasiveness and limitless repeatability. Exhaled breath contains thousands of volatile compounds that can serve as biomarkers of metabolism processes [1]. By analyzing the pattern of the exhaled compounds, various diseases, including airway inflammation, renal failure and lung cancer, can be detected at early stages [1]. Gas chromatography (GC), mass spectrometry (MS) or the combination of the two (GC-MS) are the most frequently adopted methods in breath analysis given their high reliability and sensitivity. Nevertheless, these techniques require bulky equipment not suitable for point-of-care application. Gas sensor array based electronic nose (eNose) is a promising alternative to GC and MS. It has the advantage of portability and low cost which makes it suitable for home-based healthcare solutions. However, the response of gas sensor array also varies with different temperature, humidity and flow rate. To address this problem, in-system calibration techniques needs to be adopted. 2. Implementation 2.1 Diagram of Self-calibrated Gas Sensing System As shown in Fig. 1, the proposed gas sensing system is composed of three major parts, which are the multi-sensor stage, the analog front end (AFE) and the digital processing unit. The sensor part includes a gas sensor array and three other sensors for calibration, which are flow, temperature and humidity sensor, respectively. The AFE part consists of two individual blocks. One is the frequency shift detection circuit for Film Bulk Acoustic Resonator (FBAR) gas sensor array and the other is a voltage detection circuit shared by the flow, temperature and humidity sensors. The digital processing unit takes charge of the sensor data sampling, processing and transmission. Figure 1: Diagram of Self-calibrated Gas Sensing System 2.2 FBAR Gas Sensor Array and AFE 2.2.1 FBAR Gas Sensor Array The gas sensor array is the core of the system and directly determines the overall performance of the eNose. Here, FBAR gas sensor is chosen as the element of the array to achieve high sensitivity. The selectivity of the FBAR-based sensor is drastically affected by the sensing material. By depositing different sensing materials or changing the properties of the sensing material on each individual sensor in the array, a unique pattern response to a specific gas mixtures can be generated by the array. The gas composition and concentration of the mixture can be acquired from the sensor array. For breath analysis, a set of specific sensing materials targeted at sensing biomarkers of common diseases are selected. For example, palladium is sensitive to hydrogen which is related to indigestion [1]. 2.2.2 Analog Front End of FBAR The response of FBAR gas sensor is illustrated in a frequency shift caused by mass loading effect when exposed to target gases. Two different methods can be used to detect the output signal. One is to count the high frequency signal directly with a proper ratio pre-scaling. The other method is to count the intermediate frequency (IF) signal after moving the original signal to the IF band. Because the design targets at mobile application, power consumption of the system should be one of the major considerations when designing the system. As direct counting at high frequency consumes a great deal of power, the second scheme is preferred. Figure 3 shows a brief diagram of the frequency shift detection circuit for the FBAR gas sensor. Through RF multiplexer, each FBAR is alternatively connected to the first stage of the circuit to build an oscillator. Another reference FBAR without sensing material is used to build the reference oscillator. By mixing the sinusoidal signal of the two oscillators and low pass filtering the mixed signal, an intermediate frequency (IF) signal contains the frequency shift information of the sensor is acquired. At last, the frequency of the IF signal is read out using a simple counter. Figure 3: Frequency shift detection circuit for FBAR gas sensor 2.3 Sensors Calibration and AFE The response of the gas sensor array can drift due to the variation of flow rate, temperature and humidity. Calibration of the drift can be achieved by subtracting the influence of those variations. To obtain the calibration information, flow, temperature and humidity sensors need to be implemented on the same die. A BJT temperature sensor with ± 0.4 accuracy, a capacitive humidity sensor with ± 4% RH accuracy and a thermal mass flow meter was adopted. With signal conditioning interfaces, all the three sensors share the same 16 bit, 90 Hz Σ-Δ ADC. 2.4 Digital Processing Unit The digital processing unit is designed to control the sampling rate and transmits the sensor data off-chip through a I2C transceiver. The processor also performs data fusion as multiple sensing data are obtained in the proposed system. Data processing and wireless communication are accomplished by the host controller. 3. Conclusion A self-calibrated gas sensing system with high sensitivity and good reliability is introduced to achieve diagnosis of multiple common diseases like diabetes, airway inflammation and indigestion. The system is power efficient and small enough to be integrated in mobile devices like smart phone and tablets. The system features a self-calibration methodology through the use of multi-sensing platform namely: temperature, humidity and flow. References [1] De Lacy Costello, B., et al. "A review of the volatiles from the healthy human body." J Breath Res 8 (2014): 014001. [2] Wilson, Alphus D., and Manuela Baietto. "Advances in electronic-nose technologies developed for biomedical applications." Sensors 11.1 (2011): 1105-1176. [3] Benetti, M., et al. "Microbalance chemical sensor based on thin-film bulk acoustic wave resonators." Applied Physics Letters 87.17 (2005): 173504.


Research has shown advantages an organization can obtain by implementing lean methodology. However, when implementing new philosophies like Lean Construction, there are always some challenges to overcome. Examples could be lack of basic knowledge about the theory/philosophy behind lean, lack of willingness to change, implementation process in an organization, lack of clear objectives/visions with the implementation and top management involvement. The authors of this paper have worked with implementation of lean principles in a Norwegian contractor company. The contractor is split into several sister-companies, acquired over the past 40 years. Some of the sister-companies have succeeded in implementing lean, while others have not succeeded well. The authors will evaluate how the organization have planned to implement lean in an efficient and sustainable way, and what factors that have affected the implementation. The research methodology used is case study, where the different sister-companies are the cases. Research from the case study of lean implementation will give a better understanding for similar cases. It will also address how to overcome challenges related to the implementation process in similar cases.


Up to the present time no image-forming depolarizing filter has been described which will work for monochromatic light. This paper describes a simple monochromatic depolarizer. This depolarizer consists of two variable wave plates whose axes are separated by an angle of 45°. The retardation of the first wave plate varies from zero to 2π. The second wave plate varies from zero to 4π. This variation is made to occur in a time which is short compared to the time constant of the apparatus in which the depolarizer is used. Typical components are Z cut plates of ammonium-dihydrogen-phosphate. The retardation of these plates can be made to vary by applying an electric field along the optic axis.A discussion is also given of the Lyot depolarizer which is effective for light which covers a wide wavelength range. Tolerances are derived for the behavior of the Lyot depolarizer and experimental measurements are shown of its behavior.


As a sculptor, I am motivated by the opportunity to create new forms in the world. For me this is a way to portray how different our internal processes of experience can be and the pliable quality or our imagination. I don't work to express a particular idea or narrative, however. Rather I wish to create an experience that is decidedly separate from routine dailyness, especially the media overload that saturates much of our daily life. To potentially focus on something new, rather than finding something immediately relatable in an artwork, may help us recognize, as much as we all have in common, that there is much that forms in the mind and imagination that makes us unique. I plan to give you an overview of how my concepts have evolved and helped me to develop a sculptural language. I begin with a look at my past experience with contemporary jewelry and the way that it has influenced my current work aesthetically and symbolically. Additionally, I will discuss the way my forms manifest through an intuitive process and my varied approaches for works completed during graduate school.


If the concept of human security is to be meaningful, it must be applicable to any region, developing or developed. Such was the point of departure for authors of two reports on Western and Eastern Europe that were commissioned by UNESCO as part of a series of regional reports aimed at detailing the human security situations in different regions. The present article, compiled by the co-authors of both reports, summarises the reports and critically revisits this premise. By exploring the notion that human security varies according to national, regional and local settings, thus gaining meaning from the context in which the framework is applied, it poses a number of critical questions about the universality of the concept of human security. It argues for a supple concept of human security capable of identifying vulnerabilities in a variety of settings and adapting legitimate responses to them. By exploring the applicability of human security in Eastern and Western Europe it sets out to test the limits of the concept and to contribute to ongoing debate about "broad" and "narrow" conceptions of human security and addresses the criticism of the concept as ideologically skewed. The paper first addresses the subjective question of what human security means in the Western and Eastern European contexts before outlining in broad terms the objective question of what is concretely taking place in Europe. It concludes by suggesting that human security actually lends itself equally to the developed world where mid- or large-scale physical violence is less common as a source of insecurity, concluding that many of the threats faced are of similar nature, if of varying degrees of severity.


Abstract We consider the dynamic factor model where the loading matrix, the dynamic factors, and the disturbances are treated as latent stochastic processes. We present empirical Bayes methods that enable the shrinkagebased estimation of the loadings and factors. We investigate the methods in a large Monte Carlo study where we evaluate the finite sample properties of the empirical Bayes methods for quadratic loss functions. Finally, we present and discuss the results of an empirical study concerning the forecasting of U.S. macroeconomic time series using our empirical Bayes methods.