This work addresses the reconstruction of strain gradient fields at the wood growth ring scale from full-field deformation measurements provided by digital image correlation. Moreover, the spatial distribution of the earlywood and latewood radial modulus of elasticity is assessed. Meso-scale tensile tests are carried out on Pinus pinaster Ait. wooden specimens oriented in the radial–tangential plane under quasi-static loading conditions. A parametric analysis of the two-dimensional digital image correlation extrinsic and intrinsic setting parameters is performed, in a balance between spatial resolution and resolution. It is shown that the parametric module is an effective way to quantitatively support the choice of digital image correlation parameters in the presence of the high deformation gradient fields generated by the structure–property relationships at the scale of observation. Under the assumption of a uniaxial tensile stress state, the spatial distribution of the radial elastic modulus across the growth rings is obtained. It is observed that the ratio of the radial modulus of elasticity between latewood and earlywood tissues can vary significantly as a function of the digital image correlation parameters. It is pointed out, however, that a convergence value can be systematically established. Effectively, earlywood and latewood stress–strain curves are obtained and elastic properties are determined assuming the converged digital image correlation setting parameters.


The use of conventional absorption based X-ray microtomography can become limited for samples showing only very weak absorption contrast. However, a wide range of samples studied in biology and materials science can produce significant phase shifts of the X-ray beam, and thus the use of the phase signal can provide substantially increased contrast and therefore new and otherwise inaccessible information. The application of two approaches for high-throughput, high-resolution X-ray phase contrast tomography, both available on the TOMCAT beamline of the SLS, is illustrated. Differential Phase Contrast (DPC) imaging uses a grating interferometer and a phase-stepping technique. It has been integrated into the beamline environment on TOMCAT in terms of the fast acquisition and reconstruction of data and the availability to scan samples within an aqueous environment. The second phase contrast approach is a modified transfer of intensity approach that can yield the 3D distribution of the phase (refractive index) of a weakly absorbing object from a single tomographic dataset. These methods are being used for the evaluation of cell integrity in 3D, with the specific aim of following and analyzing progressive cell degeneration to increase knowledge of the mechanistic events of neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson's disease.


ABSTRACT Budgeting has endured changes in management ideals, because it supports an instrumental rationality in which organizations should use their own resources to produce their own results. Budgeting depends on and enforces traditional and transactional systems based on predefined entities, such as single-purpose organizations and measurable outputs. This study investigates this issue and asks what types of entities budgeting needs, and where and when these entities can be negotiated and reconstructed. This study shows that budgeting and its reinforcement of traditional and transactional systems makes it difficult to proceed towards new management ideals based on cooperation, sharing, and responsiveness.


Peer-review writing workshops are widely utilized in college-level writing and English classes.  Such workshops involve students reviewing and evaluating other students' papers and have become an accepted method of teaching writing and editing skills to students of all age groups and abilities and provide specific help with the revision process (Atwell, 1998; Herrington & Cadman, 1991; Smith, 2000; Weiss & Peich, 1980).  Effective peer-review writing workshops appeal to all students, not just students who know how to write well.  Herrington and Cadman (1991) argue that even students who struggle with their own writing can give "sound advice to their peers," and they can "profit from the response they receive about their own drafts and from reading the drafts of others" (p.185).  Furr and Bauman (2003) agree that "writing workshops support the considerable needs of all readers" (p. 518).  The benefits of writing workshops are numerous, as students benefit from both the feedback they receive on their papers and from the experience they gain from reading and commenting on other students' work. Increasingly, peer-review writing workshops are occurring online as the technology to set up such workshops has improved.  At the University of Utah, instructors have access to Canvas, which allows them to set up online writing workshops with ease.  Under the previous learning management tools, it was much harder for instructors to set up such workshops and much more effort was required.  Canvas includes a built-in feature that allows instructors to create an online writing workshop and select from a variety of options for the workshop.  Instructors can also include handouts and set guidelines and criteria for evaluating students' papers.  Canvas has made it much easier for instructors to create effective online peer-review writing workshops. The research on online writing workshops shows that while they have similar benefits to classroom-based peer-review workshops, they may have additional benefits as well, especially for L2 students (Chang, 2012; Chen, 2012; Guardado & Shi, 2007).  In an IRB approved study that I conducted on the use of online writing workshops, I found that students thought the benefits included being able to complete the reviews on their own time and schedule, having more time to complete the reviews, receiving better comments, and not having to make comments face to face with the writer and being able to remain anonymous.  Part of my study focused on L2 students, and many of them reported that they often felt as though other students were judging them based on their English language abilities. The majority of the L2 student participants in the study emphasized that the online workshop allowed students to be anonymous reviewers, and the participants felt that they were not being judged because of their language ability, the color of their skin, or their name.  L2 students also thought that they received better comments from their fellow classmates and that they were given more substantial comments than just a grammar and punctuation check that they typically received in classroom-based peer review workshops.  L2 students felt more comfortable participating in the online writing workshop because it allowed them to take more time to read, analyze, and comment on the papers, and it did not require that they provide feedback directly to the writers, something they many of them did not feel comfortable doing. Online writing workshops have been shown to improve writers' papers as well as their overall writing ability, but online writing workshops are mainly used in writing and English classes. With increasing technology, online peer-review writing workshops are becoming more common, especially in Writing and English courses.  They offer many of the same benefits as classroom-based peer reviews, but may offer additional benefits as well, especially for L2 students.  Online writing workshops could also be used in other disciplines to help students with their writing. Keywords online writing workshops, pedagogies, teaching writing References Atwell, N. (1998).   In the middle: New understandings about writing, reading, and learning (2 nd ed.).  Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook. Breuch, L. (2004).  Virtual peer review . Albany: State University of New York Press. Chang, C. (2012). Peer review via three modes in an EFL writing course.  Computers and Composition ,  29 (1), 63-78. doi: 10.1016/j.compcom.2012.01.001 Chen, K. (2012). Blog-based peer reviewing in EFL writing classrooms for Chinese speakers. Computers and Composition ,  29 (1), 280-291. Furr, D. & Bauman, G. (2003, March). Struggling readers get hooked on writing.  Reading Teacher, 56 (6), 518-526). Guardado, M. & Shi, L. (2007). ESL students' experiences of online peer feedback. Computers and Composition, 24 (1), 443-461. Herrington, A. J. & Cadman, D. (1991, May). Peer review and revising in an anthropology course: Lessons for learning.   College Composition and Communication 42 (2), 184-199. Smith, C. B. (2000) Writing instruction: Current practices in the classroom.   ERIC Digest D156 Weiss, R. & Peich, M. (1980, February). Faculty attitude change in a cross-disciplinary writing workshop.   College Composition and Communication 31 (1), 33-37.


Protecting and maintaining the quality of environmental waters is of increasing importance as available water resources continues to decline. In this context, our ability to effectively monitor the aquatic environment is essential. Microfluidic technology has potential as a solution to the increasing demand for environmental monitoring; through minimisation of reagents and power consumption. These efforts will lead to the development of compact autonomous instruments for in situ continuous monitoring. Our approach is to combine microfluidic technology with colorimetric chemical assays; low cost LED/photodiode-based optical detection systems; and wireless communications. Developing low cost systems providing high-frequency data on key water quality parameters.


Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are the number one causes of death in the world. According to the world Health Organization (WHO) 17.5 million people died from cardiovascular disease in 2005, representing 30 % of all global deaths . Of these deaths, 7.6 million were due to heart attacks and 5.7 million due to stroke. If current trends are allowed to continue, by 2015 an estimated 20 million people will die annually from cardiovascular disease. The trends are similar in the United States where on an average 1 person dies every 37 seconds due to CVD. In 2008 an estimated 770,000 Americans will experience a new heart attack (coronary stenosis) and 600,000 will experience a first stroke. Although the exact causes of cardiovascular disease are not well understood, hemodynamics has been long thought to play a primary role in the progression of cardiovascular disease and stroke. There is strong evidence linking the fluid mechanical forces to the transduction mechanisms that trigger biochemical response leading to atherosclerosis or plaque formation. It is hypothesized that the emergence of abnormal fluid mechanical stresses which dictate the cell mechanotransduction mechanisms and lead to disease progression is dependent on the geometry and compliance of arteries, and pulsatility of blood flow. Understanding of such hemodynamic regulation in relation to atherosclerosis is of significant clinical importance in the prediction and progression of heart disease as well as design of prosthetic devices such as stents. The current work will systematically study the effects of compliance and complex geometry and the resulting fluid mechanical forces. The objective of this work is to understand the relationship of fluid mechanics and disease conditions using both experimental and computational methods where (a) Compliance effects are studied in idealized stenosed coronary and peripheral arteries using Digital Particle Image Velocimetry (DPIV), (b) Complex geometric effects of stented arteries with emphasis on its design parameters is investigated using CFD, Also (c) a novel method to improve the accuracy of velocity gradient estimation in the presence of noisy flow fields such as in DPIV where noise is inherently present is introduced with the objective to improve accuracy in the estimation of WSS, which are of paramount hemodynamic importance. The broad impact of the current work extends to the understanding of fundamental physics associated with arterial disease progression which can lead to better design of prosthetic devices, and also to better disease diagnostics.


BACKGROUND AND AIMS
Although sexual orientation-related alcohol use disparities are well established, researchers have not identified whether disparities are diminishing as societal attitudes towards lesbian/gay and bisexual (LGB) people become more accepting. We examined changes in four alcohol-related disparities between heterosexual and LGB youth from 1998 to 2013 by (1) estimating the prevalence of these behaviors; (2) estimating disparities in alcohol-related outcomes between heterosexual and LGB youth within each wave year; and (3) testing whether the degree of difference in alcohol-related disparities between heterosexual and LGB youth has changed.

DESIGN
Logistic regression models and year × sexual orientation interactions with repeated, cross-sectional, provincially representative data.

SETTING
British Columbia, Canada.

PARTICIPANTS
Students (ages 12-19) from the 1998 (n = 22 858), 2003 (n = 29 323), 2008 (n = 25 254) and 2013 (n = 21 938) British Columbia Adolescent Health Survey (total n = 99 373, 48.7% male, mean age = 14.84).

MEASUREMENTS
We modeled age-adjusted differences in life-time alcohol use, age of onset, past 30-day drinking and past 30-day heavy episodic drinking between heterosexual and three subgroups of sexual minority youth (i.e. mostly heterosexual, bisexual and lesbian/gay).

FINDINGS
Generally, alcohol use declined for all youth, although less so among LGB youth [average adjusted odds ratio (aOR) = 0.58 and aOR = 0.53 for heterosexual males and females and aOR = 0.71 and aOR = 0.57 for sexual minority males and females, respectively). Within-year comparisons demonstrated elevated rates of alcohol use among LGB compared with heterosexual youth for each of the four survey years, especially among females. Findings indicate few changes over time; however, results show an increase in risky alcohol use from 1998 to 2013 among mostly heterosexual (aOR = 1.58 for life-time alcohol use, aOR = 1.58 for 30-day alcohol use and aOR = 1.34 for 30-day heavy episodic drinking), and bisexual (aOR = 1.95 for life-time alcohol use) females.

CONCLUSION
Despite the general decline in the prevalence of alcohol use among young people in Canada since 1998, lesbian/gay and bisexual youth in Canada continue to show elevated rates of alcohol use compared with heterosexual youth.


Contemporary news headlines seem to play regular host to treatments of one form of cybercrime or another, whether it be fraud, hacking, malware, piracy or child abuse material online. In this paper, the meaning of that term is unpacked, social impact is considered and possible future developments are discussed. Given the pervasive and profound influence of the Internet, it is important to acknowledge that in terms of criminology, what happens online can impact on the real world and vice versa. Consequently, real-world and cyber social impacts in relation to cybercrime will be examined.


Knowledge management is a broad concept that has been investigated in many disciplines. Tacit knowledge management is more important in construction industry where common issues exist between the design and construction phase. However, most knowledge is embedded in the minds of professions and based on experiences they achieved from project. The successful completion of a project requires a rigorous understanding of each stage of project lifecycle that can be enhanced through integrating knowledge between project members, in terms of capturing and sharing knowledge between project members, and transferring it to the next project. Due to the temporary nature of construction projects, people who work on these project tend to disperse after completion of the project. This means the knowledge and experiences they achieved through project will be wasted, if it is not captured and shared structurally across project. Within this context, the failure to integrate knowledge will result in increasing the possibility of 'reinventing the wheel', which means spending more time and cost. The rational that led to this study came as a result of increasing interest in the need for tacit knowledge integration, in terms of capturing, sharing and transferring knowledge, especially within construction project undertaken through the traditional procurement system, because this system is based on the separation of the design and construction phase. The aim of this research is to develop a framework on how to integrate tacit knowledge in terms of capturing, sharing and transferring, within a construction project undertaken through the traditional procurement system. This is done through conducting documentary survey, experts' survey and case studies sample within the UK construction industry. The documentary survey was used to form researcher's background information and develop a conceptual framework which would be then taken to real life situation to investigate, gather relevant information and understand the perceptions and values of stakeholders in using knowledge integration within construction projects. Furthermore, an experts' survey (expert's interviews) was used to collect qualitative data through interviews with four experts. These experts were from both academia and industry, and they were selected based on their experiences and engagement in the traditional-based construction projects. Multiple-case holistic design was selected for conducting this research, in order to provide credibility to the research outcome. There is only one unit of analysis that is needed to study in order to explore the approaches and techniques that were used by construction organisations for tackling challenges in the process of tacit knowledge integration. Two case studies were selected to reflect the building sector within construction industry. The projects were complex, large and costs over £5m. The selected case studies differ in that one of them is completed project and the other is an ongoing project at construction phase. As most of the problems and errors occurred in project lifecycle are related to designing phase, the cases were selected from same organisation involved at designing phase in order to analyse and compare the process of knowledge integration. Furthermore, an online open-end questionnaire was conducted to collect experts' opinion on the developed framework. The questionnaire was distributed among 180 experts. In this research the target population was professionals who were involved and experienced in the traditional-based construction project in the UK construction industry. Research findings highlighted three main challenges for integrating tacit knowledge within the traditional construction project which are Organisational Culture, Contractual Boundaries and Knowledge management system (strategies and policies). The Critical Success Factors (CSFs) for tackling these challenges and required techniques for structurally implementing the process of tacit knowledge integration are identified. Furthermore, it is concluded that BIM technology can be used and enhanced the process of tacit knowledge integration, if the two-stage process traditional procurement is adopted. This means construction contractors should be involved in project before the completion of designing phase. Building on the research findings, this research offers a framework, with a guideline, on how to integrate tacit knowledge, in terms of capturing, sharing and transferring, within the traditional construction project.


In the last few years, security has become a hot-button issue for IT organizations of all sizes. Accordingly, many of the security features that were either optional or suspect in Windows 2000 have become solid, effective fixtures in Windows Server 2003-making it the most secure operating system Microsoft has ever produced. That is, if you know how to configure it properly. The Windows Server 2003 Security Cookbook wants to make sure that you do know how. Picking up right where its predecessor, the Windows Server Cookbook, left off, this desktop companion is focused solely on Windows Server security. It teaches you how to perform important security tasks in the Windows Server 2003 OS using specific and adaptable recipes. Each recipe features a brief description of the problem, a step-by-step solution, and then a discussion of the technology at work. Whenever possible, the authors even tell you where to look for further information on a recipe. The book is written in a highly modular format, with each chapter devoted to one or more technologies that Windows Server 2003 provides. This approach allows you to look up a task or scenario that you want to accomplish, find that page, and read that particular recipe only. Topics include: System preparation and administration Protecting the computer at the TCP/IP level Applying security options to Active Directory Improving security on domain controllers Securing DHCP controllers Encrypting and signing network traffic using IPSec Patch management If you're an intermediate or advanced system administrator who wants to feel secure when deploying Windows Server 2003 and its related services, then you don't want to be without the Windows Server 2003 Security Cookbook.


Transcriptional regulatory changes have been shown to contribute to phenotypic differences between species, but many questions remain about how gene expression evolves. Here we report the first comparative study of nascent transcription in primates. We used PRO-seq to map actively transcribing RNA polymerases in resting and activated CD4+ T-cells in multiple human, chimpanzee, and rhesus macaque individuals, with rodents as outgroups. This approach allowed us to measure transcription separately from post-transcriptional processes. We observed general conservation in coding and non-coding transcription, punctuated by numerous differences between species, particularly at distal enhancers and non-coding RNAs. We found evidence that transcription factor binding sites are a primary determinant of transcriptional differences between species, that stabilizing selection maintains gene expression levels despite frequent changes at distal enhancers, and that adaptive substitutions have driven lineage-specific transcription. Finally, we found strong correlations between evolutionary rates and long-range chromatin interactions. These observations clarify the role of primary transcription in regulatory evolution.


Purpose - In an attempt to explore item characteristics that behave differently between boys and girls, this comparative study examines gender Differential Item Functioning in a school culture that is noted to be 'thriving' mathematically.
Methodology - Some 24 grade eight mathematics items from TIMSS 2003 and TIMSS 2007 released items, with equal number of computation and word problem items were administered on 460 boys and 445 girls studying in Grade Eight from three secondary Chinese-medium coeducational schools. Word problem items were defined as items set in a real-world context. Content validity was established by constructing a table of specifications. By employing the software WINSTEPS version 3.67.0 that is based on the Rasch Model for dichotomous responses, Differential Item Functioning analysis was conducted by using Mantel-Haenszel Chi-square method. DIF items were flagged when the Mantel-Haenszel probability value was less than 0.05 and classified as negligible, moderate or large DIF based on the DIF size suggested by Educational Testing Service DIF category. The focal and reference groups were girls and boys respectively. The main delimitation was substantive analysis by using expert judgment was not conducted to identify biased items.

Findings - Using Mantel-Haenszel chi-square, two moderate DIF items that assess subtraction favoured girls. They assessed Knowing from topics Whole Number and Fraction. Sources of DIF are linguistics density and item presentation style. The findings suggest that with only two moderate DIF mathematics items, there is insufficient evidence to suggest that the mathematics items functioned differently between boys and girls in school culture noted for successful mathematics learning, even though linguistics complexities of the test language cannot be ignored.

Significance - While constructing Mathematics multiple choice items, careful considerations need to be given in selecting suitable numbers in composing the content of the item so that, only the correct algorithm would produce the correct answer 'if and only if' those numbers are used. The modest results of detecting two moderate DIF items nevertheless inform national testing agencies and teacher educators on the principles of building fair items as a part of their test improvement practice in the 21st Century. The novelty of this study is that gender Differential Item Functioning was studied in the context of school culture, which is notable for successful mathematics learning.


This dissertation addresses two sets of challenges facing processor design as the industry enters the deep sub-micron region of semiconductor design. The first set of challenges relates to the memory bottleneck. As the focus shifts from scaling processor frequency to scaling the number of cores, performance growth demands increasing die area. Scaling the number of cores also places a concurrent area demand in the form of larger caches. While on-chip caches occupy 50–60% of area and consume 20–30% of energy expended on-chip, their performance and energy efficiencies are less than 15% and 1% respectively for a range of benchmarks! The second set of challenges is posed by transistor leakage and process variation (inter-die and intra-die) at future technology nodes. Leakage power is anticipated to increase exponentially and sharply lower defect-free yield with successive technology generations. For performance scaling to continue, cache efficiencies have to improve significantly. This thesis proposes and evaluates a broad family of such improvements.
This dissertation first contributes a model for cache efficiencies and finds them to be extremely low - performance efficiencies less than 15% and energy efficiencies in the order of 1%. Studying the sources of inefficiency leads to a framework for efficiency improvement based on two interrelated strategies. The approach for improving energy efficiency primarily relies on sizing the cache to match the application memory footprint during a program phase while powering down all remaining cache sets. Importantly, the sized is fully functional with no references to inactive sets. Improving performance efficiency primarily relies on cache shaping, i.e., changing the placement function and thereby the manner in which memory shares the cache.
Sizing and shaping are applied at different phase of the design cycle: (i) post-manufacturing & offline, (ii) at compile-time, and at (iii) run-time. This thesis proposes and explores techniques at each phase collectively realizing a repertoire of techniques for future memory system designers. The techniques use a combination of HW-SW techniques and are demonstrated to provide substantive improvements with modest overheads.


Fresnel amplitudes for specular reflection and refraction at the surface of an isotropic, intrinsically nonmagnetic chiral medium are derived for sets of constitutive relations that are invariant or noninvariant under a duality transformation of the electromagnetic fields. The invariant set leads to a differential reflection curve of incident left and right circularly polarized light that is null at normal incidence and peaks beyond Brewster's angle; the noninvariant set leads to maximum differential reflection in the vicinity of normal incidence and extends over a wide range of incident angles. Both sets lead to effectively equivalent descriptions of standard optical rotation and circular dichroism.


We employed the propensity score matching and estimated the causal effect of being certified organic crop producers on farm household income and its various components in the United States. Contrary to the standard assumption in economic analysis, certified organic farmers do not earn significantly higher household income than conventional farmers. Certified organic crop producers earn higher revenue but they incur higher production expenses. In particular, certified organic producers spend significantly more on labor expenses, insurance payments, and marketing charges than conventional farmers. The results suggest that early adopters of organic farmers have done so for non pecuniary reasons and the lack of economic incentives can be an important barrier to conversion to organic farming in the United States.


Prostate cancer is globally the second most commonly diagnosed cancer type in men. Recent studies suggest that mutations in DNA repair genes are associated with aggressive forms of prostate cancer and castration resistance. Prostate cancer with DNA repair defects may be vulnerable to therapeutic targeting by Poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors. PARP enzymes modify target proteins with ADP-ribose in a process called PARylation and are in particular involved in single strand break repair. The rationale behind the clinical trials that led to the current use of PARP inhibitors to treat cancer was to target the dependence of BRCA-mutant cancer cells on the PARP-associated repair pathway due to deficiency in homologous recombination. However, recent studies have proposed therapeutic potential for PARP inhibitors in tumors with a variety of vulnerabilities generating dependence on PARP beyond the synthetic lethal targeting of BRCA1/BRCA2 mutated tumors, suggesting a wider potential than initially thought. Importantly, PARP-associated DNA repair pathways are also closely connected to androgen receptor (AR) signaling, which is a key regulator of tumor growth and a central therapeutic target in prostate cancer. In this review, we provide an extensive overview of published and ongoing trials exploring PARP inhibitors in treatment of prostate cancer and discuss the underlying biology. Several clinical trials are currently studying PARP inhibitor mono-and combination therapies in the treatment of prostate cancer. Integration of drugs targeting DNA repair pathways in prostate cancer treatment modalities allows developing of more personalized care taking also into account the genetic makeup of individual tumors.


The commercial shipping industry is particularly challenging with respect to safety because of its global operations, multi-national and transient workforce, and fragmented organisational structure. Despite extensive attempts to introduce new legislation to improve safety, shipping accidents still occur at an alarming rate. These legislative remedies for addressing the cause of shipping accidents have traditionally been reactively applied following an accident. However, in other transport industries, particularly the aviation and rail sectors, the analysis of accident causation and the contribution of human error have been more structured and based on formalised techniques resulting in significant improvement in safety performance. The shipping industry has lagged behind other comparable industries in this regard. As a result, a more thorough and systemic investigation of causal factors related to the human element in shipping accidents is required. [Continues.]


Proposals to govern geoengineering research have focused heavily on the physical risks associated with individual research projects, and to a somewhat lesser degree on fostering public trust. While these concerns are critical, they are not the only concerns that research governance should address. Generally overlooked, and more difficult to address, are the systemic concerns geoengineering research raises: technological lock-in — the danger that sustained research efforts will predetermine geoengineering deployment decisions; moral hazard — the danger that increased attention to geoengineering will undermine efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions; and the potential that research itself will increase the probability of future global conflict. Developing mechanisms to address these systemic concerns is a difficult but essential task. This Article proposes an ongoing programmatic technology assessment to analyze the physical and systemic risks associated with geoengineering research, prioritization of research into techniques involving lesser risks, and establishment of safeguards against such risks.


Nine major regions around the world have implemented or proposed various fuel economy and greenhouse gas (GHG) emission standards. Yet these standards are not easily comparable, due to differences in policy approaches, test drive cycles, and units of measurement. This paper develops a methodology to compare these programs to better understand their relative stringency. Key findings from the report include: (1) The European Union (EU) and Japan have the most stringent standards in the world. (2) The fuel economy and greenhouse gas emission performance of the U.S. cars and light trucks—both historically and projected based on current policies—lags behind most other nations. The United States and Canada have the lowest standards in terms of fleet-average fuel economy rating, and they have the highest greenhouse gas emission rates based on the EU testing procedure. (3) The new Chinese standards are more stringent than those in Australia, Canada, California, and the United States, but they are less stringent than those in the European Union and Japan. (4) If the California GHG standards go into effect, they would narrow the gap between U.S. and EU standards, but the California standards would still be less stringent than the EU standards.


Lack of access to energy represents one of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) greatest socio-economic challenges. Two out of three people in the sub-continent do not have access to electricity or to modern fuels for cooking. This situation leads, every year, to 600,000 premature deaths due to household air pollution. This situation is unacceptable and unsustainable, and for this reason a new thinking is needed in order to find viable solutions to overcome this issue. Both renewables and gas might play a role in solving this problem, but questions persist on the competing or complementary nature of their relationship. Furthermore, questions persist on how to attract the investments required to guarantee energy access to all. In order to stimulate a discussion on these crucial issues, FEEM 'Energy Scenarios and Policy' program convened on June 16, 2017 in Milan a closed-door brainstorming workshop gathering high-level stakeholders from the institutions, the industry and the academia. This Workshop Brief provides a reflected summary of this discussion, with the aim of contributing to the current international debate on the future of energy in SSA.


For the site investigation of stiff soils, dynamic penetration testing, such as standard penetration testing (SPT) and dynamic cone penetration testing (DCP), has been performed. The dynamic cone tip responses, however, have not yet been evaluated. The objective of this study is the development and application of an instrumented dynamic cone penetrometer (IDCP) to evaluate the dynamic cone tip responses by considering the energy transferred into the cone tip. As the preliminary study on the development of the IDCP, the energy losses caused by the rod connection are experimentally estimated and numerically analyzed by considering the transmission and reflection coefficients. Strain gauges and accelerometers are installed in the cone tip and rod head of the IDCP to detect dynamic responses during penetration. Design concerns include the shape of the IDCP, the installation of strain gauges and accelerometers, and the mechanical resistance calibration. The developed IDCP was driven into compacted weathered soils in the chamber to measure the dynamic responses at the rod head and cone tip. From the measured responses, the energy transferred into the rod head and the cone tip was calculated. The experimental and numerical energy loss studies show that the energy loss increases with an increase in the number of rod connections. The penetration-test results show that the energy transferred into the cone tip is significantly smaller than that transferred into the rod head. Furthermore, the energy corrected dynamic responses at the cone tip clearly detected soil layers. This study suggests that energy losses caused by rod connections should be considered and that the IDCP may be a useful tool for the characterization of stiff soils.


Economic recessions invariably reduce incomes as employment levels fall, but there is strong and consistent evidence that the weight of recession falls most heavily on those at the bottom of the income distribution—the deep poor—who find it hardest to afford basic necessities and ensure their well-being. The 2007-09 recession was particularly severe in the depth of poverty it engendered. Relative to previous recessions, those residing in nonmetro areas, particularly children, were among the most affected by deepening poverty. According to Census Bureau Current Population Survey data, the number of people living in poverty increased 17 percent between 2007 and 2009 to 43.6 million. In addition, the proportion of the population with annual income below the Federal poverty line increased to 14.3 percent in 2009, up from 12.5 percent in 2007 and the highest poverty rate since 1994. While these estimates indicate that poverty rose during the 2007-09 recession, they do not reflect the depth of poverty for those most affected. Examining increases in the number of people in deep poverty—defined as having income below 50 percent of the Federal poverty threshold ($21,945 for a family of four in 2009)—provides a clearer picture of how severely the 2007-09 recession affected low-income nonmetro residents. The number of nonmetro residents living in poverty increased more than 8 percent between 2007 and 2009 to 8.1 million (a 16.6-percent poverty rate). Of these, an estimated 3.3 million (6.7 percent of the nonmetro population) were in deep poverty in 2009, up nearly 13 percent from 2007. The number of nonmetro residents living in poverty rose markedly in the previous two recessions as well (as measured by 1989-91 and 2000-02 annual data). Yet, the change in the deep poverty count was substantially higher during the 2007-09 recession (see chart on page 47). The number of nonmetro children in poverty also increased in all three recessionary periods. However, the number of nonmetro children in deep poverty decreased in the previous two recessions, while it increased by 9 percent f rom 2007 to 2009. In comparison, the number of moderately poor (50 to 99 percent of the Federal poverty threshold) nonmetro children increased by 3.3 percent.


This timely book answers complex and perplexing questions raised by Wall Street's role in the financial crisis. What are the economic and moral connections between Wall Street and the overall economy? How did we arrive at this point in history where our most powerful financial institutions thwart rather than promote free markets, prosperity and even social cohesion? Can the fractured relationship between Wall Street and Main Street be repaired? Wall Street Values chronicles the transformation of Wall Street's business model from serving clients to proprietary trading and explains how this shift undermined the ethical foundations of the modern financial industry. Michael A. Santoro and Ronald J. Strauss argue that post-millennial Wall Street is not only 'too big to fail' but also a threat to the economy even when it succeeds.


Although distinct offence action patterns have been identified for different forms of sexual and violent crime, a generic psychological framework for this differentiation has yet to be advanced. An innovative framework derived from the emerging criminal narrative approach provides a significant contribution to the differentiation of offending styles. Canter (1994) argues that offenders' empathy deficit leads them to assign a Victim, Object or Person role to their victims within their personal narratives. The evidence for this model is examined across 33 offence actions in 66 stranger rapes, 24 offence actions in 50 stalking offences and 39 offence actions in 50 serial murder offences. Hypothesised offence actions reflecting the Roles are found in distinct regions of Smallest Space Analysis (SSA-I) configurations for all three offence types. This evidence across diverse offence forms leads to the suggestion that the Roles assigned to victims within offenders' narratives provide a generic framework for differentiating offending styles in all interpersonal crimes. The different Victim Roles articulate qualitatively different variants of the established control and empathy deficit components in sexual and violent offending, contributing to the debate about the operation of these components and having significant treatment implications.


We present new paleomagnetic data from three Middle Neoproterozoic carbonate units of East Svalbard, Norway. The paleomagnetic record is gleaned from 50 to 650 m of continuous, platformal carbonate sediment, is reproduced at three locations distributed over >100 km on a single craton, and scores a 5‐6 (out of 7) on the Van der Voo (1990) reliability scale. Two >50° shifts in paleomagnetic direction are coincident with equally abrupt shifts in ! 13 C and transient changes in relative sea level. We explore four possible explanations for these coincidental changes: rapid plate tectonic rotation during depositional hiatus, magnetic excursions, nongeocentric axial-dipole fi elds, and true polar wander. We conclude that the observations are explained most readily by rapid shifts in paleogeography associated with a pair of true polar wander events. Future work in sediments of equivalent age from other basins can test directly the true polar wander hypothesis because this type of event would affect every continent in a predictable manner, depending on the continent's changing position relative to Earth's spin axis.


Woman and man must have equality labor rights, including in their career development. Every employee has role to make the organization grow. This study address to see the implementation of the career development of the company for its employees especially those for women. The purpose of this study was to analyze how participants perceived career development provided by the company. How they feel and experience in using or opportunity in career development. Besides, the research uncover the drivers and obstacles they face in developing their career. The method used in this study is qualitative method with phenomenological study approach. Data collected by interview, observation and documentation in certain periods. The results showed in general career development is done without differentiating women and men. Women can balance their role in society, family and career even though the job description is not too small.


Paper delivered to the "Narrative Space" conference, organised by the universities of Leicester and Nottingham, April 2010.

In this presentation I will explore notions of spatial strangeness and estrangedness. Drawing on a study of the Roman baths, Bath, the presentation will examine the relationship between the curated public baths and a set of little-known underground vaults which lie adjacent to them. These pairs of spaces represent a public zone of conventional beauty/heritage, and their "other". The contrast could not be greater – although just the thickness of a wall separates them. The project to be presented - undertaken by staff from the University of the West of England, Chelsea College of Art & Design and the University of Plymouth - is an exploration of the aesthetic value of forgotten, dormant and neglected spaces. Critically, the project examines the relationships between these spaces and the public realm, and provide clues, through art and design practice, of how they can be reimagined.

Building on the work contained within the book "Architectural Voices; listening to old buildings", by David Littlefield and Saskia Lewis, the project at the Roman baths deploys a particular mode of viewing space – that of considering it as a void onto which meaning and narrative can be overlaid. "Estranged" spaces are typically back-of-house zones which have slipped from memory and use, and are merely there. The project at the Roman baths seeks aesthetic value within these spaces, and an understanding of the poetic, metaphoric and physical relationships these zones have with their more public siblings – as well as insight into the meaning of narrative, art, beauty and value. Through this pilot project the participants hope to develop a methodology through which other spaces can be understood, especially ones located within the heritage sector.

In a sense, the project is also a site study, but the analytical tools concern atmosphere, light, texture and the profundities of absence, as well as spatial measurement. What lends this project an extra dimension of interest is the fact that managers at the Roman baths are currently looking into ways of regenerating the vaults, bringing them into the public realm as an extention to the baths themselves. This will involve a complete rehabilitation, and the study has been designed to help site managers more fully understand the space they propose to develop.

What lends this project a particular element of visual and narrative excitement is the fact that the vaults function, incidentally, as a camera obscura, capturing images of the principal baths and their inhabitants. Images are not the only "artefacts" within the vaults; they function as an unarchived, uncatalogued store for the baths and contain vast quantities of Roman artefacts. The vaults – a Victorian structure set atop a Roman base, but cut off from the rest of the museum – becomes a place loaded with the potential for meaning.

Underpinning the presentation is the contention that space, and buildings, live most powerfully in the mind, and that all meaning and significance is projected on to them. It is the relationship between the mind and the space which lies at the centre of the presentation.


Many proposed payment systems allow the payer to remain anonymous during a transaction. However, this unconditional privacy protection could be misused by criminals, e.g. for blackmailing or money laundering. With a fair payment system, anonymous payments are still possible, but the anonymity can be removed with the help of a trusted party which need not be involved in the transaction itself. In this paper, we present an efficient fair payment system and we discuss its security.


Modern communications heavily rely on cryptography to ensure data integrity and privacy. Over the past two decades, very efficient, secure, and featureful cryptographic schemes have been built on top of abelian varieties defined over finite fields. This thesis contributes to several computational aspects of ordinary abelian varieties related to their endomorphism ring structure. This structure plays a crucial role in the construction of abelian varieties with desirable properties. For instance, pairings have recently enabled many advanced cryptographic primitives; generating abelian varieties endowed with efficient pairings requires selecting suitable endomorphism rings, and we show that more such rings can be used than expected. We also address the inverse problem, that of computing the endomorphism ring of a prescribed abelian variety, which has several applications of its own. Prior state-of-the-art methods could only solve this problem in exponential time, and we design several algorithms of subexponential complexity for solving it in the ordinary case. For elliptic curves, our algorithms are very effective and we demonstrate their practicality by solving large problems that were previously intractable. Additionally, we rigorously bound the complexity of our main algorithm assuming solely the extended Riemann hypothesis. As an alternative to one of our subroutines, we also consider a generalization of the subset sum problem in finite groups, and show how it can be solved using little memory. Finally, we generalize our method to higher-dimensional abelian varieties, for which we rely on further heuristic assumptions. Practically speaking, we develop a library enabling the computation of isogenies between abelian varieties; using this important building block in our main algorithm, we apply our generalized method to compute several illustrative and record examples.


The Bulk-Synchronous Parallel (BSP) Model was proposed as a unifying model for parallel computation. By using Randomized Shared Memory (RSM), the model offers an asymptotically optimal emulation of the Parallel Random Access Machine (PRAM). By using the BSP model with RSM, we construct a gracefully degrading massively parallel system using a fault tolerance (FT) scheme that relies on memory duplication to ensure global memory integrity and to speed up the reconfiguration. After a fault occurs, global reconfiguration restores the logical properties of the system. Work done during reconfiguration is shared equally among the live processors, with minimal coordination. We analyze, at the level of the BSP model, how the performance of a system may change as processors fail and the performance of the interconnection network degrades. We relate the change in overall system performance to the change in computation and communication load on the live processors. Further, we show how to estimate the overhead imposed by the FT scheme. We evaluate the reconfiguration time, the overhead, and graceful degradation of the system experimentally by an implementation on a Massively Parallel Processor (MPP). We show that the predictions about the degradation of the system and the overhead cost of the scheme are accurate.


Abstract Geographical mobility has become a norm of contemporary art. This article examines the spatial dynamics of artists as they face the challenges presented by peripheral territory in visual arts, putting their mobility and flexibility to the test. Whether staying anchored in a geographical area or moving abroad depends on the dominant scheme within the world of art. The globalization of contemporary art promotes the formation and recognition of "hypermobile" artists, but it can also lead to local strategies of withdrawal.


In this study, various stability control systems are developed to remove the lateral instability of a conventional articulated steer vehicle (ASV) during the oscillatory yaw motion or "snaking mode". First, to identify the nature of the instability, some analyses are performed using several simplified models. These investigations are mainly focused on analyzing the effects of forward speed and of two main subsystems of the vehicle, the steering system and tires, on the stability. The basic insights into the stability behavior of the vehicle obtained from the stability analyses of the simplified models are verified by conducting some simulations with a virtual prototype of the vehicle in ADAMS. To determine the most critical operating condition with regard to the lateral stability and to identify the effects of vehicle parameters on the stability, various studies are performed by introducing some modifications to the simplified models. Based on these studies, the disturbed straight-line on-highway motion with constant forward speed is recognized as the most critical driving condition. Also, the examinations show that when the vehicle is traveling with differentials locked, the vehicle is less prone to the instability. The examinations show that when the vehicle is carrying a rear-mounted load having interaction with ground, the instability may happen if the vehicle moves on a relatively good off-road surface. Again, the results gained from the analyses related to the effects of the vehicle parameters and operating conditions on the stability are verified using simulations in ADAMS by making some changes in the virtual prototype for any case. To stabilize the vehicle during its most critical driving condition, some studies are directed to indicate the shortcomings of passive methods. Alternative solutions, including design of different types of stability control systems, are proposed to generate a stabilizing yaw moment. The proposed solutions include an active steering system with a classical controller, an active torque vectoring device with a robust full state feedback controller, and a differential braking system with a robust variable structure controller. The robust controllers are designed by using simplified models, which are also used to evaluate the ability to deal with the uncertainties of the vehicle parameters and its variable operating conditions. These controllers are also incorporated into the virtual prototype, and their capabilities to stabilize the vehicle in different operating conditions and while traveling on different surfaces during the snaking mode are shown.


Most of the recent literature analysing the adjustments of macroeconomic variables to fiscal policy shocks rely on the inclusion of non-Ricardian households to generate a positive response of consumption to an increase in government spending. This paper examines the dynamic effects of government financing behaviour in a foreign exchange constrained low income economy on key macroeconomic aggregates such as output, consumption, wages and labour supply. Using a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model with Ricardian households calibrated to Malawian data, we find that consumption, wages and labour supply increase with increased government expenditure. This is contrary to popular arguments that government expenditure is inversely associated with the private consumption of intertemporal optimizing households in DSGE models. We argue that the positive response of consumption to increased government expenditure arises from the inclusion of aid in the government budget since government expenditure in low income economies may rise with increases in aid inflows for a given level of taxes. We also show that a positive shock to aid relaxes the foreign exchange constraint and improves the economy although it induces an appreciation of the real exchange rate.


ABSTRACT The human cytomegalovirus DNA polymerase includes an accessory protein, UL44, which has been proposed to act as a processivity factor for the catalytic subunit, UL54. How UL44 interacts with UL54 has not yet been elucidated. The crystal structure of UL44 revealed the presence of a connector loop analogous to that of the processivity subunit of herpes simplex virus DNA polymerase, UL42, which is crucial for interaction with its cognate catalytic subunit, UL30. To investigate the role of the UL44 connector loop, we replaced each of its amino acids (amino acids 129 to 140) with alanine. We then tested the effect of each substitution on the UL44-UL54 interaction by glutathione S-transferase pulldown and isothermal titration calorimetry assays, on the stimulation of UL54-mediated long-chain DNA synthesis by UL44, and on the binding of UL44 to DNA-cellulose columns. Substitutions that affected residues 133 to 136 of the connector loop measurably impaired the UL44-UL54 interaction without altering the ability of UL44 to bind DNA. One substitution, I135A, completely disrupted the binding of UL44 to UL54 and inhibited the ability of UL44 to stimulate long-chain DNA synthesis by UL54. Thus, similar to the herpes simplex virus UL30-UL42 interaction, a residue of the connector loop of the accessory subunit is crucial for UL54-UL44 interaction. However, while alteration of a polar residue of the UL42 connector loop only partially reduced binding to UL30, substitution of a hydrophobic residue of UL44 completely disrupted the UL54-UL44 interaction. This information may aid the discovery of small-molecule inhibitors of the UL44-UL54 interaction.


This paper proposes a complementary approach for the architectural design studio. By interpreting architecture by means of an interactive (dance) performance as design task it combines architectural theoretical examination with the implementation of new technologies and event realization. This design studio concept integrates scenography, choreography, sound design and event management, providing workshops carried out by external and internal experts to give insight into these disciplines and new tools. The experimental form allows the students to define the specific form within a broad scope, ranging from a dance performance performed by the students themselves to an interactive installation. The focus for the students was on dealing with the diverse input and on the decision-making process and its reflection.


The data regarding different treatments for wounds are still disappointingly scant. No grade B recommendations are available for wound care products, and grade A seems completely out of the question! A grade B recommendation exists only in favor of hydrogel, hyperbaric oxygenation in ulcers that are beyond treatment in diabetic foot syndrome, and integrated care. In view of the many patients and the vast market in wound care products, this is sobering. I was therefore all the more surprised at the recommendation not to use honey for chronic wounds (the context was really generally that of chronic wounds) because honey resulted in more pain in a single study of venous ulcers. Why was a special scenario (venous ulcers) generalized to include all chronic wounds?

Years of experience with manuka honey in patients with diabetic foot syndrome have shown that pain usually does not constitute a problem in these wounds owing to the comorbid polyneuropathy. I would have welcomed a fact-based recommendation, differentiated by evidence level (which exists for a negative recommendation only for venous ulcers). Numerous small, qualitatively moderate to poor studies of honey treatment in diabetic foot syndrome have shown mostly promising results, which are entirely consistent with my own observations. Obviously, high-quality randomized controlled studies of honey treatment in diabetic foot syndrome are absolutely necessary and desirable. But until these have been conducted and reported, the treatment of the diabetic foot syndrome with honey provides an efficient, cost-effective variant with a poor evidence base. This, however, is also the case for all other wound treatments.


of Thomas Luckmann and Peter Berger, to a communicative constructivism that acknowledges communication as an embodied form of action in its own right, according to which social actors, in engaging in communicative action, construct a material social reality that guides, delimits, and enables actions. A study of the importance of understanding the role of communication in an age in which digitization and mediatization have extended the reach of communication to a global level and brought about the emergence of the communication society, The Communicative Construction of Reality shows how communication society does not merely replace modern society and its hierarchical institutions, but complements it in a manner that continually results in conflicts leading to the refiguration of society. As such, it will appeal to scholars of sociology with interests in the sociology of knowledge, communication, and social theory.


The aim of this study is to examine the role that participation plays in local tourism
development and the factors which may affect genuine and inclusive participation.
Focussing on a tourism regeneration strategy proposed by Blackpool Borough
Council, UK, this study will question the highly acclaimed and supported theory that
community participation is a vital element of sustainable tourism development.
Although residents' perceptions of tourism development are a well-studied subject,
the role which residents play in the decision-making is much less discussed. This gap
in the literature needs to be addressed in order to challenge, or indeed corroborate, the
rhetoric of community participation.
Research was conducted by use of questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. The
results initially indicate a perspective that most Blackpool residents show a high level
of apathy towards tourism development, yet upon further examination several barriers
and limitations to participation become apparent, emphasising the need for a
multifaceted yet all-inclusive approach to participation. The results show that social
class, a lack of understanding of the participation system and a general feeling that
residents' opinions would not be considered, all acted as barriers against resident
participation. Limited funding was also determined to be a limitation to providing
adequate participation methods. In light of these results the author puts forward
several recommendations, including the need to ensure that all residents have the
opportunity to participate, providing continuous feedback of decisions and
progression of developments, and ensuring that participation is encouraged at a local
level without input from higher levels of Government.


A robust public debate is currently underway about the responsibility of online platforms. We have long called for this discussion, but only recently has it been seriously taken up by legislators and the public. The debate begins with a basic question: should platforms should be responsible for user-generated content? If so, under what circumstances? What exactly would such responsibility look like? Under consideration is Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act—a provision originally designed to encourage tech companies to clean up "offensive" online content. The public discourse around Section 230, however, is riddled with misconceptions. As an initial matter, many people who opine about the law are unfamiliar with its history, text, and application. This lack of knowledge impairs thoughtful evaluation of the law's goals and how well they have been achieved. Accordingly, Part I of this Article sets the stage with a description of Section 230—its legislative history and purpose, its interpretation in the courts, and the problems that current judicial interpretation raises. A second, and related, major source of misunderstanding is the conflation of Section 230 and the First Amendment. Part II details how this conflation distorts discussion in three ways: it assumes all Internet activity is protected speech; it treats private actors as though they were government actors; and it presumes that regulation will inevitably result in less speech. These distortions must be addressed in order to pave the way for clear-eyed policy reform. Part III offers potential solutions to help Section 230 achieve its legitimate goals.


This study examined the metacognitive processes and attentional focus of recreational endurance runners. The emphasis was on understanding the metacognitive processes important to acquire, develop, and refine cognitive strategies in novice endurance exercise participants. The potential impact of metacognitive processes and cognitive strategies on longer-term endurance activity adherence was also of interest. To meet these aims, ten recreational runners were interviewed to retrospectively explore metacognitive processes and attentional focus during running. Data were analysed using deductive and inductive content analyses. The data revealed that runners engaged in a relatively limited array of metacognitive skills and may not possess a detailed knowledge of task-specific attentional strategies to regulate cognition. Few runners engaged in metacognitive planning or reviewing by themselves, for example. Cognitive strategies were developed with experience, however, and often as a consequence of unpleasant, effort-related sensory experiences. Other, more experienced runners were also influential sources for cognitive strategy acquisition. These findings are novel within an endurance activity context. Based on our interpretation of the findings, we propose that interventions to enhance metacognitive abilities and assist novice endurance participants to acquire, develop, and refine task-appropriate cognitive strategies, may be important to longer-term endurance activity adherence.


Although Malcolm Lowry (1909-1957) published only two novels--Ultramarine and Under the Volcano--in his lifetime, numerous other works, most of which have since been edited for publication, were in various stages of composition at his death. La Mordida, the longest and most significant of the manuscripts that have not been previously published, is a draft of a novel based on Lowry's visit to Mexico in 1945-46, which ended in the arrest and deportation of Lowry and his wife following a nightmarish run-in with corrupt immigration authorities. On its most immediate level, the title La Mordida--which means "the little bite," Mexican slang for the small bribe that officials are apt to demand in order to expedite matters--refers to the autobiographical protagonist's legal difficulties. In a larger sense, however, it also represents his inability to escape his past, to repay the fine, or debt, that he owes. The central narrative of La Mordida involves a descent into the abyss of self, culminating in the protagonist's symbolic rebirth at the book's end. Lowry planned to use this basic narrative pattern as the springboard for innumerable questions about such concerns as art, identity, the nature of existence, political issues, and alcoholism. Above all, La Mordida was to have been a metafictional work about an author who sees no point in living events if he cannot write about them and who is not only unable to write but suspects that he is just a character in a novel. A reading of La Mordida in the context of Lowry's aesthetic theories and psychological problems shows why he dreaded the completion of his projects to such an extent that he called success a "horrible disaster" and compared death to "the accepted manuscript of one's life." The reason, La Mordida makes clear, lies partly in the aesthetic theories that led Lowry to attempt a book that he prophetically called "something never dreamed of before, a work of art so beyond conception it could not be written." Patrick A. McCarthy's edition of La Mordida is based on materials held in the Malcolm Lowry Archive at the University of British Columbia. Its publication provides essential evidence for a balanced assessment of Lowry's creative processes and his achievement as a writer.


A public attorneys' association has asked Brazil's Supreme Court to allow women who have contracted the Zika virus and are in a state of "great mental suffering" to have access to abortions.

Under Brazilian law, abortion is permitted only in cases of rape, when there is a threat to the mother's life, or if the fetus has anencephaly.

The petition, which was delivered on 24 August, proposes that the mental suffering of pregnant women seeking abortions must be verified by medical and psychological reports. "[Abortion] would only occur in very exceptional cases," said Joaquim Neto, president of the National Association of Public Defenders.

The guiding principle …


In Russian Federation, 27,300,000–41,200,000 acute upper and lower respiratory infections are reported annually. Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are at higher risk of severe course, complications, and lethal outcomes of influenza. About 30% of COPD exacerbations are due to viral infections, and influenza A and B viruses are among the most common causes. The aim of our study was to assess exacerbation rate, number of courses of antibiotic chemotherapy, pulmonary function, and immunological effects of mono-vaccination with a new immunoadjuvant influenza vaccine vs. combined vaccination against pneumococcal infection, Hemophilus type b infection, and influenza in COPD patients. Both complex vaccination against Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae type b, and influenza and monovaccination with a new immunoadjuvant influenza vaccine led to statistically significant reduction in the number of COPD exacerbations and of antibiotic chemotherapy courses. Based on the obtained results, widespread implementation of mono-vaccina© 2016 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. © 2016 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. tion against influenza with a new immunoadjuvant influenza vaccine, as well as complex vaccination against bacterial respiratory infections and influenza can be recommended for COPD patients, as vaccination is beneficial for their functional status, that is, improves forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1) and 6-minute walk test results. In our study, we evaluated immunogenicity of the new influenza immunoadjuvant vaccine administered as mono-vaccine to COPD patients in accordance with Committee for Proprietary Medicinal Products (CPMP) requirements.


Background: The m.3243A>G mutation in the mitochondrial tRNALeu(UUR) gene is an example of a mutation causing a very heterogeneous phenotype. It is the most frequent cause (80%) of the MELAS syndrome (mitochondrial myopathy, encephalopathy, lactic acidosis and stroke-like episodes), but it can also lead in addition or separately to type 2 diabetes, deafness, renal tubulopathy and/or cardiomyopathy. Methods: To identify pathogenic processes induced by this mutation, we compared global gene expression levels of muscle biopsies from affected and unaffected mutation carriers with controls. Results and conclusions: Gene expression changes were relatively subtle. In the asymptomatic group 200 transcripts were upregulated and 12 were downregulated, whereas in the symptomatic group 15 transcripts were upregulated and 52 were downregulated. In the asymptomatic group, oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) complex I and IV genes were induced. Protein turnover and apoptosis were elevated, most likely due to the formation of dysfunctional and reactive oxygen species (ROS) damaged proteins. These processes returned to normal in symptomatic patients. Components of the complement system were upregulated in both groups, but the strongest in the symptomatic group, which might indicate muscle regeneration—most likely, protein damage and OXPHOS dysfunction stimulate repair (protein regeneration) and metabolic adaptation (OXPHOS). In asymptomatic individuals these processes suffice to prevent the occurrence of symptoms. However, in affected individuals the repair process terminates, presumably because of excessive damage, and switches to muscle regeneration, as indicated by a stronger complement activation. This switch leaves increasingly damaged tissue in place and muscle pathology becomes manifest. Therefore, the expression of complement components might be a marker for the severity and progression of MELAS clinical course.


Etoposide, a nonintercalating antitumor drug, is a potent inhibitor of topoisomerase II activity. When Trypanosoma equiperdum is treated with etoposide, cleavable complexes are stabilized between topoisomerase II and kinetoplast DNA minicircles, a component of trypanosome mitochondrial DNA (T. A. Shapiro, V. A. Klein, and P. T. Englund, J. Biol. Chem. 264:4173-4178, 1989). Etoposide also promotes the time-dependent accumulation of small minicircle catenanes. These catenanes are radiolabeled in vivo with [3H]thymidine. Dimers are most abundant, but novel structures containing up to five noncovalently closed minicircles are detectable. Analysis by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis and electron microscopy indicates that dimers joined by up to six interlocks are late replication intermediates that accumulate when topoisomerase II activity is blocked. The requirement for topoisomerase II is particularly interesting because minicircles do not share the features postulated to make this enzyme essential in other systems: for minicircles, the replication fork is unidirectional, access to the DNA is not blocked by nucleosomes, and daughter circles are extensively nicked and (or) gapped.


ABSTRACT Aim: Sinonasal cancer represent 3% of all head and neck cancers, with an annual European incidence of 1-2/100000. Squamous cell carcinoma is the most frequent type, and adenocarcinoma accounts for 10-20%. The average age is 50-60 years (yrs), with male predominance. Occupational wood exposure is considered a risk factor. SNA grows silently which leads to a late diagnosis and low survival rates. Methods: 32-year (1981-2013) retrospective cohort analysis of all consecutive patients (pts) with histologically confirmed primary SNA, diagnosed/treated in our tertiary cancer centre. Medical records were reviewed. Survival analysis was done using Kaplan-Meier estimator and log-rank/Peto tests. Results: From 275 pts with sinonasal cancer, 31 were SNA. Patient median age was 70 yrs (49-108), 54.8% male. 38.7% had professional exposure to leather dust/wood/cork. Primary sites at diagnosis were: nasal cavity (48.4%), maxillary sinus (3.3%), ethmoid sinus (3.3%). Nasal obstruction (74.3%), epistaxis (45.2%) were the most common presenting symptoms. Most pts (54.8%) presented with stage III and stage IV disease at diagnosis and 45.2% with stage I/II. The Intestinal-Type SNA (ITAC) was the most common type of adenocarcinoma (61.3%) followed by tubulopapillary (22.6%). The median time between the first symptom and the definitive diagnosis was 5 months (0-39) and from the diagnosis to the initial treatment was 2 months (0-9). Surgery was the primary treatment in 77.4%. Adjuvant radiation was performed in 51.6% and chemotherapy in 3.3%. Recurrence was seen in 13 pts (41.9%): 28.7% recurred locally, 6.6% systemically, and 6.6% both. The median follow-up, overall survival (OS) and progression free-survival (PFS) were 3.5 yrs, 5.45 yrs and 3.41 yrs, respectively. Mucinous ITAC subtype had a dismal outcome (7/8 pts died), with a median OS and PFS of 4.76 yrs and 2.8 yrs, respectively. Stage I/II Stage III/IV p value OS 10.02 yrs 3.51 yrs 0.0179, log-rank PFS 4.14 yrs 2.27 yrs 0.0573, peto-test Conclusions: Our results suggest a tendency of SNA to late diagnosis and an occupational exposure as predisposing factor. In our series ITAC was the most frequent histological type and mucinous subtype tends to worse the outcome. Disclosure: All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.


This Article argues that most states have unconstitutionally overbroad authorizations for citizens to use deadly force in the context of crime prevention, citizen's arrest, and defense of one's "castle." Similarly, some authorizations of deadly force for self-defense in public areas may be unconstitutional. The starting points of this argument are the fundamental value of life, the state's monopoly of deadly force, and the fundamental constitutional right to life. Because of the state's monopoly of deadly force, any use of such force is either legitimate or proscribed. The lack of a third category of "private" use of deadly force affects constitutional review of authorizations of the use of deadly force in two ways.First, a citizen's use of authorized deadly force is subject to the same constitutional limitations that apply to a governmental official's use of such force. Consequently, because some authorizations permit citizens to use deadly force in a way that would be unconstitutional if a government official had used the same force, these citizen authorizations are also unconstitutional.Second, equal protection and substantive due process review of an authorization require a stringent standard of review in terms of the rights of citizens killed as a result of the authorization of deadly force. More specifically, because of the fundamental constitutional right to life, the authorization must be narrowly tailored to address a compelling state interest. Many authorizations of deadly force do not satisfy this standard because they are so overbroad that they include authorizations of deadly force in situations where the state interest involved is not sufficiently compelling to justify a denial of the fundamental right to life.Because of the unfairness of applying a constitutional limit in the context where a citizen has acted in accordance with an overbroad authorization of deadly force, a prospective declaration of unconstitutionality may be appropriate.


Triassic–Middle Eocene sedimentary sequences in the Central Taurids contain sufficient organic matter to constitute potential source rocks. Geochemical data are used to examine the amount, type and maturation of organic matter and the hydrocarbon potentials of the Triassic Tarasci Fm Limestone, the Late Jurassic–Early Cretaceous Akkuyu Fm limestones and shales and the Middle Eocene Gumusdamla Fm shales. During the extensive Senonian and Lutetian horizontal movements, sub-thrust units of these formations attained higher maturity values in the north (Seydisehir) than in the south (Akkuyu) of the study area. The TOC, S2, and HI values decrease with increasing thermal maturity (365–569°C). Therefore, the geochemical data indicate that the formations are gas and oil source rocks and may produce gas with some oil.


The wind energy conversion system considered in this thesis is based on a vertical axis wind turbine with a cable wound direct drive PM generator. Diode rectifiers are used to connect several such units to a single DC-bus and a single inverter controls the power flow from the DC-bus to a utility grid. This work considers the described system from a generator perspective i.e. the turbine is primarily seen as a torque and the inverter is seen as a controlled load.A 12 kW VAWT prototype with a single turbine has been constructed within the project. The power coefficient of this turbine has been measured when the turbine is operated at various tip speed ratios. This measurement determines both how much energy the turbine can convert in a given wind and at what speed the turbine should be operated in order to maximise the energy capture. The turbine torque variation during the revolution of the turbine has also been studied.A PM generator prototype has been constructed in order to study power loss in the stator core at low electrical frequencies. Heat exchange between the stator and the air-gap between the stator and the rotor has been studied. Heat exchange between the stator and the air-gap is increased by turbulence caused by the rotor. The generator was also used in a demonstration of a DC-grid where two diode rectified PM generators supplied power to a single DC load. An initial study of an inverter suitable for grid connection of the 12 kW PM generator has been performed.Several turbine control strategies are evaluated in simulations. The control strategies only require the parameter "turbine speed" to determine the optimal system load.


Abstract: Fungal root endophytes were examined in 25 medicinal plant species from 24 genera and 14 families. Arbuscular mycorrhiza (AM) was found in 15 species. In roots of these plants, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) with coarse hyphae were dominant. The intensity of AMF colonization varied with particular species, ranging from 1.2% (Cannabis sativa) to 78.8% (Salvia przewalskii). The fine AM endophyte (Glomus tenue) hyphae were found only in 3 species. The AM morphology of 12 species was of the Arum-type, while 3 plants of the Apiaceae and Cannabaceae families revealed intermediate AM types. The mycelium of dark septate endophytes (DSE) was observed in 17 plant species; however, both the frequency of their occurrence in roots and the intensity of root colonization were low. The sporadic occurrence of Olpidium spp. sporangia was also observed in 5 plant species. Spores of 6 AMF species (Glomeromycota) were isolated from trap cultures established with soils collected from beneath the plants under study, namely Albahypha drummondii, Claroideoglomus claroideum, Funneliformis caledonius, Funneliformis mosseae, Paraglomus majewskii, and Septoglomus constrictum. The fungus most frequently found was F. mosseae, which also sporulated most abundantly in the cultures. In contrast, A. drummondii and F. caledonius were detected only in single cultures. Additionally, one morphotype with glomoid spores resembling those of Diversispora spp. was isolated from a single culture. The results constitute the first detailed report of the root endophyte associations of these plant species. Moreover, the mycorrhizal status of 11 plant species and 6 genera, and the AM morphology in 14 species, 10 genera and the Cannabaceae family, are reported for the first time.


The P3 and related ERP's have a long history of use to identify stimulus events in subjects as part of oddball-style experiments. In this work we describe the ongoing development of oddball style experiments which attempt to capture what a subject finds of interest
or curious, when presented with a set of visual stimuli i.e. images. This joint work between Dublin City University (DCU) and the European Space Agency's Advanced Concepts Team (ESA ACT) is motivated by the challenges of autonomous space exploration where the time lag for sending data back to earth for analysis and then communicating an action or decision back to the spacecraft means that decision-making is slow. Also, when extraterrestrial sensors
capture data, the determination of what data to send back to earth is driven by an expertly devised rule set, that is scientists need to determine apriori what will be of interest. This cannot adapt to novel or unexpected data that a scientist may find curious. Our work is
attempting to determine if it is possible to capture what a scientist (subject) finds of interest (curious) in a stream of image data through EEG measurement.
One of the our challenges is to determine the difference between an expert and a lay subject response to stimulus. To investigate the theorized difference, we use a set of lifelog images as our dataset. Lifelog images are first person images taken by a small wearable camera which continuously records images whilst it is worn. We
have devised two key experiments for use with this data and two classes of subjects. Our subjects are a person who has worn the personal camera, from which our collection of lifelog images is taken and who becomes our expert, and the remaining subjects are people who have no association with the captured images. Our first experiment is a traditional oddball experiment where the oddballs are people having coffee, and can be thought of as a directed information
seeking task. The second experiment is to present a stream of lifelog images to the subjects and record which images cause a stimulus response. Once the data from these experiments has been captured our task is to compare the responses between the expert and lay subject groups, to determine if there are any commonalities between
these groups or any distinct differences. If the latter outcome is the case the objective is then to investigate methods for capturing properties of images which cause an expert to be interested in a presented image. Further novelty is added to our work by the fact we are using entry-level off-the-shelf EEG devices, consisting of 4 nodes
with a sampling rate of 255Hz.


Vaccination against the virus responsible for COVID-19 has become key in preventing mortality and morbidity related to the infection. Studies have shown that the benefits of vaccination outweigh the risks. However, there are concerns regarding serious adverse events of some vaccines, although they are fortunately rare. Here, we report a case of a 47-year-old female from Kathmandu who presented with high grade fever, dry cough and erythematous rash a week after exposure to the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine. She had hepatosplenomegaly, persistent leucocytosis, anaemia and thrombocytosis along with markedly raised inflammatory markers. Her tests for infectious causes and haematological malignancies were negative and she showed no response to multiple antibiotics. Finally, she had a dramatic response to steroids with disappearance of fever and normalization of other laboratory parameters. Hence, she was diagnosed with Adult-onset Still's Disease (AOSD). She was under methotrexate and prednisolone tapering dose and doing well as of the time of writing. The trigger for the disease was hypothesized to be the vaccine because of the strong temporal association.


This paper discusses design and construction aspects of four cross-country pipelines that were built in central Alberta, Canada during 1982-1983. The first two pipelines, carrying different grades of ethylene glycol, were installed in a common trench, and were of steel. The other two pipelines were of polyethylene construction except for the last one kilometer down at the river valley where carbon steel was used. The paper first discusses the geotechnical investigations and route selection studies carried out for these pipelines. Design considerations regarding trench slopes and right-of-way requirements, trench backfill material and compaction, highway and road crossing design are presented. Construction problems associated with these design aspects including the welding of the stainless steel pipes are briefly described. Finally, a brief design and construction comparison between the metal and plastic pipelines is presented.


The purpose of this study is to examine the repercussions vehicular road transport emissions have on global warming potential (GWP), and the need to address the issue considering methodological challenges facing road transportation in Nigeria. Specific objectives of the study includes to determine the emission level in the country, to evaluate the GWP and to develop a emission mapping network on trunk A roads in Nigeria. Accurate information on these emissions is required to strengthen the mitigation and adaptation ability of the country to tackle climate change. The study relied on direct measurement technique supported by literature as well as questionnaires administered on the organised vehicle fleet operators and road traffic management agency as data gathering methods. Also, detailed analysis of questionnaires responses was carried out. Results show that road transport account for over 14% of greenhouse gases. Survey findings indicate that excessive smoke emission offence accounts for 1-2% of the annual road traffic offences in Nigeria. Using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) software version 16, five fitted simple linear regression models were developed. With these fitted models it is possible to map the gas concentrations on the kilometre travelled. Examination of the National Vehicle Identification Scheme (NVIS) revealed a rise in the periodic plate number generation from yearly record of 788,169 in 2001 to 791,832 in 2009. Human capacity requirements, based on yearly Drivers Licence (DL) processed, increased by 55% between 2000 and 2010. Three mutual strategies namely renewed urban and rural road transport infrastructure availability, regular fleet maintenance and capacities building for improved behavioural change of road users were recommended to help control road transport emissions. These measures if inflexibly implemented will change the transport sector from being a major global warming risk factor to that of Eco-friendly sector.


OBJECTIVES
The purpose of this study was to understand perceived benefits, facilitators, disadvantages, and barriers for physical activity among South Asian adolescents in India and Canada.

METHODS
Thirteen focus group discussions with South Asian (origin) adolescent boys and girls of different nutritional status and socioeconomic status in rural and urban India and urban Canada.

RESULTS
Across the groups, fitness and 'energy' were perceived to be major benefits of physical activity. In India, better academic performance was highlighted, while health benefits were well detailed in Canadian groups. In all settings, friends, family, and teachers were perceived as facilitators of as well as barriers to physical activity. Lack of a safe space to play was a major concern for urban adolescents, while academic pressures and preference for other sedentary recreational activities were common barriers across all groups. Girls were less likely than boys to be interested in physical activity, with girls' participation in India further limited by societal restrictions.

CONCLUSION
The study suggests key areas for promotion of physical activity among South Asian adolescents: balance between academic pressure and opportunities for physical activity, especially in India; urban planning for a built environment conducive to physical activity; and gender-sensitive programming to promote girls' activity which also addresses culture-specific barriers.


The rainfall amount observed at a given location mostly depend on the cloud density, which can be quantified with the reflectivity values observed by meteorology weather radars. In this study, we aim to estimate the rainfall amount using a Kalman filter with radar reflectivity measurements. We first assume that the amount of rainfall observed at automatic weather observation stations (AWOSs) are elements of an unknown state vector and consider the Kalman filter process model as the true rainfall amounts observed at these AWOSs over time. For the measurement model of the Kalman filter, we use the radar reflectivity values observed at each AWOS location. For the execution of the Kalman filter, a number of rainfall amount and radar reflectivity value pairs are first required to learn the process and measurement models of the Kalman filter. The estimation performance of the proposed Kalman filter is then compared with empirical reflectivity (Z) - rainfall (R) relationships. Numerical results show that when the Kalman filter is executed with radar reflectivity measurements observed around a large number of AWOS locations, the mean squared errors of the Kalman filter rainfall estimates are smaller than the ones obtained with empirical ZR relationships.


In 1839 Britain teetered on the threshold of a revolution. The poet Capel Lofft aspired to trigger it by disseminating his incendiary epic, Ernest; or, Political Regeneration , among the working classes. Ernest narrates the sanguinary triumph of a popular insurgency, and provides a blueprint for founding a democratic-communist republic. This essay seeks to recuperate Lofft and draw attention to his forgotten masterpiece of Chartist poetry. I make a case for Ernest's literary merit and historical interest, highlighting its standing as the British nineteenth century's most strident justification of political violence. My reading of the poem shows that Lofft uses a logic of vanguardism to synthesize two deeply antithetical convictions: radical egalitarianism, on the one hand, and belief in the inherent superiority of the poet, on the other. In his eponymous protagonist, Lofft creates a seductive image of the committed artist-revolutionary, and thereby sublimates his own conflicting ideas about the poet's relation to the demos. Lofft proved incapable of quelling his ambivalence in life, however. He swiftly withdrew Ernest from circulation, stifling his own call to revolt—and ensuring that his poem would be neglected by posterity.


Abstract This practice-based study investigates the application of an individual studio practice, grounded in Painting, to notions of interactive art, and seeks to establish how the interactivity might impact upon the meaning and the affective power of the work. It investigates the current state of interactive art, its ancestry, development and contextualisation, leading up to its presumed current location within New Media. The thesis examines a range of both theoretical and practical artistic research outputs. It investigates interaction models and taxonomies from New Media, and a range of other interactive disciplines, in order to inform the development of successful paradigms for interactivity as a parameter of an emotionally engaging and communicative art. A number of problems are identified in conflicting conceptual models; an emphasis on the technical and behavioural over the visual, and on human- human over viewer-work interaction; an emphasis on the open meaning and the dispersed author undermining notions of intrinsic meaning; and a foregrounding of play, of pleasure, rather than a deep emotional engagement. The practice, supported by comparisons with related practices, peer discussion and viewer feedback, develops a language of small gestures, textures, layers, sounds and behaviours. It develops away from New Media towards an exploration of the specific nature of the computer as painting medium, and identifies specific models which are useful in informing the development of screen-based painting as interactive. It identifies the model of Interactive Painting as a way of conceptualising the work, which is informed by several key models. Firstly, it identifies Elemental Interactivity; intrinsic, related to both the form and the content, an integrated element, in which the work and its behaviour are one. This is supported by models of Intuitive Interaction and Real-World Models, supporting viewer perception of real-world activities, and informed by characteristics of Simplicity (of interaction and process), and by a small scale and intimate kinaesthetic or Gestural Interactivity. The study identifies a successful model in Open-Ended Exploratory Interaction within a Navigable Space, which is informed by the concept of Wholeness, of the interactive artwork as a holistic or integrated object, which behaves. It identifies Interpretive Interaction as a means of building layers into the work and including a model of Making Cognitive Interaction Concrete. This Interpretive Interaction is contrasted by elements of goal-driven or creative interactivity, providing a shifting dynamic and dramaturgy. It identifies this dramaturgy, the use of humour, pace, mood and elements of and surprise as means of producing the important shift between Immersion and Reflection. Finally, the study examines the visual qualities of the medium. Through comparisons between this medium and Painting, it identifies a specificity for a genre of Interactive Painting, as expressive, immersive, rich, imaginative - a dynamic, controllable and Human re-interpretation of old and new media.


In this paper, a doubly-iterative linear receiver, equipped with a soft-information aided frequency domain minimum mean-squared error (MMSE) equalizer, is proposed for the combined equalization and decoding of coded continuous phase modulation (CPM) signals over long multipath fading channels. In the proposed receiver architecture, the front-end frequency domain equalizer (FDE) is followed by the soft-input, soft-output (SISO) CPM demodulator and channel decoder modules. The receiver employs double turbo processing by performing back-end demodulation/decoding iterations per each equalization iteration to improve the a priori information for the front-end FDE. As presented by the computational complexity analysis and simulations, this process provides not only a significant reduction in the overall computational complexity, but also a performance improvement over the previously proposed iterative and noniterative MMSE receivers.


What has distinguished public sector agencies in the past has been 'their stewardship over resources that are not under the control of any other private or public actor' (Klein et al., 2013, p. 74). The public sector in establishing a collective or common ownership 'in the name of all citizens' (Bovaird and Loffler, 2009, p. 5) is therefore distinctive from the 'private' sector, even where the latter is delivering essential services on behalf of the state. This is especially relevant in the UK where there is an observed disconnect between stewardship and safeguarding, and commodification of public goods. For example, the recent reclassification of housing associations (social housing providers many of which are charities) to public organisations at a time of housing crisis (Orr, 2017) may enable easier transfer of assets from public to private through tenants' right to buy schemes. While charities may be seen as 'private', the legislative arrangements surrounding their practice means individuals do not have direct ownership of goods, and said goods cannot be transferred unless to another charitable trust. In many regards they, together with modern philanthropy and organisations such as community land trusts, provide 'public good by private means' (Davies, 2015).

This exploratory paper aims to open discussion of public entrepreneurship through the examination of the emergence of new forms of governance and ownership structures of public service providers. A question, Conaty (2014, p.4) poses, for example, is, 'is there a democratically accountable ownership model for health and care services that could make a difference? Re-positioning service delivery models around mutual values and principles may raise opportunities for co-creating and co-producing services, but it also necessitates a critical look at the perceived benefits. There are, for example, arguments pointing to the resilience of mutual organisations. There is some evidence (see for example, Lampel et al. 2012) suggesting that employee-owned businesses are at least as profitable as investor-owned businesses, are at lower risk of failure, and can provide social as well as economic benefits. Much of the research to date, however, has concentrated on mutuals operating as businesses in the private sector, rather than as public service providers.

Using publicly available statistical information and case materials, the paper considers whether 'non-public' organisations – a broader umbrella term that incorporates third sector organisations, social enterprises, spin-out organisations from local government and health, social and multi-stakeholder co-operatives, and other non-profit actors (Wollmann, 2015, p. 3) - are transforming and innovating services while safeguarding the values of the NHS and other public services; or whether they are contributing to continued commodification and privatisation of public sector services.