The recent development and applications of social network theory in many fields of engineering (electricity, gas, transport, water, etc.) allows both the understanding of networks and to improve their management. Social network theory coupled to the availability of real time data and big data analysis techniques can change drastically the traditional approaches to manage civil networks. Recently, some authors are working to apply this novel approach, based on social network theory, on the water distribution networks using: a) graph partitioning algorithms to define optimal district meter areas both for water losses identification and for water network protection, b) innovative topological, energy and hydraulic indices to analyze performance; and c) GIS (Geographical Information System) to provide a more effective display of results and to improve network behavior in specific operational conditions. In this paper, a novel release 3.5 of SWANP software, that implements all these features, was tested on a real large water network in Alcalá de Henares, Spain.


Timing of larval release in benthic marine invertebrates plays an important role in determining the reproductive success and extent of larval dispersal. Few studies have been conducted on diel variations in planula release by corals. Five brooding corals Seriatopora hystrix, Stylophora pistillata, Pocillopora damicornis, Euphyllia glabrescens, and Tubastraea aurea in Nan- wan Bay, southern Taiwan, were selected to compare diel patterns of planula release. Corals were collected from the field and maintained in outdoor, flow-through systems to quantify the hourly release of planulae. Planulation by S. hystrix and S. pistillata was highly synchronized with 1 peak of planula release occurring close to sunrise. Planulae of P. damicornis and E. glabrescens were released throughout the day, and usually 2 peaks occurred in the early morning and at night. Planu- lation of the ahermatypic coral T. aurea occurred throughout the day without a consistent peak. The diel cycle of planulation for all 3 pocilloporids and E. glabrescens suggests that the light-dark cycle may be the cue that induces planula release. The majority of planulae of these 4 species being released in the dark might be beneficial for minimizing predation effects. The peak planulation occurring close to sunrise might be advantageous for exploiting light cues after sunrise by mature planulae in order to quickly settle, shortening the time they remain in the water column and promot- ing settlement within the natal reef. Variations in diel patterns of planula release show that variable strategies of reproductive timing exist for brooding species.


The volume contains the commented edition of the Devisement dou monde based on the Berlin Staatsbibliothek - Preußischer Kulturbesitz Codex, Hamilton 424.
The Hamilton 424 Codex, transcribed in Venice in the second half of the fifteenth century, contains the translation of a Latin model (whose features can be partially reconstructed virtually starting from some translation errors) and is the only known witness of V. Due to its characteristics, V represents a crucial point in the definition of the transmission dynamics of Polo's book: its readings are confirmed, often in a broader form, by the Latin version known as Z. V strengthens the hypothesis that, after returning to Venice, Marco Polo modified the text written with Rustichello da Pisa in Genoa. Actually, version V represents the first step of this long process of rewriting, which probably occurred in several phases.
This volume includes an introduction, the text edition, a textual commentary, as well as an index. A second and forthcoming volume will contain the linguistic analysis and glossary.


Understanding the physics of multiphase flow as one of the most dominant flow regimes is posing many challenges to researchers in the field of fluid dynamics. In particular, in petroleum industries where production flow is always multiphase, pipeline engineers and operators have to have a clear understanding of the multiphase behaviour when transferring crude oil, associated gas, produced water and solid particles from wellheads to processing facilities. Many researchers have simplified the treatment of complex flows through considering them as the flows of two or three different phases. A comprehensive two-phase liquid/gas model developed by Xiao et al. in 1990, a two-phase solid/liquid model developed by Doron and Barnea in 1993 or a three-phase liquid/liquid/gas model by Taitel et al. in 1995 are just a few examples of these approaches. In this paper, to the best of the authors' knowledge, a mechanistic model has been developed to model the four-phase sand/water/oil/gas flow for a stratified flow regime in a horizontal pipe for the first time. The developed model takes into account some aspects of the three-layer model, which was introduced by Doron and Barnea in 1993 and the three-phase liquid/liquid/gas model of Taitel et al. This model considers the entire spectrum of phases comprising a stationary sand bed, a moving sand bed, water, and oil and gas layers, and the flow regime has been modelled by a set of 12 non-linear equations. The method for solving this system of non-linear equations is discussed, with an aim to calculate the phase holdups, phase velocities and pressure loss.


This book marks an exciting convergence towards the idea that human culture and cognition are rooted in the character of human social interaction, which is unique in the animal kingdom. Roots of Human Sociality attempts for the first time to explore the underlying properties of social interaction viewed from across many disciplines, and examines their origins in infant development and in human evolution.Are interaction patterns in adulthood affected by cultural differences in childhood upbringing? Apes, unlike human infants of only 12 months, fail to understand pointing and the intention behind it. Nevertheless apes can imitate and analyze complex behavior - how do they do it? Deaf children brought up by speaking parents invent their own languages. How might adults deprived of a fully organized language communicate?This book makes the case that the study of these sorts of phenomenon holds the key to understanding the foundations of human social life. The conclusion: our unique brand of social interaction is at the root of what makes us human.


Material Culture and Sacred Landscape: The Anthropology of the Siberian Khanty PETER JORDAN ALTAMIRA PRESS, WALNUT CREEK, CA, 2003 308 PP. $80 HARDCOVER, $29.95 PAPERBACK It seems safe to assume that I am not the only archaeologist who experiences something akin to a pang of longing when I have occasion to pick up an older ethnography. Many of the ethnographers of the early and middle twentieth century devoted almost as much attention to the material culture and environment of the people they studied as the people themselves. For all their shortcomings, these early ethnographies presented a richness of detail that is too often missing in contemporary works of cultural andiropology: settlement maps, illustrations of house patterns, accounts of subsistence techniques, and descriptions of everyday material objects. I was thus perhaps predisposed to have a favorable opinion of Jordan's book and its close attention to Khanty material culture. But this is not a work of vulgar materialism, nor is it a return to the simple descriptive style of many past ethnographies. His primary concern is describing how the Khanty material culture, including landscapes, is 'enculturated' (i.e., given symbolic meaning) through physical transformation or incorporation into the symbolism of social practices. Jordan draws from a number of theoretical strands in an effort to find a middle ground between cultural materialist ("socioecological") and interpretive ("semiotic") approaches to hunter-gatherer studies. By his own admission, however, the middle ground he proposes leans heavily toward interpretive theories of material culture, which he sees as a corrective to the materialist approaches that have traditionally dominated this field (p. 22). While the terms he uses may be unfamiliar to some readers, his theoretical discussion is clear (free of much of the jargon inherent in the primary works) and even-handed (pointing out some of the limitations and criticisms of these approaches). Jordan contextualizes his edmographic material in broad temporal and spatial scales, placing the Khanty in a macro-regional, longue duree historical context. This history is phrased in the language and perspective of world systems dieory, while extending discussion and credence to its many critiques. While readers anxious to get into the details of the ethnography may wonder why this wasn't incorporated into his earlier theoretical discussion, as an archaeologist I appreciated the inclusion of an extended historical context. World systems theory is appropriate for understanding this history, given that the Khanty paid fur in tribute to the Tatar Khans during the medieval period, were later incorporated into fur tax systems of the Russian and Soviet empires, and today occupy a landscape valued for its mineral resources. Having dispensed with the historical context, Jordan turns to the heart of the ethnography. In addition to material from a 10-month field study of communities on one tributary of the River Ob', he makes good use of other scholarly works and edinohistoric data. …


A detailed engineering study was made by Ebasco Services, Inc., (1977), for a proposed nuclear power plant in the Napot Point region of Bataan, between the entrance to Manila Bay and Subic Bay, Republic of the Philippines (about 14°- 37-12'N, 120°- 18-3/4'E), Figure 1. As a part of the oceanographic portion of this work, a study was made by the writer of the characteristics of tsunamis that had occurred in the region, and the statistics of occurrence (Wiegel, 1976). The study of tsunamis has been updated to the present time (May, 1980). The location of the site is such that the large tsunamis generated in some areas of the Pacific Ocean (such as off the coasts of Chile, Alaska, Japan and Kamchatka) are not likely to reach Napot Point with any appreciable amplitude (see, for example, Wiegel, 1976). There is good evidence that this is the case. Owing to the relative stability from the standpoint of earthquakes (aseismic) of Borneo, the Malaya Peninsula, most of Indochina and the intervening China Sea (Gutenberg and Richter, 1949, pp. 82 and 93), there is probably little, if any, chance of tsunamis being generated in this region; this appears to be a fact (Berninghausen, 1969). The great eruption of Krakatoa and the tsunami generated by it was not noticed on tide gages at either Singapore or Hong Kong, so that it would be reasonable that it would not have been detected at Manila (Wharton, 1888). Also, the large tsunamis that have been generated in the Sulu Sea and the Celebes Sea do not seem to reach the site with any appreciable amplitude. Thus, the tsunamis of importance to the site are those which will be generated in the local seas off the west coast of Luzon. In order to establish this fact, information is presented on a number of tsunamis generated in other regions, especially those generated in the seas off the west coast of the Philippine Islands.


Touch plays a key role in facilitating social communication and is often presented in conjunction with auditory stimuli such as speech. Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) frequently show atypical behavioral responsivity to both tactile and auditory stimuli, which is associated with increased ASD symptomatology. However, as discussed throughout Chapter 1, the neural mechanisms associated with responsivity to tactile and auditory stimuli in ASD are not fully understood. For example, some have argued that differences in responding to tactile and auditory stimuli may be attributed to sensory and perceptual factors, whereas others suggest that these differences could be related to atypicalities in allocation of attention to incoming stimuli. In Chapter 2, I address these competing hypotheses by examining early and late ERP components (indicative of perceptual and attentional processing respectively) in response to tactile and auditory stimuli. Next, despite the evidence suggesting that touch plays a role in modulating attention in typical development (TD), it is unclear whether touch cues affect the response of the phasic alerting network – a subcomponent of attention – in ASD and TD, and whether the alerting response may be atypical in children with ASD. In Chapter 3, I address this gap in the literature by examining whether tactile cues presented at different intervals before auditory targets facilitate reaction times differently in children with ASD and TD. Lastly, because prior research has shown associations between sensory and attentional processes and ASD symptomatology, in Chapters 2 and 3, I examine the associations of neural and behavioral indices of tactile and auditory processing with ASD symptomatology and language skills in children with ASD and TD. In Chapter 2, I show that children in both the ASD and TD groups do not exhibit differences in both early and later neurological responses to tactile and auditory stimuli, suggesting that under certain experimentally-controlled conditions, behavioral differences to tactile and auditory stimuli may not be attributable to atypicalities in perceiving or attending to the incoming sensory input. However, neural responsivity to tactile and auditory stimuli is linked with sensory responsivity and social skills in all children. Specifically, reduced early contralateral activation to tactile stimuli is related to increased tactile symptoms, and reduced early amplitudes to auditory oddball stimuli are associated with impairments in reciprocal social communication in children with ASD as well as when examined across all children, and greater tendency of overall sensory hyper-reactivity. Additionally, in the TD group, greater later amplitudes to touch and auditory oddball stimuli are related to differences in reciprocal social communication and sensory reactivity respectively, indicating that patterns of allocation of attention may be related to ASD-like traits in typical development. Lastly, there is an association between greater sensitivity to changes to a stream of auditory stimuli and expressive language skills in all children. These results suggest that, although there are no group differences between neurological responses to tactile and auditory stimuli in ASD and TD, individual neural differences may be related to sensory and socio-communicative skills in all children. In Chapter 3, I show that although children with ASD responded more slowly than children with TD, both groups displayed faster reaction times as a result of tactile cues before auditory targets, suggesting equivalent phasic alerting in response to tactile stimuli. Longer intervals between cues and targets benefitted children in both groups resulting in faster reaction times. Contrary to my hypotheses, touch-related behavioral facilitation was not associated with ASD symptomatology and language skills. Taken together, the results of these studies suggest that, at least in certain contexts and with certain cues, children with ASD may show typical neurological processing in response to tactile and auditory stimuli, and that touch may facilitate the response of the alerting network similarly in ASD and TD. Therefore, everyday behavioral differences in response to tactile and auditory stimuli may be related to the specific nature of the stimuli as well as social contexts in which such stimuli are more likely to be encountered. Differences between processing rich and dynamic sensory stimuli experienced in the outside world vs experimentally-controlled sensory stimuli presented in the laboratory settings are discussed in Chapter 4. Additionally, I argue that individual responses expected in social vs non-social experimental settings may affect neural and behavioral responses in individuals with ASD. Finally, future research directions are discussed.


The involvement in of Africans in various forms of political activities in Ireland is manifest in the emergence of two first-generation Africans as local representatives in the 2004, the subsequent election of one of them as the first black mayor in Ireland in 2007, the 2011 candidacy of four Africans as national parliamentary candidates and the high number of African candidates in the June 2009 local elections (42.2% of the total immigrant local election candidates and 1.7% of the total candidates nationwide). Drawing strongly from the findings of my recent research on African immigrants in Ireland, I argue that both institutional and structural factors in Ireland serve to enhance certain forms of political behaviour, while limiting others. My research illustrates that the significant presence of African candidates in Irish local elections remains a puzzle that has failed to 'ignite' or rather stimulate a plethora of participation in traditional forms of political activities like voting, registering to vote and join Irish political parties, and part of the puzzle can be explained by their unique characteristics.


Professional development — formal in-service training to upgrade the content knowledge and pedagogical skills of teachers — is widely viewed as an important means of improving teaching and learning. While many interventions include professional development, professional development was the central intervention of the two recent research and demonstration projects — the Professional Development in Reading Study (the "Reading PD study," for short) and the Middle School Mathematics Professional Development Impact Study (the "Math PD study") — whose findings are synthesized in this report. The studies were carried out by the American Institutes for Research and MDRC for the U.S. Department of Education. The professional development that was provided went far beyond the "one-shot" workshop approach that has been widely criticized; it instead included intensive summer institutes, follow-up group sessions, and coaching of individual teachers. The evaluations of the interventions employed random assignment design, and, as a result, they supply unusually rigorous evidence about the effects of the professional development that was offered both on instruction and on student achievement. The impacts of both interventions were substantially less positive than had been hoped. The Reading PD study increased teachers' content knowledge; the Math PD study did not. In both studies, the professional development had positive effects on some targeted instructional practices but not on others. Most critically, students of teachers who received the training scored no higher on subject matter achievement tests than students of teachers who did not receive the training. Moreover, in the reading study, professional development that included one-on-one coaching as well as group workshops did not lead to significantly larger impacts than professional development involving just the workshops; in the mathematics study, receiving two years of professional development did not lead to better results than receiving just one year. A number of factors likely reduced the effectiveness of the professional development and the researchers' ability to measure that effectiveness. For example, teacher turnover in the Math PD study meant that many teachers did not receive the full dose of professional development that had been planned. And the two-year time frames of the two studies may not have allowed enough time for major changes in teaching and learning to take hold. Nonexperimental analyses that were conducted as part of these two studies, along with other research, suggest that the theory of change underlying the studies is correct: professional development of the type that was delivered is associated with increased teacher knowledge and that teacher knowledge and improved instruction is associated with higher student test scores. But changes in teacher-related variables must be substantial — considerably larger than they were in these studies — to move the needle on student achievement even a small amount. By themselves, the findings of the two studies do not mean that professional development efforts cannot work. New thinking emphasizes a broader conception of teacher learning that involves all teachers in a school in a professional learning community that is engaged in a continuous and collegial cycle of learning, practice, reflection, and improvement. Randomized trials to test professional development that is reinforced within professional learning communities are in order. At the same time, in-service training should not be the only vehicle for improving student achievement.


Pockmarks are seafloor depressions commonly associated with fluid
 escape from the seabed and are believed to contribute noticeably to the transfer of methane
 into the ocean and ultimately into the atmosphere. They occur in many different areas and
 geological contexts, and vary greatly in size and shape. Nevertheless, the mechanisms of
 pockmark growth are still largely unclear. Still, seabed methane emissions contribute to the
 global carbon budget, and understanding such processes is critical to constrain future
 quantifications of seabed methane release at local and global scales. The giant Regab pockmark
 (9°42.6′ E, 5°47.8′ S), located at 3160 m water depth near the Congo deep-sea channel (offshore
 southwestern Africa), was investigated with state-of-the-art mapping devices mounted on
 IFREMER9s (French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea) remotely operated vehicle
 (ROV) Victor 6000 . ROV-borne micro-bathymetry and backscatter data of the entire structure,
 a high-resolution photo-mosaic covering 105,000 m 2 of the most active area, sidescan mapping
 of gas emissions, and maps of faunal distribution as well as of carbonate crust occurrence are
 combined to provide an unprecedented detailed view of a giant pockmark. All data sets suggest
 that the pockmark is composed of two very distinctive zones in terms of seepage intensity. We
 postulate that these zones are the surface expression of two fluid flow regimes in the
 subsurface: focused flow through a fractured medium and diffuse flow through a porous medium.
 We conclude that the growth of giant pockmarks is controlled by self-sealing processes and
 lateral spreading of rising fluids. In particular, partial redirection of fluids through
 fractures in the sediments can drive the pockmark growth in preferential directions.


Serial block face scanning electron microscopy (SBF-SEM) is a powerful method to analyze cells in 3D. Here, working at the resolution limit of the method, we describe a correlative light-SBF-SEM workflow to resolve microtubules of the mitotic spindle in human cells. We present three examples of uses for this workflow which are not practical by light microscopy and/or TEM. First, distinguishing closely associated microtubules within K-fibers; second, resolving bridging fibers in the mitotic spindle; third, visualizing membranes in mitotic cells, relative to the spindle apparatus. Our workflow also includes new computational tools for exploring the spatial arrangement of MTs within the mitotic spindle. We use these tools to show that microtubule order in mitotic spindles is sensitive to the level of TACC3 on the spindle.


About the book:
The role of religion was of paramount importance in the change of attitudes and approaches to health care and charity which took place in the centuries following the Council of Trent. Health Care and Poor Relief in Counter-Reformation Europe, examines the effects of the Counter-Reformation on health care and poor relief in Southern Catholic Europe in the period between 1540 and 1700.
As well as a comprehensive introduction discussing issues of the nature of the Catholic or Counter-Reformation and the welfare provisions of the period, Health Care and Poor Relief sets the period in its social, economic, religious and ideological context. The book draws on the practices in different localities in Southern Europe, ranging from the Republic of Venice and the Kingdom of Naples to Germany and Austria. These examples establish how and why a revitalised and strenghtened post-Tridentine Catholic church managed to reshape and reinvigorate welfare provisions in Southern Europe.


For more than twenty years Frank Eugene Beaver's Dictionary of Film Terms has been a standard reference for the study of films and filmmaking. This updated, expanded edition includes descriptions of the latest developments in such areas as animation, special effects, and sound aesthetics and includes numerous stills from classic and contemporary films. A trusted, practical handbook, Dictionary of Film Terms clearly and concisely defines the essential terms of film analysis, appreciation, and production, with a special focus on the aesthetic values of film-making. Extensive cross-referencing among individual definitions ensures easy access to specific terms, and a comprehensive topical index relates to larger concepts of film art by grouping them under such wide-ranging categories as editing, cinematography, composition, and lighting. Dictionary of Film Terms is a valuable compendium of definitions of aesthetic techniques (ambient sound, camera angle, process shot), theoretical concepts (auteur criticism, film acting), styles (Hitchcockian, naturalist, neorealist), and genres (film noir, screwball comedy) that together comprise the language of motion-picture expression. Students of film and weekend movie buffs will find it a useful companion for better understanding the art of film.


The paper develops a global vector auto‐regressive model with time varying parameters and stochastic volatility to analyse whether international spillovers of US monetary policy have changed over time. The model proposed enables us to assess whether coefficients evolve gradually over time or are better characterized by infrequent, but large, breaks. Our findings point towards pronounced changes in the international transmission of US monetary policy throughout the sample period, especially so for the reaction of international output, equity prices and exchange rates against the US dollar. In general, the strength of spillovers has weakened in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. Using simple panel regressions, we link the variation in international responses to measures of trade and financial globalization. We find that a broad trade base and a high degree of financial integration with the world economy tend to cushion risks stemming from a foreign shock such as US tightening of monetary policy, whereas a reduction in trade barriers and/or a liberalization of the capital account increase these risks.


Surface seismic techniques lack the resolution to image the top 100m or so of the earth's surface necessary for opencast coal exploration. The work reported in this thesis is the development of borehole seismic methods making use of the closely spaced boreholes that are routinely drilled by British Coal. The first method investigated was to use a tomographic technique to observe any reduction in seismic velocities above old workings, and hence infer the presence of old workings. In order to obtain clear images of the subsurface, it was necessary to interpret the field data for the presence of head waves, and to pick the later arrival direct waves for the tomographic inversions. However, independent data obtained from uphole surveys showed that there was no measurable reduction in the seismic velocity above old workings for strata below the water table, and the tomographic method was abandoned in favour of borehole seismic reflection methods. Fifteen hole-to-surface seismic reflection surveys were acquired using down- hole explosive charges as sources and a linear spread of surface geophones passing through the borehole position as receivers. A complete package of processing software was developed for processing the data, and eight of the surveys are presented in this thesis. The final migrated and stacked sections delineate a washout and faulting at both large and small scales. The vertical resolution of the data is high due to the wideband temporal frequencies in the data, typically up to 300Hz.The hole-to-surface method is compared to the crosshole seismic reflection method, which was developed in parallel by M. J. Findlay. The relative merits of the two techniques are discussed, and suggestions are made to improve the acquisition of the data to make both methods applicable to a wider variety of problems. Although the vertical resolution of the hole-to-surface method is lower than the crosshole method, this could be more than compensated for by extending the hole- to-surface method to three-dimensions, using areal arrays of surface geophones around the borehole.


Abstract Two personality dimensions, alexithymia and reward sensitivity, are known risk factors for problematic alcohol consumption. Internal or mood-change motives of drinking to cope with negative mood, as well as drinking to enhance positive mood ("get high"), have also been implicated as risk factors. The present study sought to determine whether the association between alexithymia and risky drinking is mediated by the motive of drinking to cope with negative mood, and whether the association between reward sensitivity and risky drinking is mediated by the motive of drinking to enhance positive mood. Social drinkers aged 18–45 years were recruited from an Australian university and the local community, with the final sample consisting of 155 participants (80 females, 75 males). They completed an online questionnaire battery that included the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), Depression Anxiety Stress Scales 21 (DASS-21), Drinking Motives Questionnaire – Revised (DMQ-R), Sensitivity to Punishment and Sensitivity to Reward Questionnaire (SPSRQ), and Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT). The positive relationship between TAS-20 alexithymia and AUDIT index of risky drinking was mediated by coping motives for drinking, with the relationship of TAS-20 to the latter mediated by negative mood as indexed by DASS-21. Further, the positive relationship between SPSRQ sensitivity to reward scores and AUDIT was mediated by enhancement motives for drinking. Although results were obtained in a non-clinical sample, they are consistent with the differential drinking motives said to characterize Type I versus Type II alcoholism and suggest distinct trajectories from inherent personality traits to problematic drinking.


A surface having a spatial gradient in its surface free energy was capable of causing drops of water placed on it to move uphill. This motion was the result of an imbalance in the forces due to surface tension acting on the liquid-solid contact line on the two opposite sides ("uphill" or "downhill") of the drop. The required gradient in surface free energy was generated on the surface of a polished silicon wafer by exposing it to the diffusing front of a vapor of decyltrichlorosilane, Cl3Si(CH2)9CH3. The resulting surface displayed a gradient of hydrophobicity (with the contact angle of water changing from 97� to 25�) over a distance of 1 centimeter. When the wafer was tilted from the horizontal plane by 15�, with the hydrophobic end lower than the hydrophilic, and a drop of water (1 to 2 microliters) was placed at the hydrophobic end, the drop moved toward the hydrophilic end with an average velocity of ∼1 to 2 millimeters per second. In order for the drop to move, the hysteresis in contact angle on the surface had to be low (≤10�).


The term "snake oil" was popularized in the early 1900s as a miracle cure-all, and later, after uncovering that it was made up of no more than mineral water and turpentine, it was coined as a term for someone selling products with fraudulent, questionable, or unverifiable benefits (1). Pokemon GO, released in July 2016, quickly became the world's most downloaded smartphone application, surpassing Twitter and Candy Crush within the first two weeks of its release (2). Initial reports and anecdotal evidence suggested that Pokemon GO might be the panacea researchers have been searching for to solve the global physical inactivity crisis. However, less than a year later, we understand that after the initial excitement subsided, Pikachu was not able maintain an increase in habitual physical activity. Pokemon GO may be just snake oil.


Because perception-action systems are necessarily constrained by the physics of time and space, robotocists often assume they are best described using differential equations, a language that is specialized for describing the evolution of variables that represent physical quantities. However, when it comes to decision making, where the representations involved refer to goals, strategies, and preferences, AI offers a diverse range of formalisms to the modeler. However, the relationship between these two levels of representation -- signal and symbol -- are not well understood. If we are to achieve success in modeling intelligent physical agents, robotics and AI must reach a new consensus on how to integrate perception-action systems with systems designed for abstract reasoning.


Probabilistic model checking is a powerful technique for formally verifying quantitative properties of systems that exhibit stochastic behaviour. Such systems are found in many domains: probabilistic behaviour may arise, for example, due to failures of unreliable components, communication across lossy media, or through the use of randomisation in distributed protocols. In this paper, we give a short overview of probabilistic model checking and of PRISM (www.prismmodelchecker.org), currently the leading software tool in this area. We then mention some of the limitations of these techniques, describe some of the advances that are being made to overcome them, and outline key challenges that remain in this research area.


For the predominantly agricultural River Windrush catchment, spatial variations in concentrations of nitrogen species and suspended sediment were strongly related to geology and land use. Temporal patterns of NO3- and NO2- concentrations during the three year study were highly correlated with seasonal variations in baseflow. Suspended sediment concentrations were mainly controlled by storm discharge. Variations in total ammonium concentrations reflected both flow controls. Suspended sediment effects total ammonium and organic nitrogen transport to the aquatic system, and in-stream cycling processes. Organic nitrogen did not display consistent seasonal variations, but concentrations occasionally exceeding those of NO3-. Overall, NO3- and organic nitrogen were the most important
at 60% and -40%, of total nitrogen load, respectively. Future assessments of agriculture impact on river water quality should consider the total nitrogen load, and not solely that of NO3-.


Concerns have been raised about the erosion of social choice and the widening income disparities between rich and poor countries, two issues which are often linked. The essays in this part comment on several aspects of this nexus of issues. Sovereignty & Social Choice under the Rules-Based Multilateral System concludes that, for rich countries, the scope to address distributional issues has not been reduced significantly by globalization. Trade rules do reach into domestic policy space; but the contractual nature of trade agreements, the deliberate pace of trade negotiations, and the essentially diplomatic character of dispute resolution, all mitigate the erosion of social choice in de facto and de jure terms. Of Modular Economies and Social Contracts: Social Choice under Global Economic Competition concludes that, for poor countries, the situation is quite different. Reflecting special and differential treatment, weak implementation and non-enforcement, trade rules do not tend to impact very hard. However, due to the proliferation of failed states and financial crises, developing countries have all too often found themselves in the hands of their creditors - and thus effectively under the tutelage of the international financial institutions, which have actively used conditional provision of financing to leverage changes in domestic policy frameworks in a manner far more intrusive than the system of trade rules.Supra-National Governance and the Developing Countries: Neither of Them nor for Them looks at the difficulty in transporting social choice considerations derived from the experience of rich countries, with well established democratic governance regimes, to poor countries. This essay concludes that there is no semblance of collective economic security built into the framework for the developing countries, which makes it extraordinarily important that developing countries buy into globalization on a "safety first" basis.Explaining Global Income Disparities: The Usual Suspects Are Not Talking considers explanations for the large and persistent differences in incomes across continents, regions, and within countries - not to mention across ethnic and linguistic groups at each and every spatial level. It concludes that there are more questions than answers as regards the source of income disparities between rich and poor countries and argues that theories based on intrinsic characteristics of countries have not proven valid in application, suggesting systemic factors may be of importance in explaining trends.On the Episodic Nature of Entry into and Exit from the "Convergence Club" considers the implications of the historical record which shows that the convergence club grew far more rapidly during the era of the international gold standard (1870-1914) and Bretton Woods (1940s to the early 1970s) than in the earlier era of 18th Century globalization (1820-1870) or the post-Bretton Woods era. It concludes that the "global monetary order", seems to matter. A link is drawn between observed trends of convergence and the behaviour of international prices.


Deep learning has shown its great promise in various biomedical image segmentation tasks. Existing models are typically based on U-Net and rely on an encoder-decoder architecture with stacked local operators to aggregate long-range information gradually. However, only using the local operators limits the efficiency and effectiveness. In this work, we propose the non-local U-Nets, which are equipped with flexible global aggregation blocks, for biomedical image segmentation. These blocks can be inserted into U-Net as size-preserving processes, as well as down-sampling and up-sampling layers. We perform thorough experiments on the 3D multimodality isointense infant brain MR image segmentation task to evaluate the non-local U-Nets. Results show that our proposed models achieve top performances with fewer parameters and faster computation.


This book is not a panegyric of homosexuality. It is a scientific study led by Professor James Smalls who teaches art history in the prestigious University of Maryland, Baltimore.

 Abandoning all classical cliches and sociological approaches, the author highlights the sensibility particular to homosexuals.

 This book examines the process of creation and allows one to comprehend the contribution of homosexuality to the evolution of emotional perception. In a time when all barriers have been overcome, this analysis offers a new understanding of our civilisation's masterpieces.


In response to the financial crisis of 2008/2009, numerous new taxes on financial institutions have been discussed or implemented around the world. This paper discusses the connection between the incidence of the taxes, their incentive effects, and policy makers' objectives. Combining basic insights from banking theory with standard models of tax incidence shows that the incidence of such taxes will disproportionately fall on small and medium size enterprises. The arguments presented suggest it is unlikely that the taxes will have a beneficial impact on financial stability or raise significant amounts of revenue without increasing the cost of capital to bank dependent firms significantly.


This study aimed to determine the effects of parenteral selenium (Se) and vitamin E supplementation on economic impact, milk yield, and some reproductive parameters in high-yield dairy cows in the dry period and in those at the beginning of lactation. At the beginning of the dry period, cows (n = 323) were randomly divided into three groups as follows: Treatment 1 (T1), Treatment 2 (T2), and Control (C). Cows in group T1 received this preparation 21 days before calving and on calving day, and cows in group T2 received it only on calving day. The cows in the control group did not receive this preparation. Supplementation with Se increased Se serum levels of cows treated at calving day (p<0.05). Differences in milk yield at all weeks and the electrical conductivity values at the 8th and 12th weeks were significant (p<0.05). Supplementation with Se and Vitamin E decreased the incidence of metritis, the number of services per conception and the service period, but had no effects on the incidence of retained fetal membrane. A partial budgeting analysis indicated that Se supplementation was economically profitable; cows in group T1 averaged 240.6$ per cow, those in group T2 averaged 224.6$ per cow. Supplementation with Se and Vitamin E has been found to increase serum Se levels, milk yield, and has positive effects on udder health by decreasing milk conductivity values and incidence of sub-clinical mastitis.


Uncertainty indexes are used in economics to assess the uncertainty regarding economic policy, and in finance to quantify the uncertainty associated with the price volatility of financial instruments and commodities. Existing uncertainty indexes are typically constructed using realized (historical) price volatility, implied volatility when options are available, and conditional volatility using various econometric models. In this article, the authors present an improved commodity price uncertainty index, an oil price uncertainty index that includes information from news articles and social media. They demonstrate the superior performance of their new index compared with existing indexes that do not include news and social media information. They also create an oil price volatility forecasting model based on media coverage and use it to trade an oil volatility portfolio, obtaining a return that exceeds the average monthly growth of oil price volatility. Altogether, media coverage is a powerful predictor of future price volatility in the oil market. TOPICS: Volatility measures, performance measurement Key Findings • Media information from newspapers and Twitter about oil price uncertainty is combined with the existing OVX oil ETF volatility index to create a new oil price uncertainty index (OPUX). • The OPUX model gives a significantly better prediction of 1-month forward oil price volatility, as measured by an increase in R-squared from 12.1% for OVX to 33.0% for OPUX. • A volatility trading model based on OPUX exceeds the average oil price volatility by 0.29% per month.


Until What Age Can a Woman Be Fertilized? A Debate on the Legislative Regulation of Assisted Reproduction in the Czech Parliament Abstract: Assisted reproduction has shifted from being an experimental technique to becoming a part of mainstream reproduction medicine. It has become a common and increasingly prevalent method of procreation in the 21st century. The boundaries of what is and is not normal in reproduction (and therefore desired, in the foucauldian sense) are not determined by what is medically possible; rather, they are bound by the legislation, public demand, and ethical and religious norms. Effort to redefine the boundaries determined by the legislation governing assisted reproduction occurred in the Czech Republic between 2008 and 2011. This effort was part of the so-called reformation package, which also included the Act on specific medical services. The Act regulates the conditions under which assisted reproduction is available. One issue that turned out to be controversial was the age barriers for women receiving assisted reproduction. Age barriers together with the issue of availability of assisted reproduction for women without a partner had not been previously clearly defined in the legislation. The main purpose of the paper is to analyse the discussions that occurred in the Parliament when the Act was debated. The paper will focus particularly on the three following issues: how was nature and normality discussed in the context of assisted reproduction; how were these topics related to nature and to society; and how does the adopted Act reflect on the position of a woman as an actor of reproduction.


Model-free deep reinforcement learning algorithms have been shown to be capable of learning a wide range of robotic skills, but typically require a very large number of samples to achieve good performance. Model-based algorithms, in principle, can provide for much more efficient learning, but have proven difficult to extend to expressive, high-capacity models such as deep neural networks. In this work, we demonstrate that neural network dynamics models can in fact be combined with model predictive control (MPC) to achieve excellent sample complexity in a model-based reinforcement learning algorithm, producing stable and plausible gaits that accomplish various complex locomotion tasks. We further propose using deep neural network dynamics models to initialize a model-free learner, in order to combine the sample efficiency of model-based approaches with the high task-specific performance of model-free methods. We empirically demonstrate on MuJoCo locomotion tasks that our pure model-based approach trained on just random action data can follow arbitrary trajectories with excellent sample efficiency, and that our hybrid algorithm can accelerate model-free learning on high-speed benchmark tasks, achieving sample efficiency gains of $3-5\times$ on swimmer, cheetah, hopper, and ant agents. Videos can be found at https://sites.google.com/view/mbmf


The n-value is a factor which allows the Murray-Davies equation to be correctly solved for physical dot area or tint density. This equation becomes known as the YuleNielsen equation when the n-value is used. Many variables affect the value of n; paper characteristics, screen ruling, even the equation variables themselves. The level of solid ink density may have a very significant effect on the n-value. This fact, although suspected, has not been investigated until now. A study into this variance was undertaken in Appendix II with a method for adjusting the value of n to a standard solid ink density given in the body of the paper. If screen ruling is held constant, the only other significant factor affecting the n-value is the lightscattering properties of the substrate. This lightscattering may be inferred through TAPPI opacity measurements. This opacity figure may then be adjusted to a sheet of "standard" caliper to discount the influence of various thicknesses. If the measurements can be made accurate enough, a mathematical relationship between the adjusted n-value and TAPPI opacity may be discovered through regression analysis. 2 The attempt made in this paper may be considered unsuccessful because of the low reliability of the opacity readings and other factors. More accurate measurements may establish a better correlation.


In this talk, we discuss the compatibility of different deeply inelastic neutrino-nucleus data sets and the universal nuclear PDFs. This is an issue that has lately been investigated by different groups but the conclusions have been surprisingly contradictory. While some studies have found a good overall agreement between the nuclear PDFs and the neutrino data, others have claimed for an incompatibility. Here, we demonstrate that the independent neutrino data sets from NuTeV, CHORUS and CDHSW collaborations differ in the absolute overall normalization and that it is not possible to accurately reproduce all the data simultaneously with a single set of PDFs. Our strategy to overcome this difficulty and allow a consistent use of all neutrino data in global PDF analyses is to normalize the data by the integrated cross-sections thereby cancelling possible inaccuracies in the absolute normalization. Indeed, this brings all data to a surprisingly good mutual agreement underscoring the x-dependence of the nuclear modifications in a model-independent way. The consistency of these data with the present nuclear PDFs is verified by introducing a method to test the effect of a new data set in an existing global fit that performed a Hessian error analysis.


Food miles are often the sole criteria by which agricultural sustainability is
assessed. Social justice is an alternative measure. Social justice is comprised
of a number of component parts of which health is but one. Little appears to
be known of the health status of farm workers. This study describes the selfreported
health status of farm workers in four countries employed in producing
fresh vegetables for UK supermarkets. The study had five objectives:
i. To assess the health and well being of farm workers in UK vegetable
production.
ii. To compare the health of UK farm workers with farm workers from
other countries supplying similar products to the UK market.
iii. To explore the potential impact of pesticides on farm worker health,
both at the policy and farm level.
iv. To identify major causes of poor health (where it occurs) and identify its
determinants.
v.Consider the ethical implications of supplying to the UK horticulture
market from production in developing countries.
Over 2500 completed questionnaires were collected from farmers and farm
workers in the UK, Spain, Kenya, and Uggnda between 2006 and 2007.
Pesticide data was collected from a number of farms in the UK, Kenya and
Uganda but not from Spain. Workers employed on Kenyan export farms
scored significantly higher than both the population norm and workers from
the three other participating countries. There was no relationship between the
self-reported health of a worker and the environmental impact rating of
pesticides used on a given farm. The farm worker health scores have
important implications for policy makers as ethical purchasing decisions will
need to offset the food miles of a given vegetable by the social benefits such
as health that devolve from purchasing vegetables from developing countries.
Ethical purchasing decisions might be shaped in the future by the concept of
buying from wherever improves the health status of producers rather than
wherever is nearest.


Anomalous behaviour of specific electrical conductivity (SEC) was observed at a karst spring in Slovenia during 26 high‐flow events in an 18‐month monitoring period. A conceptual model explaining this anomalous SEC variability is presented and reproduced by numerical modelling, and the practical relevance for source protection zoning is discussed. After storm rainfall, discharge increases rapidly, which is typical for karst springs. SEC displays a first maximum during the rising limb of the spring hydrograph, followed by a minimum indicating the arrival of freshly infiltrated water, often confirmed by increased levels of total organic carbon (TOC). The anomalous behaviour starts after this SEC minimum, when SEC rises again and remains elevated during the entire high‐flow period, typically 20–40 µS/cm above the baseflow value. This is explained by variable catchment boundaries: When the water level in the aquifer rises, the catchment expands, incorporating zones of groundwater with higher SEC, caused by higher unsaturated zone thickness and subtle lithologic changes. This conceptual model has been checked by numerical investigations. A generalized finite‐difference model including high‐conductivity cells representing the conduit network ("discrete‐continuum approach") was set up to simulate the observed behaviour of the karst system. The model reproduces the shifting groundwater divide and the nearly simultaneous increase of discharge and SEC during high‐flow periods. The observed behaviour is relevant for groundwater source protection zoning, which requires reliable delineation of catchment areas. Anomalous behaviour of SEC can point to variable catchment boundaries that can be checked by tracer tests during different hydrologic conditions. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Past research indicates there are marked declines in physical activity (PA) during adolescence. Recent studies are offering new insights. This longitudinal study investigates changes in intensities of PA (moderate-to-vigorous vs. light), by gender and weight-status, in a sample of Spanish adolescents. Students, on average 13.9 years-old (N=833 at baseline), were followed- up a year and two years later (N=474 provided data at the three time points). Self-reported PA was recorded. Analyses revealed that PA prevalence is low, although, overtime, slight increments were observed. Girls showed higher increments in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA); boys showed higher increments in light physical activity (LPA). Investigating by weight-status, normal-weight boys showed increments over time in LPA; no changes observed for normal-weight girls. Overweight/obese girls increased their total PA (TPA) and MVPA; overweight/obese boys increased their LPA. Underweight boys and girls decreased their TPA. Interventions targeting specific intensities of PA may be beneficial for different groups based on their gender and weight status.


Human body communication (HBC), a technique featuring low conduction loss and low interference by taking the advantages of the nature of body composition, has emerged as one of the most promising techniques toward next-generation wireless body area network (WBAN). The regulation of WBAN, IEEE 802.15.6, concerning the standard of physical layer has also been established in 2012. The intensity of electric field around body is affected by the transmission distance, quality of electrode-skin contact, and so on which results in wide variance in path loss. In addition, according to the measurement results, the equivalent capacitance of electrode-skin interface increases path loss significantly when noncontact transmission happens. To solve the problems, a low-power receiver with dual-mode operation is proposed in this paper. The receiver has been implemented in a standard 0.18-μm CMOS process measurement shows the receiver is fully functional with power consumption <;1.75 mW under 1.2 V supply voltage and compatible with IEEE 802.15.6 HBC layer. The chip size is 1.05 mm2. Maximum voltage conversion gain can be 85.5 dB. Experimental sensitivity is up to -90 dBm under an information data rate of 164 kb/s. It has been demonstrated that the receiver provides successful text file transmission through human body with the fabricated sensing electrodes.


Cope's rule, the tendency towards evolutionary increases in body size, is a long‐standing macroevolutionary generalization that has the potential to provide insights into directionality in evolution; however, both the definition and identification of Cope's rule are controversial and problematic. A recent study [J. Evol. Biol. 21 (2008) 618] examined body size evolution in Mesozoic birds, and claimed to have identified evidence of Cope's rule occurring as a result of among‐lineage species sorting. We here reassess the results of this study, and additionally carry out novel analyses testing for within‐lineage patterns in body size evolution in Mesozoic birds. We demonstrate that the nonphylogenetic methods used by this previous study cannot distinguish between among‐ and within‐lineage processes, and that statistical support for their results and conclusions is extremely weak. Our ancestor–descendant within‐lineage analyses explicitly incorporate recent phylogenetic hypotheses and find little compelling evidence for Cope's rule. Cope's rule is not supported in Mesozoic birds by the available data, and body size evolution currently provides no insights into avian survivorship through the Cretaceous–Paleogene mass extinction.


Pizgrischite, (Cu,Fe)Cu14PbBi17S35, is a new mineral species named after the type locality, Piz Grisch Mountain, Val Ferrera, Graubunden, Switzerland. This sulfosalt occurs as thin, striated, metallic lead-grey blades measuring up to I cm in length, embedded in quartz and associated with tetrahedrite, chalcopyrite, pyrite, sphalerite, emplectite and derivatives of the aikinite-bismuthinite series. In plane-polarized light, the new species is brownish grey with no perceptible pleochroism; under crossed nicols in oil immersion, it presents a weak anisotropy with dark brown tints. Minimum and maximum reflectance values (in %) in air are: 40.7-42.15 (470 nm), 41.2-43.1 (546 nm), 41.2-43.35 (589 nm) and 40.7-43.3 (650 nm). Cleavage is perfect along 001 I and well developed on {010}. Abundant polysynthetic twinning is observed on (010). The mean micro-indentation hardness is 190 kg/mm(2) (Mohs hardness 3.3), and the calculated density is 6.58 g/cm(3). Electron-microprobe analyses yield (wt%; mean result of seven analyses): Cu 16.48, Pb 2.10, Fe 0.77, Bi 60.70, Sb 0.35, S 19.16, Se 0.04, total 99.60. The resulting empirical chemical formula is (Cu15.24Fe0.80Pb0.60)(Sigma 16.64)(Bi17.07Sb0.17)(Sigma 17.24)(S35.09Se0.03)(Sigma 35.12), in accordance with the formula derived from the single-crystal refinement of the structure, (Cu,Fe)Cu14PbBi17S35. Pizgrischite is monoclinic, space group C2/m, with the following unit-cell parameters: a 35.054(2), b3.91123(I), c43.192(2) angstrom, beta 96.713(4)degrees, V5881.24 angstrom(3), Z=4. The strongest seven X-ray powder-diffraction lines [d in angstrom (I)(hkl)] are: 5.364(40)((6) over bar 04), 4.080(50)((8) over bar 05), 3.120(40)(118), 3.104(68)((3) over bar 18), 2.759(53) ((9) over bar 11),2.752(44)(910) and 1.956(100)(020). The crystal structure is an expanded monoclinic derivative of kupcikite. Pizgrischite belongs to the cuprobismutite series of bismuth sulfosalts but, sensu stricto, it is not a homologue of cuprobismutite. At the type locality. pizarischite is the result of the Alpine metamorphism under greenschist-facies conditions of pre-Tertiary hydrothermal Cu-Bi mineralization.


The initial definition of hydrotropy by Neuberg in 1916 describes a hydrotrope as a molecule which enhances the solubilization of hydrophobic substances in water. Sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and sodium xylene sulfonate (SXS) are typical representatives fulfilling this old definition. They are either surfactants with a critical micellar concentration (CMC) or hydrotropes in the current sense of the term, showing a minimum hydrotrope concentration (MHC), respectively. In the present contribution, we consider the antagonistic salt PPh4Cl as a hydrotrope. Surface tension measurements and solubilization experiments on a hydrophobic dye confirm the solubilization behavior of PPh4Cl, which is in-between the one of SDS and SXS. With the help of scattering techniques (DLS, SLS, SAXS), NMR and conductivity measurements, we show that in contrast to SDS as a hydrotrope with an inherent CMC, PPh4Cl does not exhibit mesoscale aggregation. Therefore, PPh4Cl can be classified rather as a hydrotrope in the modern sense, with an inherent MHC just as SXS.


Context. The line-of-sight (LOS) component of the large-scale photospheric magnetic field has been observed since the 1950s, but the daily full-disk observations of the full vector magnetic field started only in 2010 using the SOLIS Vector Stokes Magnetograph (VSM) and the SDO helioseismic and magnetic imager (HMI). Traditionally, potential field extrapolations are based on the assumption that the magnetic field in the photosphere is approximately radial. The validity of this assumption has not been tested yet.
Aims. We investigate here the structure and evolution of the three components of the solar large-scale magnetic field in 2010–2017, covering the ascending to mid-declining phase of solar cycle 24, using SOLIS/VSM vector synoptic maps of the photospheric magnetic field.
Methods. We compare the observed VSM vector magnetic field to the potential vector field derived using the VSM LOS magnetic field observations as an input. The new vector field data allow us to derive the meridional inclination and the azimuth angle of the magnetic field and to investigate their solar cycle evolution and latitudinal profile of these quantities.
Results. SOLIS/VSM vector data show that the photospheric magnetic field is in general fairly non-radial. In the meridional plane the field is inclined toward the equator, reflecting the dipolar structure of the solar magnetic field. Rotationally averaged meridional inclination does not have significant solar cycle variation. While the vector radial component Br and the potential radial component BPFSSr are fairly similar, the meridional and zonal components do not agree very well. We find that SOLIS/VSM vector observations are noisy at high latitudes and suffer from the vantage point effect more than LOS observations. This is due to different noise properties in the LOS and transverse components of the magnetic field, which needs to be addressed in future studies.


For students of modern literature, the works of Virginia Woolf are essential reading. In her novels, short stories, essays, polemical pamphlets and in her private letters she explored, questioned and refashioned everything about modern life: cinema, sexuality, shopping, education, feminism, politics and war. Her elegant and startlingly original sentences became a model of modernist prose. This is a clear and informative introduction to Woolf 's life, works, and cultural and critical contexts, explaining the importance of the Bloomsbury group in the development of her work. It covers the major works in detail, including To the Lighthouse, Mrs Dalloway, The Waves and the key short stories. As well as providing students with the essential information needed to study Woolf, Jane Goldman suggests further reading to allow students to find their way through the most important critical works. All students of Woolf will find this a useful and illuminating overview of the field.


How was the world created? From a direct spiritual perception of the facts, Rudolf Steiner presents a new perspective that transcends the bipolar arguments of both the creationists and the scientific reductionists. He affirms that clairvoyant research accords with the biblical descriptions, but he emphasizes that the text of Genesis has to be interpreted in a special way. In this extraordinary document, Steiner speaks of the six days of creation as a reawakening of the previous phases of the Earth s development. He describes the work of spiritual hierarchies in the creation of Earth and clarifies the relationship of the Elohim and the biblical Jehovah. In addition, Steiner discusses themes of light and darkness, the meaning of Adam and Eve, the day of rest on the seventh day, the stages of human development on Earth, and the special character of the Hebrew language. Also featured in this new edition is a previously unpublished introductory lecture on the meaning of mystery drama."


Intravenous infusions of manose or B-hydroxybutyrate, metabolic fuels which can be oxidized by brain, abolished adrenal discharge of epinephrine in rats during insulin-induced hypoglycemia, whereas infusion of fructose, a sugar which does not cross the blood-brain barrier, did not. In contrast, increased feeding behavior during hypoglycemia was prevented both by the sugars and by B-hydroxybutyrate. Thus, while the sympathetic response during marked hypoglycemia may have been initiated by alterations in cerebal metabolism, the feeding response evidently was not, and a decrease in the utilization of glucose per se does not appear to be the critical stimulus in either case.


Cocoa cultivation is one of the main venture commitments of Colombia due to the social and commercial potential offered by this crop. Even though Colombia is not ranked among the top cocoa producers in the world, its cultivation is especially relevant at national level since it is developed in rural areas where social conflicts were common until a decade ago. From the commercial standpoint, the main exporting strength of Colombia focuses on fine cocoas (special and aroma-rich varieties). The Department of Santander is the main cocoa - producing region of Colombia. The purpose of this work is to present the socioeconomic and productive characterization of cocoa cultivation in this region of Colombia. This analysis is important since it serves as the support for the development of programs aiming at quality and competitiveness improvement as well as for determining the application of new agricultural techniques. In this sense, this research becomes the starting point for effective intervention in Colombia. The information for this study comes from a representative sample composed by 187 cocoa farmers located in this region. Results indicate that cocoa production in the Department of Santander is founded on very traditional activities where the age of farmers and their level of education can represent a hindrance for the adoption of new technologies. Furthermore, cocoa farming has two additional challenges consisting in the fighting against the monilia fungal disease and the Witches' Broom disease, the two main pathologies affecting this crop.


The development of semiconductor technology has led to the significant scaling of the transistor dimensions -The transistor gate length drops down to tens of nanometers and the gate oxide thickness to 1 nm. In the future several years, the deep submicron devices will dominate the semiconductor industry for the high transistor density and the corresponding performance enhancement. For these devices, the reliability issues are the first concern for the commercialization. The major reliability issues caused by voltage and/or temperature stress are gate oxide breakdown (BD), hot carrier effects (HCs), and negative bias temperature instability (NBTI). They become even more important for the nanoscale CMOS devices, because of the high electrical field due to the small device size and high temperature due to the high transistor densities and high-speed performances. This dissertation focuses on the study of voltage and temperature stress-induced reliability issues in nanoscale CMOS devices and circuits. The physical mechanisms for BD, HCs, and NBTI have been presented. A practical and accurate equivalent circuit model for nanoscale devices was employed to simulate the RF performance degradation in circuit level. The parameter measurement and model extraction have been addressed. Furthermore, a methodology was developed to predict the HC, TDDB, and NBTI effects on the RF circuits with the nanoscale CMOS. It provides guidance for the reliability considerations of the RF circuit design. The BD, HC, and NBTI effects on digital gates and RF building blocks with the nanoscale devices – low noise amplifier, oscillator, mixer, and power amplifier, have been investigated systematically. The contributions of this dissertation include: It provides a thorough study of the reliability issues caused by voltage and/or temperature stresses on nanoscale devices – from iii device level to circuit level; The more real voltage stress case – high frequency (900 MHz) dynamic stress, has been first explored and compared with the traditional DC stress; A simple and practical analytical method to predict RF performance degradation due to voltage stress in the nanoscale devices and RF circuits was given based on the normalized parameter degradations in device models. It provides a quick way for the designers to evaluate the performance degradations; Measurement and model extraction technologies, special for the nanoscale MOSFETs with ultra-thin, ultra-leaky gate oxide, were addressed and employed for the model establishments; Using the present existing computer-aided design tools (Cadence, Agilent ADS) with the developed models for performance degradation evaluation due to voltage or/and temperature stress by simulations provides a potential way that industry could use to save tens of millions of dollars annually in testing costs. The world now stands at the threshold of the age of nanotechnology, and scientists and engineers have been exploring here for years. The reliability is the first challenge for the commercialization of the nanoscale CMOS devices, which will be further downscaling into several tens or ten nanometers. The reliability is no longer the post-design evaluation, but the pre-design consideration. The successful and fruitful results of this dissertation, from device level to circuit level, provide not only an insight on how the voltage and/or temperature stress effects on the performances, but also methods and guidance for the designers to achieve more reliable circuits with nanoscale MOSFETs in the future.


Windows Error Reporting (WER) is a distributed system that automates the processing of error reports coming from an installed base of a billion machines. WER has collected billions of error reports in ten years of operation. It collects error data automatically and classifies errors into buckets, which are used to prioritize developer effort and report fixes to users. WER uses a progressive approach to data collection, which minimizes overhead for most reports yet allows developers to collect detailed information when needed. WER takes advantage of its scale to use error statistics as a tool in debugging; this allows developers to isolate bugs that could not be found at smaller scale. WER has been designed for large scale: one pair of database servers can record all the errors that occur on all Windows computers worldwide.


In Semi-Automated Text Classification (SATC) an automatic classifier F labels a set of unlabelled documents D, following which a human annotator inspects (and corrects when appropriate) the labels attributed by F to a subset D' of D, with the aim of improving the overall quality of the labelling. An automated system can support this process by ranking the automatically labelled documents in a way that maximizes the expected increase in effectiveness that derives from inspecting D. An obvious strategy is to rank D so that the documents that F has classified with the lowest confidence are top-ranked. In this work we show that this strategy is suboptimal. We develop a new utility-theoretic ranking method based on the notion of inspection gain, defined as the improvement in classification effectiveness that would derive by inspecting and correcting a given automatically labelled document. We also propose a new effectiveness measure for SATC-oriented ranking methods, based on the expected reduction in classification error brought about by partially inspecting a list generated by a given ranking method. We report the results of experiments showing that, with respect to the baseline method above, and according to the proposed measure, our ranking method can achieve substantially higher expected reductions in classification error.


This paper presents the institution of emancipation. Originally emancipation was a form of punishment for a minor but over the years it has become a benefit granted by the law under certain conditions authorizing the termination of minority status. One important meaning of emancipation is that it ends the parental obligation of support and it entitles a minor to administer his/her life and his/her property as if he/her were of age. In other words, an emancipated minor has the capacity of all civil law acts in the same way as an adult. This article analyzes minors' emancipation in Lithuania from the beginning of the process until 1940's, then follows from 1940's to 1990's and finally looks at the same institution from the 1st of July, 2001 (i. e. when the New Civil Code came into force). At the beginning minors were viewed as totally independent or their independency was limited by the tutor, court or Family board. From 1990 Lithuanian law recognized emancipation only when court licensed the marriage between the persons under the age of 18. Moreover, the New Civil Code legitimated minor's emancipation after the application of the minor, his/her parents, tutor or guardianship institution. However, also norms that can abrogate the latter form of emancipation exist. Thus, emancipation is not necessarily a stable status. It is suggested to give up the standards, which provide the right to annul emancipation, and when necessary a, apply the law limiting the status of the adult. This article contains examples of to the institution of emancipation in many other countries (i. e. Russia, Latvia, France, Italy etc.) as well and makes several suggestions.


Pervasive computing applications are increasingly leveraging contextual information from several sources to provide users with behavior appropriate to the environment in which they reside. If these sources of contextual information are used and deployed in an ad hoc manner however they may provide overlapping functionality, fail to provide needed functionality, and require the use of inconsistent interfaces by applications. To overcome these problems, we introduce a contextual information service that provides applications with contextual information via a virtual database. Unlike previous efforts, our service provides applications a consistent, lightweight, and powerful mechanism for obtaining contextual information, and includes explicit support for the on demand computation of contextual information. We show, via example applications and a contextual information service prototype that we have implemented, how this approach can be used to allow proactive applications to adapt their behavior to match a user's current environment.


I developed and taught a course titled The Psychology of Disney and Fairytale Movies. This course examined the psychological effects of mass communication on behavior and thought, specifically the stereotyping of women and men and the concept of true love as portrayed in Disney and Fairytale movies. This paper describes the (a) development of the course, (b) selection of course content, (c) course format and assignments, and (d) students' reactions to the course. The paper concludes with ideas for future courses on the topic. ********** During the summer of 2006, I developed and taught a course titled The Psychology of Disney and Fairytale Movies. In this paper I (a) describe the course, including the reasoning behind it and the selection of course content; (b) present the format and course assignments; and (c) examine students' reactions and ideas for future directions. Developing the Course and Course Content The Psychology of Disney and Fairytale Movies is a course that examined the psychological effects of mass communication on behavior and thought, specifically the stereotyping of women and men and the concept of true love as portrayed in Disney and Fairytale movies. I wanted to develop a course devoted strictly to gender portrayals in Disney and Fairytale movies for copious reasons. First, many college students love Disney and Fairytale movies, having grown up watching them repeatedly. Second, sometimes individuals assume that if the movie is a Disney movie, it is a "safe" movie for children to view, posing no potential for negative consequences. However, Disney and Fairytale movies contain many examples of gender stereotypical portrayals that may influence young viewers in a variety of ways. I wanted students to be aware of the existence of these portrayals and become educated consumers of the possible consequences. Finally, I developed the course to allow students to apply psychology to the "real world." I believed that students would be more interested in the subject matter when they could see how easily it related to their lives and in many cases the lives of their children. Richard J. Harris' textbook (2004), A Cognitive Psychology of Mass Communication, provided the content for the course. Specifically, Chapter 1 "Mass Communication in Society: Swimming in the Media Sea," Chapter 2 "Research and Theory in Mass Communication: How We Study Media Scientifically," and Chapter 3 "Media Portrayals of Groups: Distorted Social Mirrors" were of interest. Chapter 2 provided information on how media is studied scientifically. I presented information regarding media research frameworks; for example, looking at media content via studies on content analysis. For purposes of this course, we discussed the prevalence of gender stereotypical portrayals in Disney and Fairytale movies. Next, I presented the framework of looking at media exposure. The students and I discussed who watches these movies and with what attention level. The final media framework presented looked at effects; we hypothesized about potential behavioral, attitudinal, cognitive, and physiological effects of viewing gender stereotypically portrayals. Also from Chapter 2, I covered important theories from psychology and mass communication. Examples included: social cognitive theory (e.g., Bandura, 2002), cultivation theory (e.g., Gerbner, Gross, Morgan, Signorielli, & Shanahan, 2002), and various socialization theories (e.g., Heath & Bryant, 1992). Finally from Chapter 2, I encouraged students to think about the question, "Do media reflect the world or create a new reality?" Information from Chapter 3 provided the foundation for the course by outlining gender stereotypical portrayals found in media. For women, the course covered the portrayals of physical appearance (e.g., young, beautiful, very tall, very thin, small hips, large breasts), concerns of women (e.g., trivial concerns such as spots on the dishes), and the superwoman (e. …


Over the last few decades, international commercial arbitration has become the preferred means of resolving cross-border business disputes. The popularity of this particular device is due to a number of uniquely attractive features ranging from the mechanism's sophisticated blend of common law and civil law procedures to the routine use of reasoned awards. As a result, international commercial arbitration does not resemble domestic arbitration so much as it does complex commercial litigation. Although international commercial arbitration is considered a highly mature form of dispute resolution, very little information exists as to what constitutes a reasoned award in the international commercial context or how to write such an award. This situation is becoming increasingly problematic given the rising number of international commercial arbitrations that arise every year, the expansion and diversification of the pool of potential arbitrators, and the significant individual and societal costs that can result from badly written awards. This Article provides the first-ever in-depth analysis of the reasoned award requirement in international commercial arbitration. In so doing, the discussion draws heavily on the large body of material involving reasoned rulings in both common law and civil law courts and considers whether and to what extent those criteria apply in the arbitral context. As a result, this Article not only provides useful information to those seeking to better their understanding of the reasoning requirement in international commercial arbitration, it also provides key comparative insights into the judicial process in both common law and civil law legal systems. Much of the analysis focuses on theoretical concerns relating to reasoned decision-making in judicial and arbitral settings. However, the discussion also incorporates a strong practical element. As a result, this Article is relevant not only to specialists in international commercial arbitration but also to judges involved in enforcing reasoned awards domestically or internationally, scholars studying arbitral and judicial decision-making, and domestic arbitrators seeking to understand the parameters of a reasoned award under national law.


Purpose: To conduct a survey of primary care physicians and advanced registered nurse practitioners (ARNPs) in Washington State (WA) focused on changes in practice patterns and use of support tools in the prescription of opioids for the treatment of chronic noncancer pain (CNCP). Methods: A convenience sample of primary care providers in WA was obtained from diverse geographic regions and health care organizations. The web-based anonymous survey was conducted in March-August 2011. Results: Among 856 provider respondents, 623 reported treating patients with CNCP and served as the analysis sample. Most providers (72%) reported concern about opioid overdose, addiction, dependence, or diversion. Only 25% indicated concern about regulatory scrutiny. Only a small proportion of providers overall (3.3%) reported that they had stopped prescribing opioids for CNCP, but twice as many ARNPs (5.8%) as physicians (MDs and osteopaths) (2.1%) reported this. A greater proportion of physicians (70.9%) than ARNPs (40.1%) reported familiarity with the Washington State opioid dosing guidelines. Physicians in a large health plan with substantial infrastructure support reported less concern about opioids compared with providers in other settings. Of providers in Spokane (the largest city in Eastern Washington), 45% reported very low capacity to access pain specialty consultation. The vast majority of providers reported a need to access more efficient, innovative means of support and education related to treating patients with CNCP, such as telemedicine consultation. Conclusions: Overall, prescribing providers in WA reported ongoing concerns regarding opioid use for CNCP, but those affiliated with a health care organization with opioid prescribing guidelines and access to pain consultation were less likely to report being concerned about opioid-related problems or to have discontinued prescribing opioids.


OBJECTIVE
To present best-practice recommendations for the prevention, recognition, and treatment of exertional heat illnesses (EHIs) and to describe the relevant physiology of thermoregulation.

BACKGROUND
Certified athletic trainers recognize and treat athletes with EHIs, often in high-risk environments. Although the proper recognition and successful treatment strategies are well documented, EHIs continue to plague athletes, and exertional heat stroke remains one of the leading causes of sudden death during sport. The recommendations presented in this document provide athletic trainers and allied health providers with an integrated scientific and clinically applicable approach to the prevention, recognition, treatment of, and return-to-activity guidelines for EHIs. These recommendations are given so that proper recognition and treatment can be accomplished in order to maximize the safety and performance of athletes.

RECOMMENDATIONS
Athletic trainers and other allied health care professionals should use these recommendations to establish onsite emergency action plans for their venues and athletes. The primary goal of athlete safety is addressed through the appropriate prevention strategies, proper recognition tactics, and effective treatment plans for EHIs. Athletic trainers and other allied health care professionals must be properly educated and prepared to respond in an expedient manner to alleviate symptoms and minimize the morbidity and mortality associated with these illnesses.


Timetabling is one of the most difficult issues in the world; this is a combinatory optimization issue and it has been proven that it is a NP-Hard issue. University Courses Timetabling is very important especially for the exams and courses. The manual solving of the Timetabling needs a broad domain of sources and time to create an applicable schedule with minimum interference in the curriculum and Professor's program is not easy. Different mathematical models and algorithms have been presented for this issue but each strategy considers different limitations according to its environment and factors. Timetabling is different for different university courses Timetabling. In this study a new multi objective mathematical model with new objective functions and new constrains has been presented for university courses timetabling.  The present study tries to consider most restrictions for a training center. Finally the validity of the proposed model has been surveyed by a small numerical example and its solving by LINGO11 software shows that this model can satisfy all goals and limitations.


The 2004 and 2007 enlargements of the European Union were unprecedented in a number of economic and policy aspects. This essay provides a broad and in-depth account of the effects of the post-enlargement migration flows on the receiving as well as sending countries in three broader areas: labour markets, welfare systems, and growth and competitiveness. Our analysis of the available literature and empirical evidence shows that (i) EU enlargement had a significant impact on migration flows from new to old member states, (ii) restrictions applied in some of the countries did not stop migrants from coming but changed the composition of the immigrants, (iii) any negative effects in the labour market on wages or employment are hard to detect, (iv) post-enlargement migration contributes to growth prospects of the EU, (v) these immigrants are strongly attached to the labour market, and (vi) they are quite unlikely to be among welfare recipients. These findings point out the difficulties that restrictions on the free movement of workers bring about.


This comment responds to Professor Philip Frickey's excellent article, (Native) American Exceptionalism in Federal Public Law, - Harv. L. Rev. - (2005), in which Frickey reacts to the Supreme Court's increasing discomfort with the exceptional character of the federal rules governing Indian nations. He argues that the Court fails to recognize that the anomalous character of the rules governing the relations between Indian Nations and the United States arises out of the need to reconcile the irreconcilable premises of constitutionalism and colonialism. He argues that the Court must learn to live with ambiguity and appreciate that it is not possible to apply all the norms usually applied in federal public law to Indian nations without doing grave injustice. Although Professor Frickey is correct to argue that the Court must learn to live with inconsistencies and to appreciate the need for special rules associated with the special status of native nations, this comment argues that the Supreme Court also needs to pay better attention to granting Indian nations the same rights as non-Indians when Indian nations are similarly situated to non-Indians. In many ways, the Supreme Court has been denying justice to Indian nations both by denying them the special rights that adhere to their special status and by denying them rights and powers they would be granted if they were non-Indian owners or sovereigns. It is important to recognize when the Court accepts a reason for denying rights to Indian nations that it would reject if the case involved a non-Indian owner; the Court should refrain from doing this unless there is a compelling reason for treating the tribe differently.


"Narrowing" occurs when a court declines to apply a precedent even though, in the court's own view, the precedent is best read to apply. In recent years, the Roberts Court has endured withering criticism for narrowing in areas such as affirmative action, abortion, the exclusionary rule, campaign finance, and standing. This practice — often called "stealth overruling" — is widely condemned as deceptive, as well as contrary to stare decisis. On reflection, however, narrowing is not stealthy, tantamount to overruling, or even uncommon. Instead, narrowing is a distinctive feature of Supreme Court practice that has been accepted and employed by virtually every Justice. Besides promoting traditional stare decisis values like correctness, fidelity, and candor, legitimate narrowing represents the decisional-law analogue to the canon of constitutional avoidance. As a rule, an en banc appellate court, including the Supreme Court, engages in legitimate narrowing when it adopts a reasonable reading of precedent without contradicting background legal principles. Under this rule, most if not all instances of narrowing during the Roberts Court are readily defensible — including frequently overlooked decisions by the Court's more liberal members. Moreover, prominent cases involving narrowing can be grouped into four categories: experimental narrowing, narrowing rules, narrowing to overrule, and aspirational narrowing. Far from being unusual or unwarranted, narrowing is a mainstay of Supreme Court practice — and a good thing, too.


The influence of the preparation factors such as casting solution composition, different methods of coal modification, evaporation time of solvent and their optimization on performance of cellulose acetate heterogeneous reverse osmosis membranes have been studied. Three types of membranes were made from a blend of cellulose acetate (CA) and coal by weight ratios 1:1.5, 1:1.75 and 1:2. The powdered coal was modified with nitric acid and aryl diazonium salts in acetonitrile medium at constant modification time. The membranes were prepared by phase inversion process from a casting solution of cellulose acetate-coal and magnesium perchlorate in acetone water mixture at varying evaporation time of solvent at constant temperature using the same gelation medium. The composition of raw and modified coals was examined by IR spectroscopy. Membranes obtained with a casting solution composition of cellulose acetate-coal in weight ratios of 1:1.5 and 1:1.75, modified coals and longer evaporation time of solvent showed the best performance.


The ecological role of large herbivores is increasingly recognized due to their ability to influence ecosystem functioning and their impacts on faunal and floral assemblages. Knowledge on the determinants of spatial utilization is crucial towards the successful management of these species according to objectives set for the conservation of biodiversity. While numerous studies have investigated the factors influencing the movements and habitat preferences of large northern hemisphere herbivores, few have focused on members of the African megaherbivore guild. In the context of fenced reserves, elephants have been implicated in the degradation of habitat resulting in negative impacts on biodiversity. Using a kernel analysis approach, I calculated home range size and utilization distributions for five separate herds from an elephant population in Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park and examined possible determinants. I explored differences in utilization intensity between herds and seasons by comparing the rugosity of utilization distributions. I used a utilization distribution-weighted composition analysis to determine seasonal habitat preferences within the home range and examined the factors influencing daily movement characteristics within different habitats in different seasons. Substantial variation in home range size and location, utilization intensity, habitat preferences and movement responses was evident between herds. Spatial and temporal variation in resource distribution and intra-specific competition explained differences in home range size and utilization intensity. Larger herds underwent more fission-fusion events than small herds, possibly due to resource scarcity and greater competitive interactions. Elephants preferred greener habitats during the dry season and appeared to conform to optimal foraging principles. They utilized forest habitats more than others, selected larger patches with high densities of favoured food items and included greater proportions of common woody species in their diet. Large groups foraged close to rivers in the wet season and appeared to broaden foraging choices in the dry season by moving further away. Restricted displacements in the early morning and evening suggested crepuscular foraging activity while greater displacements at midday could not be explained by the need for water. This study highlights the importance of considering variation in animal movements and habitat utilization in overall conservation planning and when evaluating threats to sensitive habitats, particularly in fenced protected areas.


The details of international business are growing more complex by the day—and even the most seasoned professionals can find themselves in need of guidance. This comprehensive answer book supplies readers with a clear view of the entire export/import process, explaining the ins and outs of shipping and insurance; payment mechanisms; distributors vs. agents; customs and export control requirements; and transportation issues.
 Featuring dozens of sample contracts, procedures, checklists, and ready-to-use forms—Export/Import Procedures and Documentation is an authoritative voice in the everchanging, often confusing world of international laws and regulations. The revised fifth edition contains new and expanded information on topics including:
 Corporate oversight and compliance • Valuation • The Export Control Reform Act • Licensing requirements and exceptions • International Commerce Trade Terminology • The shifting definition of "Country of Origin" • Specialized exporting and importing • And more
 Thorough and accessible, this trusted resource provides readers with the tools they need to manage supply chain dynamics around the world, and keep everything organized, up-to-date, and above board each step of the way.


Paid sick leave helps workers recover from illness and manage care obligations and protects public health. Yet access to paid sick leave remains limited and unequal in the United States. Drawing on surveys of 61,223 service-sector workers collected during the period 2017-21 by the Shift Project, we documented limited access to paid sick leave and stark gender inequality, with women less likely than men to have paid sick leave. Part-time employment and gender segregation by industry subsector each explain part, but not all, of the gender disparity. However, in states and localities that mandate paid sick leave for workers, workers are far more likely to report access to this benefit, and the gender gap is eliminated. Guaranteeing paid sick leave to all workers would offer a range of benefits for workers, employers, and public health while also offering the further benefit of reducing gender inequality.


The government of India has initiated a series of moves to replace the current system of subsidies embodied in the price of essential commodities sold in the Public Distribution System with one of cash transfers to the poor. The Finance Minister announced the step in this direction in his budget Speech in February 2011 and pilot projects are being launched in selected districts. The case for this fundamental transformation is built around the widespread belief that corruption has eroded the Public Distribution System (PDS). It is argued that a major portion of current subsidies is wasted as the subsidized commodities don't reach the poor. it would then be more efficient if, instead of subsidizing the commodity, money was directly transferred to the bank accounts of the poor. The simplicity of this argument makes its conclusion appear obvious. But this very simplicity hides a number of assumptions. Once these assumptions are made explicit it is clear that they are not quite realistic. And when they are dropped, it is no longer certain that the cash transfers will be better than the present system. On the contrary, once the assumptions are dropped it becomes evident that such a change in the way subsidies are distributed brings with it major risks of inflation as well as a worsening in the already serious problem of malnutrition.


The Russian agricultural sector has experienced many problems since the beginning of the 1990s that resulted in a fall in farm output. Employing a production function approach and, unlike other studies, farm-level data on more than 20,000 Russian large-scale farms for the period 1995-2000, this study analyzes the impact of both production (land, labour, capital, materials) and financial (debts and budget transfers) determinants on the productivity. Interregional differences such as weather conditions and farm-specific features such as geographical location, management and soil quality are taken into account employing the fixed-effect estimation. The findings show that Russian farms operate under liquidity constraints that lower their productivity.


"This paper reports findings of a CGIAR research project including seven case studies of different types of agricultural research: aggregate investments in agricultural research in China and India; rice, vegetable, and fishpond technologies in Bangladesh; soil fertility replenishment in Kenya; hybrid maize in Zimbabwe, and creolized maize in Mexico. The case studies found adoption was influenced by the technologies' likelihood to increase or decrease vulnerability, whether the poor have the assets needed to adopt, the nature of disseminating institutions, and cultural factors such as gender roles and taste preferences. Dissemination processes have become increasingly diversified and have a significant impact on who is reached with the technology and how well they are able to take advantage of it. A wide variety of direct impacts on adopting households were identified, including those related to increased production, income, knowledge, changes in power relationships (favoring men or women; richer or poorer farmers), and increased or decreased vulnerability. Poor people often benefit from these technologies, especially if these technologies are designed to build on assets that they have, though the studies also showed that impacts on the poor were sometimes limited by asset requirements for adoption or dissemination practices. Indirect effects were also important. Poor people were helped by declining food prices, though benefits to poor farmers were dampened by falling output prices. Increased stability and even marginal improvements in agricultural production were valued by poor households for providing food security and a launching pad into other activities. Increased agricultural employment was also a major benefit, improving incomes and stability of employment. " Authors' Abstract (This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)