With an ever growing population, global energy demand is predicted to keep increasing. Furthermore, the integration of renewable energy sources into the electricity grid (to reduce carbon emission and humanity's dependency on fossil fuels), complicates efforts to balance supply and demand, since their generation is intermittent and unpredictable. Traditionally, it has always been the supply side that has adapted to follow energy demand, however, in order to have a sustainable energy system for the future, the demand side will have to be better managed to match the available energy supply. In the first part of this thesis, we focus on understanding customers' energy consumption behavior (demand analytics). While previously, information about customer's energy consumption could be obtained only with coarse granularity (e.g., monthly or bimonthly), nowadays, using advanced metering infrastructure (or smart meters), utility companies are able to retrieve it in near real-time. By leveraging smart meter data, we then develop a versatile customer segmentation framework, track cluster changes over time, and identify key characteristics that define a cluster. Additionally, although household-level consumption is hard to predict, it can be used to improve aggregate-level forecasting by first segmenting the households into several clusters, forecasting the energy consumption of each cluster, and then aggregating those forecasts. The improvements provided by this strategy depend not only on the number of clusters, but also on the size of the customer base. Furthermore, we develop an approach to model the uncertainty of future demand. In contrast to previous work that used computationally expensive methods, such as simulation, bootstrapping, or ensemble, we construct prediction intervals directly using the time-varying conditional mean and variance of future demand. While analytics on customer energy data are indeed essential to understanding customer behavior, they could also lead to breaches of privacy, with all the attendant risks. The first part of this thesis closes by exploring symbolic representations of smart meter data which still allow learning algorithms to be performed on top of them, thus providing a trade-off between accurate analytics and the protection of customer privacy. In the second part of this thesis, we focus on mechanisms for incentivizing changes in customers' energy usage in order to maintain (electricity) grid stability, i.e., Demand Response (DR). We complement previous work in this area (which typically targeted large, industrial customers) by studying the application of DR to residential customers. We first study the influence of DR baselines, i.e., estimates of what customers would have consumed in the absence of a DR event. While the literature to date has focused on baseline accuracy and bias, we go beyond these concepts by explaining how a baseline affects customer participation in a DR event, and how it affects both the customer and company profit. We then discuss a strategy for matching the demand side with the supply side by using a multiunit auction performed by intelligent agents on behalf of customers. The thesis closes by eliciting behavioral incentives from the crowd of customers for promoting and maintaining customer engagement in DR programs.


Background & Aim: Although most patients experience severe pain after major spinal fixation surgery, little attention has been paid to control it with a multi-modal approach. The aim of this study is to select appropriate method of pain management after spinal surgery. Methods & Materials/Patients: This study was a randomized clinically controlled trial in candidates of spondylolisthesis and spinal fixation surgery under general anesthesia. 90 patients were divided into three groups, as follows: 1) Intervention group of epidural fentanyl (F): patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) pump infused 100 µg of fentanyl and 98cc of normal saline at the rate of 3-5 ml/h in the epidural space via an epidural catheter placed by surgeon 2) Intervention group of epidural fentanyl-bupivacaine (FB): PCA pump infused 100 µg of fentanyl and bupivacaine 0.125% at the rate of 3-5 ml/h in the epidural space. 3) IV morphine group (M): No medication was received epidurally. In case of visual analog scale (VAS) score more than four, one mg of IV morphine bolus was administered to patient. The blood pressure, heart rate, respiratory rate and pain severity were recorded at the moment of patient's transfer from recovery room to the ward and compared in three groups every six hours for 24 hours. The results of this study were analyzed by statistical tests including repeated measures ANOVA, Kruskal-Wallis, Fisher's exact test and SPSS software 16. P values less than 0.05 were considered statistically significant. Results: The results of the study showed that VAS score in fentanyl-bupivacaine group was significantly lower than that in the two other groups during the first 18 hours. However, VAS score in all groups decreased at 24th hour postoperatively (less than three) suggesting that there was no statistically significant difference between the three groups. In this study, no serious and severe complications were observed except for a few cases of nausea in the control group. Conclusion: Epidural analgesia with fentanyl-bupivacaine is a safe and effective way to postoperative pain management in listhesis and spinal surgeries.


It is well known that spatial averaging can be realized (in space or frequency domain) using algorithms whose complexity does not scale with the size or shape of the filter. These fast algorithms are generally referred to as constant-time or O(1) algorithms in the image-processing literature. Along with the spatial filter, the edge-preserving bilateral filter involves an additional range kernel. This is used to restrict the averaging to those neighborhood pixels whose intensity are similar or close to that of the pixel of interest. The range kernel operates by acting on the pixel intensities. This makes the averaging process nonlinear and computationally intensive, particularly when the spatial filter is large. In this paper, we show how the O(1) averaging algorithms can be leveraged for realizing the bilateral filter in constant time, by using trigonometric range kernels. This is done by generalizing the idea presented by Porikli, i.e., using polynomial kernels. The class of trigonometric kernels turns out to be sufficiently rich, allowing for the approximation of the standard Gaussian bilateral filter. The attractive feature of our approach is that, for a fixed number of terms, the quality of approximation achieved using trigonometric kernels is much superior to that obtained by Porikli using polynomials.


In Why You Can Build It Like That, John Zukowsky examines buildings from the past half century or so that pushed the boundaries of what was architecturally acceptable when they were built. 100 striking international examples of modern architecture are categorized into thematic chapters that reflect form as well as society. Zukowsky explores the history of these buildings and their makers, presenting relevant biographical factors and socio-cultural influences that impacted on the distinctive designs. The book includes the works of heroic early modernist architects such as Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Frank Lloyd Wright, alongside long-established architectural firms such as Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. It also features mavericks of the past and present Bruce Goff, Shin Takamatsu and Shigeru Ban and singular architectural wonders that reflect their own times. Readers will find out why all the featured buildings look the way they do, and why they were created when and where they were. Zukowskys original text unravels the rich and complex stories that exist behind the design of some of the worlds more unconventional monuments, revealing exactly why each building is one of a kind.


Introduction: Congenital anomalies of the kidneys and urinary tract (CAKUT) comprise various structural malformations that result from defects in morphogenesis of the kidney and/or urinary tract. In most cases, CAKUT are associated with infant mortality and morbidity in older children and adults. Hence this study was undertaken to follow up antenatally diagnosed cases of CAKUT and see their outcome in the first six months of life.
Material and Methods: An observational follow up study was conducted in the department of Paediatrics in a tertiary care hospital. All inborn neonates, whose antenatal anomaly scans showed the presence of CAKUT were included in the study. Abdominal ultrasound (USG) were done on day three of life for all these neonates and those whose day three USGs showed presence of CAKUT were followed up over a period of six months and outcome was assessed.
Results: CAKUT was more common among males. Hydronephrosis was the most common CAKUT in antenatal scans. Anomalies of the renal collecting system formed 93.9% of all CAKUT detected on antenatal anomaly scan and 57.4% of these resolved by six months of age. Abnormalities of the renal collecting system together formed 93.9% of all antenatally diagnosed CAKUT and were more common than abnormalities of the renal parenchyma which formed 6.1%. Postnatal resolution on day three USG was seen in seven out of 22 (31.8%) cases of antenatally diagnosed mild hydronephrosis irrespective of their site. Out of the 28 antenatally diagnosed hydronephrosis, 11 (39.3%) resolved at some point during the follow up period of six months.
Conclusions: Antenatally diagnosed CAKUT were more common among male foetuses. On day three scan, 29.2% of CAKUT showed resolution. Hydronephrosis remained the most common antenatally as well as postnatally detected CAKUT. Anomalies of renal collecting system were better detected by antenatal scans than anomalies of renal parenchyma


This paper analyzes popular visual practices of the self-presentation in the visual content of social media in nowadays Russia. Our key question was to understand wide spreading and specificity of social practice of selfie. Using the iconographic method (E. Panofsky), we study visual content of selfie aiming to reveal the hidden rules of their reproduction. The results of an empirical study of random sample of 200 pictures are the following. First of all, selfie and similar visual practices are a means of gaining social approval and support. In order to provide the scientific view on the fascination with such practices the ways of information spreading as well as obtaining social support and approval must be taken into consideration. Secondly, in making selfie, the traditional function of photos such as preservation of memories of oneself at certain moment or memories of social circles together with situations is no longer important. Moreover, identification function of a picture is of fundamental importance, namely, obtaining social approval for the external qualities, imagination, compliance with standards of living, which are considered to be valuable and correct (for instance, geographic mobility, availability of exclusive places and things, originality).


Lapidilectines, grandilodines, lundurines and tenuisines are indole alkaloids, isolated from plants of Kopsia genus. They feature a common indole-fused pyrroloazocine core, whose construction poses a significant synthetic challenge. In this review, we discuss the reported strategies for the total synthesis of this family of alkaloids with a focus on the different methods used for the construction of spiro[cyclohexane-2-indoline] and indole-pyrroloazocine intermediates, introduction of indole-fused cyclopropane as well as other new methodologies uncovered in the course of the total syntheses. In closing, the existing hypothesis of the biosynthetic origin and relationships of the pyrroloazocine indole alkaloids are presented.


We report the synthesis and assembly of light-responsive supramolecular polymer brushes based on the host–guest interaction between β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) on star-like side chains and azobenzene groups on a polymer backbone. The fraction of the hydrophilic–hydrophobic units can be easily controlled via changing the ratio of host and guest molecules. The supramolecular polymer brushes can self-assemble into unimolecular micelles, multi-molecular micelles, and vesicles with tunable sizes from 28 to 300 nm in water, respectively, with the decrease of β-CD side chains. The assemblies of micelles or vesicles can be disassembled by the trigger of UV light irradiation due to the responsive azobenzene groups. In addition, the phase transition temperature of the supramolecular polymer brushes increases with the decrease of the side chains. The micelles or vesicles can further assemble into strawberry superstructures by increasing the temperature. Our work provides a platform for the generation of assemblies across a wide range of scales, from polymer brushes to micelles or vesicles and superstructures.


Provided courtesy of Dr. Andreja Tambic-Andrana This 18th-century painting depicts quarantine activities at the port of Dubrovnik, for many centuries one of the largest cultural centers in Croatia and a major trading center on the Dalmatian coast. Because trade with the East and the West was the driving force behind the development of Dubrovnik, suspension of trade during plague epidemics in the 14th century would have been disastrous for the city. Therefore, on July 27, 1377, the Great Council of Dubrovnik introduced in a decree a measure that would both protect against plague epidemics and free trade with eastern countries from which these epidemics usually spread. The text of this decree can be seen in Volume 78, chapter 49 of the Liber Viridis. The original document, which is kept in the Archives of Dubrovnik, states that before entering the city, newcomers had to spend 30 days in a restricted location awaiting to see whether the symptoms of plague would develop. Later on, isolation was prolonged to 40 days and was called quarantine. The word quarantine, used to describe isolation to prevent spread of infection, comes from the Latin word "quaranta," meaning 40, because the isolation lasted for 40 days. Along with Venice and Milan, Dubrovnik was among the first cities in the world to introduce isolation as a measure to control the spread of infectious disease and the first city to have a documented organization of quarantine. Over the centuries, other epidemic diseases (leprosy, smallpox, dysentery) were recorded in the archives of Dubrovnik, and other specialized institutions (e.g., leprosaria) were organized outside the city. In 1590, quarantine activities were moved to the complex of houses near the east city gates, as can be seen on the painting (red-roofed houses at the bottom right of the painting). Isolation proved to be effective; none of the plague epidemics that occurred in centuries to come was as devastating as Black Death, which spread throughout the world in the mid-14th century. Isolation is probably the greatest achievement of medieval medicine, and the quarantine of Dubrovnik is an important development in the medical heritage of Dubrovnik and Croatia. Vector Interactions and Molecular Adaptations of Lyme Disease and Relapsing Fever Spirochetes Associated with Transmission by Ticks


Abstract The number of venous anastomoses performed during fingertip replantation is one of the most important factors affecting the success of replantation. However, because vessel diameters decrease in the zone 1 level, vessel anastomoses, especially vein anastomoses, are technically difficult and, thus, cannot be performed in most cases. Alternative venous drainage methods are crucial when any reliable vein repair is not possible. In the literature, so many artery-only replantation techniques have been defined, such as arteriovenous anastomoses, forming an arteriovenous or venocutaneous fistula, manual milking and massage, puncturing, and external bleeding via a fishmouth incision and using a medical leech. It has been shown that, in distal fingertip replantations, the medullary cavity may also be a good way for venous return. In this study, we introduce an alternative intramedullary venous drainage system we developed to facilitate venous drainage in artery-only fingertip replantations. The results of 24 fingertip replantations distal to the nail fold by using this system are presented with a literature review.


This study originates from concerns raised by a number of examples of children being harmed by either a direct lack of parental supervision, or by indirect state intervention, evident in both media and academic forums. This suggested some disharmony between the legislative requirements, the parental understanding, and welfare practitioner interpretations of minimum acceptable child supervision. The aim of this dissertation is to better understand the major influences on, and the de-facto practice of decision making with regard to parental supervision of children. This study critically examines and presents the results of (predominantly) quantitative research conducted with parental and welfare practitioner sample groups, within the region of West Cumbria, England. Current UK law regarding child supervision is neither definitive nor arbitrary, it is ambiguous. Indeed there is no prescriptive legislation with regard to the common parlance phrases "home alone", "child maturity" or "likelihood of harm". As a result of this, understanding of what is and what is not acceptable child supervision can vary between geographical, socio-political, or generational categories. This study initially investigates the understanding and practices of parents and welfare practitioners by evaluating their experiences, influences, knowledge base and values. The raw data obtained from the two disparate groups is collated and analysed to identify trends or deviations, and then assessed with regard to legislative requirements and compared to the Government endorsed charity guidelines. The study identified some commonality between the two control groups with respect to influences and decision making, and some deviation regarding awareness and identification of hazards. In addition it indicates a lack of in-depth knowledge of legislation, whilst reducing concerns of misinterpretation of guidelines as legal requirements.


Researching sensitive topics is critical to understanding women's lives. However, this research often carries the risk of retraumatization and exploitation. This articleexamines the development of a sensitive-topic interview protocol that sought to minimize harm and to gain reliable and valid data by using principles from feminist methods and theory, and restorative justice. The development of the protocol is examined and its effectiveness is explored in a postinterview survey of family members of capital offenders. The data indicate that the methods minimized harm and that the protocol resulted in a robust understanding of the participants' lived experience from their perspectives.


A simple method for categorizing texts into pre-determined text genre categories using the statistical standard technique of discriminant analysis is demonstrated with application to the Brown corpus. Discriminant analysis makes it possible use a large number of parameters that may be specific for a certain corpus or information stream, and combine them into a small number of functions, with the parameters weighted on basis of how useful they are for discriminating text genres. An application to information retrieval is discussed.


Estimating the output luminance for the whole range of gray-levels is quite needed for high-quality image enhancement algorithms. In this paper, a new modeling method of light emission is proposed to estimate a more exact output luminance for the whole gray-levels by consideration of phosphor saturation and its recovery effect. Based on high accuracy of the estimated output luminance, the proposed modeling is helpful in removing the inversion problem of grayscale and improving the grayscale linearity of PDP-TV considerably.


Caraway, the seventh volume in the series Medicinal and Aromatic Plants - Industrial Profiles, collects together all of the existing information in connection with the biology, chemistry, agrotechnology and utilization of the plant genus Carum. After an overview on all Carum species, it deals mainly with th most important species Carum carvi L. The scientific and economic significance of the genus as well as forthcoming results and future perspectives are discussed.Authors from a number of countries give information about valuable traditions as well as the most up-to-date research results. Physiological, genetic and agrotechnological specialities of annual and biennial types of caraway are discussed seperately. The book provides an overview of the anatomical structure of the most important organs of the plant, and its chemical constituents. it also discusses production practices including post harvest techniques, quality requirements and utilization of the plant's products in pharmacology, and the alimentary and cosmetics industries. The broad scope of presentations illustrated with numerous tables and figures offers excellent material for scientists, teachers and students who are interested in medicinal and aromatic plants.


The use of aluminum in the automotive industry continues increasing since
1980, in particular aluminum alloy is used for the manufacture of pistons, engine
blocks, cylinder heads and valves. In this study the use of former gasoline engine
piston waste was recycled (remelted) to the piston Daihatsu Hi-Jet 1000 with the
addition of ADC 12. The former Piston having composition 87.82 wt% Al, 7, 76 wt%
Si, 0.775 wt% Fe, 1.40 wt% Cu, 0.368 wt% Mg plus ADC 12 material was casted by
gravity process at pouring temperature of 700oC, 750oC and 800oC. Research
activities include the test composition, microstructure, and hardness
The results showed that the addition of 75%, ADC 12 has the greatest
percentage of Si at the average of 8.70% Si. The addition of 50%, of ADC 12
resulted in very minor differences os Si composition compared with the addition of
75%, of ADC 12 ( 8.61% Si difference 0.09%). So for the effectiveness and
efficiency in the process of heat treatment, the composition of the former Piston
material with a ratio of 50% PB + 50% ADC 12 was selected in this study
After the heat treatment process of piston material hardness value of 50% PB
+ 50% ADC12 can be improved and some test results have the same hardness value
and even some are over the original piston Daihatsu that is 76 HRB. The result of
heat treatment produced hardness value over the hardness that exceeds the value of
the original piston Daihatsu heat treatment temperature of 155 0C aging with aging
time 2, 4 and 5 hours.
Keywords: Heat treatment, Artificial aging, Holding time


Abstract This paper estimates the extent to which reduced employment following job loss among older workers can be explained as a response to altered pension incentives and earnings opportunities. Using data from the Health and Retirement Study, we first examine how workers' earnings, assets, pensions and the resulting financial incentive to retire are affected by job loss. We find important effects of job loss on the main financial components of workers' incentive to retire. We then examine retirement behavior after job loss, controlling for these changed retirement incentives, along with any additional effects of displacement not captured by retirement incentives. We find that the observed increased rates of retirement among displaced workers go far beyond these purely financial considerations. Very little of the reduced employment among older job losers can be explained by changes in wages and pension-related retirement incentives. Other barriers to reemployment may be more important explanations for the low employment rates of recently displaced older workers.


MBS hedge funds have outperformed the Lehman MBS Index by an average of 210 basis points annually from 1992 through 2003. By comparison, MBS mutual funds have underperformed the Lehman MBS Index by an average of 141 basis points per year. This contrast in performance persists even after adjusting for total risk, as measured by Sharpe ratios. It also persists on a market risk-adjusted basis. Using CAPM single-index, illiquidity-adjusted, market-timing, and various multi-index and multi-factor models, we find that Jensens alpha is consistently negative and significant for MBS mutual funds but positive and significant for MBS hedge funds.


The evolution of permafrost in cold regions is inextricably connected to hydrogeologic processes, climate, and ecosystems. Permafrost thawing has been linked to changes in wetland and lake areas, alteration of the groundwater contribution to streamflow, carbon release, and increased fire frequency. But detailed knowledge about the dynamic state of permafrost in relation to surface and groundwater systems remains an enigma. Here, we present the results of a pioneering ∼1,800 line‐kilometer airborne electromagnetic survey that shows sediments deposited over the past ∼4 million years and the configuration of permafrost to depths of ∼100 meters in the Yukon Flats area near Fort Yukon, Alaska. The Yukon Flats is near the boundary between continuous permafrost to the north and discontinuous permafrost to the south, making it an important location for examining permafrost dynamics. Our results not only provide a detailed snapshot of the present‐day configuration of permafrost, but they also expose previously unseen details about potential surface – groundwater connections and the thermal legacy of surface water features that has been recorded in the permafrost over the past ∼1,000 years. This work will be a critical baseline for future permafrost studies aimed at exploring the connections between hydrogeologic, climatic, and ecological processes, and has significant implications for the stewardship of Arctic environments.


Abstract States pursue their cooperative and competitive goals using both public and private policy tools. Yet there is a profound mismatch between the depth, variety, and importance of covert activity and what scholars of International Relations (IR) know about it. This article addresses this gap by analyzing how adversaries struggle for influence within the covert sphere, why they often retreat to it, and when they abandon it. It focuses on secrecy among adversaries intervening in local conflicts and develops a theory about secrecy's utility as a device for creating sustainable limits in war. Drawing on insights about secrecy and face-work from the sociologist Erving Goffman, I show that major powers individually and collectively conceal evidence of foreign involvement when the danger of unintended conflict escalation is acute. Doing so creates a kind of "backstage" in which adversaries can exceed limits on war without stimulating hard-to-resist pressure to escalate further. An important payoff of the theory is making sense of puzzling cases of forbearance: even though adversaries often know about their opponent's covert activity, they often abstain from publicizing it. Such "tacit collusion" arises when both sides seek to manage escalation risks even as they compete for power and refuse to capitulate. The article evaluates the theory via several nested cases of external intervention in the Korean War. Drawing on newly available materials documenting the covert air war between secretly deployed Soviet pilots and Western forces, the cases show how adversaries can successfully limit war by concealing activity from outside audiences. Beyond highlighting the promise in studying the covert realm in world politics, the article has important implications for scholarship on coercive bargaining, reputation, state uses of secrecy, and how regime type influences conflict behavior.


The Women in the Life of the Bridegroom: A Feminist Historical-Literary Analysis of the Gospel of John, by Adeline Fehribach. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1998. Pp. viii + 22. $19.95. Adeline Fehribach identifies her study of the women characters in the Gospel of John as a feminist analysis. Part of her agenda is to explain the combination of attention to strong, vivid women characters and the presence of traces of patriarchal understandings of gender that have been observed by feminist readers. Her method combines literary and historical reading with a reader-response approach. Using the text in its current state (that is, including John 21 but not 7:53-8:11), she attempts to construct the responses of a first-century reader. To do this, she selects an extratextual repertoire for ancient readers, consisting of "1) commonly known historical facts and figures; 2) classical and canonical literature; 3) literary conventions such as stock characters, type scenes, topoi, etc.; 4) social norms and structures" (p. 16). She also delineates an array of resources for disclosing the reader's "horizon of expectation" for female characters: "1) the Hebrew Bible; 2) Hellenistic Jewish writings; 3) popular Greco-Roman literature: 4) the concept of `honor and shame' as used by cultural anthropologists for the study of gender relations in the Mediterranean area; 5) the history of women in the GrecoRoman world" (p. 9). In Fehribach's reading, the analogy put into mouth of John the baptizer in 3:29 is used to organize and interpret all the presentations of women. Beginning from the appearance of Jesus' mother at the wedding at Cana (2:1-12), Fehribach argues that when Jesus responds to her with the words "my hour is not yet come" (2:4), the (ancient) reader is led to interpret the coming "hour" as that of Jesus' own wedding. Jesus would then be seen (again, by the ancient reader) as refusing to take the limelight away from the bridegroom. His mother, cast in the role of a "mother of an important man" (cf. Sarah in Gen 21:9-21 and Rebecca in Gen 27:1-46), urges him to increase his own honor at the bridegroom's expense. The reader is then left to expect that the high point of the narrative will be the wedding of the messianic bridegroom, through which the familia dei will be reproduced and children of God begotten (1:14). John 4:1-42 (the Samaritan woman at the well) and 11:1-12:8 (Martha, Mary, and Lazarus) are, like 2:1-12, read largely through "type scenes" from the Hebrew Bible and "the honor and shame concept" derived from cultural anthropology. The type scene that initiates betrothals through a meeting at a well locates the Samaritan woman as a metaphorical bride, a representative of the Samaritan people, divorced from the supposed five male gods of Samaria and reunited with her true bridegroom through whom many children (the converted Samaritans) are produced. Mary is seen as the fictive bride of the Messiah on behalf of the Jewish people, while Martha and Lazarus become his in-laws. The portrayal of Jesus' death is read as an example of the "dying king typescene"; the mother of Jesus is thus passed on to his heir, as first Darius and then Alexander pass on their female dependents. At the cross and tomb, Mary Magdalen appears climactically as the bride representing the entire community. Fehribach reads the death of Jesus as consummation and conception. The appearance to Mary (John 20:14-18) is juxtaposed with recognition scenes in the Greek romances Chaereas and Callirhoe and An Ephesian Tale, in which the lover believed dead is fortuitously discovered to be in fact alive. …


University students are more likely to feel satisfied and persist with their studies if their experiences have met their expectations, and vice versa (Wu, Tsai, Chen, & Wu, 2006). Understanding what online students expect, therefore, is important to guide how universities might satisfy and retain these students. Research into online student expectations to date, however, has been limited to pre-defined expectations of the academic experience, and extrapolations from traditional higher education. To gain a deeper understanding of what online students expect, the author conducted in-depth interviews with 43 commencing online students. Thematic analysis revealed online students' expectations were described by six key themes: Motivation, Ability, Circumstances, Interaction, Curriculum, and Environment. The findings offer an empirical, student-centred, and multifaceted understanding of online student expectations. Opportunities are illuminated to clarify inaccurate expectations, and to design online education to better meet student needs, facilitating enhanced online student satisfaction and retention.


For over sixty years, meaningful public participation in criminal or civil trials has been a foreign concept in Japan. In August 2009, this drastically changed as Japan conducted its first trial involving lay judges. As part of its new "saiban-in seido" or quasi-jury trial system, Japan now conscripts registered voters to serve on mixed tribunals, comprised of professional and lay judges, which hear serious criminal cases. Citizen participation in criminal trials is one of many revolutionary legal reforms intended to transform Japan from a society with excessive regulatory control to a global model based on transparent, after-the fact review. Based on these changes, it is expected that Japanese citizens will be converted from governed objects to governing subjects. Citizen participation in Japanese criminal trials is specifically geared to increase common understanding of the judicial process, promote civic responsibility, and enhance the tools of democracy available to society. Reformists also hope that citizen participation will infuse sound common sense into the judicial process as well as ensure justice, due process of law, and prosecutorial accountability. However, many see the new quasi-jury system as an expensive exercise in futility. Without significant public debate, Japan has spent hundreds of millions of dollars preparing for a ground-breaking system that runs counter to Japanese tradition as well as faces considerable doubt and opposition among many members of society and the legal community. Notwithstanding, the new system has considerable potential to improve the criminal justice system and increase the public's awareness of important social issues, including the recent rash of wrongful convictions based on involuntary confessions. It also stands as a powerful vehicle for potentially ensuring justice and solidifying the democratic processes fostered by citizen participation in government. Going forward, Japan's new quasi-jury system will not only be closely scrutinized on a domestic scale, but it may also offer valuable lessons on an international scale to established and emerging democracies, both in its initial form and in subsequent iterations. In its initial form, the new quasi-jury trial system is imperfect and faces many challenging hurdles. To realize its full potential, the system needs to be fine-tuned in several respects. By statute, Japan has the opportunity to make adjustments to the quasi-jury system in three years. This paper takes an in-depth look at three important areas that require immediate attention and reform by 2012 at the latest. More specifically, for the quasi-jury system to achieve its stated goals of judicial transparency, public education, preservation of justice, and increased credibility in the criminal justice system, Japan needs to: (i) increase transparency by eliminating punitive measures against lay judges for exercising their freedom of speech to discuss criminal trials; (ii) improve access by opening the doors to the interrogation of suspects and defendants; and (iii) limit the active participation of victims or victims' families to the sentencing phase of criminal proceedings. Unless these steps are taken, the effectiveness of the quasi-jury system will be significantly hampered. As such, this paper will analyze the above three issues as they affect the quasi-jury system and explore potential solutions that balance the interests and concerns of all parties.


Users' exploratory usage of enterprise systems plays a critical role in determining the extent to which an adopting organization can materialize the purported benefits of the system. As such, examining the antecedents of exploratory usage of ES is of great interest to researchers. In this study, we intend to explore how different components of intrinsic motivation (i.e., intrinsic hedonic and normative motivation) and what users experience in their system exploration process (i.e., psychological empowerment) jointly affect exploratory usage. Drawing upon motivation theories and the Regulatory Engagement Theory, we develop a research model that will be tested by survey data. Possible theoretical contributions and managerial implications are discussed.


ABSTRACT Systems based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) are increasingly normalized as part of work, leisure, and governance in contemporary societies. Although ethics in AI has received significant attention, it remains unclear where the burden of responsibility lies. Through twenty-one interviews with AI practitioners in Australia, this research seeks to understand how ethical attributions figure into the professional imagination. As institutionally embedded technical experts, AI practitioners act as a connective tissue linking the range of actors that come in contact with, and have effects upon, AI products and services. Findings highlight that practitioners distribute ethical responsibility across a range of actors and factors, reserving a portion of responsibility for themselves, albeit constrained. Characterized by imbalances of decision-making power and technical expertise, practitioners position themselves as mediators between powerful bodies that set parameters for production; users who engage with products once they leave the proverbial workbench; and AI systems that evolve and develop beyond practitioner control. Distributing responsibility throughout complex sociotechnical networks, practitioners preclude simple attributions of accountability for the social effects of AI. This indicates that AI ethics are not the purview of any singular player but instead, derive from collectivities that require critical guidance and oversight at all stages of conception, production, distribution, and use.


Literature in the field of sport has noted that coaches can be major contributors to the moral tone held in the sport environment and athletes are receptive to the moral frame provided by the coach. At the same time, coaches' perspectives of morality have been associated with the way coaches face moral issues that arise in the field. Therefore, the present study aimed at extending previous research seeking to illuminate the coach's perspectives of morality by (a) exploring coaches' perspectives of morality; (b) analysing coaches' responses in light of previous evidence; and (c) discussing the theoretical and practical implications of evidence. The present pilot study was designed as a qualitative multiple case study. Participants were six coaches (Mage = 46.5; SD = 7.6), who had extended sport involvement, underwent required coaching education and were coaching at the time of the interview. Case 1 was represented by three females coaching an artistic individual sport and case 2 was represented by three males coaching an interactive team sport. Thematic data analysis was conducted. Results indicated that coaches found it difficult to articulate a definition of morality; though they did describe it as an ongoing learning process, context-related, that entailed reciprocity, and therefore, required permanent interchange, co-creation, negotiation and adjustment. The coaches also identified two main perspectives of morality: the moral perspective (i.e. being able to differentiate what is right from what is wrong, doing what is right and considering self-related wellbeing) and the social perspective (i.e. sport involvement and team dynamics). Extrapolating the evidence from this study may suggest that coaches could benefit from moral education interventions, which may then translate to a reduction in or prevention of undesired consequences associated with encompassing moral behaviour.


This study examines the constructs of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) versus small business orientation (SBO), their impact on small business performance, and whether these effects are moderated by longevity. A sample of 267 small business owners from 11 small–medium downtowns was used in structural equation modeling (SEM) testing of the measurement, structural and moderation hypotheses. The measurement confirmatory factor analyses models of the two constructs revealed that EO and SBO are unique constructs. Then a structural model predicting performance was tested. Finally, a two‐group model split on "below 11 years" versus "11+ years" demonstrated that the structural paths connecting EO and SBO to performance are not the same in these groups: for the younger group, only EO significantly predicts performance while for the older group, only SBO significantly predicts performance.


With data proliferation at an unprecedented rate, data accessibility while in motion has increased the demand of VANETs of late. VANETs use moving cars as nodes to create a mobile network. VANETs are designed with the goals of enhancing driver safety and providing passenger comfort. Providing security to VANETs is important in terms of providing user anonymity, authentication, integrity and privacy of data. Attacks in VANETs include the Sybil attack, DDoS attack, misbehaving and faulty nodes, sinkhole attack, spoofing, traffic analysis attack, position attack and illusion attack. Illusion attack is a recent threat in which the attacker generates fraud traffic messages to mislead the passengers thereby changing the passenger's driving behaviour. Thus, the attacker achieves his goal by moving the target vehicle along a traffic free route and creating traffic jams in areas where he wishes. Illusion attack is devised mainly by thieves and terrorists who require a clean get away path. The existing method used to prevent Illusion attack is the Plausibility Validation Network (PVN). In PVN the message validation is based on a set of rules depending on the message type. This is an overhead as the rule set for all possible message types have to be stored and updated in the database. Hence, an efficient mechanism is required to prevent illusion attacks. In this paper, our proposed system: TRUC verifies the message by a Message Content Validation (MCV) Algorithm thus ensuring the safety of the car drivers and passengers. The possibilities of attacker creating an Illusion attack is explored in all dimensions and the security goals are analyzed by our proposed design, TRUC


Einstein in his works from 1905 till 1907 discarded the ether from physics but his more than 5 papers from 1920 to 1934 deal with the ether as an unexceptionable physical reality. In these papers Einstein becomes more an enthusiastic advocate of the testification of the ether than supporters of the ether before the year 1905. It is regrettable that except of Einstein's widely cited less important paper presented at a conference in Leiden in 1920 other more important papers on ether in which Einstein comes with the definitive claim that without the ether it is not possible to explain the physical world around us are not known to wider physical community and even not known to dissident physicists community as well. In this paper we show that Einstein by his own declarations after 1920 about testified existence of the ether himself openly repudiated his Special and General theories of relativity. In amendment we bring the text of Einstein's 1924 paper "On the ether".


Staying one step ahead of tumors Cancer treatments require continual adjustment. A drug that works initially will lose its potency as the tumor acquires new mutations that allow it to bypass the drug's lethal effects. To stay ahead of the tumor, oncologists need a noninvasive way to collect tumor cells from patients over the course of their treatment. Analyzing the mutations in these samples may help them choose the right drugs as the tumors change. In a small study of breast cancer patients, Yu et al. show that rare tumor cells circulating in the blood can be captured in viable form and used for this purpose. Science, this issue p. 216 Mutational analysis of tumor cells isolated from the blood of cancer patients may help optimize treatment selection. Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are present at low concentrations in the peripheral blood of patients with solid tumors. It has been proposed that the isolation, ex vivo culture, and characterization of CTCs may provide an opportunity to noninvasively monitor the changing patterns of drug susceptibility in individual patients as their tumors acquire new mutations. In a proof-of-concept study, we established CTC cultures from six patients with estrogen receptor–positive breast cancer. Three of five CTC lines tested were tumorigenic in mice. Genome sequencing of the CTC lines revealed preexisting mutations in the PIK3CA gene and newly acquired mutations in the estrogen receptor gene (ESR1), PIK3CA gene, and fibroblast growth factor receptor gene (FGFR2), among others. Drug sensitivity testing of CTC lines with multiple mutations revealed potential new therapeutic targets. With optimization of CTC culture conditions, this strategy may help identify the best therapies for individual cancer patients over the course of their disease.


Summary Engineering geomorphological maps are expected to represent the characteristics of surface morphology in relation to economic and technical planning in a concise and easily understandable form. The most satisfactory means of attaining this objective is to use morphometric methods for the characterization of relief. Morphometric methods include quantitative description of the relief. Hungarian engineering geomorphological maps indicate the stability of slopes, the nature, intensity, and direction of slope processes, as well as the delineation of slope categories. Among these factors only the latter gives quantitative morphometric information, the others being qualitative classifications. This paper presents methods of representing the above properties and reviews morphometric methods of representing slopes, such as: the values of average and extreme slope angles, which are equally important for engineering applications. Among slope maps those representing slope categories are particularly successful. slope morphology maps show the slope direction, the average slope angle and the slope form (convex, concave, rectilinear, and compound) within the pattern of the drainage network isotangent maps give information on the surface gradients relative relief maps represent the maximum relative level differences relating to territorial units.These techniques complement engineering geomorphological maps; some of the information can be transferred to general engineering geomorphological maps. But, most importantly they are used in the precise and quantitative definition of certain types of relief.


In a search process, getting trapped in a local minimum or jumping the global minimum problems are also one of the biggest problems of meta-heuristic algorithms as in artificial intelligence methods. In this paper, causes of these problems are investigated and novel solution methods are developed. For this purpose, a novel framework has been developed to test and analyze the meta-heuristic algorithms. Additionally, analysis and test studies have been carried out for Symbiotic Organisms Search (SOS) Algorithm. The aim of the study is to measure the mimicking a natural ecosystem success of symbiotic operators. Thus, problems in the search process have been discovered and operators' design mistakes have been revealed as a case study of the developed testing and analyzing method. Moreover, ways of realizing a precise neighborhood search (intensification) and getting rid of the local minimum (increasing diversification) have been explored. Important information that enhances the performance of operators in the search process has been achieved through experimental studies. Additionally, it is expected that the new experimental test methods developed and presented in this paper contributes to meta-heuristic algorithms studies for designing and testing.


We report a system based on a combination of a micromanipulator and a cantilever-based differential resonator for selecting and weighing individual micro-scale particles. Instead of relying on probabilistic attachment of particles on sensor surfaces, the system can specifically select and weigh individual micro-entities. The micromanipulator is able to move particles from a native media to the surface of a resonator that can weigh particles with pg-level resolution. The system allows individually manipulating and weighing a wide variety of entities that can be visualized under a microscope, ranging from cell spheres to spore clusters and single diatom algae.


The Johannesburg Attorneys Association (JAA) held their 73rd annual general meeting at Sunnyside Park Hotel in Johannesburg on 9 September. Guest speakers at the AGM included Wayne Duvenhage of Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance, who discussed civil disobedience; Justice Thokozile Masipa who spoke about the role of the legal profession in effectively transforming the legal environment; and advocate Michael Kuper SC, who discussed the newly established China-Africa Joint Arbitration Centre. Addressing the delegates, Judge Masipa said lawyers are the gatekeepers of our justice system and without them, there can be no justice system worth talking about. 'Without good solid lawyers, who have their hearts in the right place, whatever justice system may exist, can be of no use to anyone. We are fortunate to have a good Constitution in this country. That Constitution, however, will not avail us unless we have the right people to make that Constitution work for everyone in this country,' she said.


E-learning has become a popular teaching and learning mode in the education and training sectors in the digital age. Many studies have been done in the field of e-learning at course level. However, limited literature has been found about e-learning strategic development in continuing higher education sector at the institutional level. The purpose of this study was to explore the institutional development and implementation of e-learning, using the School of Professional and Continuing Education at the University of Hong Kong (HKU SPACE) as a case. In this paper, the comprehensive e-learning development framework at institutional level is proposed and seven dimensions under the framework are explored, including e-learning policy, e-learning organizational structure, e-learning systems, m-learning APP, e-learning courses, e-learning training and support, and e-learning evaluation. Based on the results of the case study, it is suggested that policy and organizational structure are essential to ensure the implementation of e-learning in self-financed continuing higher education institutions. The e-learning systems, m-learning applications, e-courses, training and support, and e-learning evaluation should be considered and integrated as a whole in order to maintain continuous development and enhancement in e-learning.It is hoped that the institutional e-learning development framework presented in this paper can provide a benchmark for continuing higher education institutions to make e-learning strategic planning.


Clinical Scenario: Until recently, injury epidemiology data on elite Paralympic athletes were limited. Current data suggest high rates of shoulder injury in wheelchair athletes. Differences in shoulder injury rates between sports have not been reported in this population. Clinical Question: Is the incidence of shoulder injury in elite wheelchair athletes different between sports? Summary of Key Findings: Shoulder injury rates are high in elite wheelchair athletes, particularly in sports such as field events and fencing that require a stable base (eg, trunk, core control) from which to perform. Wheelchair racing requires repetitive motions that contribute to shoulder injuries, but rates are lower than field sports and fencing. Wheelchair curling and sledge hockey have low shoulder injury risk. Clinical Bottom Line: Shoulder injury rates vary based on sport in elite wheelchair athletes. In addition to incorporating shoulder complex specific rehabilitation for overuse shoulder injuries, clinicians should focus on core and trunk stabilization in elite wheelchair athletes competing in sports, such as field events and fencing. Strength of Recommendation: Grade C evidence exists that reports shoulder injury rates among elite wheelchair athletes differ based on sport participation.


The study combines policy analysis matrix (PAM) and data envelopment analysis (DEA) techniques to evaluate the profitability and competitiveness of maize, rice, and soybean production in Ghana. The efficiency of a sample of maize, rice, and soybean growers from four districts of Ghana is analyzed using DEA, while profit maximizing groups of farmers were also identified. Then, PAMs were computed under observed average and profit-efficient farming conditions. Two alternative profit functions were considered: including family labor in domestic cost factor and excluding family labor from domestic cost factor. The results are distinctively different under observed average and profit maximizing conditions. One may argue that average maize, rice, and soybean farmers are not viable in the long term because they are making losses at social prices. However, efficient farmers make substantial positive profits and the society also makes welfare gains from resources allocated to maize and soybean production. Therefore, policies based on dissemination of best practices could improve overall efficiency of these cropping systems. Rice production does not seem profitable in social prices even for efficient farmers. Finally, excluding family labor from domestic cost factor provides different perspectives that point to the ability of maize, rice, and soybean production to create value for farmers and also to add welfare gains to the society.


Hygrophila auriculata (K. Schum.) Heine is a wild herb commonly found in moist places on the banks of tanks, ditches and paddy fields throughout India and is one of the main sources of Ayurvedic 'Rasayana' drug. The free radical scavenging potential of 50% aqueous alcoholic extract of H. auriculata (HAEt) was studied for DPPH scavenging activity, nitric oxide, hydroxyl radical and ferryl bipyridyl complex scavenging activity along with lipid peroxidation and total antioxidant capacity inhibition using Thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) in rat liver homogenate. Integral antioxidative capacity was determined by photochemiluminescence assay. HAEt showed good radical scavenging activity at various concentrations against 1,1 diphenyl, 2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) (32.32-77.02%) with moderate scavenging activity against Nitric oxide (12.46-52.84%), hydroxyl radical (11.69-55.26%), ferryl bipyridyl complex (17.66-58.67%) and lipid peroxidation (0.829-0.416nmoles/mg protein). The above results indicate HAEt to be very effective antioxidant. It was suggested that the varied therapeutic activities claimed for the plant in the Indian indigenous systems of medicine may be in the part due to the free radical scavenging and/ or potent antioxidant activity.


In The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Adam Smith asserts that humans have an innate interest in the fortunes of other people and desire for sympathy with others. In Smith's theory, sympathy is an imperfectly reflected combination of emotion and judgment when one observes someone (the agent) in a particular situation, and imagines being that person in that situation. That imagination produces a degree of interconnectedness among individuals. Recent neuroscience research on mirror neurons provides evidence consistent with Smith's assertion, suggesting that humans have an innate capability to understand the mental states of others at a neural level. A mirror neuron fires both when an agent acts and when an agent observes that action being performed by another; the name derives from the "mirroring" of the action in the brain of the observer. This neural network and the capabilities arising from it have three points of correspondence with important aspects of the Smithian sympathetic process: an agent's situation as a stimulus or connection between two similar but separate agents, an external perspective on the actions of others, and an innate imaginative capacity that enables an observer to imagine herself as the agent, in the agent's situation. Both this sympathetic process and the mirror neuron system predispose individuals toward coordination of the expression of their emotions and of their actions. In Smith's model this decentralized coordination leads to the emergence of social order, bolstered and reinforced by the emergence and evolution of informal and formal institutions grounded in the sympathetic process. Social order grounded in this sympathetic process relies on a sense of interconnectedness and on shared meanings of actions, and the mirror neuron system predisposes humans toward such interconnection.


Enterobacter aerogenes (E. aerogenes) has been reported as the versatile opportunistic pathogen associated with the hospital infections worldwide. The aim of the study was to determine the impact of Mr. Trivedi's biofield energy treatment on multidrug resistant clinical lab isolates (LSs) of E. aerogenes. The MDR isolates of E. aerogenes (i.e., LS 45 and LS 54) were divided into two groups, i.e., control and treated. Samples were analyzed for antimicrobial susceptibility pattern, minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC), biochemical study, and biotype number using MicroScan Walk-Away® system, on day 10 after the biofield treatment. The antimicrobial sensitivity assay showed 14.28% alteration out of twenty eight tested antimicrobials with respect to the control. The cefotetan sensitivity changed from intermediate (I) to inducible β-lactamase (IB), while piperacillin/tazobactam changed from resistant to IB in the treated LS 45. Improved sensitivity was reported in tetracycline, i.e., from I to susceptible (S) in LS 45, while chloramphenicol and tetracycline sensitivity changed from R to I in treated LS 54. Four-fold decrease in MIC value was reported in piperacillin/tazobactam, and two-fold decrease in cefotetan and tetracycline in the biofield treated LS 45 as compared to the control. MIC results showed an overall decreased MIC values in 12.50% tested antimicrobials such as chloramphenicol (16 μg/mL) and tetracycline (8 μg/mL) in LS 54. The biochemical study showed an overall 45.45% negative reaction in the tested biochemical in both the treated isolates as compared to the control. A change in biotype number was reported in MDR isolates (LS 45 and LS 54), while in LS 54, altered biotype number, i.e., 0406 0374 as compared to the control (7770 4376), with identification of the new species as Stenotrophomonas maltophilia with brown color as special characteristic. The study findings suggest that Mr. Trivedi's biofield energy treatment on clinical MDR isolates of E. aerogenes has the significant effect on altering the sensitivity of antimicrobials, decreasing the MIC values, changed biochemical reactions, and biotype number.


The infinite hidden Markov model is a non-parametric extension of the widely used hidden Markov model. Our paper introduces a new inference algorithm for the infinite Hidden Markov model called beam sampling. Beam sampling combines slice sampling, which limits the number of states considered at each time step to a finite number, with dynamic programming, which samples whole state trajectories efficiently. Our algorithm typically outperforms the Gibbs sampler and is more robust. We present applications of iHMM inference using the beam sampler on changepoint detection and text prediction problems.


As developing countries have started to open up their economies, concern about competitiveness has spread to their policy makers. Their relative competitiveness as production and investment sites has become a prime focus of development policy. They are, moreover, faced with a world in which the main determinants of competitiveness are changing rapidly. Competition has intensified due to rapidly falling transport and communication costs, and the performance of economies, industries and firms is constantly compared and benchmarked across nations. So are determinants of competitiveness. These and related issues are analysed in detail in this report. It describes the microfoundations of competitiveness and enterprise, and translates the lessons to the national level.


This paper empirically investigates how the productivity of pesticide differs in Bt versus non-Bt technology for South African cotton smallholders, and what the implications for pesticide use levels are in the two technologies. This is accomplished by applying a damage control framework to farm-level data from Makhathini flats, KwaZulu-Natal. Contrary to findings elsewhere, notably China, that farmers over-use pesticides and that transgenic technology benefits farmers by enabling large reductions in pesticide use, the econometric evidence here indicates that non-Bt smallholders in South Africa under-use pesticide. Thus, the main potential contribution of the new technology is to enable them to realise lost productivity resulting from under-use. By providing a natural substitute for pesticide, the Bt technology enables the smallholders to circumvent credit and labour constraints associated with pesticide application. Thus, the same technology that greatly reduces pesticide applications but only mildly affects yields, when used by large-scale farmers in China and elsewhere, benefits South-African smallholder farmers primarily via a yield-enhancing effect.


The upconversion luminescence (UCL) of rare earth ion-doped nanoparticles excited at 808 nm is more suitable for biological applications than those excited at 980 nm, as the former avoids overheating of biological tissues caused by 980 nm excitation light. However, one of the major challenges limiting the application of UCL of rare earth ion-doped nanoparticles excited at 808 nm is their low UCL efficiency. In this work, tunable plasmonic Au films were used to improve the UCL of Nd3+-sensitized NaYF4:Yb3+,Er3+ nanoparticles. The results show that the enhancement factors and mechanisms of the UCL of Nd3+-sensitized nanoparticles are associated with the tunable plasmonic properties of Au films. The maximum enhancement factors of green and red UCL of NaYF4:Nd3+,Yb3+,Er3+ nanoparticles excited at 808 nm are 6 and 5.8 on the Au film with ultra-broad plasmonic absorption band, respectively. A differentiation of UCL-enhanced mechanisms of NaYF4:Nd3+,Yb3+,Er3+ nanoparticles on tunable plasmonic Au films was observed. The enhanced UCL of NaYF4:Nd3+,Yb3+,Er3+ nanoparticles on the Au film with a narrow plasmonic absorption peak was due to the enhanced excitation field. The enhanced excitation field and energy-transfer enhancement was responsible for the UCL enhancement of NaYF4:Nd3+,Yb3+,Er3+ nanoparticles on the Au film with ultra-broad plasmonic absorption.


Jim Freeman never intended to become a part of history. The Decatur native only wanted a chance to play major league baseball. That was not an easy thing for an African American to accomplish in 1952. Only five other major league teams had integrated since Branch Rickey signed Jackie Robinson to play for his Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. One minor league team barred a black player from playing after he made one appearance and another league attempted to expel a franchise after trying to put a black player on the field. Many circuits did not commence integrating until 1953.1 Even with the door open, however slightly, in major league baseball, the nation had a long way to go down the path of integration. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) legal strategy was slowly working through the courts to end segregation in schools, but the Supreme Court's landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision was two years away. Rosa Parks would not make her decision to refuse to give up her seat on the bus for another three years and the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. had not yet gained national prominence. Freeman left high school in Decatur in February 1943 to enter the United States Army. It was in the Army that he began playing baseball. Upon his return home to Decatur in 1946, Freeman played softball on a local team called The Jolly Boys. He went to tryouts for the St. Louis Cardinals in 1947 at the suggestion of Decatur sportswriter Howard Millard. Advocates of integration argued, "If he is good enough for the Navy (or Army), he's good enough for the majors."2 Freeman made a good showing at the camp, but Cardinals hitting instructor "Runt" Meers confided to him that the Cardinals were just not ready to sign an African-American player.3 Meers recommended Freeman to a friend with the Negro League Kansas City Monarchs.4 Harold Seymour wrote in his classic America: The People's Game, "One way children of foreign birth or parentage could fit into the new culture was to take part in baseball, and early on, many of them perceived it their badge as Americans."5 Even that path was denied African Americans. Baseball historian Edward G. White wrote that stereotypes of African Americans suggested that they could never be fully integrated, that "In terms of melting pot theory, certain inherently 'black' characteristics could never be melted down."6 Arthur Mann, Branch Rickey's biographer, challenged with, "How can you call it an All-American sport if you exclude black Americans?"7 Jim Freeman began the 1948 baseball season with the Monarchs, playing on the traveling team. Baseball immortal Satchel Paige was the drawing card and Cool Papa Bell, a legend in his own right, was manager. Paige had learned by this time that clowning around generated bigger gate receipts. While his assortment of pitches dazzled batters, he was equally talented as a performer. Freeman remembers Paige would pitch three innings and then take off in his chauffeured Cadillac. Jackie Robinson's 1947 season in the major leagues was the beginning of the end for the Negro leagues. The Cleveland Indians signed Satchel Paige for the 1948 season while the Monarchs traveling team was in Fargo, North Dakota. The team fell apart and Jim Freeman ended up in Minneapolis, playing for Harry Crump's Colored House of David and the Broadway Clowns.8 These teams also would vanish in a relatively short period of time. As several owners of Negro League franchises predicted, the end of segregation in baseball meant that fewer African Americans would earn a living from baseball due to the demise of the Negro leagues. It would be many more years before major league franchises hired African Americans as front-office personnel, coaches, and managers.9 Baseball fans of all persuasions could not help but take note of the Cleveland Indians' 1948 American League pennant and World Series championship led by African Americans Larry Doby and Satchel Paige (Paige, the oldest rookie ever to play in the major leagues,10 finished the season with a 6-1 record, but never again pitched as well). …


The Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights ('GPs') were unanimously endorsed in 2011 in the UN Human Rights Council and also recorded an unprecedented level of stakeholder support. Does this watershed signify a genuine convergence of expectations? Is the GPs' conceptualization of the corporate 'responsibility to respect' (RtR) truly able to persuade and provide that focal point around which stakeholders can come together in a notoriously polarized debate? The main thesis is one that the UN Special Representative John Ruggie expressly denies: contrary to its name, the responsibility to 'respect' has a 'protect' component. The analysis examines why and how Ruggie constructed the RtR in the way he did. The 'why' is explained by the fundamental challenge coming from the separation of entities principle, unavoidable when the RtR is applied to multi-entity business enterprises. The 'how' reveals that Ruggie systematically reframed concepts, employed ingenious drafting techniques, used silence strategically, and fully capitalized on the strength and appeal of the 'due diligence' approach. The analysis exposes the strategy of change animating Ruggie's efforts and the GPs attempt to facilitate the convergence of stakeholder expectations and the emergence of a polycentric governance regime.


iShares MSCI North America UCITS ETF is an exchange traded fund (ETF) that aims to track the performance of the MSCI North America Index as closely as possible. The ETF invests in physical index securities. The MSCI North America Index offers exposure to stocks from developed North American countries (Canada and United States) which comply with MSCI's size, liquidity, and free float criteria. The index is free float market capitalisation weighted. iShares ETFs are funds managed by BlackRock. They are transparent, cost-efficient, liquid vehicles that trade on stock exchanges like normal securities. iShares ETFs offer flexible and easy access to a wide range of markets and asset classes.


Multiple object tracking faces several challenges that may be alleviated with trajectory information. Knowing the posterior locations of an object helps disambiguating and solving situations such as occlusions, re-identification, and identity switching. In this work, we show that trajectory estimation can become a key factor for tracking, and present TrajE, a trajectory estimator based on recurrent mixture density networks, as a generic module that can be added to existing object trackers. To provide several trajectory hypotheses, our method uses beam search. Also, relying on the same estimated trajectory, we propose to reconstruct a track after an occlusion occurs. We integrate TrajE into two state of the art tracking algorithms, CenterTrack [63] and Tracktor [3]. Their respective performances in the MOTChallenge 2017 test set are boosted 6.3 and 0.3 points in MOTA score, and 1.8 and 3.1 in IDF1, setting a new state of the art for the CenterTrack+TrajE configuration


The author discusses national immigration reform efforts in the United States from 2005 to 2007. The new laws proposed during these three years ranged from enforcement strategies, which focused on removals and deterrence, to comprehensive reform, which would provide a pathway to citizenship for many existing unauthorised (also known as illegal) immigrants. While the Republicans controlled both chambers of Congress in 2005 and 2006, the party was split between pro-migration business interests and more sceptical grassroots constituencies. After 2007, the Democrats had majorities in the House and Senate but encountered their own internal divisions and electoral concerns. In addition, procedural issues - particularly the need for a sixty-vote supermajority in the Senate - helped prevent a compromise from emerging. Immigration sceptics opposed legalisation, which they termed 'amnesty', while others criticised enforcement-only approaches as unworkable as well as problematic for the economy. While President Bush favored a comprehensive approach, the only legislation to ultimately pass was a 700-mile extension of the border wall between the U.S. and Mexico.


From Fanatics to Folk rejects conventional understandings of Brazilian millenarianism as exceptional and self-defeating. Considering millenarianism over the long sweep of Brazilian history, Patricia R. Pessar shows it to have been both dominant discourse and popular culture—at different times the inspiration for colonial conquest, for backlanders' resistance to a modernizing church and state, and for the nostalgic appropriation by today's elites in pursuit of "traditional" folklore and "authentic" expressions of faith. Pessar focuses on Santa Brigida, a Northeast Brazilian millenarian movement begun in the 1930s. She examines the movement from its founding by Pedro Batista—initially disparaged as a charlatan by the backland elite and later celebrated as a modernizer, patriot, and benefactor—through the contemporary struggles of its followers to maintain their transgressive religious beliefs in the face of increased attention from politicians, clergy, journalists, filmmakers, researchers, and museum curators.

Pessar combines cultural history spanning the colonial period to the present; comparative case studies of the Canudos, Contestado, Juazeiro, and Santa Brigida movements; and three decades of ethnographic research in the Brazilian Northeast. Highlighting the involvement of a broad range of individuals and institutions, the cross-fertilization between movements, contestation and accommodation vis-a-vis the church and state, and matters of spirituality and faith, From Fanatics to Folk reveals Brazilian millenarianism as long-enduring and constantly in flux.


Exploration is a fundamental challenge in reinforcement learning (RL). Many of the current exploration methods for deep RL use task-agnostic objectives, such as information gain or bonuses based on state visitation. However, many practical applications of RL involve learning more than a single task, and prior tasks can be used to inform how exploration should be performed in new tasks. In this work, we explore how prior tasks can inform an agent about how to explore effectively in new situations. We introduce a novel gradient-based fast adaptation algorithm -- model agnostic exploration with structured noise (MAESN) -- to learn exploration strategies from prior experience. The prior experience is used both to initialize a policy and to acquire a latent exploration space that can inject structured stochasticity into a policy, producing exploration strategies that are informed by prior knowledge and are more effective than random action-space noise. We show that MAESN is more effective at learning exploration strategies when compared to prior meta-RL methods, RL without learned exploration strategies, and task-agnostic exploration methods. We evaluate our method on a variety of simulated tasks: locomotion with a wheeled robot, locomotion with a quadrupedal walker, and object manipulation.


Aim: The overarching aims of this thesis were to (a) gain further insight into the developmental/cognitive aspects of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) in young children, and (b) assess outcome after interventions of varying intensity. Methods: In a prospectively designed longitudinal naturalistic study, 208 preschool children with ASD were comprehensively assessed including with a variety of cognitive tests and other structured neurodevelopmental/adaptive interviews, observation schedules and questionnaires before start of intervention and at the end of intervention after two years. Interventions given were based on principles of applied behaviour analysis (ABA) and were classified as intensive or non-intensive. The primary outcome variable was change in Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales composite scores. Subgroups with Good outcome and Poor outcome were identified by ≥15% positive/negative change in VABS composite scores. Results: Considerable changes with regard to ASD type, general cognitive level, adaptive behaviour and expressive speech were found, especially in children with atypical autism and in those with developmental delay/borderline intellectual functioning at the first assessment. About half the total group met criteria for intellectual disability (ID) at the two-year follow-up. Adaptive behaviour levels corresponded well with the level of intellectual functioning. Low processing speed negatively affected general adaptive skills, including in the domains communication, daily living skills, and motor skills. There was no difference in outcome between the intensive and non-intensive intervention groups. The single most important outcome predictor was cognitive level when dichotomized into IQ<70 vs >70. Conclusions: Development profiles changed considerably in many children over the two-year period. Low processing speed possibly indicative of executive dysfunction was common even in relatively high functioning children. There was no significant difference between the intensive and non-intensive groups with regard to outcome; instead the child ́s general cognitive level seemed to be the most important factor for prognosis. Children who are diagnosed with ASD at a very young age need to be followed up prospectively over several years. The naturalistic findings do not provide support for the use of very intensive as compared with less intensive ABA intervention in a community-based group of children with ASD.


My focus in this essay will be on Michael Moore's four documentaries--Roger and Me (1989), The Big One (1997, Bowling for Columbine (2002) and Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004)--with most of my attention being given to the first and third of these, and least to the second. These four films are significant and worth studying for a number of reasons: (i) The size of the audiences they have succeeded in reaching; (ii) the political impact they have had (on which, among other things, see Robert Brent Toplin's useful book on Michael Moore's "Fahreneit 9/11": How One Film Divided A Nation [2006]); (iii) and the extent to which they helped prepare the reception for such recent political documentaries as, for example, Errol Morris's The Fog of War (2004), Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott's The Corporation (2005), Alex Gibney's Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (2005), Eugene Jarecki's Why We Fight (2005), David Guggenheim's An Inconvenient Truth (2006), and Chris Paine's Who Killed the Electric Car? (2006). It may not be redundant to rehearse some of the facts. If Roger and Me was more successful at the box office than any documentary that preceded it, Moore went on to break the same record on two subsequent occasions--first with Bowling for Columbine, then with Fahrenheit 9/11. And as far as the latter is concerned, we get some sense of the excitement that was generated when it first screened in the US by the Foreword that John Berger wrote in 2004 for The Official "Fahrenheit 9/11" Reader (while the film was "still playing in hundreds of theaters across America" (1)). He begins with these words: [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Fahrenheit 9/11 is astounding. Michael Moore's film profoundly moved the artists on the Cannes Film Festival jury, and they voted unanimously to award it the Palme d'Or. Since then it has touched many millions of people. During the first six weeks of its showing in the United States the box office takings amounted to over 100 million dollars, which is, astoundingly, about half of what Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone made during a comparable period. People have never seen another film like Fahrenheit 9/11. (ix) "Astounding" seems to me exactly the right word. It is astounding, first of all, that a documentary (and a political documentary at that) could ever have attained such popularity. And it is even more astounding if we consider when it made its appearance: at a time when (in Berger's words) "the daily wall of lies and half-truths," "the conspiracy of silence, [and] the manufactured atmosphere of fear," seemed impenetrable--at least "within the realm of the mass-media" itself (x, xi). It was precisely at that moment that Moore's film achieved its "breakthrough," nothing less than "an effective and independent intervention into immediate world politics" (x, ix). But for all the commercial success of his documentaries, and all the praise they have received, Moore's stature as an artist is still something that needs to be argued for. And this is true in spite of what Quentin Tarantino (who headed the Cannes jury that gave first prize to Moore's film) states on one of the featurettes on the Fahrenheit 9/11 dvd. "Know[ing] all this political crap would be brought up," he whispered the following in Moore's ear: "I just want you to know it was not because of the politics that you won this award. You won it because we thought it was the best film that we saw." And he [Moore] said, "That means more to me than anything ... If I had wanted to make political statements I would run for office. I want to make movies." Though Moore seems here to be accepting the rigid distinction between art and politics that Tarantino proposes, my own view is that such a distinction applies to only one of his documentaries so far--to The Big One, which has no particular cinematic ambition and is all political statement (even if of an often entertaining and by no means negligible kind). …


In this work, NanoXplore's proprietary graphene nanoplatelets, heXo-G V20, are melt-extruded into thermoplastics LLDPE, HDPE and TPU. Graphene is shown to effectively increase the stiffness and the strength of a matrix TPU. The flexural and tensile moduli increase with loading levels of graphene whereas the tensile strength increases at low loading levels, but does not further increase at higher graphene concentrations. A ten fold increase in thermal conductivity was achieved by adding heXo-G V20 graphene to LLDPE matrix. The thermal conductivity percolation threshold was reached at 10% loading. At 1% loading of graphene the onset of the decomposition temperature and maximum weight loss temperatures were shifted by about 50°C, significantly improving the thermal stability of the PE matrix. Fourteen orders of magnitude increase in electrical conductivity of HDPE was obtained at 30% loading of graphene. Excellent EMI shielding of 40 dB was achieved with 20 wt% addition of graphene in a TPU matrix.


This paper investigates the determinants of household wealth in South Africa, using the National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS) Wave 2. In particular, we look at the effects of the wealth-age profile and other household demographic variables. The hump-shaped profile of the wealth and age relationship suggested by the life-cycle hypothesis is not present in the data, although there are indications of its presence in the upper quantiles of the wealth distribution. The South African wealth distribution does not conform to the Lifecycle Hypothesis at this point in time. The LCH model appears to apply only to particular quantiles of the population, that is, the wealthier households and the particularly indebted households. In particular, the results found these to be households with younger heads, which align with LCH predictions. Poorer households, or those whose assets and liabilities are approximately equal do not appear to accumulate wealth in the same manner as their upper and lower quantile counterparts. However, we cannot formally identify the LCH econometrically at a particular quantile. We found evidence of different wealth accumulation behaviour in Tribal Authority Areas, where a dual land tenure ownership structure is in place. This has important implications for researchers interested in components of wealth, such as income, saving, assets and liabilities.


Of late, scholars interested in East Anglia have focused their attention on devotional practices, and these contributions have enriched our understanding of book production, manuscript circulation, and issues of literacy. (1) Especially useful is the increased understanding of women, both religious and lay, as readers of hagiographical texts. Our work-in-progress, an edition of Cambridge University Library, Additional MS 2604, promises to enhance current discussions of devotional reading by making readily available a manuscript containing twenty-two (mainly female) saints' lives in Middle English. The brief description of this edition offered here includes an examination of the contents and physical composition of this manuscript, which has not hitherto received any serious scholarly attention, and a discussion of the Latin sources, which present a complicated tangle of manuscript and print in the late-medieval period. (2) Alongside the discussion of these complications will be an investigation of the identity of the possible convent for which the lives were intended. By focusing on issues of content, manuscript decoration, and postmedieval provenance, we hope to unravel the complicated history of Add. 2604 and provide some indication of how Latin lives were being repackaged for reading by English nuns. The present brief article serves as an introduction to the larger project. (3) As may be seen in the appendix, this manuscript consists almost entirely of female saints, all of whom are virgins, martyrs, or nuns. At first glance it may seem odd that the collection opens with two male saints, John the Baptist and John the Evangelist, and closes with another male saint, Leonard. Yet in medieval tradition the chastity of the Evangelist was emphasized, just as the Baptist's link to the virgin martyrs was evident in many roodscreen paintings. (4) Moreover, the two St. Johns share an iconographic tradition from the fifth century onward, and they, together with Leonard, are often found as the dedicatees of medieval nunneries. (5) The lives of these three male saints frame a rather eclectic mixture of female saints, beginning with the Roman virgin martyrs Columba, Agatha, Cecilia, and Barbara, followed by ten English saints, whose lives have familial ties and geographical associations with East Anglia and Kent. We then return to the Bible with Martha, then back again to Rome with Domitilla, Justina, and Benedicta before going to Ireland with Modwenna and France with Leonard. The manuscript, which is in a single hand of the second half of the fifteenth century and consistent linguistically, has definitely been copied from another manuscript, as is evident from the frequent examples of dittography, and it is missing many pages (sometimes entire quires). (6) The saints' lives cross quire boundaries, and so any argument about the individual groupings being found in separate booklets is not tenable. The only saints that are each separately contained within the same quire boundaries are Modwenna and Leonard at the end of the manuscript, so they could have conceivably circulated independently. This manuscript seems to comprise three little cycles broadly following the order of the liturgical calendar, although they look to be anything but a coherent whole. (7) The manuscript opens with the universal saints, starting with the two biblical Johns and ending with the virgin martyr Barbara, whose feasts run from June 24 to December 4. Put physically in the center are ten English saints, whose feasts run from June 23 to November 17, starting with /Ethelthryth and finishing with Hild. Then the manuscript ends with another universal group, starting with the biblical Martha and ending with Leonard, whose feasts run from July 29 to November 6 (with Modwenna in a decidedly odd placement). For complicated textual and codicological reasons, it is clear that the collection must also have originally included two other lives. …


We report on the burn control studies of a D-T-fueled tokamak reactor using a two-temperature, zero-dimensional, volume-averaged model, assuming that electrons and ions have the same radial profile with different central temperatures. Balance equations for the particle and energy densities are used assuming that energy and particle transport losses are independent of each other and can be estimated online; thermalization time delays of the energetic alpha particles produced by fusion are taken into account in the dynamical equations. The burn stabilization is achieved with radial basis neural networks (RBNNs) that concurrently modulate a D-T refueling rate, a neutral 4He beam, and auxiliary heating powers to the electrons and the ions, all constrained to maximum allowable levels. The resulting network provides feedback stabilization in a wide range of energy confinement times for plasma density and temperature excursions significantly far from their nominal values. Transient examples using different ELMy scaling laws show that the RBNN controller is stable with respect to any particular scaling law that the tokamak may actually follow for the energy and particle transport losses and is also robust with respect to noise in the measurement of the confinement times. Furthermore, it satisfactorily responds to sudden changes in fast-alpha-particle losses due to increments in magnetohydrodynamic events.


Multidisciplinary scholars have argued the importance of nature in human health for the past several decades (Kellert & Wilson, 1993; Roszak, 1992), and numerous researchers have identified the positive effects of nature on human wellness (Brymer, Cuddihy, & Sharma-Brymer, 2010; Kuo, 2010). The profession of counseling is based on the philosophy of human wellness (Myers, 1992), although the current multidisciplinary wellness models (Myers & Sweeney, 2008) seem to overlook the wellness benefits of nature. As a way to begin the systematic exploration of nature in professional counseling, Reese and Myers (2012) developed the construct of EcoWellness and described the construct as the missing link in holistic wellness models in counseling. They recommended that the next step in exploring the construct included the development of an instrument operationalizing EcoWellness and its underlying constructs. Thus, the purpose of this study was to develop and assess the initial validity and reliability of the Reese EcoWellness Inventory (REI). The researcher utilized a six-step instrument development method that included the pilot testing of an initial 111-item instrument with a convenience sample of college students (N = 264). After modification of the REI, a revised 62-item instrument was tested and evaluated with a simple random sample recruited from Researchmatch.org (N = 853). Participants completed the REI, the Five-Factor Wellness Inventory (Myers & Sweeney, 2005b), and the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale Short Form (Strahan & Gerbasi, 1972) in testing the initial validity and reliability of the REI. Results of confirmatory and exploratory factor analyses and the associated univariate tests demonstrated a mixed picture of the instrument's validity and reliability. A lower-level factor model was tested and it was found to possess adequate model fit. It was determined that the second-order factor of EcoWellness dictated the relationships between the lower-level factors. The development and testing of the REI provides an initial empirical foundation for the integration of nature into professional counseling and counselor education. Further research is needed to replicate and extend the study findings through utilizing samples more inclusive of national distributions of demographic characteristics such as age, gender, and ethnicity.


Endocardial and myocardial progenitors originate in distinct regions of the anterior lateral plate mesoderm and migrate to the midline where they coalesce to form the cardiac tube. Endocardial progenitors acquire a molecular identity distinct from other vascular endothelial cells and initiate expression of specific genes such as nfatc1. Yet the molecular pathways and tissue interactions involved in establishing endocardial identity are poorly understood. The endocardium develops in tight association with cardiomyocytes. To test for a potential role of the myocardium in endocardial morphogenesis, we used two different zebrafish models deficient in cardiomyocytes: the hand2 mutant and a myocardial-specific genetic ablation method. We show that in hand2 mutants endocardial progenitors migrate to the midline but fail to assemble into a cardiac cone and do not express markers of differentiated endocardium. Endocardial differentiation defects were rescued by myocardial but not endocardial-specific expression of hand2. In metronidazole-treated myl7:nitroreductase embryos, myocardial cells were targeted for apoptosis, which resulted in the loss of endocardial nfatc1 expression. However, endocardial cells were present and retained expression of general vascular endothelial markers. We further identified bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) as a candidate myocardium-derived signal required for endocardial differentiation. Chemical and genetic inhibition of BMP signaling at the tailbud stage resulted in severe inhibition of endocardial differentiation while there was little effect on myocardial development. Heat-shock-induced bmp2b expression rescued endocardial nfatc1 expression in hand2 mutants and in myocardium-depleted embryos. Our results indicate that the myocardium is crucial for endocardial morphogenesis and differentiation, and identify BMP as a signal involved in endocardial differentiation. Highlighted article: Interactions between the myocardium and endocardium are important for heart development, with myocardium-derived BMP signals playing a key role in specifying endocardial fate.


1. The volatile essence compounds from mixed varieties of Vitis rotundifolia have been determined to include ethyl alcohol, n-butyl alcohol, n-hexyl alcohol, β-phenylethyl alcohol, an acetate ester, a laurate ester, and an isopropyl ester. Methyl alcohol, n-hexanal, 2-hexenal, and acetal also are probably present. 2. The volatilte essence from the crop of a later year from the same vines was isolated by a technique which included the aroma material produced by fermentation of the grapes. This essence was found to contain methyl alcohol, isoamyl alcohol, acetaldehyde, biacetyl, n-hexanal, 2-hexenal, isobutyraldehyde, ethyl acetate, a caproate ester, a caprylate ester, and a caprate ester in addition to the compounds found definitely present in the unfermented essence. Methyl-ethyl ketone and acetal were also probably present. 3. A reduced pressure pot distilling volatile essence isolation technique is compared with a flash evaporation technique and it is demonstrated that the latter technique isolates an essence which is probably most nearly representative of that which actually exists in the intact grape. 4. Vitis rotundifolia volatile essence is shown to be free of nitrogen and sulfur containing compounds, thus providing a possible means of differentiation from labrusca varieties which contain anthranilic acid esters.


Background/Context In this article, we trace the development of a prospective secondary science teacher as she begins to examine her identity as a White person. We explore how the social languages of her teacher education program challenge, intermingle, and blend with ones she brought to the program from her midwestern small-town childhood and a professional life in science. Research Design In this case study, we deploy Russian philosopher M. M. Bakhtin's notion of ideological becoming to trace her development from program entry through four semesters of program participation. We show how various fieldwork, course, and volunteer experiences challenge the ways she talks and thinks about herself, her students, teaching, and the roles that race/ethnicity and culture play in these relationships. Research Questions We ask: How does this prospective teacher understand her identity as a White person? What relationship does she understand that this identity has to teaching students who are from many different cultural backgrounds? What kinds of dilemmas arise for a prospective teacher when she begins to understand who she is as a White person? How does she negotiate them? And what role does her teacher education program play in encouraging and supporting her negotiations? Conclusions/Recommendations The article concludes by considering what practicing teachers and university teacher educators might do to support new teachers who have begun to question their identities and those of their students, and to craft pedagogy to meet students' needs. Included in the recommendations are considerations for the location of class-room placements for prospective teachers; the nurturing of collaborative relationships between classroom teachers and university teachers; teacher education program pedagogy that promotes critical inquiry into issues of race; and the development of communities of prospective teachers who can struggle with such issues as their identities as racialized beings.