Sports athletes easily get joint damage due to the high intensity of physical training and exertion. The treatment of joint injury caused by physical exercise is very important for competitive sports. Joint composition structure is complex and the knee joint is considered as an example in the full text and the application of CT imaging technology in the diagnosis and treatment of knee joint was studied, which a certain clinical significance for the treatment of joint injury of athletes. In this work it is proposed to establish a unified registration system and statistical coordinate system to achieve image fusion. Secondly, the optimization design of the fusion image algorithm based on the virtual projection CT data was carried out and the image was converted into the same coordinate system. Carry out the final image fusion. The X-ray image and CT image data were combined to obtain the absolute coordinates of the registration position and then the image was fused. Finally, the fusion medical imaging technology was applied in the diagnosis and treatment of knee joint injury. It can be seen through data collection and analysis on 21 cases of patients that the integration of medical imaging technology can diagnosis knee injury accurately, thereby reducing unnecessary surgery and improving the rehabilitation effect of patients.


This paper focuses on a particularly important channel, human capital investment, through which domestic market integration may affect intergenerational economic mobility. Using household data from India Human Development Survey, our empirical analysis focuses on the rural households. We use two sources of plausibly exogenous variations: (1) historical road infrastructure, and (2) crow-fly distance to the Golden Quadrilateral road network. The estimates from the OLS and 2SLS regressions for the average effect show that better market access improves childrens schooling attainment. More importantly, the interaction of fathers education with market access is negative; better market access thus works as a substitute for a higher educated father. The estimates from IV quantile regressions using the control function approach show that better market access weakens intergenerational persistence the most for the children in the middle of the conditional distribution.


The secrecy enveloping the past of public figures — journalists, politicians, and business moguls — has been plaguing democratic transition all across the Central and Eastern European re- gion. In Bulgaria, the public has faced at different stages of the transition the uncomfortable moral crisis of reconciling the communist past with the political and cultural presence. In this process, journalists and media professionals play a vital role as critical agencies of discovering and disseminat- ing the facts concerning the secret communist past of public figures. The situation is further compli - cated when journalists themselves are implicated in collaborating with the communist secret service, while at the same time, serving as prominent voices of dissent and political change. This paper exam - ines the ramifications of these problems for press freedom and self-censorship, when not only journal - ists but media owners themselves, find their names on the "blacklist" of former secret agents and spies.


Abstract. This paper outlines a new strategy to derive evaporation from satellite observations. The approach uses a variety of satellite-sensor products to estimate daily evaporation at a global scale and 0.25 degree spatial resolution. Central to this methodology is the use of the Priestley and Taylor (PT) evaporation model. The minimalistic PT equation combines a small number of inputs, the majority of which can be detected from space. This reduces the number of variables that need to be modelled. Key distinguishing features of the approach are the use of microwave-derived soil moisture, land surface temperature and vegetation density, as well as the detailed estimation of rainfall interception loss. The modelled evaporation is validated against one year of eddy covariance measurements from 43 stations. The estimated annual totals correlate well with the stations' annual cumulative evaporation (R=0.80, N=43) and present a low average bias (−5%). The validation of the daily time series at each individual station shows good model performance in all vegetation types and climate conditions with an average correlation coefficient of R =0.83, still lower than the R =0.90 found in the validation of the monthly time series. The first global map of annual evaporation developed through this methodology is also presented.


Living resources in the deep sea have attracted increased attention over the past few decades. As science and technology advance our ability to explore these areas, the extent of marine biodiversity being discovered is astonishing. Unfortunately, beyond national boundaries this abundance of life is largely unprotected. This article will explore the current legal regime governing marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction. It will identify gaps in the regime and suggest a solution in the form of a framework for an implementation agreement to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. The article begins by describing various aspects of marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction, and identifying various threats and impacts to these areas. The article then provides an overview of the current legal regime by describing the primary international and regional frameworks as well as addressing gaps in governance and implementation. On this background, the article discusses the creation of an implementation agreement to the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea - exploring central elements of such an agreement and options for international adoption. The author's ultimate conclusion is that long-term protection of marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction requires broad international consensus and definitive action in the form of a legally binding agreement.


We formed the GEnetics of Nephropathy–an International Effort (GENIE) consortium to examine previously reported genetic associations with diabetic nephropathy (DN) in type 1 diabetes. GENIE consists of 6,366 similarly ascertained participants of European ancestry with type 1 diabetes, with and without DN, from the All Ireland-Warren 3-Genetics of Kidneys in Diabetes U.K. and Republic of Ireland (U.K.-R.O.I.) collection and the Finnish Diabetic Nephropathy Study (FinnDiane), combined with reanalyzed data from the Genetics of Kidneys in Diabetes U.S. Study (U.S. GoKinD). We found little evidence for the association of the EPO promoter polymorphism, rs161740, with the combined phenotype of proliferative retinopathy and end-stage renal disease in U.K.-R.O.I. (odds ratio [OR] 1.14, P = 0.19) or FinnDiane (OR 1.06, P = 0.60). However, a fixed-effects meta-analysis that included the previously reported cohorts retained a genome-wide significant association with that phenotype (OR 1.31, P = 2 × 10−9). An expanded investigation of the ELMO1 locus and genetic regions reported to be associated with DN in the U.S. GoKinD yielded only nominal statistical significance for these loci. Finally, top candidates identified in a recent meta-analysis failed to reach genome-wide significance. In conclusion, we were unable to replicate most of the previously reported genetic associations for DN, and significance for the EPO promoter association was attenuated.


Political capital is frequently used as a short hand for the diverse range of attributes and
advantages a leader brings with them to power and develops in office. Compared to other
forms of 'capital' it remains under theorised. Since Pierre Bourdieu first outlined it,
scholars have viewed political capital either as being synonymous with personal skills or
a description of wider contextual attributes, particularly the link between leader and
public. It is frequently seen as analogous to financial capital: a political leader has a fixed
stock of capital that they can spend, hoard, fritter or gamble.
This paper takes a first look at the literature and applies it to 't Hart's approaches to
leadership study, drawing on examples predominantly from US and UK politics.
Following Lopez (2002) it takes the view that political capital is both 'personal' (in terms
of their own skills) and 'political' (in terms of events, institutional resources and context).
A politician with skills and attributes can use this to shape the context in which they
operate, creating a 'positive multiplier' as the personal and political reinforce each other.
Where events can also overwhelm leaders and expose flaws and personality weaknesses,
a 'negative multiplier' takes effect.
However, unlike money in the bank, political capital is finite and subject to depreciation
as part of 'a natural trajectory' whereby support and power is lost over time. Yet this
trajectory is not always uniform. The loss is inevitable but the rate and shape may not be.
Often leaders begin with high levels that slowly dwindle but some leaders build it more
slowly. The most unfortunate never have it. The article concludes with a look at a
selection of politicians who managed to turn around an initial lack of political capital or
even regain it.


News flashes about a commercial airplane being blown up with many passengers on board normally lead to the assumption that one is dealing with a terrorist attack. However, such an evaluation might prove to be false. Brutal criminals can blow up an airplane for reasons other than nationalism, ethnicity or religion and with no intention to terrorise the entire target population (see below). A valid identification of a violent attack as an instance of terrorism depends on the availability of a valid definition of terrorism.


This work presents first a study of the national and international laws in the fields of safety, security and safeguards. The international treaties and the recommendations issued by the IAEA as well as the national regulations in force in France, the United States and Italy are analyzed. As a result of this, a comparison among them is presented. Given the interest of the Japan Atomic Energy Agency for the aspects of criminal penalties and monetary, also the Japanese case is analyzed.
The main part of this work was held at the JAEA in the field of proliferation resistance (PR) and physical protection (PP) of a GEN IV sodium fast reactor. For this purpose the design of the system is completed and the PR & PP methodology is applied to obtain data usable by designers for the improvement of the system itself. Due to the presence of sensitive data, not all the details can be disclosed. The reactor site of a hypothetical and commercial sodium-cooled fast neutron nuclear reactor system (SFR) is used as the target NES for the application of the methodology. The methodology is applied to all the PR and PP scenarios: diversion, misuse and breakout; theft and sabotage. The methodology is applied to the SFR to check if this system meets the target of PR and PP as described in the GIF goal; secondly, a comparison between the SFR and a LWR is performed to evaluate if and how it would be possible to improve the PRP characterize the PRP identify recommendations for system designers through the comparison.


Hematoma of the ligamentum flavum (LF) is a rare cause of neural compression and sciatica. Currently, the etiology and epidemiological characteristics of ligamentum flavum hematoma (LFH) are unknown and epidemiological investigations using rewieving of reported cases have not been performed. We report the case of a 63-year-old man with a LFH compressing the spinal canal at the left L2-L3 level, rewieved relevant literature. In Medline research, wefound a total of 50 reported cases with LFHs, and the interesting point of these cases were analyzed. Many of cases were old males. Interestingly, 39 of the 50 cases were reported from Asian countries. The ages of 42 patients could be verified. The youngest age was 45 years, oldest age was 81 years, and mean age was 66.07 years. Thirty-three out of these 42 patients (78.53%) were older than 60 years. An important aspect of the present review is to bring attention for occurrence in older Asian males. With an increasing number of elderly people in the general population, there is a need to investigate risk factors such as sexual gender, age, and geographic location for LFH.


This study investigated the transport coefficients involved in mass and heat transfer during the drying of a porous solid partially saturated with multicomponent mixtures. It included the coefficients governing liquid transport through the solid, the matrix of multicomponent diffusion coefficients in the liquid phase, and the effective thermal conductivity. As it is not possible to determine these coefficients by theoretical considerations alone and considerable experimental work is required to determine them in a broad range of process conditions, the principle of this study has been the use of mathematical models complemented with some empirical parameters. These empirical parameters were determined by comparison between measurements in specially designed experiments and the results of mathematical models that describe the process. In addition, the application of the multicomponent diffusion coefficients is described in two cases where liquid diffusion is important: convective evaporation of a multicomponent stationary liquid film and a falling film. To study liquid transport through the solid, isothermal drying experiments were performed to determine the transient composition profiles and total liquid content of sand samples wetted with ternary liquid mixtures with different initial compositions and temperatures. A mathematical model including mass transfer by capillary movement of the liquid and interactive diffusion in both the gas and liquid phases was developed. To simulate the capillary movement of liquid mixtures, parameters experimentally determined for single liquids were weighed according to liquid composition. A fairly good agreement between theoretical and experimental liquid composition profiles was obtained considering that axial dispersion was included in the model. To study the matrix of multicomponent diffusion coefficients in the liquid phase, the redistribution of liquid composition in a partially filled tube exposed to a longitudinal temperature gradient was analysed. Experimental work was carried out using two main ternary mixtures with different initial compositions and temperature gradients. Experimental data were compared with the results of a theoretical model that describes the steady-state liquid composition distribution in a partially filled non-isothermal tube to find the empirical exponent that modifies the matrix of thermodynamic factors. Correlations for the exponents as a function of temperature were determined for each particular multicomponent mixture. The effective thermal conductivity of a porous solid containing multicomponent liquid mixtures was studied by measuring the liquid composition, liquid content and temperature distributions in a cylindrical sample dried by convection from the open upper side and heated by contact with a hot source at the bottom side. Simulations performed at a quasi steady state were compared with experiments to estimate the adjusting geometric parameter of Krischer's model for effective thermal conductivity, which includes the contribution of the evaporation-diffusion-condensation mechanism. The results revealed that a resistance corresponding to a parallel arrangement between the phases seems to dominate in this case. In the study of the convective drying of a multicomponent stationary liquid film, the equations describing interactive mass transfer were decoupled by a similarity transformation and solved simultaneously with a conduction equation by the method of variable separation. Variations of physical properties along the process trajectory were taken into account by a stepwise application of the solution in time intervals with averaged coefficients from previous time steps. Despite simplifications, the analytical solution gives a good insight into the selectivity of the drying process and is computationally fast. On the other hand, numerical simulations of the convective evaporation of the multicomponent falling liquid film into an inert gas with a co-current flow arrangement of the phases almost always revealed a transition from liquid-phase-controlled conditions to a process in which neither the gas nor the liquid completely controls the evaporation. The results obtained in this work would be useful in implementing models to improve the design, process exploration and optimisation of dryers by incorporating the solid-side effects to describe the drying of liquid mixtures along the whole process.


Visual Analytics (VA) is an evolving field that, at its core, is directed to the science of analytical reasoning supported by highly interactive visual interfaces. The IEEE Conference on Visual Analytics Science and Technology (IEEE VAST), founded in 2006 as the IEEE Symposium on Visual Analytics Science and Technology, is the first international conference dedicated to advances in Visual Analytics Science and Technology. The IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics (TVCG) has recognized and honored the importance of Visual Analytics from the beginning, and invites the authors of the best conference papers to submit substantively extended versions of VAST papers to the journal. For these papers, TVCG applies the usual standard in asking for more than 30% new material and insights compared to the conference paper. This special section presents the extended versions of the best papers of IEEE VAST 2011, which took place in October 2011 in Providence, Rhode Island, USA. These papers were selected together with the best paper award selection committee, which was composed of three members who reviewed the top papers and their peer reviews. The three selected papers went through the regular and standard reviewing process of TVCG. The papers presented here reflect the diversity of the growing field of visual analytics. Collectively, the set of papers exemplify three components that are central to visual analytics as a field. the Guest Editors then provide an overview of the technical articles and features presented in this issue.


: This study was initiated to compare the wear and corrosion performances of an AA7075 quality aluminum alloy after electroless Ni-P process. The characterization of the coating was made by microscopic examinations, thickness, surface roughness and hardness measurements. Wear and corrosion performances of the uncoated and coated samples were investigated by using a reciprocating wear tester and a Potentiodynamic Polarization Scanning (PDS) technique, respectively. Formation of Ni–P layer on AA7075 aluminum alloy accompanied not only by remarkable increase in the surface hardness, but also caused significant improvement in wear and corrosion resistances.


Adsorption of a series of charged bottle-brush polymers with side chains of different length on solid surfaces is modeled using a lattice mean-field theory. The bottle-brush polymers are modeled Lis being composed of two types of main-chain segments: charged segments and uncharged segments with ill attached side chain. The composition variable X denotes the percentage of charged main-chain segments and ranges from X = 0 (uncharged bottle-brush polymer) to X = 100 (linear polyelectrolyte). Two types of surfaces are considered: mica-like and silica-like. The mica-like surface possesses a constant negative surface charge density and no nonelectrostatic affinity for either main-chain or side-chain segments, whereas the silica-like Surface has a constant negative surface potential and a positive affinity for the side chains of the bottle-brush polymers. With the mica-like Surface. ill low X the surface excess becomes smaller and at X >= 25 it becomes larger with increasing side-chain length. Hence, the value of X at which the surface excess displays a maximum increases with the side-chain length. However, with the silica-like Surface the surface excess increases with increasing side-chain length at all X < 100, and the maximum of the surface excess appears at X approximate to 10 independent of the side-chain length.


Derbyshire Community Health Services (DCHS) NHS Foundation Trust provides a wide range of community-based health services. After the Care Quality Commission (CQC) found gaps in the trust's assurance process, its board decided to develop a method of continuous quality improvements that could be used as a basis for the trust's quality assurance system. The trust adapted and built on an acute model so it was suitable for community services. The final assurance system, Quality Always, has four elements: the clinical assessment and accreditation scheme; leadership development; 'champions' within clinical teams to support and promote the scheme; and dashboards to record and monitor progress. A system to recognise and reward achievement was essential for success. Quality Always has resulted in better care quality, an improved CQC rating, a sense of achievement among staff, the development of support networks, learning (especially among support staff) and good practice being shared.


This paper analyses whether aid channelled through non-governmental organisations (NGOs) is less affected by selfish donor motivations and better targeted to needy recipient countries than aid distributed by state agencies. We employ Tobit (and Probit) models and make use of an exceptionally detailed database that allows an assessment of the allocation of Swedish aid channelled through NGOs in comparison to the allocation of Swedish official aid. Our analysis provides mixed results. On the one hand, NGOs appear to be altruistic as far as available indicators on political and commercial motivations of aid can tell. On the other hand, needs-based targeting of aid by NGOs turns out to be surprisingly weak. GDP per capita of recipient countries shapes the allocation of official aid, but not that of aid channelled through NGOs. The headcount of absolute poverty has a significantly positive effect on aid allocation, but its impact is not particularly strong when NGOs are involved. Overall, the Swedish case supports the sceptical view that NGOs are not necessarily superior donors compared to state aid agencies.


Abstract: Despite the substantial impact of sleep disturbances on human health and the many years of study dedicated to understanding sleep pathologies, the underlying genetic mechanisms that govern sleep and wake largely remain unknown. Recently, the authors completed large-scale genetic and gene expression analyses in a segregating inbred mouse cross and identified candidate causal genes that regulate the mammalian sleep-wake cycle, across multiple traits including total sleep time, amounts of rapid eye movement (REM), non-REM, sleep bout duration, and sleep fragmentation. Here the authors describe a novel approach toward validating candidate causal genes, while also identifying potential targets for sleep-related indications. Select small-molecule antagonists and agonists were used to interrogate candidate causal gene function in rodent sleep polysomnography assays to determine impact on overall sleep architecture and to evaluate alignment with associated sleep-wake traits. Significant effects on sleep architecture were observed in validation studies using compounds targeting the muscarinic acetylcholine receptor M3 subunit (Chrm3) (wake promotion), nicotinic acetylcholine receptor alpha4 subunit (Chrna4) (wake promotion), dopamine receptor D5 subunit (Drd5) (sleep induction), serotonin 1D receptor (Htr1d) (altered REM fragmentation), glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor (Glp1r) (light sleep promotion and reduction of deep sleep), and calcium channel, voltage-dependent, T type, alpha 1I subunit (Cacna1i) (increased bout duration of slow wave sleep). Taken together, these results show the complexity of genetic components that regulate sleep-wake traits and highlight the importance of evaluating this complex behavior at a systems level. Pharmacological validation of genetically identified putative targets provides a rapid alternative to generating knock out or transgenic animal models, and may ultimately lead towards new therapeutic opportunities.


The electric power system is one of the largest complex adaptive systems, yet its centralized electromechanical operation remains unaltered since its invention in the last century. This model used to be adequate for the previous decades. However, energy demand continuously increases and we will soon be unable to satisfy it with current technology. Additionally, there is a need for reduction in CO2 emissions. More specifically, in the U.K., the 2008 Climate Change Act mandates an 80% CO2 emission reduction by 2050. These facts will inevitably lead to the mainstream usage of renewable energy systems during the following years. Moreover, today's power system lacks transparency as customers have no way of monitoring and controlling their energy usage besides reading their monthly bills, communication is one-way, and there is no real supervision of the distribution system. All these factors led researchers to the quest for a new power system model, which was named the Smart Grid. This model is influenced by the World Wide Web, operating in a decentralized manner, with many producers and consumers of various generation capabilities and consumption patterns. Consumers are able to obtain real-time information on their energy and carbon footprints with the use of smart-metering devices but, most important, are capable of responding appropriately to signals they receive from the Grid. Along with the technical issues, a transformation of current business models is essential. Although electricity market deregulation has decreased wholesale prices, this change has not been perceived by final customers. This is due to the fact that most of electricity trading is performed through long-term contracts between generators and suppliers via risk management instruments so that customers can pay fixed prices no matter what is the true cost of delivery on behalf of the utilities. In this project we have made an effort to study customer bill savings for a variety of electricity tariffs on real data from a U.K. neighbourhood. New types of tariffs that have been previously applied to large industrial and commercial clients have been tested on a population of residential customer agents. To our knowledge, this is the first time that an agent-based simulation for this type of tariffs has been performed in the U.K. based on a realistic wholesale market setting. Our results show that both customers and suppliers could benefit from real-time pricing rates in terms of profit attained as well as corresponding risk.


Background and purpose: Biodegradable polymers, such as PLGA, are delivery vehicles used to treat posterior segment eye disease, but suffer from poor drug loading and initial burst release. This thesis describes a 'system-within-system', PLGA microparticles incorporating chitosan-based nanoparticles, for ranibizumab delivery, and chitosan-containing micelles for transscleral rapamycin delivery. Methods: Synthesis of chitosan-N-acetyl-L-cysteine (CNAC) and octanoyl-chitosan-poly (ethylene glycol) (OChiPEG) were confirmed using spectroscopy. Chitosan/TPP, chitosan/TPP-HA, CNAC and CNAC/TPP nanoparticles containing ranibizumab were prepared then incorporated in PLGA microparticles and characterised for their size, zeta potential, morphologies, solid-state properties, morphology, protein loading, stability, release, in vivo antiangiogenic activity and effects on cell viability. Rapamycin-loaded micelles comprised of OChiPEG and chitosan-incorporated TPGS, CPEG and TPGS/CPEG were also prepared. Micelles were analysed for their size, zeta potential, morphology, stability, solid-state properties, rapamycin entrapment efficiency and ex vivo scleral retention and permeation. Results: Chitosan-based ranibizumab-loaded nanoparticles measured 17 – 350 nm with a zeta potential of -1.4 to + 12 mV; microparticles measured 3.0 – 6.6 µm (-12 to + 9.7 mV). PLGA microparticles appeared mostly spherical; those prepared with chit/TPP, CNAC and CNAC/TPP had spherical nanoparticles on their surface. Microparticle protein content ranged from 13 – 69%. All preparations showed burst release except for the CNAC containing microparticles, which had the slowest release. Ranibizumab released from PLGA microparticles maintained structural integrity, and activity in cell culture. Chit/TPP-HA nanoparticles containing ranibizumab showed enhanced antiangiogenic activity relative to native ranibizumab. Microparticles showed no effect on cell viability up to a concentration of 12.5 mg/mL. Rapamycin loaded micelles measured 11 – 41 nm, with a zeta potential of -1.2 to + 6.8 mV, entrapment efficiency of 75 - 97% and a scleral retention of 7.5 – 44 µg/g. Conclusion: Micelles showed enhanced scleral retention with potential for topical ocular delivery of poorly soluble drugs. The CNAC-containing preparation has potential for the intraocular delivery of protein-based drugs.


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the relationship between serum lipid levels, retinal hard exudate, and visual acuity in patients with diabetic retinopathy.

DESIGN
Observational data from the Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study.

PARTICIPANTS
Of the 3711 patients enrolled in the Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study, the first 2709 enrolled had serum lipid levels measured.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Baseline fasting serum lipid levels, best-corrected visual acuity, and assessment of retinal thickening and hard exudate from stereoscopic macular photographs.

RESULTS
Patients with elevated total serum cholesterol levels or serum low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels at baseline were twice as likely to have retinal hard exudates as patients with normal levels. These patients were also at higher risk of developing hard exudate during the course of the study. The risk of losing visual acuity was associated with the extent of hard exudate even after adjusting for the extent of macular edema.

CONCLUSIONS
These data demonstrate that elevated serum lipid levels are associated with an increased risk of retinal hard exudate in persons with diabetic retinopathy. Although retinal hard exudate usually accompanies diabetic macular edema, increasing amounts of exudate appear to be independently associated with an increased risk of visual impairment. Lowering elevated serum lipid levels has been shown to decrease the risk of cardiovascular morbidity. The observational data from the Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study suggest that lipid lowering may also decrease the risk of hard exudate formation and associated vision loss in patients with diabetic retinopathy. Preservation of vision may be an additional motivating factor for lowering serum lipid levels in persons with diabetic retinopathy and elevated serum lipid levels.


This research explored the delay of grandparenthood in East and West Germany, investigating how the timing and life-course context of this transition have changed across cohorts. The authors estimated the timing of passages into the grandparent role as well as demographic overlap with worker, parent, and filial roles. Data from the German Aging Survey (N = 3,628) revealed a rise of 3 months per birth cohort (1929-1958) in the median age at grandparenthood. As a result, the grandparent role decoupled almost entirely from active parenthood. Overlap with worker and filial roles was frequent and remained stable across cohorts. The findings direct attention to a neglected demographic trend that is striking in scope and precipitates change not only in the grandparent role but also in kinship structure.


The Mock Data Challenges (MLDCs) have the dual purpose of fostering the development of LISA data-analysis tools and capabilities and of demonstrating the technical readiness already achieved by the gravitational-wave community in distilling a rich science payoff from the LISA data. The first round of MLDCs has just been completed and the second-round data sets are being released shortly after this workshop. The second-round data sets contain radiation from an entire Galactic population of stellar-mass binary systems, from massive-black-hole binaries, and from extreme-mass-ratio inspirals. These data sets are designed to capture much of the complexity that is expected in the actual LISA data, and should provide a fairly realistic setting to test advanced data-analysis techniques, and in particular the global aspect of the analysis. Here we describe the second round of MLDCs and provide details about its implementation.


Facilitating an online course in today's student population requires an educator to be innovative and creative and to have an impactful online presence. In the current online learning environment (also known as e-learning), keeping students' thoughtfully engaged and motivated while dispensing the required course content necessitates faculty enabling a safe, nonjudgmental environment whereby views, perspectives, and personal and professional experiences are encouraged. The educator must exhibit an educator-facilitated active, student-centered learning process, whereby students are held accountable for their active participation and self-directed learning while balancing a facilitator role to further enhance the learning process. This article explores one educator's reflective practice process that has been developed over numerous years as a very early adopter of online education. It will explore the organizational aspect of teaching-facilitating a dynamic robust online course.


Due to the advance of the geo-spatial positioning and the com puter graphics technology, digital terrain data become mor e and more popular nowadays. Query processing on terrain data has attracted considerable attention from both the academic co mmunity and the industry community. One fundamental and import ant query is the shortest distance query and many other applicat ions such as proximity queries (including nearest neighbor quer ies and range queries), 3D object feature vector construction and 3 D object data mining are built based on the result of the shortest dist ance query. In this paper, we study the shortest distance query wh ich is to find the shortest distance between a point-of-interest and another point-of-interest on the surface of the terrain due to a variety of applications. As observed by existing studies, computin g he exact shortest distance is very expensive. Some existing st udie proposedǫ-approximate distance oracles where ǫ is a non-negative real number and is an error parameter. However, the best-kno wn algorithm has a large oracle construction time, a large oracle size and a large distance query time. Motivated by this, we propose a n ovel ǫ-approximate distance oracle called the Space Efficient distance oracle (SE)which has a small oracle construction time, a small oracle size and a small distance query time due to its compactne ss storing concise information about pairwise distances betw e n any two points-of-interest. Our experimental results show tha t e oracle construction time, the oracle size and the distance que ry time of SE are up to two orders of magnitude, up to 3 orders of magnitude and up to 5 orders of magnitude faster than the best-kn own algorithm.


Far too often articles concerning the Temporal Single System Interpretation (TSSI) of Marx simply attempt to dismiss this interpretation of Marx, which frees his value theory from false allegations of inconsistency and redundancy, on the spurious grounds of its difference to 'Marxist' approaches that are influenced by the methods of 'mainstream' economics, such as simultaneous calculation of prices and values. As, sadly, critics of the TSSI outnumber its supporters, most journals insist that articles supporting the TSSI should follow/address the agenda of the TSSI's critics. This 'non-debate' has held back attempts to explore the TSSI. In Potts (2011a) I noted for the first time that there is a difference between Kliman's and Freeman's methods of valuing commodities in the presence of stocks of commodities. I concluded that this difference of approach indicates how research informed by the TSSI of Marx is not a matter of following a particular dogma, but rather is an open and exciting route to attempting to apply Marx's analysis of capitalism to understanding the world today. Potts (2011a) is not widely known as the electronic journal Critique of Political Economy, sadly, did not continue beyond its first issue. So in this article I shall repeat my analysis, focusing on how Freeman's and Kliman's different methods lead to different calculations of the monetary expression of labour-time (MELT).


Electrospinning, the most favorable process of obtaining nanofibers, is capable of processing solution or melt polymers, ceramic materials or metals in many morphological variants, thus providing diverse functionalities. The chapter reviews the main ways in which nanofibers' characteristics can be influenced by solution parameters, process parameters and ambient conditions, afterwards focusing on the role of some of the most significant electrospinning parameters (applied voltage, flow rate, nozzle to collector distance) on the diameter of the nanofibers. Experimental studies to model the influence of process parameters in the case of electrospinning polyetherimide solutions are presented. Response surface methodology and MATLAB simulation software have been used to obtain the mathematical models that indicate the most favorable parameters.


We provide a mild sufficient condition for a probability measure on the real line to satisfy a modified log-Sobolev inequality for convex functions, interpolating between the classical log-Sobolev inequality and a Bobkov-Ledoux type inequality. As a consequence we obtain dimension-free two-level concentration results for convex function of independent random variables with sufficiently regular tail decay. We also provide a link between modified log-Sobolev inequalities for convex functions and weak transport-entropy inequalities, complementing recent work by Gozlan, Roberto, Samson, and Tetali.


Hydrologic studies in northern landscapes indicate there is a critical need to explore how arctic stream discharge patterns and water budgets may be shifting in response to climate warming. The focus of this study was to: (1) assess the pattern of runoff out of Polar Bear Pass, a low-gradient watershed (75°40′N, 98°30′W), during two contrasting spring/summer seasons: 2012 (warm, early melt) versus 2013 (cool, late melt); (2) quantify the seasonal water budgets; and (3) place these results in the context of other arctic basin studies. The end-of-winter snowpack was quantified using a terrain-based approach. A physically based snowmelt model using local weather station data provided daily melt estimates. Streamflow at the eastern outlet was estimated using the mid-section velocity approach. Snow water equivalent (SWE) was higher in 2013 while snowmelt began and ended earlier in 2012. Stream hydrographs showed a rapid rise in flow driven by meltwater from the northern part of the Pass in 2012. This was followed by a series of secondary peaks, melt contributions from the southern end. In 2013, the largest runoff peaks came from the southern sector. Runoff ratios and water budgets varied between the two years, and runoff in 2013 was similar to High Arctic watersheds in the early 1970s.


Excerpt] "You'll see a union in this hospital when pigs fly." So went the opening statement by the new Vice President of Human Resources at St. Joseph Medical Center in Joliet, Illinois. Poor staffing ratios, out-dated equipment, lack of respect and nonexistent communications between staff and management compelled the nurses of St. Joe's to bring in the Illinois Nurses Association in February, 1991. Fifteen years earlier, the nurses had tried to organize a union but had lost the election. Ironically, the issues were the same — nothing had changed. The odds still appeared to be against the nurses. St. Joe's management hired the notorious law firm Seyfarth, Shaw, Fairweather and Geraldson and two anti-union consultants, Modern Management, Inc. and Management Science Associates. They forced the nurses out on strike for 61 days in the dead of winter, and tried to use a Colorado-based scab nursing agency, U.S. Nursing, to bring in replacements. This time, however, the outcome was different. On March 16, 1993, after the longest strike in Illinois nursing history, the St. Joe's Nurses Association/INA signed their first contract with the medical center. Had it not been for the overwhelming community support, built over the months of organizing and negotiating, there is little chance that we would have won our struggle for a union. We gained support not only because our cause was just, but because we had strong primary and secondary leadership in the union and a communication network which reached every St. Joe's nurse. We took these same strengths and skills and applied them in the public arena. Anti-union management, union-busting lawyers and consultants could not stop us.


'Deliberative democracy' is often dismissed as a set of small-scale, academic experiments. This volume seeks to demonstrate how the deliberative ideal can work as a theory of democracy on a larger scale. It provides a new way of thinking about democratic engagement across the spectrum of political action, from towns and villages to nation states, and from local networks to transnational, even global systems. Written by a team of the world's leading deliberative theorists, Deliberative Systems explains the principles of this new approach, which seeks ways of ensuring that a division of deliberative labour in a system nonetheless meets both deliberative and democratic norms. Rather than simply elaborating the theory, the contributors examine the problems of implementation in a real world of competing norms, competing institutions and competing powerful interests. This pioneering book will inspire an exciting new phase of deliberative research, both theoretical and empirical.


This paper uses cross-national data to examine the effects of different dimensions of decentralization on the efficiency of educational policies in OECD countries. The results show that the autonomy of subnational governments, both on the expenditure and revenue sides of their activities, is what really matters in determining the effect of decentralization on educational outcomes. The decision-making autonomy of subnational governments with regard to the regulation and management of the educational system has a significant and positive effect on educational attainment, though this varies with the degree to which subnational governments are held accountable for their taxing decisions. These results are robust to the different analyses conducted, thus corroborating that they are not driven by the potential endogeneity of decentralization policies.


Wear and tear on public roads caused by heavy commercial vehicles incurs an annual maintenance cost of about #850 million. Estimates have shown that savings of at least #50 million could be achieved if the best available suspension systems were fitted to vehicles. Instrumented vehicles have been tested on both public roads and the TRL test track to establish the performance of current types of suspensions fitted to heavy commercial vehicles. Measurements have also been made over bridges and during track tests to simulate bridges. Results have shown fundamental differences in the characteristics of steel and air sprung suspension systems which explain why air sprung systems produce considerably lower dynamic wheel loads than their steel sprung counterparts. The use of "road friendly" suspensions could reduce road wear significantly; by using an air sprung suspension instead of steel on a semi-trailer wear would be reduced by about 10 per cent on a well maintained non-motorway road. This assumes that road loads are distributed evenly along the road surface. However if loads are found to be distributed as clusters producing "hot spots" then savings of up to 40 per cent could be achieved. (A)


Bioconjugation of peptides and asymmetric synthesis of gem-difluoromethylene compounds are areas of the modern organic chemistry for which mild and selective methods continue to be developed. This thesis reports new methodologies for these two areas based on the use of stabilized carbenium ions.
The reaction that makes the bioconjugation of peptides possible takes place via the direct nucleophilic substitution of alcohols and is driven by the spontaneous formation of stabilized carbenium ions in water. By reacting with the thiol group of cysteine in very mild conditions and with a high selectivity, these carbenium ions allow the site-specific ligation of polypeptides containing cysteine and their covalent derivatization with functionalized probes. The ligation of the indole ring of tryptophan, an emerging target in bioconjugation, is also shown and takes place in the same conditions.
The second area investigated is the challenging access to optically active gem-difluoromethylene compounds. We describe a methodology relying on the synthesis of enantioenriched 1,3-benzodithioles intermediates that are shown to be precursors of the corresponding gem-difluoromethylene analogues by oxidative desulfurization-fluorination. This synthesis takes advantage of the highly enantioselective organocatalytic α-alkylation of aldehydes with the benzodithiolylium ion and of the wide possibilities of synthetic transformations offered by the 1,3-benzodithiole group. This approach allows the asymmetric access to complex gem-difluoromethylene compounds through a late-stage fluorination step, thus avoiding the use of fluorinated building blocks.


This paper investigates the opportunities for reducing the pressure of urban centers on rural forest areas, using a dataset of 350 urban households in Tigrai in northern Ethiopia. We applied an almost-ideal demand system to fuels. The results suggest that reducing the pressure of urban centers on local forests cannot be seen in isolation from broader development policies aimed at raising the level of education and income of the population. Higher income also stimulates the demand for fuel.


Cheating reduces the signal value of exam data and it might shift the focus of teachers and students away from learning. However, it is difficult to prevent cheating if it is widespread. We evaluate the impact of computer-based testing (CBT) on national exam scores in junior secondary schools in Indonesia, exploiting the phased roll-out of the program from 2015 to 2019. First, we find that test scores decline dramatically after the introduction of CBT with school-level means declining by 0.4 standard deviation. Schools with response patterns that indicate cheating experience an increased drop in their test scores. Second, scores rebound within two years after introducing CBT, suggesting that barriers to cheating provide incentives for learning. Third, we find evidence of spillover effects from CBT within districts. Cheating declines more in schools that have not yet switched to CBT if more schools located in the same districts make the switch, suggesting that CBT not only eliminates cheating but makes it less socially permissible.


The work within the thesis aimed to integrate concepts from three psychological frameworks, including self-determination theory (SDT), the theory of planned behaviour (TPB), and the hierarchical model of motivation (HMM), into a model to understand the processes that underpin motivation and intention toward health and safety behaviours. The first tenet of the model (derived from SDT and HMM), namely the trans-contextual effect of motivation, hypothesised that self-determined motivation for a given activity related to self-determined motivation for undertaking health-promoting behaviour associated with the activity. The second tenet of the model (derived from the strength, limitation, and theoretical assumptions of SDT and the TPB) speculates that the effects of self-determined motivation for health and safety behaviour on intention and behaviour were mediated by social cognitive variables. A total of eight studies were employed to test the two tenets of the integrated model across various health contexts (i.e., sport injury rehabilitation and prevention (Study 1 to 5), occupational injury rehabilitation and prevention (Study 6 and 7), and myopia prevention (Study 8), and these studies are presented in five related research chapters (Chapters 2 to 6) in this thesis. The results provided preliminary evidence in support of both tenets of the integrated model, in which motivation from a general life domain is transferred to motivation, and antecedent social cognitive variables, for behaviour in a health and safety domain. The final chapter (Chapter 7) of the thesis summarises the findings of the eight studies and offers explanations and interpretations of the overall pattern of results. Conclusions were then drawn with respect to the theoretical and practical implications of the findings. Consideration was also given to the methodological limitations of the thesis and the scope for further studies to improve the predictive power, utility, measurement reliability, and evidence base for the model.


TOTO, the leading manufacturer of toilets in Japan, is struggling to penetrate the US market with its premier bidet-toilets, which are present in 63% of homes in Japan. The case examines the behavioral, cultural, and institutional barriers that TOTO faces in gaining adoption of an innovation. It also explores the role of product categorization in driving consumer behavior – in contrast to the US, toilets in Japan are considered a high-tech consumer electronic device. Finally, the role of organizational identity and culture is examined. The creation of the bidet-toilet category in Japan was a defining accomplishment for TOTO, and this history has created a strong commitment to promoting it in the US. But given that TOTO has been highly successful selling regular high-end toilets in the US, is this commitment to the bidet-toilet appropriate?


Is psychoanalysis possible in the Islamic Republic of Iran? This is the question that Gohar Homayounpour poses to herself, and to us, at the beginning of this memoir of displacement, nostalgia, love, and pain. Twenty years after leaving her country, Homayounpour, an Iranian, Western-trained psychoanalyst, returns to Tehran to establish a psychoanalytic practice. When an American colleague exclaims, "I do not think that Iranians can free-associate!" Homayounpour responds that in her opinion Iranians do nothing but. Iranian culture, she says, revolves around stories. Why wouldn't Freud's methods work, given Iranians' need to talk? Thus begins a fascinating narrative of interlocking stories that resembles -- more than a little -- a psychoanalytic session. Homayounpour recounts the pleasure and pain of returning to her motherland, her passion for the work of Milan Kundera, her complex relationship with Kundera's Iranian translator (her father), and her own and other Iranians' anxieties of influence and disobedience. Woven throughout the narrative are glimpses of her sometimes frustrating, always candid, sessions with patients. Ms. N, a famous artist, dreams of abandonment and sits in the analyst's chair rather than on the analysand's couch; a young chador-clad woman expresses shame because she has lost her virginity; an eloquently suicidal young man cannot kill himself. As a psychoanalyst, Homayounpour knows that behind every story told is another story that remains untold. Doing Psychoanalysis in Tehran connects the stories, spoken and unspoken, that ordinary Iranians tell about their lives before their hour is up.


Abstract A new species of Gesneriaceae, Petrocodon luteoflorus Lei Cai & F.Wen was first described and illustrated from Maolan National Nature Reserve, Libo County, Guizhou Province, China. The diagnostic characters and notes of this species between its most morphologically similar species, P. dealbatus Hance, a detailed description, colour photographs, etymology, as well as distribution and habitat, are also provided in this paper.


A medical guide for cyclists, Andy Pruitt's "Complete Medical Guide for Cyclists" will help cyclists of all ability levels to prevent, diagnose, treat, and recover from injuries. Injury prevention begins with a proper bike fit that accounts for a cyclist's riding style and physical quirks and kinks. As the world's leading expert in scientific bike fit, Pruitt walks readers through a complete fit session with clear instructions and explanations of the logic behind each adjustment. If it's too late for prevention, Andy Pruitt's "Complete Medical Guide for Cyclists" covers cyclists literally from head to toe with sound, easily understood medical advice. Pruitt describes the injuries most common to cycling and helps cyclists pinpoint symptoms, identify the cause, and find proven remedies to get them back in the saddle. Pruitt also includes chapters with up-to-date information on training programs, staying healthy throughout a long cycling season, aging, weight loss, and stretching and rehabilitation. Andy Pruitt's "Complete Medical Guide for Cyclists" is highly illustrated, with black and white photographs throughout.


Ripe persimmon fruit (Diospyros kaki L) cv. "Hachiya" were diced, then treated with 10–20% w/v diluted honey solution or water as the control, followed by cold storage at 4C until loss of acceptable quality. The persimmon cubes were subject to assessments during the storage of organoleptic and visual quality, softness and exuding juice, soluble solids content (SSC), and absorbance at 436, 440, 675 and 760 nm, respectively. Honey treatments prevented off-aroma development and delayed jelling. Softness and exuding juice of the fresh-cut persimmon cubes increased with time, with the increase in both parameters being significantly suppressed by honey solution dips. Changes in SSC, pH and the absorbance at 436, 440, 675 and 760 nm, respectively, during storage were minor and there was little effect of the honey treatments on these parameters. Overall, the shelf life of fresh-cut persimmon cubes was extended by honey solution dips, which delayed off-aroma development, firmness loss and jelling.

PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS

New products and changing trends make today's food marketplace alive, and fresh-cut fruits and vegetables seem to be on top of list of these products. Although fresh-cut produce has been on the market for a long time, preserving their quality attributes has not been completely successful especially in the case of fruit. This study focuses on a new alternative fresh-cut produce, fresh-cut persimmon, with adapting a potentially safe organic method, use of honey dips. The present study demonstrated that honey solution dip treatments could preserve the fresh-like quality of typical flavor or aroma of persimmon fruit by causing no changes in aroma and taste attributes and extending shelf life. Therefore, honey dip treatment may be used, depending on commodity, to preserve and extend shelf life of fresh-cut produce in fresh-cut processing industry.


High concentrations of glucose can be toxic and contribute to diabetic retinopathy, for example. Elevated glucose increases glycolytic flux, which leads to increased production of a highly reactive dicarbonyl, methylglyoxal. Cells eliminate this potentially toxic degradation product by enzymatic conversion to lactate by glyoxylase I (GLO1), glyoxylase II, and glutathione. However, in pathological situations, such as diabetes, or conditions of oxidative stress, methylglyoxal may accumulate and react with DNA or arginine, lysine, or cysteine residues of proteins. Yao et al. show that exposure of retinal Müller cells (rMC-1) to elevated glucose increased the concentration of methylglyoxal and stimulated expression of the angiopoietin-2 (Ang-2) gene. Both of these effects were prevented if the cells were overexpressing GLO1, the mitochondrial uncoupling protein UCP-1, or manganese superoxide dismutase (MnSOD). Promoter analysis defined a glucose-response element in the Ang-2 promoter at the Sp1 site, and chromatin immunoprecipitation experiments revealed that the binding of Sp1 was enhanced under conditions of high glucose, whereas Sp3 binding was decreased, suggesting that glucose triggers a switch in these two transcriptional regulators. Overexpression of GLO1, UCP-1, or MnSOD prevented this glucose-stimulated switch. Sp3 coimmunoprecipitated with the corepressor mSin3A. Elevated glucose increased the methylglyoxal modification of mSin3A and increased the association of mSin3A and Sp3 with O-linked N-acetylglucosamine (O-GlcNAc) transferase (OGT), resulting in O-GlcNAc modification of Sp3. Inhibition of O-GlcNAc modification of proteins by antisense RNA against the rate-limiting enzyme in UDP-GlcNAc formation or by overexpression of an enzyme that removes O-GlcNAc prevented the switch in Sp1 and Sp3-mSin3A at the Ang-2 promoter. These results provide a mechanism for diabetic retinopathy associated with high glucose, because an imbalance in angiogenic signals (elevated Ang-2 without sufficient vascular endothelial growth factor, for example) can lead to endothelial cell death and regression. These results also have implications for the role of glucose in aging and cancer through the actions of methylglyoxal on transcription (see Ramasamy et al.). D. Yao, T. Taguchi, T. Matsumura, R. Pestell, D. Edelstein, I. Giardino, G. Suske, N. Ahmed, P. J. Thornalley, V. P. Sarthy, H.-P. Hammes, M. Brownlee, Methylglyoxal modification of mSin3A links glycolysis to angiopoietin-2 transcription. Cell 124, 275-286 (2006). [PubMed] R. Ramasamy, S. F. Yan, A. M. Schmidt, Methylglyoxal comes of AGE. Cell 124, 258-260 (2006). [PubMed]


Recent studies of the legislative process have questioned the rationales for many principles of statutory interpretation. One of those traditional rationales is the so-called fiction of legislative omniscience, understood to underpin many judicial approaches to statutory decisions. This Article presents the first comprehensive analysis of judicial assertions about legislative awareness and proposes a new way to understand them. The proposed perspective compares fictions of legislative omniscience with similar but more widely accepted imputations of knowledge in other areas of law; it also draws on recent findings from other disciplines regarding how we use and respond to statements about fictional states of affairs. The comparisons indicate that judges' imputations of unrealistic knowledge to legislatures are best seen not as unfair demands, but as important parts of the story judges typically tell about the law in our legal system, according to which the legislature and judiciary play complementary roles in pursuit of compatible goals. Rather than impairments of judicial legitimacy, these imputations are descriptions of the necessarily aspirational grounds of legal legitimacy.


Higher education (HE) has changed from elite to mass education (HSV 2006:26R, Leathwood & Read 2009). In the last few decades, the number of women in higher education has increased substantially in most OECD countries. Sweden's reform of HE in 1993 encourages university institu- tions to develop new degree programs (SFS 1993:100). This opened opportunities for the development of programs designed to attract women & men in equal numbers but the result was disappointing. According to a Swedish study, an increasing number of new degree programs attract almost exclusively one gender (Witt 2009, Nelson et al 2009). It is a well- established fact that technical educations are male-dominated while care- related educations are predominantly chosen by women. This paper inves- tigates the motivations for choice reported by 620 students in 17 programs. We have categorized these motives as follows: knowledge seeking; work- ing life orientation; shoulder responsibility for society; program design; second choice and "follow the map". Moreover, the paper discusses how gender-segregated educational choices may affect the future opportunities of student in terms of professional careers, income development and, con- sequently, social standing & life styles. To study gender segregation within HE is like looking at a three dimensional picture. We can focus at different parts or images a one image shows the gender division among the students, another show the genderized division between program choices, while the third image is about the vertical gender division among teachers and researchers & their career opportunities. This paper deals with the first two.


Central nervous system dysfunction is a common consequence of otherwise uncomplicated cardiac surgery.Many mechanisms have been postulated for the cognitive dysfunction that is part of these neurologic sequelae. The purpose of our investigation was to evaluate the effects of mean arterial pressure (MAP) during cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) and the rate of rewarming on cognitive decline after cardiac surgery. Two hundred thirty-seven patients completed preoperative and predischarge neuropsychologic testing. MAP and temperature were recorded at 1-min intervals using an automated anesthesia record keeper. MAP area less than 50 mm Hg (time and degree of hypotension), as well as the maximal rewarming rate, were determined for each patient. Multivariable linear regression revealed that the rate of rewarming and MAP were unrelated to cognitive decline. However, interactions significantly associated with cognitive decline were found between age and MAP area less than 50 mm Hg on one measure, and between age and rewarming rate in another, identifying susceptibility of the elderly to these factors. Although MAP and rewarming were not the primary determinates of cognitive decline in this surgical population, hypotension and rapid rewarming contributed significantly to cognitive dysfunction in the elderly. (Anesth Analg 1995;81:236-42)


The relatively new discipline of global health law is a potentially powerful tool for promoting health adaptation to climate change. Unfortunately, global climate change will intensify exactly those health threats that have not been adequately addressed by multilateral cooperation with respect to health in the past, which has been dominated by security-based and treatment-focused approaches. Recent focus on biosecurity concerns such as the global spread of emerging infectious diseases and biological terrorism has further entrenched a security-based approach to global health law and policy that has origins in the earliest attempts at international health cooperation and is currently embodied in the 2005 revisions to the International Health Regulations. For the most part, the health threats associated with climate change are not of the type that have typically gained the attention of powerful industrialized countries concerned with the transboundary spread of emerging infectious diseases like SARS or novel strains of pandemic influenza. In recent decades, rapid innovation in medical technologies and other factors have led to an emphasis in health law and policy on adequate and equitable provision of health care services. International health law and policy have focused on objectives like the provision of antiretroviral therapy for HIV/AIDS patients more than on public health interventions such as vector control and access to basic necessities like food, safe drinking water, shelter, and sanitation. Yet the health threats associated with climate change will be impossible to address through medical technologies alone. Although security-based and treatment-focused efforts have sought to strengthen the core capacity of health systems as a secondary concern, it is not at all clear that they will make human populations more resilient to the impacts of climate change and environmental degradation. A responsibility-based approach under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change principle of common but differentiated responsibility has the potential to foster an emerging reorientation of global health law along three main fronts: (1) an approach to global health law and governance that is driven by health equity and the importance of "upstream" determinants of health, including access to basic necessities like food, water, shelter, and sanitation; (2) better integration of health law and policy with non-health regimes such as human rights law and international trade law, as well as environmental law, land use, and urban planning; (3) an approach to public health threat response that emphasizes long-term resilience rather than emergency preparedness for extreme events.


Dura-Bar 65-45-12 is a ductile iron that is used for continuous cast products. Its microstructure consists of nodular graphite in a matrix of ferrite with small amounts of pearlite. Dura-Bar 65-45-12 is used for moderately stressed parts requiring good ductility and machinability. This datasheet provides information on composition, physical properties, tensile properties, compressive and shear strength. It also includes information on heat treating and machining. Filing Code: CI-69. Producer or source: Charter Dura-Bar, Inc.


Abstract This paper presents the methodology, which will be adopted, for quantifying the effect of uncertainties on the peak clad temperature of an advanced natural circulation nuclear reactor. The method relies on probabilistic analysis, treating uncertain parameters as random variables. The paper will cover a case of a loss-of-coolant accident due to a 200% (that is, double ended) break of the largest pipe with partial unavailability of the low-pressure emergency core cooling system. The break has been postulated at the inlet header, which is the largest pipe in the main heat transport system. For this assessment a two-step procedure has been adopted. In the first step the probability of the peak clad temperature exceeding 800°C has been evaluated using the response surface, generated from the results of thermal-hydraulic analyses. One of the fuel failure criteria for this reactor is the peak clad temperature exceeding 800°C. Such a high temperature is expected during typical large-break loss-of-coolant accident conditions. The thermal-hydraulic analyses, using the computer code RELAP5/MOD3.2, were done for several cases involving different combinations of six selected uncertain parameters. The probabilistic analysis was carried out using Monte Carlo and first-order reliability methods. The first step results in conditional probability of the peak clad temperature exceeding the criteria subject to the condition of a 200% break in the inlet header. The probability of a 200% break is calculated in the second step. The probability of an inlet header pipe weld rupture has been evaluated based on probabilistic fracture assessment. The pipe break analysis considers the uncertainties in strength, fracture, and stress corrosion properties and initial crack/flaw sizes produced during fabrication or welding. It also accounts pre-service and in-service inspection, inspection quality, and different damage mechanisms such as fatigue and intergranular stress corrosion cracking. The combined results of both these steps give the overall probability of the peak clad temperature exceeding 800°C.


Charging load modeling for electric vehicles is a fundamental work for most studies related to EVs. However, it is a challenge due to its complexity. This paper proposes a novel EV charging load model which applies the Bayes method to adjust the distribution of the number of EVs starting to charge and predict this number when generating the aggregation impedance model. A study case of a station in Beijing is applied to verify the proposed model. The results show that the model has satisfactory accuracy.


Relations between the European Union (EU) and Russia have entered a more difficult era with the 2004 enlargement and the annexation of Crimea in 2014. The three Baltic states are new EU member states that share threat perceptions vis-a-vis Moscow. The article unpacks securitisation processes in the three Republics and how they have evolved after 2004 and 2014, as compared to the previous period of independence initialled in 1991. By exploring discourses, identity formation by strategies of othering and policy changes, we argue that re-securitisation is currently undergoing after a period of softer securitisation in the aftermath of EU accession.


Abstract. Geographic data in the big data environment presents some new characteristics: diversified data sources, and different ways of obtaining data, which makes the form and content of data different, resulting in diversification of GIS data types. Multiple sources and multiple scales characterize line-surface mixed river data. Different acquisition methods, different acquisition times, and different scales will result in differences in line-surface data and even different resolutions. The river network data used in this experiment usually includes 3 types of river data: surface (Dual-line River), single-line rivers and raster river data from remote sensing images. Among them, the river raster data can be treated as surface data. The surface river data has some specific characteristics. First, the abutment relationship between the line and the surface such as the tributary flow often exists on the main stream. The planar rivers often connect with the linear rivers. Second, the inclusion relationship between the surface and the surface, such as the surface Island phenomenon in the river. Last, the relationship between the two lines and the line, such as the adjoining, intersecting, and separating of the two single-line rivers.The following methods are used to achieve network topology with line-surface river data. First, the line-surface river data was rasterized into a unified resolution raster so that they have the same data characteristics. Second, the Mid-Axis of the line-surface data is extracted through distance transformation or refine method from mathematical morphology. At last we can establish a topological relationship with the linear data, realize the network topology and apply to network analysis.The blue line in Fig. 1a is based on the linear extraction result of the line-surface mixed data of the Delaunay triangulation, and the line in Fig. 1b is the central axis extraction result of the proposed algorithm. Focus on the connection of the line surface. As can be seen from (a), for the mixed data Delaunay triangulation, only the axis of the planar element can be extracted, and the original single line data cannot be retained. The central axis and the original line data are not established. Topological relationship. The morphological-based refinement method proposed in Figure 1(b) can well avoid the above problems.For the real data experiment, the single-line river that was originally rasterized by linear rivers is well preserved. When a linear river overlaps or is connected to a planar river. The extracted central axis and the single-line river can remain in a completely connected state whenever overlap or junction, and will not adversely affect the extraction result, realizing a fully automated central axis extraction.The method proposed in this paper is characterized by satisfying the basic requirements of the visualization of the central axis extraction result and achieving full automatic extraction. After the topology check of the extraction result is completed, the network space analysis is directly performed. For example, for the river network axis can be connected for connectivity analysis. Since the data selected in this paper is river network data, the following will establish a network topology and perform connectivity analysis on the results of the central axis extraction.The two points in Figure 3 are the starting point, point 1 is on the axis of the original linear river, and point 2 is on the central axis of the planar river. The connectivity path is generated between the two points as shown in the figure. The results show that the single-line river network composed of the axes in the line-mixed data extraction has a complete topological connectivity.River networks are complex spatial data with highly structured features with different scales. The acquisition and establishment of single-line topology river network data is essential for map synthesis and solving the topological relationship of watershed systems, and will play a huge role in GIS applications.Based on the mathematical morphology and Map Algebra principle, this paper uses the refinement algorithm and template shaping to realize the extraction of the multi-source and multi-scale river central axes of the line-surface mixing, and it is excellent in the transition from the two-line river to the single-line river. The test results show that even for the mixed data of the line surface (including islands) with complex structure, the method can effectively extract the continuous and smooth central axis and maintain a complete topological relationship with the retained single line data. The acquisition and establishment of single-line topology river network data is realized. In the next step of the work, the algorithm will be optimized to improve the speed of the algorithm. Although the study in this paper is based on rivers, the research results are equally applicable to other multi-source mixed line data, such as street networks.


This article examines the strategies and practices by which the Israeli news media negotiated and (re)appropriated a Lebanese documentary that was produced in cooperation with a French company and was purchased and broadcast by an Israeli commercial channel. Using this transnational textual event, the article explores the dynamics, opportunities and pitfalls associated with transcultural exchanges that take place in a conflictual, translocal context, and the ways in which such exchanges are shaped by an interplay of material-institutional and discursive-symbolic dimensions. The article also provides a multi-layered framework for analyzing the broadcasting and journalistic practices surrounding such textual events, and establishes the relationship between appropriation and witnessing strategies. I show how the Israeli media—driven by commercial interests and applying complex forms of witnessing and appropriation—worked to sustain national myths and suppress the potentially disruptive aspects of the documentary, while at the same time exposing the weaknesses of these myths, as well as the limits of the State's power. Emerging from this case study is a complex picture of the multifaceted roles played by national news media in a transnational economy, and of the ways in which commercial media interests serve as both hegemonic and disruptive forces within the context of the Israeli-Arab conflict.


Cooperative relaying has been shown to be an effective method to combat fading in wireless communications. Among relaying strategies, distributed ones are more attractive because of the simplicity, scalability, robustness and low overhead incurred. In this paper, two previously proposed distributed relaying strategies are investigated: Timer-based Best-Select relaying and M-group Dis-STBC All-Select relaying. The motivation is to figure out which one of these two strategies performs better in spectrum-limited systems, taking into account the overhead incurred in the selection process. Numerical results indicate that, in general cases, M-group Dis-STBC All-Select relaying outperforms Timer-based Best-Select relaying.


Carbon-supported Re–M (M = Pt and Rh) bimetallic catalysts with controlled size and composition were synthesized by using a microwave-assisted thermolytic method and evaluated in the aqueous phase hydrogenation of succinic acid. The Re–M interaction contributes to the inhibition of aggregation of particles and to the improvement in the catalytic activity for succinic acid hydrogenation through decreasing the activation energy. The Re–M interaction favors the ring opening of γ-butyrolactone, an intermediate product, to 1,4-butanediol instead of the hydrogenation and dehydration to tetrahydrofuran observed over a Re/C catalyst. The kinetic study proves that the Re–M interaction can increase the relative formation rate of 1,4-butanediol more than that of tetrahydrofuran, while the strength of the Re–M interaction has a limited influence on the product selectivity. It was shown that the Re–Rh interaction can reduce the direct hydrogenolysis of succinic acid, but it cannot avoid the hydrogenolysis of 1,4-butanediol, thus limiting the selectivity to this product. According to the kinetic mechanism, ring opening of γ-butyrolactone is favored at low temperature while direct hydrogenation to tetrahydrofuran is favored at high temperature.


A performance-prediction paradigm was used to examine metamemory abilities in 27 individuals with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (MCI), 14 individuals with nonamnestic MCI, and 41 controls. To assess memory self-awareness, participants predicted the number of words they would remember before completing a list-learning memory task. Memory self-monitoring was evaluated by participants' ability to increase the accuracy of their predictions after experience with the list-learning task. As expected, participants with amnestic MCI demonstrated poorer memory abilities than the controls and participants with nonamnestic MCI. The amnestic MCI group also correctly predicted that they would recall less information than controls. Furthermore, both MCI groups showed accurate awareness of how differing task demands influence recall and successfully modified their memory predictions to be more accurate following task exposure. These findings revealed that individuals with amnestic and nonamnestic MCI were able to competently assess the demands of an externally driven metamemorial situation and utilize experience with a task to accurately update memory self-knowledge. Accurate metamemory skills may facilitate the ability of individuals with MCI to benefit from targeted behavioral interventions focused on utilizing compensatory strategies for everyday memory problems.


Abstract Carbon and nitrogen stable isotopic compositions of fossil materials from Lake Messel (47 Ma) in Germany are used to investigate Eocene ecosystem dynamics. Autolithified soft tissues of terrestrial and aquatic vertebrate organisms, as well as plant compression fossils, contain organic material (20–50 wt% C, 1–6 wt% N), which appears to retain precursor compositions. Stable isotopic compositions (δ13C and δ15N) of Messel fossils are similar to those reported for components in modern lacustrine ecosystems. These data show trophically sensible enrichments relative to food sources, reflect multiple feeding strategies for each organism (e.g., omnivory, planctivory, piscivory), and differentiate between benthic and pelagic organic carbon sources. These chemical data broadly confirm existing Messel food web models based on coprolite and gut content analyses. δ13C values for the lacustrine shale range from −30.3 to −26.3‰, pointing to mixed terrestrial and aquatic origins for primary producers in the food web. δ13C values for primary consumers such as insects overlap with those for primary producers but are comparatively enriched in 15N. Secondary and higher consumers (fish, crocodiles, and frogs) are associated with even more positive δ15N values and show a more constrained range of δ13C values. Omnivory appears widespread in both low and high trophic level consumers. Hence, the stable isotopic compositions of Messel fossils are complex and overlap, and must be combined with paleontological investigations in order to be conclusive. This study represents the first comprehensive isotopic reconstruction, featuring tens of components, of an ecosystem of Eocene age. A thorough understanding of trophic structure in Eocene Lake Messel contributes to the global databank of ecological history.


This paper presents a feasibility study of a wearable computing system to protect construction workers from carbon monoxide poisoning. A pulse oximetry sensor has been integrated into a typical construction helmet to allow continuous and noninvasive monitoring of workers' blood gas saturation levels. To show the feasibility of monitoring for carbon monoxide poisoning without subjecting users to dangerous conditions, a prototype for monitoring blood O2 saturation was constructed and tested during a user study involving typical construction tasks to determine its reliability while undergoing motion. As monitoring for O2 and CO simply differ in the number of wavelengths of light employed, if monitoring O2 is feasible, then monitoring for CO will be feasible as well. Using this equivalency, the results of this initial study show that integrating an oximeter into a construction helmet will warn the user of impending carbon monoxide poisoning with a probability greater than 99%. Note to Practitioners-This work addresses the issue of carbon monoxide exposure on construction sites. A noninvasive blood oxygen saturation sensor, called a pulse oximeter, was integrated into a typical construction helmet to investigate the reliability of continuous monitoring of construction workers. The pulse oximetry sensing technology was shown to be reliable under typical construction tasks such that a worker would be alerted of impending carbon monoxide poisoning before becoming impaired. Additional work is required with more complex tasks as well as isolating the sensor from motion artifacts generated by head movement.


Single-cell RNA-Seq (scRNA-Seq) enables the systematic molecular characterization of heterogeneous tissues at an unprecedented resolution and scale. However, it is currently unclear how to establish formal cell type definitions, which impedes the systematic analysis of scRNA-Seq data across experiments and studies. To address this challenge, we have developed Moana, a hierarchical machine learning framework that enables the construction of robust cell type classifiers from heterogeneous scRNA-Seq datasets. To demonstrate Moana's capabilities, we construct cell type classifiers for human immune cells that accurately distinguish between closely related cell types in the presence of experimental perturbations and systematic differences between scRNA-Seq protocols. We show that Moana is generally applicable and scales to datasets with more than ten thousand cells, thus enabling the construction of tissue-specific cell type atlases that can be directly applied to analyze new scRNASeq datasets. A Python implementation of Moana can be found at https://github.com/yanailab/moana.


The aim of this paper is to define the optimal level of liquidity and to investigate its impact on the overall bank profitability. To achieve these goals, we use a large sample of 127 countries over the period 2005-2015. The whole sample is divided in two sub-samples. The first covers 46 high income countries and the second includes 81 low and middle income countries. We performed the Panel Smooth Transition Regression (PSTR) as econometric approach. Empirical results show that the optimal level of liquidity that affects bank profitability is 24.18% for high income countries and 40.45% for low and middle income countries. Findings also indicate that credit risk decreases significantly the level of profitability of the two groups of countries.


The Financial Reporting Review Panel (FRRP) was an innovation in the UK as it was responsible for the previously little considered issue of ensuring compliance with financial reporting regulations. This paper draws on institutional theory to compare the stated aims, objectives and operating procedures of the FRRP with the practical experiences of those who have had discussions with them, and evidence of the wider impact of their work. The aim is to provide a richer understanding of the way in which this relatively new institution achieves its objectives, and to determine whether it has engaged in "myth making" in order to establish and maintain its legitimacy. The original objectives of the FRRP are explored in this paper, as well as subsequent public pronouncements on its aims, procedures, and achievements. Discussions with key members of the FRRP have enabled further clarification of some of the issues. The perceptions of those with experience of dealing with the FRRP were gained by a series of semi‐structured interviews. Interviews were carried out with company directors and audit firm partners who had direct experience of the FRRP. The analysis draws out themes related to the investigation process and final outcomes of this process. The paper concludes that there is some evidence that the FRRP has engaged in "myth building". For example, it was considered that cases the FRRP chose to pursue tended to involve rather less serious issues than their public statements might suggest. Also they have considerable operational discretion and this appears to be exercised in a rather unpredictable way without explanation. Overall, however, the evidence suggests that the FRRP is an effective regulator.


While our daily activities usually involve interactions with others, the current methods on activity recognition do not often exploit the relationship between social interactions and human activity. This paper addresses the problem of interpreting social activity from human interactions captured by mobile sensing networks. Our first goal is to discover different social activities such as chatting with friends from interaction logs and then characterize them by the set of people involved, and the time and location of the occurring event. Our second goal is to perform automatic labeling of the discovered activities using predefined semantic labels such as coffee breaks, weekly meetings, or random discussions. Our analysis was conducted on a real-life interaction network sensed with Bluetooth and infrared sensors of about fifty subjects who carried sociometric badges over 6 weeks. We show that the proposed system reliably recognized coffee breaks with 99% accuracy, while weekly meetings were recognized with 88% accuracy.


A quarter century into the digital revolution, many companies still agonize over whether to invest significant resources in digital capabilities. Meanwhile, customers--who are used to weaving their digital and physical worlds tightly together--wonder why companies haven�t done the same. The author and his colleagues at Bain have worked with and studied hundreds of companies around the globe that are trying to cope with the swiftly changing marketplace. Most industries, he writes, are still in the early stages of what he calls �digical� transformation--and the greatest barrier they face is inexperience with its execution. Drawing on Bain�s study of leaders from 20 global industries, he presents five rules that can help: (1) Build your strategy around digital-physical fusion. It can be your new competitive edge. (2) Add links and strengthen linkages in the customer experience. (3) Transform the way you approach innovation. (4) Organizational separation is just an interim step. (5) Build a digical-savvy leadership team that includes the CEO. Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Nike, Disney, and Burberry are among the companies whose efforts in this realm have paid off mightily. INSETS: Idea in Brief;Digical?s Growing Momentum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]


Purpose: Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) provides a proactive method of improving the quality and safety of treatments by identifying and correcting hazards points in the process of clinical care. FMEA, however, is often thought to be prohibitively labor intensive. This study outlines a method of streamlined FMEA, conducted with limited resources, and assesses its feasibility and effectiveness. Methods: FMEA was performed on the external beam service of a clinic treating approximately 650 patients per year on three linear accelerators. A facilitator and local team leader were identified, and a plan was developed to complete the exercise in four one‐ hour meetings as follows: 1 (core group), introduction and process mapping, 2 (all staff) identification of failure modes from expert user input, 3 (core group) scoring of failure modes according to an FMEA risk priority number, RPN, i.e. the product of severity, occurrence and detectability scores, and 4 (all staff) error proofing of the top‐five ranked failure modes. Results: Fifty‐ two failure modes were identified, 43 of which were scored and ranked. Specific interventions were developed for the five highest ranked failure modes. FMEA scoring after intervention indicated that the average RPN score for the top five modes decreased from 273 to 161 (p=0.03) while FMEA scoring of a control group of failure modes with no intervention did not show a significant change in RPN (p=0.07). The exercise was accomplished within the expected timeline and required 55 total hours of staff time and 20 hours of facilitator effort. Conclusion: Streamlined FMEA analysis is feasible with a relatively modest effort, and can reduce the risk profile of a facility. This may open the possibility of performing repeat FMEA on a regular basis.


ABSTRACT This paper offers conceptual and operational insights for more effective and forward-looking local sustainability decision-making through the emerging concept and framework of holistic urban productivity. Following a short discussion of the contemporary understand and theoretical influences of urban sustainability, we explore the concept, principles, and practices of urban productivity and look at how they can help address urban sustainability planning, implementation, and assessment. We then introduce a conceptual framework for holistic urban productivity which encompasses a set of principles and goals to tackle complex urban processes for effective, inclusive, and forward-looking decision-making. It is informed by and converges numerous theories and approaches and seeks to act as an overarching framework to help operationalise sustainability by empowering urban actors to pursue balanced and synergistic optimisation of all urban community elements. A city that implements the principles and framework of holistic urban productivity embraces economic resilience with shifts in employment patterns and habits; innovative, socially just, and environmentally responsible technologies; compact and nature-enhancing land use planning; strong social connections and affordable housing; and green, light, and smart infrastructure. Urban productivity principles can help lead the transformation of cities into well-functioning and sustainable systems.


The explosive growth of 802.11 networks has coincided with increased presence of security treat to these networks. A large portion of these treats are in the form of spoof attacks. Spoof attacks involve with impersonation of authorized network client to access network resource or to launch malicious code. If security measures in wireless network are not without doubts, it is worsen by its performance. Radio interference, attenuation, channel overlapping, sharing of bandwidth and overhead of the wireless protocol are known to degrade wireless network performance. This paper present a wireless sniffer monitoring tool, as well as the analysis and development process of constructing it. The goal is to design a wireless sniffer that can automatically detect spoofing and provide simple network statistic. The wireless sniffer implements sequence number-based spoofing detection algorithm in its processing. The information provided on both security and connectivity problem of wireless network can be generated by sniffing real-time frames capture using wireless adaptor or automation of log analysis on static pcap file. The testing of the wireless sniffer prototype was evaluated against four wireless traffic simulations
under normal, spoofing, AP misconfiguration, high loss and retransmitted fi-ames conditions. The result of these tests showed that the wireless sniffer was able to identify all normal gap, spoofing, high gap between successive frames, out of order and retransmit frames. Furthermore, at the end of its execution, the sniffer provide simple network statistic allowing user to detect abnormal fraffic such as high gap between successive frames sequence number or high percentage of retransmitted frames send by a source. This indicates that the wireless network may have been misconfigured or some station may suffer from availability and connectivity issues. These characteristics of the wireless sniffer, provides a foundation for development
of more advance monitoring tool that explicitly leveraging on the sequence number field in IEEE 802.11 MAC header.


BACKGROUND
The incidence of adenocarcinoma in the distal esophagus and at the gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) has been increasing in the last decades. It has been suggested that patients in whom Barrett mucosa can be identified in the surgical specimen have a better prognosis compared with those without. This has led to the belief that patients with and without Barrett mucosa may represent 2 distinct cancer types.

HYPOTHESIS
Distal esophageal-GEJ adenocarcinoma with and without Barrett mucosa share the same origin, but differ only in clinical presentation and outcome.

DESIGN AND SETTING
Retrospective cohort study in a university tertiary referral center.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
Between 1992 and 2002, 215 patients (173 men and 42 women; median age, 66 years; age range, 26-91 years) had esophagogastrectomy for adenocarcinoma of the distal esophagus-GEJ. Patients receiving neoadjuvant chemotherapy or radiation therapy were excluded.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Clinical presentation, tumor characteristics, and survival were compared in patients with Barrett mucosa (n = 140) and those without (n = 75).

RESULTS
Patients with Barrett mucosa in the specimen had tumors that were diagnosed earlier; were smaller in size; earlier in stage, with fewer node metastases; and had a better 5-year survival.

CONCLUSIONS
Observed differences in survival between patients with distal esophageal-GEJ adenocarcinoma with and without Barrett mucosa can be explained by earlier diagnosis. Patients without Barrett mucosa have their tumors detected later, when the disease is more advanced. This suggests the possibility that tumors without Barrett mucosa are not of a different origin, but rather are larger tumors that may have overgrown areas of Barrett mucosa.


Objective: Benzothiazole moiety containing various functional groups are found to have broad spectrum of biological activity and diverse chemical reactivity. The various pharmacological properties shown by the benzothiazole scaffolds were antitumor, anti-inflammatory, analgesic, antimicrobial, antileishmanial, anticonvulsant, and anti HIV properties. Keeping this in mind a series of (2-(benzo[ d ]thiazol-2-ylmethoxy)-5-substitutedphenyl) (substitutedphenyl) methanone scaffolds 4a–f has been designed, synthesized and characterized for suitable pharmacological properties. Methods: A series of (2-(benzo[ d ]thiazol-2-ylmethoxy)-5-substitutedphenyl) (substitutedphenyl) methanone scaffolds 4a–f has been synthesized by two steps chemical reactions by conventional stirring method at 40°C. Purification of the title compounds was achieved by silica gel flash column chromatography method. The characterization of the newly synthesized compounds was achieved by means of IR, NMR ( 1 H and 13 C) and HRMS methods. Results: The yield of the title compounds were found to be satisfactory in the range of 66–79%. Purity of the compounds were found up to 99.36% by HPLC method. Compounds 4a, 4b, 4c, 4d, and 4e were studied for single crystal X-ray studies and detailed interactions are reported. Conclusion: Reactions performed to achieve benzothiazole scaffolds 4a–f were environmentally friendly and yielded satisfactory purity and yield. The purified and characterized title compounds are proposed for suitable pharmacological activities in the following communication. Key words : Benzothiazole analogues, Synthesis, Pharmacological properties, Characterization, Antimosquito, Anti-HIV.


The current work is concerned with the studying the impact of environmental conditions on the vegetation in the arid ecotone located between Red Sea and Eastern Desert from Safaga to south Qusseir. Ninety eight quadrats inside 13 transects were selected to cover the environmental gradient across the ecotone, from the coastal region to the boundary of Eastern Desert. Forty five species were recorded belonged to 24 different families and 38 genera. The perennial species were 38 while the annuals were seven species. Zygophyllum coccineum had the highest presence value (89.8%) followed by Tamarix nilotica (56.1%) and Zilla spinosa (51.02%). Chamaephytes and Hemicryptophytes were the most prevailed life-forms. Chrological analysis exhibited that Saharo- Sindian and Sahro-Sindian with its extension to Sudano-Zambezian elements were the most dominant. TWINSPAN classification technique produced three vegetation groups include nine clusters at the fourth level. These groups identified according to the first and second dominant species as follows: Convolvulus hystrix - Panicum turgidum, Tamarix aphylla - Limonium pruinosum and Nitraria retusa - Tamarix nilotica. DECORANA results indicated a reasonable segregation among these groups along the ordination axis 1 and 2. Vegetation analysis showed that ecotonal clusters have highest number of species/cluster, high species richness and high species turnover. Therefore, the largest group existed in the ecotone (34 species) while the desert group contained eight species and the coastal group included three species. Among the estimated soil variables in this study, pH, coarse sand, HCO3 -, SO4 2-, clay and PO4 3- have the highest effect on species distribution. Sodium adsorption ratio (SAR) was the effective factor in detecting the ecotonal species, Aeluropus lagopoides and Limonium pruinosum.


With the ever-increasing role of non-sate actors and the shrinking influence of nation states in the age of globalisation, traditional international law faces a tremendous challenge. The article examines the contemporary thinking on the reconfiguration of international law that is more responsive to the emerging new phenomenon in the global horizon. It argues, in particular, that in the changing circumstances in international political economy international lawyers, international relations scholars, and world policy makers should endeavour to design a global legal order by reformulating traditional international law for better global governance.