Power transformers are one of the most important components in the electrical energy network. Extending transformer life is very economically valuable due to power outage. Therefore the development of instruments to monitor the transformer condition is of great interest. Detection of partial discharges (PDs) in power transformers is an effective diagnostic because it may reveal and quantify an important aging factor and provide information on the condition of the transformer. However, partial discharge diagnostics are still not effectively used for online monitoring of transformers because of the complexity of PD measurements and difficulties of discriminating of PDs and other noise sources. This thesis presents a further study of detection and location of partial discharges in power transformers based on previous work conducted at the Center for Photonics Technology (CPT) at Virginia Tech. The detection and positioning system consists of multiple extrinsic Fabry-Parot interferometric (EFPI) fiber acoustic sensors which can survive the harsh environment of oil-filled transformers. This thesis work is focused on optimal arrangement of multiple sensors to monitor and locate PD activities in a power transformer. This includes the following aspects. First, the sensor design requirements are discussed in order to successfully detect and accurately position the PD sources. In the following sections, Finite Element Method (FEM) is used to model the EFPI sensor fabricated at CPT. Experiments were conducted to measure the angular dependence of the frequency response of the sensor. It is shown that within the range of ±45o incident angles, the sensitivity varies by 3-5dB. Finally, the thesis demonstrates a PD positioning experiment in a 500 gallon water tank (R × H = 74'' × 30'' cylinder) using a hyperbolic positioning algorithm and time difference of arrival (TDOA). Finally we demonstrated that 100% of the positioning data is bounded by a 22.7×4.1×5.3 mm cube, with a sensing range of 810 mm using the leading edge method


We formally compare two versions of the market variance risk premium (VRP) measured in the equity and option markets. Both VRPs follow common patterns and respond similarly to changes in volatility and economic conditions. However, we reject the null hypothesis that they are identical and find that their difference is strongly related to measures of the financial standing of intermediaries. These results shed new light on the information content of the VRP, suggest the presence of market frictions between the two markets, and are consistent with the key role played by intermediaries in setting option prices.


A mixture of the bipyridine, phenyl and/or cyclohexanediamine-based building blocks 1, 2, and/or 3, having hydrazide, aldehyde or amine moieties, respectively, formed DMSO polymer gels by the hydrazone reaction under acidic conditions. These DMSO gels were transformed into hydrogels without a change in shape by solvent exchange. Interestingly, G′ and G′′ values of the hydrogels increased 9–12-fold due to the formation of a three-dimensional network structure by intermolecular hydrogen bonding interactions. In sweep measurements, the γ values of the hydrogels prepared without NaCl were enhanced from 18.5% to 46–55%, which was attributed to the three-dimensional network with additional intermolecular hydrogen-bonding interactions. Furthermore, a gel-to-quasi-liquid transition was completely reversible, where the G′ and G′′ values were recovered rapidly within 60 s. This reversibility was a thixotropic response.


Supply Chain Management (SCM) has gained significance as one of the 21 century manufacturing paradigms for improving organizational competitiveness. Supply chain ensures improved efficiency and effectiveness of not only product transfer, but also information sharing between the complex hierarchies of all the tiers. The literature on SCM that deals with strategies and technologies for effectively managing a supply chain is quite vast. In recent years, organizational performance measurement (PM) and metrics have received much attention from researchers and practitioners. Performance measurement and metrics have an important role to play in setting objectives, evaluating performance, and determining future courses of actions. Performance measurement and metrics pertaining to SCM have not received adequate attention from researchers or practitioners. There is no systematic grouping of the different performance measures in the existing literature. The development of a framework for PM in supply chains requires generalised performance measures. This paper seeks to provide an extensive literature review for identification of performance measures, which in turn forms a basis for establishing a framework for performance measurements in supply chains.


The article examines the food security implications of the WTO Agreement on Agriculture. It places the Agreement in historical context, examines its key provisions, and argues that the Agreement systematically favors industrialized country agricultural producers at the expense of farmers in developing countries. The Agreement enables industrialized countries to continue to subsidize agricultural production and to protect domestic producers from foreign competition while requiring market openness in developing countries. The article evaluates the effect of this imbalance on food security in developing countries, and proposes reforms to provide developing countries with the tools to promote access by all people at all times to sufficient, safe and nutritious food.


We applied cosmogenic isotope burial dating, magnetostratigraphy, and grain-size distribution analysis to elucidate the history of the sedimentary sequence, composed of fine quartz sands and silts, of Wonderwerk Cave, located on the southern edge of the Kalahari Desert, South Africa. The source for the quartz sand is the Kalahari sand dunes, presently located ∼100 km to the north of the cave. Field observations and grain-size analysis suggest a sediment transport scenario that includes eolian transport of Kalahari sand, abraded to a size of 70–100 µm, to the Kuruman Hills, temporary storage on the hill slopes and valleys surrounding Wonderwerk Cave, and later transport and deposition inside the cave. Our results suggest simple burial ages for sediments from both the front and back of the cave that range between 2.63 ± 0.17 Ma and 1.56 ± 0.10 Ma following initial exposure of 310–620 k.y. However, 26 Al/ 10 Be ratios of 3.98 ± 0.24 and 4.08 ± 0.22 measured in a sand sample collected from the surface outside the cave may imply an initial burial signal equivalent to 0.78 ± 0.15 Ma, thus reducing the possible age range of the buried samples to between 1.85 ± 0.23 and 0.78 ± 0.18 Ma. The paleomagnetic results for the front of the cave gave a polarity sequence of N > R > N||N, where N indicates normal polarity, and R indicates reverse polarity. This sequence can be correlated with both the older and younger cosmogenic burial age ranges. The correlation suggests that in the cave front, cosmogenic burial ages and the acquisition of stable remanent magnetization were not significantly affected by chemical and physical processes and that postburial production of cosmogenic isotopes was insignificant. In contrast, at the back of the cave, the paleomagnetic polarity sequence of R > N cannot be correlated with the cosmogenic burial ages, since the temporal gap between the initial penetration of the sediment into the cave and the final acquisition of a stable remanent magnetization may have been long (∼10 5 yr), and the single polarity transition can be correlated to any reverse-normal transition that occurred during the Quaternary. This highlights the need for caution when cosmogenic burial ages and paleomagnetic sequences are compared. The buried sediments in Wonderwerk Cave show similar grain-size distributions to the fine sand sediment presently exposed at the surface in the vicinity of the cave. Furthermore, calculated preburial 10 Be concentrations for the buried sediment are similar to those measured in sediment outside the cave. These similarities suggest that the environmental conditions and rates of geomorphic processes that persisted during sand deposition in Wonderwerk Cave during the late Pliocene and early Pleistocene may have been similar to those currently experienced in the southern Kalahari, the Kuruman Hills, and the western Ghaap Plain. These conditions favor the transport of fine-grained quartz sand to the vicinity of the cave.


The current generation of IoT devices is being used by clients and consumers to regulate resources (such as water and electricity) obtained from critical infrastructure (such as urban water services and smart grids), creating a new attack vector against critical infrastructure. In this research we show that smart irrigation systems, a new type of green technology and IoT device aimed at saving water and money, can be used by attackers as a means of attacking urban water services. We present a distributed attack model that can be used by an attacker to attack urban water services using a botnet of commercial smart irrigation systems. Then, we show how a bot running on a compromised device in a LAN can:(1) detect a connected commercial smart irrigation system (RainMachine, BlueSpray, and GreenIQ) within 15 minutes by analyzing LAN's behavior using a dedicated classification model, and (2) launch watering via a commercial smart irrigation system according to an attacker's wishes using spoofing and replay attacks. In addition, we model the damage that can be caused by performing such an attack and show that a standard water tower can be emptied in an hour using a botnet of 1,355 sprinklers and a flood water reservoir can be emptied overnight using a botnet of 23,866 sprinklers. Finally, we discuss countermeasure methods and hypothesize whether the next generation of plumbers will use Kali Linux instead of a monkey wrench.


Net ecosystem productivity (NEP), net primary productivity (NPP), and water vapour exchange of a mature Pinus ponderosa forest (44°30′ N, 121°37′ W) growing in a region subject to summer drought were investigated along with canopy assimilation and respiratory fluxes. This paper describes seasonal and annual variation in these factors, and the evaluation of two generalized models of carbon and water balance (PnET‐II and 3‐PG) with a combination of traditional measurements of NPP, respiration and water stress, and eddy covariance measurements of above‐and below‐canopy CO2 and water vapour exchange. The objective was to evaluate the models using two years of traditional and eddy covariance measurements, and to use the models to help interpret the relative importance of processes controlling carbon and water vapour exchange in a water‐limited pine ecosystem throughout the year. PnET‐II is a monthly time‐step model that is driven by nitrogen availability through foliar N concentration, and 3‐PG is a monthly time‐step quantum‐efficiency model constrained by extreme temperatures, drought, and vapour pressure deficits. Both models require few parameters and have the potential to be applied at the watershed to regional scale. There was 2/3 less rainfall in 1997 than in 1996, providing a challenge to modelling the water balance, and consequently the carbon balance, when driving the models with the two years of climate data, sequentially. Soil fertility was not a key factor in modelling processes at this site because other environmental factors limited photosynthesis and restricted projected leaf area index to ∼1.6. Seasonally, GEP and LE were overestimated in early summer and underestimated through the rest of the year. The model predictions of annual GEP, NEP and water vapour exchange were within 1–39% of flux measurements, with greater disparity in 1997 because soil water never fully recharged. The results suggest that generalized models can provide insights to constraints on productivity on an annual basis, using a minimum of site data.


CO2 capture from fossil fuel based electricity generation remains costly since new power plants with monoethanol amine (MEA) as the scrubbing agent are under construction. Amidoximes are known to mimic MEA, and porous polymers with amidoximes could offer a sustainable solution to carbon capture. Here we report the first amidoxime porous polymers (APPs) where aromatic polyamides (aramids) having amidoxime pendant groups were synthesized through low temperature condensation of 4,4′-oxydianiline (ODA) and p-phenylene diamine (p-PDA) with a new type of nitrile-bearing aromatic diacid chloride. The nitrile pendant groups of the polyamides were converted to an amidoxime functionality by a rapid hydroxylamine addition (APP-1 and APP-2). The CO2 adsorption capacities of these polyamides were measured at low pressure (1 bar) and two different temperatures (273 and 298 K) and high pressure (up to 225 bar – the highest measuring pressure to date) at 318 K. The low pressure CO2 uptake of APP-1 was found to be 0.32 mmol g−1 compared with APP-2 (0.07 mmol g−1) at 273 K, whereas at high pressure they showed a substantial increase in CO2 adsorption capacity exhibiting 24.69 and 11.67 mmol g−1 for APP-1 and APP-2 respectively. Both aramids were found to be solution processable, enabling membrane applications.


In the past few years, social research has been examining what contributes to the attitude–behaviour gap in people's responses to large-scale renewable energy technologies. The NIMBY explanation for the gap has long dominated that area of research, but has also been criticised. Alternative proposals to NIMBY were advanced, but it is still evident that some of those maintain presuppositions of NIMBY and that this area of research needs more integration, namely at a theoretical level. In this paper we argue that to overcome those aspects it is relevant, first, to situate the promotion of renewable energy production as a social change process in today's societies, and, second, to therefore consider the socio-psychological aspects involved in people's responses to social change. We discuss specifically how the Theory of Social Representations may help us with that and contribute to a better understanding of people's responses to renewable energy technologies.


The addition of storage technologies such as flow batteries, conventional batteries, and heat storage can improve the economic, as well as environmental attraction of micro-generation systems (e.g., PV or fuel cells with or without CHP) and contribute to enhanced demand response. The interactions among PV, solar thermal, and storage systems can be complex, depending on the tariff structure, load profile, etc. In order to examine the impact of storage technologies on demand response and CO2 emissions, a microgrid's distributed energy resources (DER) adoption problem is formulated as a mixed-integer linear program that can pursue two strategies as its objective function. These two strategies are minimization of its annual energy costs or of its CO2 emissions. The problem is solved for a given test year at representative customer sites, e.g., nursing homes, to obtain not only the optimal investment portfolio, but also the optimal hourly operating schedules for the selected technologies. This paper focuses on analysis of storage technologies in micro-generation optimization on a building level, with example applications in New York State and California. It shows results from a two-year research project performed for the U.S. Department of Energy and ongoing work. Contrary to established expectations, our results indicate that PV and electric storage adoption compete rather than supplement each other considering the tariff structure and costs of electricity supply. The work shows that high electricity tariffs during on-peak hours are a significant driver for the adoption of electric storage technologies. To satisfy the site's objective of minimizing energy costs, the batteries have to be charged by grid power during off-peak hours instead of PV during on-peak hours. In contrast, we also show a CO2 minimization strategy where the common assumption that batteries can be charged by PV can be fulfilled at extraordinarily high energy costs for the site.


There is evidence that testosterone and cortisol levels are related to the attraction of a romantic partner; testosterone levels relate to a wide range of sexual behaviors and cortisol is a crucial component in the response to stress. To investigate this, we conducted a speed-dating study among heterosexual singles. We measured salivary testosterone and cortisol changes in men and women (n = 79) when they participated in a romantic condition (meeting opposite-sex others, i.e., potential romantic partners), as well as a control condition (meeting same-sex others, i.e., potential friends). Over the course of the romantic speed-dating event, results showed that women's but not men's testosterone levels increased and cortisol levels decreased for both men and women. These findings indicate that men's testosterone and cortisol levels were elevated in anticipation of the event, whereas for women, this appears to only be the case for cortisol. Concerning the relationship between attraction and hormonal change, four important findings can be distinguished. First, men were more popular when they arrived at the romantic speed-dating event with elevated cortisol levels. Second, in both men and women, a larger change in cortisol levels during romantic speed-dating was related to more selectivity. Third, testosterone alone was unrelated to any romantic speed-dating outcome (selectivity or popularity). However, fourth, women who arrived at the romantic speed-dating event with higher testosterone levels were more selective when their anticipatory cortisol response was low. Overall, our findings suggest that changes in the hormone cortisol may be stronger associated with the attraction of a romantic partner than testosterone is.


OBJECTIVE
The purpose of our study was to compare the ability of MR spectroscopy with that of standard presurgical methods to accurately lateralize the abnormal hippocampus in a group of patients with complex partial seizures.

SUBJECTS AND METHODS
Ten healthy volunteers (five male, five female) without a history of seizures, significant head trauma, or other neurologic abnormalities were chosen to participate in the study. Twelve consecutive patients (three male, nine female) having intractable temporal lobe epilepsy and undergoing presurgical evaluation for temporal lobectomy were chosen to participate in the study. The condition of all patients was refractory to medications. All patients underwent presurgical examination with interictal and video ictal electroencephalography, ictal single-photon emission computed tomography, interictal positron emission tomography, MR imaging, and neuropsychologic testing. When noninvasive data were inconclusive, depth or grid recordings were performed. The results of MR spectroscopy were also compared with postsurgical seizure control as defined by the Engel classification.

RESULTS
Nine (90%) of 10 control subjects showed no significant difference in N-acetyl aspartate. One control subject showed 16% asymmetry in N-acetyl aspartate between sides. The control group showed no statistically significant differences in ratios of N-acetyl aspartate:creatine, N-acetyl aspartate:choline, or creatine:choline when comparing sides (p < .05). All 12 patients showed clearly lateralizing values identified by the index of asymmetry in N-acetyl aspartate (range, 24-93%), with a mean difference of 51% (SD, 22) (p = .01). Additionally, as a group, statistically significant indexes of asymmetry (p = .01) were seen in ratios of N-acetyl aspartate:choline (mean, 42; SD, 22%), N-acetyl aspartate:creatine (mean, 41; SD, 27), and N-acetyl aspartate:creatine + choline (mean, 42; SD, 22). Using an N-acetyl aspartate index of asymmetry of greater than 15%, which represents the mean index of asymmetry of the control subjects +/- two SDs, as our cutoff level for lateralization, the correct side was identified in all patients. When comparing both hippocampi using an asymmetry index of 15% for N-acetyl aspartate:choline + creatine, 11 (92%) of 12 were correctly lateralized. When comparing the unaffected temporal lobes between patients and control subjects, no statistically significant differences were detected in any metabolites or ratios.

CONCLUSION
Our study agrees with others in showing decreased N-acetyl aspartate in the hippocampus of seizure patients when compared with control subjects. Using N-acetyl aspartate, N-acetyl aspartate:creatine, N-acetyl aspartate:choline, and N-acetyl aspartate:creatine + choline as our parameters, patients with mesial temporal lobe epilepsy were correctly lateralized with MR spectroscopy when compared with clinical consensus criteria. We consider MR spectroscopy to be complementary to MR imaging. Both studies can be performed as a single integrated examination.


ABSTRACT Loneliness concerns the subjective evaluation that the number of relationships is smaller than the individual considers desirable or that the intimacy that the individual wishes for has not been realized. The aim of this study was to assess variations in levels of late-life loneliness and its determinants across Europe. Data came from the SHARE surveys, Wave 2 (Börsch-Supan et al., 2008), encompassing adults aged 50 years and over in Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland (N = 12,248). Loneliness was measured by a single item derived from the CES-D (depression) scale. Using logistic models, the present authors tested several types of explanations for country differences: differences in demographic characteristics, wealth and health, and social networks. Older adults in the southern and central European countries were generally lonelier than their peers in the northern and western European countries. In the southern and central European countries, loneliness was largely attributable to not being married, economic deprivation, and poor health. Frequent contacts with parents and adult children, social participation, and providing support to family members were important in preventing and alleviating loneliness in almost all countries. To combat loneliness among older adults, the findings suggest both (a) generic approaches aimed at improving social embeddedness and (b) country-tailored approaches aimed at improving health and wealth.


This chapter deals with an area that has come into its own in research on second language (L2) learning, namely,
that of language learner strategies, and, in this specific case, the application of strategies to the learning and performance
of L2 pragmatics. Consistent with the theme of this volume, the underlying concern is with the potentially important role of
strategies in heightening learners' ability to make informed choices with regard to how they handle intercultural situations.
The focus is on assisting learners in developing a more robust repertoire of strategies for their handling of pragmatics within intercultural communication. The aim is to support learners in building a toolkit of common pragmatic options that can be used as they co-construct communication in a variety of intercultural interactions. To begin addressing these issues, a strategic approach to L2 pragmatics was included in the underpinnings of two online spaces – a website and an online virtual space, both intended for the learning of pragmatic behavior appropriate in a variety of Spanish-speaking contexts. A taxonomy of strategies for learning and performing L2 pragmatics was applied to the construction of a website, Dancing with Words, aimed at learning the pragmatics appropriate for Spanish-speaking world, with strategy material integrated into the website. Research was conducted by means of two studies, involving both this Spanish pragmatics website and a synthetic immersive environment (SIE), Croquelandia, which was designed as a 3-D immersive space for the learning of pragmatic behaviors in Spanish. Results showed some reported differences in strategy use in the two different kinds of digital environments, with the finding of most relevance to the notion of intercultural education discussed in this volume being that in the SIE learners reported an increased use of metapragmatic strategies for dealing with L2 pragmatics. This finding highlighted the role of strategies in making informed choices about pragmatics.


The 24 extant crocodylian species are the remnants of a once much more diverse and widespread clade. Crocodylomorpha has an approximately 230 million year evolutionary history, punctuated by a series of radiations and extinctions. However, the group's fossil record is biased. Previous studies have reconstructed temporal patterns in subsampled crocodylomorph palaeobiodiversity, but have not explicitly examined variation in spatial sampling, nor the quality of this record. We compiled a dataset of all taxonomically diagnosable non‐marine crocodylomorph species (393). Based on the number of phylogenetic characters that can be scored for all published fossils of each species, we calculated a completeness value for each taxon. Mean average species completeness (56%) is largely consistent within subgroups and for different body size classes, suggesting no significant biases across the crocodylomorph tree. In general, average completeness values are highest in the Mesozoic, with an overall trend of decreasing completeness through time. Many extant taxa are identified in the fossil record from very incomplete remains, but this might be because their provenance closely matches the species' present‐day distribution, rather than through autapomorphies. Our understanding of nearly all crocodylomorph macroevolutionary 'events' is essentially driven by regional patterns, with no global sampling signal. Palaeotropical sampling is especially poor for most of the group's history. Spatiotemporal sampling bias impedes our understanding of several Mesozoic radiations, whereas molecular divergence times for Crocodylia are generally in close agreement with the fossil record. However, the latter might merely be fortuitous, i.e. divergences happened to occur during our ephemeral spatiotemporal sampling windows.


Summary 1. Increased need for water and projected declines in precipitation due to climate change could leave waterways increasingly dominated by wastewater effluent. Understanding how components of wastewater influence fish populations is necessary for effective conservation and management. Despite research demonstrating effects of oestrogens, such as 17a-ethynylestradiol (EE2), on fish physiology and population failure, the generality of population responses is uncertain and the underlying mechanisms affecting population declines are unknown. EE2 is the steroid oestrogen in human contraceptive pills and has been measured up to 11 ng L 1 in the environment. 2. We identify disrupted population dynamics due to direct and transgenerational effects on survival and fecundity. We conducted a year-long study on three generations of fathead minnows Pimephales promelas Rafinesque in aquatic mesocosms and laboratory aquaria. We added environmentally relevant concentrations of EE2 daily using a static renewal, which approximates a pulsed exposure that fish experience in natural systems. 3. EE2 (3 2n g L 1 ) reduced F0 male survival to 17% (48% lower than controls) and juvenile production by 40% compared to controls. F1 fish continuously exposed to EE2 failed to reproduce, and reproduction of the F1 transferred to clean water was 70–99% less than controls. 4. F2 larval survival, exposed only as germ cells in their parents, was reduced by 51–97% compared to controls. The indirect effect on F2 survival suggests the possibility of transgenerational effects of EE2. 5. Synthesis and applications. Our results suggest that fish populations exposed to environmentally relevant 17a-ethynylestradiol (EE2) concentrations may not recover from exposure. Management of short-lived highly fecund fishes should be prioritized to protect fish from the embryo through gonadal differentiation. Reducing effluent will not be possible in many situations; hence, conservation of breeding and rearing habitat in unpolluted tributaries or reaches is needed. Additionally, resource managers could enhance habitat connectivity in rivers to facilitate immigration. Finally, investment in advanced wastewater processing technology should improve removal of bioactive chemicals such as EE2. Our results provide a baseline for regulatory agencies to consider when assessing the ecological effects of environmental oestrogens, and our approach to evaluating population-level effects could be widely applied to other contaminants.


Actuarial recidivism risk assessments—statistical predictions of the likelihood of future criminal behavior—drive a number of core criminal justice decisions, including where to police, whom to release on bail, and how to manage correctional institutions. Recently, this predictive approach to criminal justice entered a new arena: sentencing. Actuarial sentencing has quickly gained a number of prominent supporters and is being implemented across the country. This enthusiasm is understandable. Its proponents promise that actuarial data will refine sentencing decisions, increase rehabilitation, and reduce reliance on incarceration. Yet, in the rush to embrace actuarial sentencing, scholars and policy makers have overlooked a crucial point: actuarial risk assessment tools are not intended for use at sentencing. In fact, their creators explicitly warn that these tools were not designed to aid decisions about the length of a sentence or whether to incarcerate someone. Nevertheless, that is precisely how those who endorse actuarial sentencing—including the American Law Institute in the recently revised Model Penal Code for Sentencing—suggest they should be used. Actuarial sentencing is, in short, an unintended, "off-label" application of actuarial risk information. This Article reexamines the promises of actuarial sentencing in light of this observation and argues that it may cause a number of equally unintended and detrimental consequences. Specifically, it contends that this practice distorts, rather than refines, sentencing decisions. Moreover, it may increase reliance on incarceration— and it may do so for reasons that undermine the fairness and integrity of the criminal justice system.


Author(s): Taha, Haider | Abstract: This report investigates the air pollution reduction benefits associated with mitigating urban heat islands in three U.S. cities. The effects of these measures in Salt Lake City, Baton Rouge, and Sacramento were evaluated through mesoscale meteorological and air quality modeling. The simulations indicate that for these three U.S. cities, adopting heat island reduction measures can result in various meteorological and air quality changes. The meteorological simulations suggest that each of the three pilot cities benefits from reduced ambient air temperatures. Decreases typically range from 1 to 2K (1.8 - 3.6?F) over modified areas. In Salt Lake City, reductions in ambient air temperatures reach up to 2K (3.6?F) at 1600 LST. The city achieves reductions in ozone concentrations of up to 3 or 4 ppb, the equivalent of about 3.5% if it were compared to an urban peak of 95 ppb. In Baton Rouge, reductions in ambient air temperatures of 0.75K (1.4?F) are possible and ozone ! reductions reach up to 4 or 5 ppb, the equivalent of about 4% if compared to an urban peak of 113 ppb. Finally, Sacramento enjoys reductions of 1.2K (2.2?F) as a result of heat island mitigation measures. Although these temperature reductions are not as large as those experienced in Salt Lake City, for example, their impacts on ozone are relatively larger, with reductions of up to 10 ppb from peak ozone concentrations (about 7% of the peak of 139 ppb). Sacramento enjoys larger reductions in ozone as a result of its larger geographical area. The modeling work shows that each of the three regions discussed in this report can benefit from implementing heat island mitigation measures. Clearly, the extent to which urban areas can effectively improve local air quality through heat island mitigation depends on numerous factors. These include meteorology and climate, geography, scale, topography, basin morphology, proximity to water bodies, land-use patterns, precursor emission rates and mix, baseline albedo and vegetative fraction distributions, and potential for modification (increase in albedo and vegetative fraction). Based on our modeling efforts, we found that the larger the modified area, the larger the impacts on meteorology and air quality.


The purpose of this research was to assist in determining the potential impacts of implementing a proposed 65 mph speed limit on non-freeways in Michigan. Consideration was given to a broad range of performance measures, including operating speeds, traffic crashes and crash severity, infrastructure costs, fuel consumption, and travel times. Specifically, a prioritization strategy was developed to identify candidate Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) non-freeway road segments possessing lower safety risks and potential infrastructure costs associated with raising the speed limit from 55 to 65 mph. Ultimately, approximately 747 miles of undivided and 26 miles of divided 55 mph non-freeways were identified as lower risk candidates, representing approximately one-eighth of the MDOT systemwide mileage posted at 55 mph. An economic analysis of the anticipated costs and benefits associated with the proposed speed limit increase was performed for these lower risk candidate segments, in addition to a systemwide estimate. As the travel time savings were expected to outweigh the fuel consumption costs, it was necessary to determine if these net operational benefits outweighed the expected infrastructure upgrade costs and increased crash costs. For roadways possessing horizontal and/or vertical alignments that are not compliant with a 65 mph speed limit, an unfavorable benefit/cost ratio would likely result due to the excessive infrastructure costs incurred during 3R (resurfacing, restoration, rehabilitation) or 4R (reconstruction) projects. Crashes were expected to increase for all implementation scenarios, with a particular increase in the risk of fatal and incapacitating injuries. Due to the substantially large infrastructure costs, application of the 65 mph speed limit is specifically not recommended for non-freeway segments requiring horizontal or vertical realignment to achieve design speed compliance. Even for segments where compliance with the increased design speed is maintained, careful consideration must be given to the potential safety impacts – particularly to fatal and injury crashes – that may result after increasing the speed limit


The literature on methods for educating students with special needs, including disabilities, from culturally diverse backgrounds is reviewed. The paper addresses what cultural diversity is, changing demographics in the United States, special education issues, assessment recommendations, parental involvement, and teacher commitment and training. Discussion of teaching methods looks at the relationship of culture to learning, selection of teaching materials, adaptation of teaching materials, integrated curriculum, cooperative learning, active learning, whole language, and behavior management. (Contains 15 references.) (DB) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** Multicultural Education 1 Running head: MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION Educating Students with Special Needs from Culturally Diverse Backgrounds


In a wild-type strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, a hotspot for meiotic recombination is located upstream of the HIS4 gene. An insertion of a 49-bp telomeric sequence into the coding region of HIS4 strongly stimulates meiotic recombination and the local formation of meiosis-specific double-strand DNA breaks (DSBs). When strains are constructed in which both hotspots are heterozygous, hotspot activity is substantially less when the hotspots are on the same chromosome than when they are on opposite chromosomes.


This report presents and discusses the findings of the SemTech (Semantic Technologies for Learning and Teaching) project that was funded by JISC and commenced its activities in September 2008. SemTech addressed the following questions: • What are semantic technologies? • Which tools that make use of semantic technologies are, or could be, relevant to education? • What is the actual use of semantic tools and services in UK HE and FE? • What is the value of such tools in the context of learning, teaching and support? • How do we envisage the adoption of semantic tools in higher education in the future? Although a definition of semantic technologies was not in the scope of the project it was considered necessary for the survey of semantic tools and services and their adoption. SemTech distinguishes between (i) soft semantic technologies like topic maps and Web 2.0 applications, which provide lightweight knowledge modelling in formats understood by humans and (ii) hard semantic technologies like RDF, which provide knowledge modelling in formats processable by computers. The outcomes of an extensive survey of semantic technologies relevant to learning and teaching are documented online (http://semtech-survey.ecs.soton.ac.uk). A total of thirty-six relevant tools and services have been identified by SemTech and the community at the moment of writing. Most of the surveyed tools were not purpose-built for education and they find value in semantic technologies for well-formed metadata or data interoperability and integration. The surveyed tools can be classified to (i) collaborative authoring and annotation, (ii) searching and matching, (iii) repositories, VLEs and authoring tools or (iv) infrastructural technologies for linked data and semantic enrichment. The existing use and uptake of related tools and services by UK HE institutions was investigated and has been documented online (http://wiki.semtech.ecs.soton.ac.uk/). Repositories that are widely adopted in UK HE provide well-formed metadata using semantic technologies. A potential transition from soft semantic modelling in institutional wikis to hard semantic technologies could be implemented given the wide adoption of wikis and recent examples of wikipedia.org and dbpedia.org. Repositories and collaboration ware in HE could enable advanced searching and matching in line with HE requirements identified in this report. Analysis of the findings of this report suggests that building a field of linked open data across UK HE/FE institutions by selectively and securely exposing repositories and institutional data (often data that can be found on institutions' web pages) can provide significant value and pave the way for pedagogically meaningful applications powered by application-wide or community-wide agreed ontologies in the future. Encouraging institutions to use linked open data technologies and to document successful adoption of semantic technologies is considered of critical importance in this report. HE/FE challenges can be addressed by efficiently linking information across institutions. SemTech engaged with the JISC CETIS Semantic Technology Working Group and the UK HE community for this report including a workshop in January 2009 during which use cases of semantic technologies were constructed from both an educational and an institutional perspective.


Liquid sprays of water are frequently used in air pollution control for gas cooling purposes and for gas cleaning. Twin-fluid nozzles with internal mixing are often used for these purposes because of the small size of the drops produced. In these nozzles the liquid is dispersed by compressed air or another pressurized gas. In high efficiency scrubbers for particle separation, several nozzles are operated in parallel because of the size of the cross section. In such scrubbers, the scrubbing water has to be re-circulated. Precipitation of some solid material can occur in the liquid circuit, caused by chemical reactions. When such precipitations are detached from the place of formation, they can partly or totally block the liquid flow to a nozzle. Due to the resulting unbalanced supply of the nozzles with water and gas, the efficiency of separation decreases. Thus, the nozzles have to be cleaned if a certain fraction of blockages is reached. The aim of this study was to provide a tool for continuously monitoring the status of the nozzles of a scrubber based on the available operation data (water flow, air flow, water pressure and air pressure). The difference between the air pressure and the water pressure is not well suited for this purpose, because the difference is quite small and therefore very exact calibration of the pressure measurement would be required. Therefore, an equation for the reference air flow of a nozzle at the actual water flow and operation pressure was derived. This flow can be compared with the actual air flow for assessment of the status of the nozzles.


The paper explores the notion of 'dirty work' in relation to the newly created role of the Approved Mental Health Professional (AMHP). An AMHP undertakes various duties set out in the 1983 Mental Health Act, as amended by the 2007 Act, in relation to assessments to make applications for compulsory admission to psychiatric hospital. It has been argued that undertaking this social control function is 'dirty work'. However, the findings from a study of social work AMHPs in England suggest that the picture is more complex. Extracts from narrative interviews are analysed using dialogical narrative analysis. Rather than being designated as dirty work, AMHP duty was presented as prestigious and as advanced social work. However, through their storytelling, the social workers clearly delineated the aspects of AMHP work that they did designate as dirty, specifically the lack of beds, the complexities of co-ordination and the emotional labour which is an inherent part of the work.


The retirement fund industry has seen a number of scandals both locally and internationally recently. These have left the trustees, the custodians of the large sums of monies in retirement funds, exposed to lawsuits. This is so because the fund members and retirees blame these trustees for negligence and lack of foresight in putting in place prudential standards by which their monies should be managed. These prudential standards are encompassed in corporate governance, as we will appreciate. Retirement fund governance is a subset of corporate governance; it is the mirror image of the corporate governance of a company, which consists of a set of relationships between company's management, board, shareholders and other stakeholders. The same principles that apply to business assets in general also apply to the management of pension assets. This study set out to ascertain whether or not retirement funds in South Africa do comply with the governance guidelines as set by the Financial Services Board (FSB). I selected a sample of 300 fund trustees but excluded the principal officers and tried to select an equal number from employee elected and employer appointed, a balance that proved to be extremely difficult to strike. The sample was randomly drawn using my colleagues for referrals as well as just calling a company asking for a principal officer who would refer me to the trustees. (I received a great deal of cooperation from the principal officers to this end). The participants represent a wide spectrum of industry sectors. They represent manufacturing, auto and motor industry, local government and a few from the financial services industry. I used a 23-question questionnaire conducting interviews both telephonically and face-to-face interactions as well mail. I managed to receive 87 responses from face-to-face interactions locally (Port Elizabeth), 67 responses from the mail and 60 from telephone interviews. I used a software program called statistica 6.1 to analyze my data and produce the frequency tables and graphs.


The European social model has always been characterized by the active role played in the production of goods and services by a variety of organizations that differ both from private corporations and public institutions. These are private organizations that, while active on the market, typically pursue goals other than profit: their main purpose is not to generate financial gains for their owners or stakeholders but to provide goods and services either to their members or to the community at large. Traditionally, these organizations have been included in the concept of "social economy". This paper describes the role of social enterprises and social cooperatives as a type of economic, non-profit organization that is assuming an increasingly central role in Europe (as shown for example by the Social Business Initiative, recently launched by the European Commission), by contributing to its economic and social growth. More generally, the paper intends to reflect on the economic and social impacts of social enterprises and social cooperatives in local economies, while some final remarks conclude by identifying some lessons supplied by Italian social cooperatives on a broader scale.


This essay is a homage to F. Ferracuti, who first studied in a systematic way the problem of migrant criminality in Europe. Since the times in which Ferracuti wrote (1970), many changes occurred in the context of migrations, also in the nexus with criminality. According to the authors' opinion, today we must keep in mind one variable concerning the criminality of migrants: the organisation of criminal groups trafficking in migrants. The hypothesis this work puts forward is that a part of the crimes committed by aliens (mostly clandestine) is closely linked to the trafficking operations and to the exploitation of criminal organisations, which devote themselves to illegal migration. Furthermore, the probability that trafficked people are pushed into parallel criminal circuits in the destination countries (such as prostitution, drug dealing, robbery, begging, black labour) increases with the better organisation of trafficking groups. A new key for reading the relation between migration and criminality must combine the classical theories with a new method which considers migrant criminality as influenced by the involvement of criminal organisations in migrant trafficking activities. In order to better understand the work hypothesis, the essay tries to explain the chain linking migrations to criminality through its rings: traffic-exploitation-induced criminality. Particular focus is given to the Italian situation.


A Management Plan is a document which sets out the management approach and goals, together with a framework for decision making, to apply in a specific protected area over a given period of time. Critical to the plan is the widest possible consultation with stakeholders and the development of objectives that can be agreed and adhered to by all who have an interest in the use and ongoing survival of the area concerned. These Guidelines, based on global best practice drawn from many areas around the world, represent a working framework for protected area planners to consider and adapt to their needs and circumstances.


The South-Slavic-Albanian area, even three years after the signing of the Dayton agreement, is characterised by a multitude of order policy and ethnic conflicts and is, therefore, together with Russia and the Caucasus, also for the future among the most unstable regions of Europe. The conflict factors to be found in this area do not only make the political and economic consolidation of the whole south-eastern European area more difficult and prevent the initiation of economic integration processes in the Balkans but also show danger potentials for the stability of Central and Eastern Europe. Especially the escalation of the Kosovo conflict which led to the NATO military attacks against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in the spring of 1999 represents the thus far biggest security policy challenge for a coalescing Europe. In the following, first a short overview of the most important conflict zones in the South-SlavicAlbanian area shall be provided. Subsequently, the regional effects of these conflict potentials on the neighbouring states will be presented. Then, in a third step, the effects of the Balkan conflicts on all of Europe will be analysed.


Abstract. Remote sensing of water colour by ship-mounted sensors represents an important tool for the validation of satellite products and the monitoring of water quality. The recorded radiance from the sea has to be corrected for the surface-reflected radiance from sun and sky in order to obtain the water-leaving radiance. Here the simple case of radiance reflected towards the zenith is studied. A set of observed sky radiance and solar irradiance data from Oslo has been used together with a Gaussian slope distribution for the sea surface in order to estimate the reflected radiance. The spectral range studied is 405–650 nm, the solar zenith angles are in the range 37°–76°, and the wind speeds are up to 10 m s−1. The analysis of the results show that the reflected radiance has to be separated into three contributions: sky radiance and sun rays reflected at the foam-free surface and irradiance reflected by whitecaps and foam. It is then demonstrated that by using four input values, namely the downward irradiance, the sky radiance from the zenith, the solar zenith angle and the wind speed, it is possible to obtain by simple expressions estimates of the reflected radiance that only differ from the former calculated values by relative errors of less than 5%. The analysis also indicates that for the spectral range studied neither the water-leaving radiance nor the surface-reflected radiance can be disregarded relative to the other one in the Case 2 waters of the Oslofjord-Skagerrak area. The results form a first step towards the study of reflected radiance in viewing angles differing from the nadir direction.


We propose a new randomized optimization method for high-dimensional problems which can be seen as a generalization of coordinate descent to random subspaces. We show that an adaptive sampling strategy for the random subspace significantly outperforms the oblivious sampling method, which is the common choice in the recent literature. The adaptive subspace can be efficiently generated by a correlated random matrix ensemble whose statistics mimic the input data. We prove that the improvement in the relative error of the solution can be tightly characterized in terms of the spectrum of the data matrix, and provide probabilistic upper-bounds. We then illustrate the consequences of our theory with data matrices of different spectral decay. Extensive experimental results show that the proposed approach offers significant speed ups in machine learning problems including logistic regression, kernel classification with random convolution layers and shallow neural networks with rectified linear units. Our analysis is based on convex analysis and Fenchel duality, and establishes connections to sketching and randomized matrix decomposition.


The term "governance" refers to interactive forms of political steering, characterized by the coordination of a wide spectrum of actors in pursuit of common goals (e.g., Rhodes, 1996; Pierre & Peters, 2000, 2005; Kooiman, 2003; Torfing, Peters, Pierre, & Sörensen, 2013; Ansell & Torfing 2016). Governance processes involve multiple actors and institutions into cooperative relationships and network structures. The corresponding steering mechanisms may range from hierarchical rule to mere persuasion.
 The governance perspective appeared particularly suited to analyze political steering in the European Union (EU). The Union is not sovereign; it therefore developed steering mechanisms that do not (or only partly) rely on formal competences and hierarchical rule. The evolving system of European governance constituted the EU as a multilevel polity, held together by interlocking relationships of policy coordination and cooperation (Marks et al., 1996; Hooghe & Marks, 2001; Piattoni, 2010).
 Scholarly reflection on EU governance evolved comparatively late during the 1990s (Hix, 1998); it proliferated after the turn of the century, when the European Union introduced the so-called Open Method of Coordination (OMC) (Kohler-Koch & Rittberger, 2006). Later, the perspective widened to the whole spectrum of governance modes and its innovative forms (e.g., Sabel & Zeitlin, 2008, 2010a; Tömmel & Verdun, 2009a, Héritier & Rhodes, 2011). Yet salient issues remained under-researched, particularly the power dimension of EU governance (Torfing et al., 2013, pp. 48–70).


The legalization of gay marriage has become a contentious issue in the United States, especially for individual state governments. The variation between gay marriage policies in US states ranges from complete ban of all partnership benefits to complete marriage equality for homosexual couples. This study seeks to explain this variation by looking at the possible mechanical factors that could affect state gay marriage policies. Specifically, this study looks at the influence the presence or lack of the citizens' initiative process has on the gay marriage movement. The sample is seven states that have previously or currently legalized gay marriage through at least one branch of the state government. The results show that a correlation does exist between the citizens' initiative process and the repeal or retention of state gay marriage laws. A state in which citizens' do not have access to the citizens' initiative will be more likely to retain gay marriage laws than a state where the initiative process is allowed.


Author(s): Larsen, P; Kristina S. H., Kristina SH; Eto, Joseph; Sanstad, Alan | Abstract: The costs to electric utility customers from short-term, limited geographic-scale power disruptions have been studied for many years. However, there is increasing interest among regulators, policy-makers, and utilities in developing and implementing methods for analyzing interruptions that are of longer duration (days, weeks, or longer) and of a larger geographic scope (entire metropolitan areas or regions which may extend across multiple service territories). A 2017 report from the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine indicated the importance of "develop[ing] comprehensive studies to assess the value to customers of improved reliability and resilience…during large-area, long-duration blackouts." As a contribution toward fulfilling this recommendation, the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Electricity's Transmission Permitting and Technical Assistance Division, in partnership with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), convened a workshop to identify research needs and discuss potential avenues for methodological advances in the economics of widespread, long-duration power interruptions. The workshop was organized around six key themes in the economics of widespread, long-duration interruptions. LBNL conducted a competitive solicitation for white papers on these themes, and the authors selected were leading experts in academia, industry, and the non-profit sector. They were tasked with assessing the state of knowledge on particular topics, and identifying research needs and promising directions to expand it. These topics included definitions of resilience and reliability; regional economic modeling approaches; uncertainty quantification; data challenges and opportunities; contingent valuation survey techniques; and reduced-form analytical tools for assessing the impacts of power interruptions of this scale. The authors of the six white papers presented their findings at the workshop, titled "Frontiers in the Economics of Widespread, Long-Duration Power Interruptions," and held in Washington, D.C., on March 6, 2018. Each paper was the subject of its own session, with the presentations followed by comments by assigned discussants, and in turn a general discussion of the papers, their findings, and the issues they raised. In addition to the authors, discussants, and LBNL and DOE staff, the workshop participants comprised government, industry, and academic thought leaders from across the country.


The synchronization problem for a class of delayed complex dynamical networks via employing variable structure control has been explored and a solution proposed. The synchronization controller guarantees the state of the dynamical network is globally asymptotically synchronized to arbitrary state. The switching surface has been designed via the left eigenvector function of the system, and assures the synchronization sliding mode possesses stability. The hitting condition and the adaptive law for estimating the unknown network parameters have been used for designing the controller hence the network state hits the switching manifold in finite time. Two illustrative examples along with the respective simulation results are given, which employ the designed variable structure controllers.Copyright © 2014 by ASME


Neurodegenerative diseases are a group of largely incurable disorders characterised by the progressive loss of neurons and for which often the molecular mechanisms are poorly understood. To bridge this gap, researchers employ a range of techniques. A very prominent and useful technique adopted across many different fields is imaging and the analysis of histopathological and fluorescent label tissue samples. Although image acquisition has been efficiently automated recently, automated analysis still presents a bottleneck. Although various methods have been developed to automate this task, they tend to make use of single-purpose machine learning models that require extensive training, imposing a significant workload on the experts and introducing variability in the analysis. Moreover, these methods are impractical to audit and adapt, as their internal parameters are difficult to interpret and change. Here, we present a novel unsupervised automated schema for object segmentation of images, exemplified on a dataset of tissue images. Our schema does not require training data, can be fully audited and is based on a series of understandable biological decisions. In order to evaluate and validate our schema, we compared it with a state-of-the-art automated segmentation method for post-mortem tissues of ALS patients.


Pantothenate kinase-associated neurodegeneration (PKAN) is an autosomal recessive disorder caused by mutations in the mitochondrial enzyme pantothenate kinase 2 (PANK2). In this issue of Brain Brunetti et al. (2014) report the use of a ketogenic diet in a mouse knock-out of PANK2 to more accurately model the human disease and further show that feeding with pantethine may be a possible treatment strategy for PKAN in humans.

The history of our understanding of PKAN is fascinating, but has grim beginnings. In 1922, Julius Hallervorden and Hugo Spatz, two eminent neuropathologists, described the clinical condition that subsequently bore their name, as well as the neuropathological hallmark of PKAN: iron deposition in the globus pallidus and substantia nigra (zona reticularis). However, in the following years both actively participated in Nazi euthanasia programmes while working at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Brain Research (Zeidman and Pandey, 2012). Although these shameful activities were reported shortly after the end of World War II the medical community was not widely aware of them until 1992, when concerted attempts were made to replace the eponym Hallervorden-Spatz syndrome with a more suitable and respectful alternative (Shevell, 2012).

More recent work on PKAN has been elegant and impressive, particularly studies from the laboratory of Susan Hayflick, where the gene was located to chromosome 20p (Taylor et al. , 1996) and the term 'neurodegeneration with brain iron accumulation type 1' (NBIA1) was proposed. When mutations were identified in PANK2 the term PKAN was suggested instead (Zhou et al. , 2001) and this was quickly followed by comprehensive paper delineating the clinical, radiological and imaging findings in a series of genetically characterized patients (Hayflick et al. , 2003). PKAN turns out to be one of a family of NBIAs and has led to an emergence of studies aimed at elucidating the …


The objective of this research is to study the prediction method of hurricane waves around this island, especially in the Taiwan Strait. The paper describes the prediction of hurricane waves used by Bretchneider's (1976) Method and finds out the predicted waves are different from measured waves, therefore the Bretchneider predicted model is modified by the authors and then the modified model is applied to predict waves again. It is found out that predicted waves match well with the measured waves. The results of the modified Bretchneider model are compared with those of the Ijima tracing method and find out the former is better than the latter. The second part is to apply the modified model to predict the extreme value of wave heights and compute the worse hurricane wave condition of the surrounding sea area around island, within recent score year (1959-1978). The calculated sites are Chu-Wei, Nan-Liaw, Ta-Shih, Cheng-Kung, Pu-Tai, Tung-Kang, Nan-Wan as shown in Fig.1 and Shiau Liu- Chieu totally 8 stations. Then use the Gumbel Distribution TYPE 1 to predict the extreme wave height of each returned period.


The Comprehensive Assessment conducted by the European Central Bank (ECB) represents a considerable step forward in enhancing transparency in euro-area banks' balance sheets. The most notable progress since the previous European stress test has been the harmonisation of the definition of non-performing loans and other concepts as well as uncovering hidden losses, which resulted in a €34 billion aggregate capital-charge net of taxes. Despite this tightening, most banks were able to meet the 5.5% common equity tier 1 (CET1) threshold applied in the test, which suggests that the large majority of the euro-area banks have improved their financial position sufficiently that they should no longer be constrained in financing the economy. As shown in this CEPS Policy Brief by Willem Pieter de Groen, however, the detailed results provide a more nuanced picture: there remain a large number of the banks in the euro area that are still highly leveraged and in many cases unable to meet the regulatory capital requirements that will be introduced in the coming years under the adverse stress test scenario.


Education, in the form of technical and vocational training, helps to develop sound individual progress in scientific and
technological areas, and requires extensive technical competence and professional skills in addition to specific functional
capabilities. Therefore, the education system requires technical and vocational training in order to develop the knowledge
and skills that will help the workforce to become more flexible and responsive to the needs of the local labour market,
enhancing the possibility of competing in the global economy. Within the Libyan context, there is a need for centres of
technical and vocational education and training to reform their professional education programmes, and to seek to
integrate theoretical education with training appropriate for the labour market. There is also an urgent need for the
system of technical and vocational education and training in Libya to open up opportunities by providing comprehensive
education and training for all, including marginalized people. Such opportunities would enable Libyan citizens across civil
society, including inhabitants of villages, to equip themselves with the necessities for a decent and productive life, and are
vital for the prosperity and welfare of the Libyan community as a whole.


The Journal of Emergency and Critical Care Medicine launched a new column under the name pros and cons. The aim of the column is to provide a platform for controversial issues in the management of critically ill patients. Some novel ideas and insights can be discovered through the process of discussing and debating.


era of grid computing, resource allocation plays a vital role for assigning the available resources. This paper describes how to reduce the search time for the best available resources and assure instant provisioning of the lately added resources to the grid thereby using clustering and artificial neural networks. The efficacy is achieved through K-Means clustering algorithm which is used to cluster the similar type of resources on the basis of their configuration as high, medium or low thereby decreasing the search time by searching only into the cluster of high availability instead of searching for the best from all of the available resources. Thereafter artificial neural network trained with feed forward propagation is deployed to automatically assign the newly added resources to appropriate cluster. This approach significantly reduces the computational time of resource allocation.


In the conspicuously geographical debate between 'North' and 'South' urbanism, settler colonial cities remain displaced. They are located in the 'North' but embody 'South‐like' colonial dynamics and are hence neither colonial nor postcolonial. Heeding the call to theorize from 'any city', this article aims to contribute to a more systematic theorization of the urban from settler colonial cities. In it we focus on the work property does to materialize the settler colonial city and its specific relations of power. We identify three faces of property—as object, as redress and as land—and use case vignettes from Israel/Palestine and Australia to consider how each register continues to inform the functioning of settler colonial cities. We find that, through property, dispossession and settlement are continuously performed and creatively enacted. At the same time, the performance of property reaffirms the endurance of Indigenous land systems amid ongoing colonization. The article makes a contribution to contemporary debates in urban studies about the importance of surfacing the specificities of urban experiences around the world, while further unsettling the dissociative nature of urban property.


A fully generative model is provided for the problem of author disambiguation. This approach infers the topics for each author and combines that with co-author information. The problems involved are similar to other entity resolution problems where differing references may refer to one author entity and identical references may refer to different author entities. We extend the hierarchical Dirichlet process and nonparametric latent Dirichlet allocation models to tackle this problem in a nonparametric, generative manner making no prior assumptions on the number of author entities, topics or research groups in the corpus. The model develops a hierarchical Dirichlet process for author-topic combinations. It conditions this model at document level on another hierarchical Dirichlet process for research groups. This enables the authors and topics to be suitably coupled. We perform joint inference to sample the author entities, topics and their group memberships. We present results from our approach on real-world datasets.


The field of systems grew out of, and then parallel to, science in many ways. In continuing its focus on general principles and the unification of science, though, through a search for isomorphies, much of the value of work in systems may have been missed. Systems are formed around patterns of organization, and the ability to affect specific systems ultimately lies in the ability to recognize and affect those patterns. Despite the early rejection of reductionism, most models and many principles used in systems still rely on characteristics applicable to physics. Softer forms of design and modeling have tended to be vague and non-specific. This paper recommends a next advance in systems, focusing on basic principles of organization at the level of unique systems.


The relations between storage behaviour and
some physiological characteristics of individual apples
have been studied.
The fruits of a single tree have shown considerable
individual variability in the different characteristics.
Improved methods have been devised for extracting
samples of the internal atmosphere of apples and for
measuring respiratory activity on the basis of oxygen uptake.
The investigations have shown no evidence that a
higher concentration of internal carbon dioxide in the
apple increases its susceptibility to breakdown.
Internal carbon dioxide was shown to be positively
correlated with the respiration rate and protein nitrogen
content.
The rate of oxygen uptake measured shortly after
picking was positively correlated with the incidence of
bitter pit in Cox variety and of Jonathan spot in Jonathan.
These disorders manifested themselves after 14 or more weeks
of cool storage.
The relation between Jonathan spot and fruit size
in apples which were subjected to insertion of a gas pipette
and to delay of ten days before cool storage was anomalous
compared with uninjured fruit stored immediately. There was a strong positive correlation between
the rate of yellowing and the cell volume of the fruit.
Correlations found between certain characteristics and differences found between fruits of light
and heavy crops were in accord with findings reported by other workers.
Further investigations are now in progress
which include studies of the resistances to gaseous
exchange and the role of mineral elements.


We develop the representation of bulk fields with spin one and spin two in anti-de Sitter space, as non-local observables in the dual CFT. Working in holographic gauge in the bulk, at leading order in 1/N bulk gauge fields are obtained by smearing boundary currents over a sphere on the complexified boundary, while linearized metric fluctuations are obtained by smearing the boundary stress tensor over a ball. This representation respects AdS covariance up to a compensating gauge transformation. We also consider massive vector fields, where the bulk field is obtained by smearing a non-conserved current. We compute bulk two-point functions and show that bulk locality is respected. We show how to include interactions of massive vectors using 1/N perturbation theory, and we comment on the issue of general backgrounds.


For decades biologists have marveled at the diversity of penises across the animal kingdom. But in anatomy, as in other fields, females are getting more credit. At a recent symposium ostensibly about the male organ, the complexity of some female genitalia and their role in shaping phallic diversity stole the show. Researchers studying whales, snakes, and other animals are finding that female sex organs have some of the same baroque complexity seen in males. They now see females as active participants in an arms race, likely evolving more complex genitalia to control mating and to create barriers against forced matings—which in turn leads to male countermeasures. They called for more intense looks at how the sex organs interact during copulation and proposed new methods for measuring these organs.


The CRISPR/Cas9 tool can easily generate knockout mouse models by disrupting the gene sequence, but its efficiency for creating models that require either insertion of exogenous DNA (knock-in) or replacement of genomic segments is very poor. The majority of mouse models used in research are knock-in (reporters or recombinases) or gene-replacement (for example, conditional knockout alleles containing LoxP sites flanked exons). A few methods for creating such models are reported using double-stranded DNA as donors, but their efficiency is typically 1–10% and therefore not suitable for routine use. We recently demonstrated that long single-stranded DNAs serve as very efficient donors, both for insertion and for gene replacement. We call this method Easi-CRISPR (efficient additions with ssDNA inserts-CRISPR), a highly efficient technology (typically 25%-50%, and up to 100% in some cases), one that has worked at over a dozen loci thus far. Here, we provide detailed protocols for Easi-CRISPR.


The distinctive Sami historical land use concerning reindeer management and settlement of inner Troms, North Norway, is reflected in places with archaeological remains. The insight and knowledge connected with these places can be accessed through oral traditions and place-names where reindeer management is embedded in reindeer knowledge developed over long time spans. Previous distinctions between wild reindeer hunting and pastoral herding can be redefined, since much of the traditional knowledge concerning the wild reindeer ( goddi) may have been trans- ferred to the domesticated animals (boazu). The transition from reindeer hunting to pastoralism is a current research focus and archaeological results from inner Troms indicate that several Sami dwellings with arran (hearths) are related to a transitional period from AD 1300 to 1400. This period is marked by a reorganisation of the inland Sami siida (col- lective communities), and changes in landscape use wherein seasonal cycles and grazing access began to determine the movements of people and their domestic reindeer herds. This reorganisation was a response to both external political relations and the inner dynamic of the Sami communities. The first use of tamed reindeer was as decoys and draft animals in the hunting economy, only later becoming the mainstay of household food supply in reindeer pastoralism, providing insurance for future uncertainties. The formation of the national border between Norway-Denmark and Sweden in 1751 led to extensive changes in the previously trans-national mobility pattern, leading to fragmentation of the old siidas and to a new stage of nomadic pastoral economy.


The suffix array of a string is a permutation of all starting positions of the string's suffixes in lexicographical order. In this thesis, we investigate mathematical and algorithmical aspects of suffix arrays.
The first part mainly deals with combinatorial properties of suffix arrays and their enumeration. For a fixed alphabet size and string length, we divide the set of all strings into equivalence classes of strings that share the same suffix array. For each such equivalence class, we count the number of strings contained in it and enumerate those strings. We also give exact formulas for computing the number of equivalence classes and efficient algorithms for enumerating them. Alternatively, we count the number of suffix arrays and enumerate them. Our methods yield lower bounds for the compressibility of suffix arrays and build the foundation for the efficient generation of appropriate test data sets for suffix-array-based algorithms. We also show that summing up the elements of all equivalence classes forms a particular instance for some summation identities of Eulerian numbers.
The second part of the thesis deals with suffix array construction. We first present a new classification of suffix array construction algorithms and provide an in-depth review of the classified algorithms. We classify the algorithms regarding two different categories: the progress in the suffix sorting process and the usage of dependencies among suffixes. After the survey of the previous algorithms, we present our new practical algorithm for suffix array construction that consists of two easy-to-implement components. It first sorts the suffixes with respect to a fixed length prefix; then it refines each bucket of suffixes sharing the same prefix using the order of already sorted suffixes. Other suffix array construction algorithms follow more complex strategies. We achieve a very fast construction for common strings as well as for worst-case strings by enhancing our algorithm with further techniques; this is shown by an in-depth experimental study that compares our algorithm to other fast suffix array construction algorithms.


In the present study 4-substituted thiazolidinones derivatives were synthesized from 2- amino pyridine which was used as a starting material. In this first the pyridyl thiourea was synthesized using ammonium isothiocyanate and conc HCl. And from this (pyridyl thiourea) schiff's bases were formed using different aldehydes and the Schiff's bases obtained were cyclised into 4- substituted thiazolidinones using thioglycolic acid. The compounds obtained were purified by column chromatography using silica jel .The chemical structure of the compounds were confirmed using IR. 1HNMR and synthesized compounds are investigated for their antibacterial and antifungal activity against E.coli and S.aureus and C.albican using cup plate method. Compounds (4a, 4b) and 4d showed good activity.


We investigate the excitation and propagation of far‐field seismic waves from the 905 kg trinitrotoluene equivalent underground chemical explosion SPE‐3 recorded during the Source Physics Experiment (SPE) at the Nevada National Security Site. The recorded far‐field ground motion at short and long distances is characterized by substantial shear‐wave energy, and large azimuthal variations in P ‐ and S ‐wave amplitudes. The shear waves observed on the transverse component of sensors at epicentral distances <50  m suggests they were generated at or very near the source. The relative amplitude of the shear waves grows as the waves propagate away from the source. We analyze and model the shear‐wave excitation during the explosion in the 0.01–10 Hz frequency range, at epicentral distances of up to 1 km. We used two simulation techniques. One is based on the empirical isotropic Mueller–Murphy (MM) (Mueller and Murphy, 1971) nuclear explosion source model, and 3D anelastic wave propagation modeling. The second uses a physics‐based approach that couples hydrodynamic modeling of the chemical explosion source with anelastic wave propagation modeling. Comparisons with recorded data show the MM source model overestimates the SPE‐3 far‐field ground motion by an average factor of 4. The observations show that shear waves with substantial high‐frequency energy were generated at the source. However, to match the observations additional shear waves from scattering, including surface topography, and heterogeneous shallow structure contributed to the amplification of far‐field shear motion. Comparisons between empirically based isotropic and physics‐based anisotropic source models suggest that both wave‐scattering effects and near‐field nonlinear effects are needed to explain the amplitude and irregular radiation pattern of shear motion observed during the SPE‐3 explosion.


This paper discusses ostracods and their environmental setting close to the Givetian/Frasnian boundary in the Puech de la Suque Global Stratotype Section and Point. The ostracod fauna belongs exclusively to the Eifelian mega-assemblage and is largely dominated by Podocopina instars. Consequently, the majority of the 33 species recognised and illustrated is described in open nomenclature. The abundance of instars also indicates that most of beds are related to storm deposition. The composition of the fauna suggests a regression in the late Givetian followed by a transgression at the beginning of the Frasnian. Only one ostracod assemblage collected in the upper part of the section indicates a deeper setting below the storm wave base. Eight taxa disappeared in two steps near the Givetian / Frasnian boundary, probably in relation to the Frasnes Event.

The sedimentological analysis confirms that the section is constituted principally of storm deposits and reveals in addition the presence of numerous reddish hardgrounds highlighting an important condensation of the sequence.


Synthetic Glucocorticosteroids (GCs) are widely used in veterinary medicine for their anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressive actions. However they are deemed to have multiple side effects such as hypothyroidism. The aim of this study was to determinate the effects of Dexamethasone (DEX) administered parenterally (IM) at therapeutic doses, conventionally used in the anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressive treatments on the thyroid function of sheep. Fifteen sheep of Ouled Djellal breeds were randomly divided into three groups of 5 rams. The animals received an injection of DEX (DEXALONEND solution) at a rate of 1.52 mg DEX/d for group 1 and 3.4 mg DEX/d for group 2 respectively, during 6 days; the third group has served as a control group and did not receive any treatment. Blood samples taken over a period of 3 weeks were analyzed to define the plasma levels of free thyroid hormones fT4 and fT3. It has been shown that Dexamethasone induced a significant decrease (P < 0.05) of serum fT4 and fT3 24 h following the beginning of the treatment. Hormone levels have returned to their baseline values 24 h after treatment withdrawal. From these results, we can deduce that DEX antithyroid effects are transitory and therefore do not have a significant impact on the health of the animals.


Sociology of Shiʿite Islam is a comprehensive study of the development of Shiʿism from its sectarian formation in the eighth century through its establishment as Iran's national religion in the sixteenth to the Islamic revolution Iran in the twentieth century.


OBJECTIVE
Our goals were to assess adherence to the National Cancer Institute clinical practice guideline for the management of atypical squamous cells of uncertain significance (ASCUS) Papanicolaou (Pap) test results in a community at high risk of cervical cancer. We also hoped to identify predictors of adherence to the guideline.

STUDY DESIGN
We used an historical cohort and collected data by chart abstraction.

POPULATION
Our study included women receiving care in 7 urban community health centers who had an initial ASCUS or atypical Pap test result in 1996. We excluded women with a history of cervical dysplasia or human immunodeficiency virus infection, yielding a final sample of 387 women.

OUTCOMES
measured The outcome measured was the level of adherence to the guideline, defined as falling within 1 of 3 mutually exclusive categories (complete, moderate, or low).

RESULTS
Care providers recommended colposcopy after an initial atypical Pap test result in 12% of cases and repeat cytology in 67%. Failure to document a plan for management was found in 19% of cases. Complete adherence was achieved for 27% of subjects, moderate adherence for 28%, and low adherence for 45%. The factors associated with complete versus moderate or low adherence included site of care, description of the abnormality (ASCUS vs atypia), availability of on-site colposcopy, and discussing the plan at a visit.

CONCLUSIONS
Adherence with the National Cancer Institute clinical practice guideline in this setting was disappointing and varied substantially by site. Factors amenable to change that may improve follow-up include good communication of results with patients and providing colposcopy at the site of primary care.


This paper investigated the effect of defined weave parameters in textiles on the mechanical properties such as tension, compression, and Izod impact energy in 3D layer-tolayer glass/epoxy and carbon/epoxy woven composites. The specimens with the superior mechanical properties in both carbon and glass 3D woven composites were then tested to determine its quasi-static crash performance with a view to the end application in the automotive industry. The 3D woven preforms, manufactured using a Jacquard loom at Ulster University, were fabricated in two different weft densities: 4 & 16 wefts/cm with a constant warp density of 12 warps/cm. It was observed that changing the fibre content in the weft direction not only increased its mechanical properties in that direction but also significantly improved its performance in the warp direction (although the fibre content remains constant in the warp direction). This was thought to be result of a combination of several factorsVf, tow misalignment, crimp, binding points/ unit cell and size/distribution of resin rich areas. This study has helped deriving a relationship between the fundamental defined weave parameters, mechanical properties and failure mechanisms in the 3D layer-to-layer warp interlock carbon/epoxy and glass/epoxy composites.


The Kenyan government introduced free primary education in 2003 in order to fulfill the commitments of the World education forum of 2000 as well as to make education accessible to all school age children irrespective of their social class. This initiative led to an upsurge in primary school enrolments with the resultant effects of numerous strains on human and material resources, high dropout rates and poor performance in national examinations. As a result of this, the government has been undertaking many reforms aimed at addressing the challenges resulting from education service expansion. The overall purpose of these reforms has been to improve efficiency in education provision by addressing factors that influence learning. Thus the purpose of the study was to assess the level of resource utilization in primary schools in Gatundu North District of Kiambu County. The research aspired to give possible suggestions on how resources can be used efficiently in primary schools. Since the introduction of FPE in 2003, a number of educational reforms have been put in place to address equity and access to education service but no significant ones have been made to address the way the resources provided by the government are being utilized. The objectives of the study were; to investigate the trend of examination performance over the years, to assess the availability and use of educational resources in the district and to investigate factors that may hinder efficient use of resources in the district. The study employed the theory of production as education today is viewed as a service where products are expected after using inputs. The study adopted a descriptive survey design and utilized both qualitative and quantitative approach. The target population of the study was 58 public primary schools in Gatundu North District. A total of 12 sample primary schools were selected using random sampling from the three existing zones. This formed 20% of the total school population. For each selected school, the head teacher and 5 teachers were targeted to respond to questionnaire items yielding 12 head teachers and 60 classroom teachers. Teachers were first stratified into male and female strata. There was also classroom observation and interview schedules for quality assurance officers. Pilot study was done with two schools neighboring the district and a reliability of 0.85 was established. Quantitative data was coded and analyzed using SPSS. Qualitative data was analyzed by arranging them according to objectives, research questions and themes. Data was then summarized using frequency tables and graphs. Inferences, conclusions and recommendations were then made. The findings revealed that from 2006 to 2011, almost all the schools in the district have been performing below average. It also revealed that some physical facilities and other strategic resources needed to support learning activities were lacking. The study also established that learning materials especially books were not adequate in the schools. Teachers prepare curriculum documents but most of them don"t use teaching aids regularly. To improve on KCPE performance, the study established that there is need to involve all the stake holders on matters related to the education provision and early syllabus coverage in all subjects at all levels. Use of resources was mainly hindered by their unavailability. The study recommends that all education stakeholders focus on equitable provision together with proper use, management and monitoring of educational resources in order to ensure efficiency in their use. The study was necessary in order to ensure efficiency in resource utilization in Gatundu North District.


Aim/Purpose: The objective of this study is threefold: (i) investigate how a group of subjects see the relationship between the integration of content, pedagogical and technological knowledge of their chemistry teaching in light of the teaching practices developed during the pandemic; (ii) present a framework for the integration of digital technologies in chemical education; and (iii) integrate empirical research on teachers' relationship with technology in the remote classroom during the pandemic.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has imposed changes in the ways of teaching and learning and has affected educational contexts at all levels of education. While technology has been instrumental in providing access to education during the pandemic, it has also revealed a picture of serious technological inequality, especially among students. The adoption of technology in education is an old topic in Brazil but still requires studies and advances in the implementation of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in education. With regard to teaching Chemical Science, the study of the skills and knowledge that teachers need to carry out an effective and efficient integration of ICT in education is still a priority at any educational level.

Methodology: The research method used was qualitative with an interpretive paradigm that involved 324 Licentiate and Baccalaureate students in Chemistry from public educational institutions in the five regions that make up the Brazilian territory. Data were collected through an online survey and, after being exported it was analyzed using Python software. In order to reduce the number of variables, exploratory factor analysis was carried out followed by a reliability analysis of the adopted factors, in addition to subsequent comparisons between the means related to the three factors for each of the categorical variables present in this work (Gender, Age, Region, Teacher Education, Period, and Course).

Contribution: This article analyzes the perceptions of these chemistry students in Brazil regarding the effective integration of content, pedagogical and technological knowledge of their chemistry teachers during the pandemic. It also proposes a framework of a model constituted from the amalgamation between Johnstone's triangle and the conceptual structure TPACK whose aim is to teach chemistry by interrelating the macroscopic, symbolic, and submicroscopic levels incorporated into technologies.

Findings: The results of this research allow us to conclude that of the three main knowledge areas proposed in the TPACK model, the field of Knowledge mostly Scientific of chemistry teachers (Factor 1) was pointed out as the most deficient when investigated in the light of the perceptions of the students. The model developed and presented in this study, which integrates TPACK into the Johnstone Triangle, proposed a theoretical framework that explains the integration of technology into the chemistry curriculum and gives teachers a very important role in its use and appropriation to facilitate the integration of technology in an effective way, thus adding improvements to the construction of chemical knowledge of their students.

Recommendations for Practitioners: This study found that it is necessary for chemistry teachers to carry out training courses to improve the development of ICT-related skills and, consequently, to use the knowledge that composes the TPACK structure in interrelated ways so that chemical instructions can be used in a pedagogically appropriate manner and effectively to improve students' chemistry learning experience.

Recommendation for Researchers: This study involved only higher education chemistry professors and students; therefore, future research is needed involving chemistry teachers from different levels of education to expand our results. In addition, the proposed model that integrates TPACK and Johnstone's Triangle can be reapplied and improved, and new theoretical and epistemological contributions can be added to the framework to improve the teaching and learning process of chemistry with the support of technologies.

Impact on Society: The understanding of the TPACK of higher education chemistry teachers in Brazil can demonstrate weaknesses in the process of incorporating ICT in the classroom during the process of teaching and learning chemistry. Therefore, this research typology can be useful in supporting the development of ICT-related skills, consequently improving teachers' TPACK. On the other hand, such understanding, by promoting reflections on university chemistry curricula, endorses the need for teachers' continuing education as a healthy mechanism for a growing integration of technologies in their teaching practices. The proposed model has the potential to align discussions on the use of technology in teaching chemistry, considering the specificities that are inherent and indispensable to the understanding of chemical knowledge.

Future Research: Future research should be to further improve the use of the proposed model that integrates Johnstone's triangle and the TPACK conceptual framework in teacher training, using it fully to guide the development and promotion of teacher training courses regarding the insertion of teaching technologies in a pedagogical way to teach chemistry in its different dimensions.


Purpose: To demonstrate visual evoked potential (VEP) changes in multiple sclerosis (MS) disease Methods: A case series study of VEP changes in forty-nine patients with definite, probable and possible diagnoses of MS referred to electrophysiology ward from January 2002 to December 2005. Pattern VEP was done for those with good visual acuity (VA), and flash VEP was done for those who did not have central fixation or good VA. Characteristics of P100 wave in pattern VEP and P2 wave in flash VEP were evaluated. Results: The implicit time of P100 and P2 waves in pattern and flash VEP, demonstrated severe abnormalities in 84.5% of definite MS. In probable MS, implicit time increased in 81.8% cases. In possible MS cases, increased implicit time was seen in more than 50% of patients. Decrease in amplitude alone, was seen in a few cases. Combined changes of implicit time and amplitude were prominent. Conclusion: VEP is an invaluable electrophysiological test in MS for both diagnosis and follow-up of the patients. Concurrent with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) analysis, VEP can help neurologists and ophthalmologists for better evaluation of MS patients.


Abstract Young brown dwarfs and directly-imaged exoplanets have enticingly similar photometric and spectroscopic characteristics, indicating that their cool, low gravity atmospheres should be studied in concert. Similarities between the peculiar shaped H band, near and mid-IR photometry as well as location on color magnitude diagrams provide important clues about how to extract physical properties of planets from current brown dwarf observations. In this proceeding we discuss systems newly assigned to 10-150 Myr nearby moving groups, highlight the diversity of this uniform age-calibrated brown dwarf sample, and reflect on their implication for understanding current and future planetary data.


Oral leukoplakia is seen as a predominant white patch in the oral mucosa and is the most common potentially malignant disorder of the oral mucosa. Habits such as tobacco, betel nut chewing and alcohol increases the incidence of oral leukoplakia. This study was aimed to evaluate the association of oral leukoplakia in patients having smoking and alcohol habits. In this study, patients having oral leukoplakia were sorted out by reviewing and analysing 86,000 patients records who visited the private dental college during the time period of June 2019 to March 2020. The personal history with habits such as smoking and alcohol were also recorded. A Chi-square test was used to determine association between variables to obtain the results. In our study, we found that the males showed higher prevalence of Oral Leukoplakia than females. A statistically significant result was found in patients between 41-50 years of age (29.2%) with smoking habits (84.8%) and alcohol intake habits (51%). It also showed that there was stronger association between oral leukoplakia and patients with both smoking and alcohol habits, than in patients having alcohol habit alone.


Social justice, as a concept, has long been considered inimical to the classical liberal tradition (Hayek 1976; Nozick 1973; 1974). To be fair, there is much to criticize about the concept. The definitional fluidity of the term, along with its frequent deployment for "activist" political endeavors, cast doubt upon the scholarly rigor of the term (Hayek 1978). However, where there is chaff, there is wheat and thus the possibility of salvaging some parts of the social justice concept to serve both normative and positive ends (Tomasi 2012, xvii-xx). Sorting the wheat from the chaff is the aim of this paper. To do so, we introduce the concept of "rent-seeking in narratives," which, as we argue, takes the best concepts from the literature on social justice in order to make it a relevant tool for social science and classical liberal thought.