Response to stress is an important biological mechanism to react to environment variations. Different from distinguishing stresses like heat shock, ER stress, and oxidative stress, the study of response to an artificial signal like drug in therapy would be an alternative and also attractive way to understand the cellular response mechanism, which also benefits clinical application. Although differentially expressed genes are usually thought to be therapy responsive genes in many previous researches, more and more attention is diverted from single genes to functions or pathways, in particular for cancer therapy analysis. Thus, comparing with purely molecule (e.g., gene) rewiring, understanding functional reorganization or module rewiring would be more important for systematically studying therapy response or other dynamic biological processes. Therefore, in this paper we propose a model of module network rewiring to characterize functional reorganization, in contrast to gene network rewiring. Specifically, we develop a new framework named as module network rewiring analysis (MNRA) to investigate relevant network modules and their re-connections during an antiviral therapy. In MNRA, we aim to study module dynamics from the network viewpoint, by defining a module network with a module as a node and a path connecting two modules as an edge, which is a network for the molecular interaction system on a higher level. By MNRA experiments on expression data of patients with Hepatitis C virus infection (HCV) receiving Interferon therapy, we found that (1) the consistent module (a set of genes) separates two new subtypes of patients which were not discovered by differentially expressed genes; (2) the patient-group specific module network rewiring reveals necessary functional connections bridged by biological paths; (3) the hierarchical structures of temporal module network rewiring show that they can be taken as spatial-temporal markers to diagnose whether a patient has therapy response or not. Thus, MNRA indeed can provide biologically systematic clues for potential pharmacogenomic applications and has ability to characterize complex dynamic processes for many biological systems.


Maximizing the aggregate throughput of wireless cellular networks using link adaptation techniques (e.g. adaptive modulation and power control) has got a great deal of attention (e.g., [5]). However, the fairness of individual throughput allocation has not been well addressed yet. The fairness problem of link adaptation techniques has recently attracted some attention (e.g., [6, 9]) but the problem still needs deeper analysis and more efficient solutions. This paper proposes a new scheme that finds the optimal power and modulation level that maximizes the aggregate throughput while taking the individual throughput fairness into consideration. The problem is formulated as a constrained optimization problem and then converted to an unconstrained optimization one by including the constraint as a penalty term in the objective function. The unconstrained optimization problem is solved using the steepest descent technique. Results show that the proposed scheme is always able to achieve the fairness requirements with high aggregate throughput.


Discussion and Summary
The historical review of the epidemiology of schistosomiasis japonica in Formosa from Japanese literature as given above shows clearly that the chief endemic area of this disease is Changhua Hsien (Taichu Prefecture) in the mid-western part of this island. Possibly another endemic area exists at Laonung in Kaohsiung Hsien (Takao Prefecture), in the south-western part of Formosa. The current idea abroad that Shinchiku (= Hsinchu Hsien) in the northwestern part of the island is the main endemic area of this disease is without foundation in the Japanese literature. Dr. S. Yokogawa, in a personal communication, dated March 25, 1951, agrees with us and states, "It is true that there was no schistosomiasis japonica in Shinchiku, either human case or animal case." There is, furthermore, no report in the literature of the finding of living Oncomelania snails in Shinchiku.
The above review also shows that the riddle of the human cases of schistosomiasis as given by Takegami should be solved, the incidence of animal infection verified, and the distribution of the intermediate host, O. formosana, in this island thoroughly re-studied.
Summary
1.
Changhua Hsien is situated in the center of Formosa on the western seaboard and in the vicinity of the Tropic of Cancer. The arable lowland, being an alluvial deposit, is one of the most important rice growing centers in Formosa.
2.
Regarding the snails, O. formosana, in this area, they are usually found in the small irrigation ditches of about 0.5 meter in width, especially in such ditches as are shaded by a row of bamboos. They can occasionally be found in ditches of about 1–2 meters in width, but very rarely in wider ditches. The fact that O. formosana lives in ditches irrigated by water of high turbidity deserves mention, as such a habit has never been recorded for the Oncomelania snails in other endemic areas in the Orient.
3.
O. formosana was found in 140 out of 628 villages surveyed. They comprise an area of about 273 sq. kms., and are distributed mainly in the central part of this county.
4.
Concerning the incidence of cercarial infection, 38,241 O. formosana from 140 ditches in 140 villages were examined (300 or less from each ditch). On the average, 1.3 per cent were positive, and in the infected ditches the range of infection was from 0.3 to 30 per cent, with its mean at 2.4 per cent, median at 1.2 per cent, and mode at 0.3 per cent. The frequency curve of the percentage of infection, if plotted, will be a curve of positive skewness.
5.
The peculiar habits of O. formosana in this district, and the significance of the high incidence of infection of the snails in this county are discussed. Importance of the study of the incidence of infection of the Oncomelania snails in relation to the epidemiology of schistosomiasis japonica is emphasized.


APPLICATION OF MASS/STIFFNESS ECCENTRICITY TO CONTROL RESPONSE OF STRUCTURES SUBJECTED TO EARTHQUAKE GROUND MOTION by Bakhtiar Feizi This dissertation is driven by the concept that engaging more modes in the response of structures can be used to mitigate its translational dynamic response. One such an approach is to engage torsional modes through engineered eccentricity (mass/stiffness eccentricity), thus, introducing coupled translation-rotation response. This idea was first introduced in a paper published by MacBain and Spillers in 2004. As a follow up to the same idea this dissertation was an attempt to investigate and develop the theory concerning the application of mass/stiffness eccentricity to control the translational motion of structures subjected to earthquake ground motion. Different discrete and continuous mathematical models of structures were used for this study. Discrete models are single story building and multi story building, and continuous models are shear beam and flexural beam. Initially, the steady state behavior of eccentric structures was analyzed. This type of analysis proved to be revealing in terms of parameters that impact the response mitigation. A sufficient and necessary condition under which increasing eccentricity in a single story building always leads to mitigation of translational displacement was deducted. Moreover it was observed that in addition to the eccentricity the relationship between dominant translational frequency to dominant rotational frequency plays a significant role in the magnitude of reductions. Furthermore through conducting a statistical analysis the seismic effectiveness of the proposed method was investigated. For this purpose the structural models were exposed to 16 real earthquake records. The records were selected in a way that a broad range of frequency content were covered. The records are applied to structures with different eccentricities and frequency ratios. Altogether 5632 analyses were performed. The results showed that eccentricity was indeed effective in reducing the average translational displacements up to 30%. Moreover, using the data obtained from time history analyses the variation of reductions with eccentricity and frequency ratio was studied. The dissertation continued with proposing a systematic approach for finding the eccentricities and frequency ratio that lead to the maximum reduction in displacements. To address this issue an optimization problem in frequency domain was formulated. The mean square value of response was selected as the performance function. Two types of constraints including limitations on rotations and eccentricity were imposed. KanaiTajimi power spectral density function was used to model the ground motion. It was observed that this approach could be used to decrease the performance function up to 50%. Finally through a case study the performance of the proposed approach was compared with tuned mass dampers (TMD). The results showed that the proposed method could be as effective as TMDs. Even in some cases more reductions in displacements could be achieved. APPLICATION OF MASS/STIFFNESS ECCENTRICITY TO CONTROL RESPONSE OF STRUCTURES SUBJECTED TO EARTHQUAKE GROUND MOTION


Financial market analysis has focused primarily on extracting signals from accounting, stock price, and other numerical "hard" data reported in P&L statements or earnings per share reports. Yet, it is well-known that decision-makers routinely use "soft" text-based documents that interpret the hard data they narrate. Recent advances in computational methods for analyzing unstructured and soft text-based data at scale offer possibilities for understanding financial market behavior that could improve investments and market equity. A critical and ubiquitous form of soft data are earnings calls. Earnings calls are periodic (often quarterly) statements usually by CEOs who attempt to influence investors' expectations of a company's past and future performance. Here, we study the statistical relationship between earnings calls, company sales, stock performance, and analysts' recommendations. Our study covers a decade of observations with approximately 100,000 transcripts of earnings calls from 6,300 public companies from January 2010 to December 2019. In this study, we report three novel findings. First, the buy, sell and hold recommendations from professional analysts made prior to the earnings have low correlation with stock price movements after the earnings call. Second, using our graph neural network based method that processes the semantic features of earnings calls, we reliably and accurately predict stock price movements in five major areas of the economy. Third, the semantic features of transcripts are more predictive of stock price movements than sales and earnings per share, i.e., traditional hard data in most of the cases.


Partial internal short circuit resulting from the Ce4+/Ce3+ redox reaction is currently one of the most critical issues that hinder the practical application of solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) with doped ceria electrolytes. In this work, a new strategy utilizing a Sr diffusion induced in situ solid-state reaction to generate a blocking layer to prevent Ce0.8Sm0.2O1.9 (SDC) from reduction is proposed for the first time. As a proof of concept, Ni-SrCe0.95Yb0.05O3−δ is deployed as a Sr source for the electron-blocking interlayer and was evaluated as an anode for SDC-based SOFCs. A thin interlayer composed of SrCe1−x(Sm,Yb)xO3−δ and SDC is formed in situ during the sintering process of the half cell due to the interdiffusion of metal cations, and the interlayer thickness is highly dependent on the sintering temperature. The high-resolution TEM results indicate that the SrCe1−x(Sm,Yb)xO3−δ perovskite phase is generated and coated on the SDC grains, forming an SDC@SrCe1−x(Sm,Yb)xO3−δ core–shell structure. The SrCe1−x(Sm,Yb)xO3−δ phase effectively suppresses the Ce4+/Ce3+ redox reaction and hence eliminates electronic conduction through the electrolyte membrane. Consequently, the OCVs of the fuel cell are significantly improved after incorporating the electron-blocking interlayer and increase with increasing the interlayer thickness. The OCVs of the cell sintered at 1250 °C reach 0.962, 0.989, 1.017, and 1.039 V at 650, 600, 550, and 500 °C, respectively. The present results demonstrate that Ni-SrCeO3-based composites are promising alternative anodes for CeO2-based SOFCs towards enhanced working efficiency at high operating voltages.


Background: Islamic boarding school system has long story in indonesia, they covered as much 14.798 student whoare teenager between 9–15 year old. Problems encountered with adolescent sexuality and reproductive health. Methods:An explorative research implemented in 3 provinces ie East Java, Nusa Tenggara Barat (NTB), East Kalimantan and sixIslamic boarding schools. Data were collected through questionnaires about reproductive health. Results: It showed 48,5%of respondents didn't have enough knowledge, attitudes and behavior about reproductive health, 40% of respondents knewvery little about puberty, menstruation and wet dream, 71% of respondents had little knowledge about the risk of pregnancy;49% of respondents had not enough knowledge about sexually transmited diseases. 88% respondents said that they hadfall in love, 76% of respondents had positive courtship behavior. Conclusion: The information about reproductive healthin islamic boarding school for adolescents is still in adequate and only refer to yellow book. Health worker did not provideadequqte information. We still found student who have sex while when they were engaged still datting. Suggestion: Theneed of additional and up to date reproductive health information and the risks of sexual intercourse marriage it maybedelivery on interesting media, such as one social networking. A health reproductive modules consist of scientic materialand some knowledge has to be developed and should be delivery health worker. Reproductive health syllabus and trainingfor trainers for teachers of boarding school is needed.


Retinal laser therapy has been playing a leading role in the care of numerous retinal vascular diseases such as retinal vein occlusions, proliferative diabetic retinopathy, diabetic macular edema, and sickle cell retinopathy since the 1960s. Although conventional retinal laser therapies have several disadvantages, the emergence of novel retinal laser therapies has ensured that lasers will continue to play a critical role in the treatment of retinal diseases. Retinal laser technology has undergone significant innovations to minimize collateral tissue damage while retaining the therapeutic effects. This review summarizes several novel retinal laser modalities including micropulse laser, selective retinal therapy, nanosecond laser, pattern scanning laser with endpoint management, and navigated laser. The technological basis is described in additional to clinical studies validating their efficacy in patients.


In October 2008, two former National Security Agency communications analysts told reporters that the NSA used satellite technology to monitor the phone conversations of Americans living in the Middle East. This revelation highlighted an unresolved area of surveillance law—the privacy rights of U.S. citizens against their own government when they are outside the borders of the United States. Though the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 has created a procedure for the judicial review of this type of surveillance, this review is only a general oversight and judges on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court are not required to individually review every surveillance request. This Note analyzes Fourth Amendment surveillance jurisprudence to decide what level of judicial review is necessary, if any, before engaging in surveillance of Americans overseas. First, this Note examines cases that have discussed the reach of the Fourth Amendment to see if its protections are available to Americans living outside the United States. Next, this Note analyzes the recent Second Circuit decision In re Terrorist Bombings, which held that the Fourth Amendment protects Americans overseas but does not require a warrant. Then, this Note investigates whether, if a warrant requirement does in fact exist, there is a "foreign intelligence exception" to this requirement. This Note concludes by deciding that the Fourth Amendment requires U.S. intelligence agencies to obtain a specific warrant before engaging in overseas surveillance of American citizens. To enforce this requirement, this Note advocates for further amendments to FISA, including a comprehensive and individualized warrant process that protects both privacy and national security.


An important part of our information-gathering behavior has always been to find out what other people think. With the growing availability and popularity of opinion-rich resources such as online review sites and personal blogs, new opportunities and challenges arise as people now can, and do, actively use information technologies to seek out and understand the opinions of others. The sudden eruption of activity in the area of opinion mining and sentiment analysis, which deals with the computational treatment of opinion, sentiment, and subjectivity in text, has thus occurred at least in part as a direct response to the surge of interest in new systems that deal directly with opinions as a first-class object. This survey covers techniques and approaches that promise to directly enable opinion-oriented information-seeking systems. Our focus is on methods that seek to address the new challenges raised by sentiment-aware applications, as compared to those that are already present in more traditional fact-based analysis. We include material on summarization of evaluative text and on broader issues regarding privacy, manipulation, and economic impact that the development of opinion-oriented information-access services gives rise to. To facilitate future work, a discussion of available resources, benchmark datasets, and evaluation campaigns is also provided.


HEFCE commissioned new research into the provision of professional doctorate (PD) programmes. The key objective was to depict the current landscape of PD provision by English higher education institutions (HEIs). More specific aims were to:
Examine existing PD provision and understand models used in PD programme delivery to contribute to the development of a more robust typology;
Consider HEIs' strategies for PD provision and how this might change in future amidst an evolving postgraduate research context;
Explore the skills and attributes that PD programmes seek to develop in response to employers' and professional demands, and how these are delivered;
Explore the impacts of PD programmes on graduates, their employers and professions, and provider institutions.


A rapid calibration procedure for EC-10 and EC-20 sensors is introduced to promote the commercial use of these sensors for hydroponic irrigation management in coir. The method is comprised of taking one sensor reading, by a sensor installed under hydroponic crop production conditions, and one gravimetric sample, both at field water capacity, to determine a correction factor for an accurate general laboratory calibration equation developed for coir. The rapid calibration procedure was evaluated by 4 separate sensors of EC-10 and EC-20. To verify the relative reliability of the rapid procedure, statistical analysis was performed separately for all data points and for data points between the drained upper limit and permanent wilting point of coir. From the statistical parameters used, it was observed that all of the predictions in the plant available water content range were good, with RMSE values < 0.030 m3∙m -3 for the EC-10 and < 0.021 m3∙m -3 for the EC-20 sensors. The D-index also pointed to a high accuracy of prediction in the plant available water content range, with values over 0.981 and 0.990 for the EC-10 and EC-20 sensors, respectively. Since a degree of variation remained between sensors, it was  concluded that sensors should be calibrated individually. The rapid procedure proves a simple but scientifically sound method to calibrate sensors and is easy to apply to individual sensors in the field. Keywords: growing medium, rapid calibration, soil water sensors, water content


This study has considered the results of projects promoted to revitalize Jeonju City for about 10 years and compare the characteristics of decline in the districts promoting the project and those not in order to suggest tasks to be done for its urban regeneration and measures to cope with it. In the downtown, population and the number of houses have been decreasing constantly; however, in the districts promoting the project, the reduction rate of businesses is either slowed down or vitalized whereas in the districts not promoting the project, land use efficiency is being lowered. And factors influencing urban decline have been found to be public agencies' move to another place, too small-sized lots, vacant houses and stores, increase in lots with low utility, and the characteristics of land possession. As the study result: from the aspects of projects and plans, it is needed ①to improve revisit intention, the area to increase customer attracting capacity in order to enhance the effects of the previously implemented project, ②to form a socioeconomic circulation structure by improving public and welfare utility in lots with low utility, and ③to reinforce small-scale maintenance projects to secure residential population. And from political·institutional perspectives, it is needed ①to enhance public roles and pursue goal-oriented resident participation, ②to improve land use potentials, and ③to devise criteria for reasonable performance management and evaluation.


This is the first field guide dedicated to the diverse tree species of Panama and Costa Rica. Featuring close to 500 tropical tree species, Trees of Panama and Costa Rica includes superb color photos, abundant color distribution maps, and concise descriptions of key characteristics, making this guide readily accessible to botanists, biologists, and casual nature lovers alike. The invaluable introductory chapters discuss tree diversity in Central America and the basics of tree identification. Family and species accounts are treated alphabetically and describe family size, number of genera and species, floral characteristics, and relative abundance. Color distribution maps supplement the useful species descriptions, and facing-page photographic plates detail bark, leaf, flower, or fruit of the species featured. Helpful appendices contain a full glossary, a comprehensive guide to leaf forms, and a list of families not covered. The only tree guide to cover both Panama and Costa Rica together Covers almost 500 species 438 high-resolution color photos 480 color distribution maps and two general maps Concise and jargon-free descriptions of key characteristics for every species Full glossary and guide to leaf forms included


This is an auto-ethnography of the time that I spent
at three of the most renowned universities of India
and my experiences thereof. Coming from a relatively
decayed and deadened atmosphere of my college to a
centre for excellence in higher learning filled me with
my own set of anxieties and curiosities regarding my
future and career path on which I was to embark. The
story deals with my personal angst of the alienation
that I felt while at DSE despite my best efforts to
'keep up' with the ambience that contrasted with my
exuberant and carefree topography of JNU where one
could be just like the other without putting on a
mask. However, this place too was marked with its
own coda and which bore a mark till one was associated
with campus life. Now that I am no more actively
associated with campus life, there are still times
when I end up shadow boxing with questions about
life and learning.


This paper discusses sign language recognition using linguistic sub-units. It presents three types of sub-units for consideration; those learnt from appearance data as well as those inferred from both 2D or 3D tracking data. These sub-units are then combined using a sign level classifier; here, two options are presented. The first uses Markov Models to encode the temporal changes between sub-units. The second makes use of Sequential Pattern Boosting to apply discriminative feature selection at the same time as encoding temporal information. This approach is more robust to noise and performs well in signer independent tests, improving results from the 54% achieved by the Markov Chains to 76%.


Microservices-based video analytics pipelines routinely use multiple deep convolutional neural networks. We observe that the best allocation of resources to deep learning engines (or microservices) in a pipeline, and the best configuration of parameters for each engine vary over time, often at a timescale of minutes or even seconds based on the dynamic content in the video. We leverage these observations to develop Magic-Pipe, a self-optimizing video analytic pipeline that leverages AI techniques to periodically self-optimize. First, we propose a new, adaptive resource allocation technique to dynamically balance the resource usage of different microservices, based on dynamic video content. Then, we propose an adaptive microservice parameter tuning technique to balance the accuracy and performance of a microservice, also based on video content. Finally, we propose two different approaches to reduce unnecessary computations due to unavoidable mismatch of independently designed, re-usable deep-learning engines: a deep learning approach to improve the feature extractor performance by filtering inputs for which no features can be extracted, and a low-overhead graph-theoretic approach to minimize redundant computations across frames. Our evaluation of Magic-Pipe shows that pipelines augmented with self-optimizing capability exhibit application response times that are an order of magnitude better than the original pipelines, while using the same hardware resources, and achieving similar high accuracy.


New nonsymmetrical bent-core compounds consisting of a biphenyl-3,4′-diol central unit, a chiral terminal chain and an olefinic end group at the other terminus have been synthesized and characterized to study the influence of a chiral moiety, the length of terminal alkenyl chain, and the number of aromatic rings in the rod-like wings which are substituted at the 3- and 4-position of central biphenyl core on mesophase properties of bent-core mesogens. The liquid crystalline properties of the compounds were investigated by differential scanning calorimetry, optical polarizing microscopy, and electro-optic methods. Depending on the length of the olefinic chain and the number of aromatic rings in the rod-like wings, the bent-core compounds with a chiral moiety show B1 type mesophase, polar smectic C phase (SmCP) or nonmesomorphic behavior.


OBJECTIVE
The US Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) collects spontaneous reports of adverse events following vaccination. Medical officers review the reports and often apply standardized case definitions, such as those developed by the Brighton Collaboration. Our objective was to demonstrate a multi-level text mining approach for automated text classification of VAERS reports that could potentially reduce human workload.

DESIGN
We selected 6034 VAERS reports for H1N1 vaccine that were classified by medical officers as potentially positive (N(pos)=237) or negative for anaphylaxis. We created a categorized corpus of text files that included the class label and the symptom text field of each report. A validation set of 1100 labeled text files was also used. Text mining techniques were applied to extract three feature sets for important keywords, low- and high-level patterns. A rule-based classifier processed the high-level feature representation, while several machine learning classifiers were trained for the remaining two feature representations.

MEASUREMENTS
Classifiers' performance was evaluated by macro-averaging recall, precision, and F-measure, and Friedman's test; misclassification error rate analysis was also performed.

RESULTS
Rule-based classifier, boosted trees, and weighted support vector machines performed well in terms of macro-recall, however at the expense of a higher mean misclassification error rate. The rule-based classifier performed very well in terms of average sensitivity and specificity (79.05% and 94.80%, respectively).

CONCLUSION
Our validated results showed the possibility of developing effective medical text classifiers for VAERS reports by combining text mining with informative feature selection; this strategy has the potential to reduce reviewer workload considerably.


Fire agencies are moving towards planning systems based on risk assessment; however, knowledge of the most effective way to quantify changes in risk to key values by application of prescribed fire is generally lacking. We present a quantification and inter-regional comparison of how risk to management values responds to variations in prescribed burning treatment rate. Fire simulations were run using the PHOENIX RapidFire fire behaviour simulator for two case study landscapes in interface zones in Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), Australia. A Bayesian network approach used these data to explore the influence of treatment and weather on risk from wildfire. Area burnt, length of powerline damaged and length of road damaged responded more strongly to treatment in the ACT than in Tasmania, whereas treatment mitigated house loss and life loss more strongly in Tasmania than the ACT. The effect of prescribed burning treatment rate on area burnt below minimum tolerable fire interval was similar in each case study landscape. Our study shows that the effectiveness of prescribed burning at mitigating area burnt by wildfire and other key values varies considerably across landscapes and values.


Recently, hybrid fuzzing has been proposed to address the limitations of fuzzing and concolic execution by combining both approaches. The hybrid approach has shown its effectiveness in various synthetic benchmarks such as DARPA Cyber Grand Challenge (CGC) binaries, but it still suffers from scaling to find bugs in complex, realworld software. We observed that the performance bottleneck of the existing concolic executor is the main limiting factor for its adoption beyond a small-scale study.

To overcome this problem, we design a fast concolic execution engine, called QSYM, to support hybrid fuzzing. The key idea is to tightly integrate the symbolic emulation with the native execution using dynamic binary translation, making it possible to implement more fine-grained, so faster, instruction-level symbolic emulation. Additionally, QSYM loosens the strict soundness requirements of conventional concolic executors for better performance, yet takes advantage of a faster fuzzer for validation, providing unprecedented opportunities for performance optimizations, e.g., optimistically solving constraints and pruning uninteresting basic blocks.

Our evaluation shows that QSYM does not just outperform state-of-the-art fuzzers (i.e., found 14× more bugs than VUzzer in the LAVA-M dataset, and outperformed Driller in 104 binaries out of 126), but also found 13 previously unknown security bugs in eight real-world programs like Dropbox Lepton, ffmpeg, and OpenJPEG, which have already been intensively tested by the state-of-the-art fuzzers, AFL and OSS-Fuzz.


I. THE ISSUE II. THE CHANGING INDUSTRY STRUCTURE III. EMPIRICAL FINDINGS A. Vertical Concentration. B. Local Concentration IV. INTERPRETATION OF RESULTS V. OUTLOOK I. THE ISSUE For several decades, U.S. policy in telecommunications and electronic mass media focused on the encouragement of competition. This policy, usually known as deregulation but more accurately described as liberalization, is aimed at an opening of the market to competitors and a reduction of market power. There were numerous elements and proceedings to this policy by the Federal Communications Commission ("FCC"), the states' public service commissions and legislatures, the courts, and Congress. Of these actions, none was more comprehensive than the Telecommunications Act of 1996 ("1996 Act"). What has been the impact of this policy? In this Essay, I will focus on one dimension: the impact of liberalization on market concentration. This question has acquired some urgency in light of the meltdown in the telecommunications sector following the boom years of the 1990s. That downturn may be temporary, and the industry will recover. But the more fundamental issue is that the telecommunications industry may have entered into a pattern of boom-bust cycles. While business cycles are traditional to many industries, in telecommunications they are a new phenomenon. Telecommunications used to be less volatile than the economy as a whole. It grew steadily, with long planning horizons hardly ruffled by the business cycle. But today, in sharp contrast, the telecommunications sector is potentially more volatile than the economy, more like the airline business and less like water utilities. Perhaps the major reason for instability has been the fundamental economic characteristic of many network industries with high fixed costs and low marginal costs. The telecommunications industry is characterized, on the supply side, by huge investments followed by tiny costs of serving additional customers, plus positive network externalities on the demand side. This creates economies of scale, scope, and networking. The resultant incentives are to be large and to expand early, which in the aggregate creates industry-wide overcapacity. Price competition then drives down prices to unprofitable levels. In telecommunications, price differentiation and asset redeployment are difficult, much harder than for airlines. Bust cycles follow. We have encountered the first of these cycles, but surely not the last, because the factors of instability will remain: low marginal costs, high fixed costs, inelastic demand, positive network externalities, lags in supply, disinvestment and regulation, and a Wall Street short-term perspective that amplifies industry cycles. If instability will be part of the environment, what will telecommunications companies do? The textbook responses are to cut costs, lower prices, differentiate products, and increase innovation. But these strategies can be expensive and will quickly be matched by competitors, which will leave every supplier firm even worse off. The other major strategy will therefore be to raise prices above competitive levels, and to reduce competition and the commodification that lowers profitability and future investments. To do so requires market power by a single firm or an oligopoly. II. THE CHANGING INDUSTRY STRUCTURE We have, so far, concluded that industry concentration is a likely response to competition. Let us now turn to the empirical evidence for such concentration in telecommunications and related information industries. To provide an empirical answer, we looked at the market concentration trends in the American information sector for 100 separate industries. (1) Examples for such industries are long-distance telecommunications, cellular mobile communications, broadcast TV, cable TV, film distribution, daily newspapers, and Internet service providers. …


The engagement of conservative, populist governments with constitutional reform and constitution-making is perceived as a significant threat to the rule of law and democracy within the European Union. Constitutionalists often assume a relation of mutual exclusion between populism and constitutionalism. In contrast, I argue that while populism ought to be understood as a rejection of liberal constitutionalism, it equally constitutes a competing political force regarding the definition of constitutional democracy. The article first discusses populist constitutionalism in the context of the two, main modern constitutional traditions: the modernist and the revolutionary ones. Second, I discuss the populist critique of liberal constitutionalism, with a central focus on the recent cases of right-wing populism in power in East-Central Europe. Four dimensions are prominent: (i) popular sovereignty as the key justificatory claim of populism; (ii) majority rule as the main populist mode of government; (iii) instrumentalism as the legal–practical approach of populists; and (iv) legal resentment as the populists' main attitude toward public law. In conclusion, I argue that while the populist critique of liberal constitutionalism provides significant insights into structural problems of liberal democracy, populist constitutionalism ultimately fails to live up to its own democratic promise.


This study attempts a re-reading and re-evaluation of the work of black South African short story writers from R.R.R. Dhlomo (circa 1930) to Zoe Wicomb (at the end of the 1980s). The short story, along with the autobiography, was the dominant genre of black writing during this period, and the reasons for this are examined, as well as the ways in which black writers adapt or transform this familiar literary genre. The title – "Writing Black" – alludes to well-known works by Richard Rive (Writing Black) and J.M. Coetzee (White Writing), and foregrounds the issue of race and racialised identities. While one would not want to neglect other factors (class, gender), it is hardly possible to underestimate the impact of racial classification during the apartheid era. However, the difficulty of asserting the unproblematic existence of a homogeneous "black" identity also becomes evident. The approach adopted here reflects the need to recognise both the singularity of particular texts (their "literariness") as well as their embeddedness in their particular place and time (their "worldliness" or their "circumstantiality"). Literary texts are complex verbal artefacts of an unusual kind, but they cannot be separated from their contexts of production and reception; black writing in this country would be largely incomprehensible if this were not taken into account. Close attention is given to the obvious spatial, temporal and ideological shifts in South African cultural production during this period, and to the two major phases of black writing (the Sophiatown and District Six writers of the 50s, and the Staffrider writers of the 70s and 80s). The work of these writers is not, however, subsumed into a political metanarrative. In particular, this study resists the tendency to lump the work of black writers into one large, undifferentiated category ("protest writing" or "spectacular" representation). This approach has had the effect of flattening out or homogenising a body of work that is much more varied and interesting than many critical accounts would suggest. Finally, the contribution of three writers of the "interregnum" (Ndebele, Matlou, Wicomb) is explored. What is of particular interest is their break from established conventions of representation: their work reveals a willingness to resist over-simplification, to experiment, and to explore issues of identity and gender. By examining these texts from the vantage point of the post-apartheid present, one is able to arrive at an enhanced understanding of the form that black writing took under apartheid, and the pressures to which it was responding.


The failures of development efforts in underachieving countries bring into question the effectiveness of the structures and mechanisms that govern policymaking. Laos, in particular, is a small country located in Southeast Asia that has recently gained prominence in spheres of international development and the global marketplace. Since the mid-1980s, leaders of the state have implemented economic reform in hopes of achieving greater economic gain. Their efforts fall short, however, when many marginalized communities comprised of ethnic minorities fall deeper into poverty. In search of a better life, many made the decision to flee the country to escape their impoverishment. Those with experiences of transnational migration have consequently encountered a new time and space, generating unique desires and discontents. Those who remained in Laos have shaped their desires and discontents on the structures, policies, and reforms pursued by the government. Their time and space is embedded within the context of globalization. Examining the individual and personal experiences of Laotian-Americans and the Laotian population illuminate desirable qualities and characteristics of standards of living. This ultimately captures the value of cultural and social considerations in the grand scheme of development and reform. Key terms: transnational migration, globalization, modernization, economic reform, communist takeover, anti communist, desire, discontent, American dream Disciplines Anthropology This thesis or dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn.edu/anthro_seniortheses/161


Grammaticalization in East and mainland Southeast Asian languages is characterized by a set of properties which seem to be typical of that area. The aim of this paper is to present these properties and to examine them from the perspective of several prominent approaches to grammaticalization: Heine, Claudi and Hunnemeyer (1991), Bybee, Perkins and Pagliuca (1994), Lehmann (1995) and Hopper and Traugott (2003). The specific properties of grammaticalization under discussion will be the lack of obligatory categories, hence the high relevance of pragmatics, the existence of rigid syntactic patterns, and the limited coevolution of form and meaning. The data on East and mainland Southeast Asia show that it seems not only necessary to assume areally relevant patterns of grammaticalization, but also to develop models which allow for more structural variation as far as processes of grammaticalization are concerned.


The purpose of this study was to explore the differences in perceived stress and coping styles among non-traditional graduate students in both on-campus and distance-learning programs. The study employed a quantitative causal-comparative design that involved collecting survey data. The sample consisted of 36 non-traditional graduate students who enrolled in distance learning classes along with 36 non-traditional students attending traditional on-campus courses in a graduate program. For statistical analyses, t-test and multiple linear regressions were conducted to simultaneously assess the effects of group membership and all demographic variables on each of the dependent variables (stress level and coping style). An alpha level of .05 was used to test statistical significance. Overall, there is no significant difference between the coping styles and the perceived stress levels of non-traditional graduate students who enrolled in distance-learning and on-campus programs.


Ultraviolet radiation (UV) is a minor fraction of the solar spectrum reaching the ground surface. In this assessment we summarize the results of previous work on the effects of the UV-B component (280-315 nm) on terrestrial ecosystems, and draw attention to important knowledge gaps in our understanding of the interactive effects of UV radiation and climate change. We highlight the following points: (i) The effects of UV-B on the growth of terrestrial plants are relatively small and, because the Montreal Protocol has been successful in limiting ozone depletion, the reduction in plant growth caused by increased UV-B radiation in areas affected by ozone decline since 1980 is unlikely to have exceeded 6%. (ii) Solar UV-B radiation has large direct and indirect (plant-mediated) effects on canopy arthropods and microorganisms. Therefore, trophic interactions (herbivory, decomposition) in terrestrial ecosystems appear to be sensitive to variations in UV-B irradiance. (iii) Future variations in UV radiation resulting from changes in climate and land-use may have more important consequences on terrestrial ecosystems than the changes in UV caused by ozone depletion. This is because the resulting changes in UV radiation may affect a greater range of ecosystems, and will not be restricted solely to the UV-B component, (iv) Several ecosystem processes that are not particularly sensitive to UV-B radiation can be strongly affected by UV-A (315–400 nm) radiation. One example is the physical degradation of plant litter. Increased photodegradation (in response to reduced cloudiness or canopy cover) will lead to increased carbon release to the atmosphere via direct and indirect mechanisms.


The Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) was a community-led, people-centred, demand-driven and incentive-based programme ideal to address India9s rural sanitation crisis, or so it seemed. But policy failed to translate into practice and outcomes were remarkably poor. In the 2011 census data showed 31% sanitation coverage in 2011 (up from 22% in 2001), far from the 68% reported by the Government. The decade has witnessed progress slowing down and the number of rural households without latrines increasing by 8.3 million. This article draws on evidence from two coordinated studies in four Indian states. It aims to explore the dichotomy of TSC policy and practice, its causes, and the potential of the new sanitation campaign, the Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan (NBA). The study found that TSC implementation was unaligned with the programme9s guiding principles. In reality the TSC was government-led, infrastructure-centred, subsidy-based and supply-led, leading to poor outcomes. The reasons behind the theory–practice gap include low political priority; flawed monitoring; distorting accountability and career incentives; technocratic and paternalistic inertia; and corruption. In the new NBA, despite promising changes such as a stronger demand creation focus, key issues hampering implementation remain ignored. It is thus doomed to fail, burdened by known past hurdles.


In this paper, we describe a multiagent framework for collaborative conceptual learning using a Dempster-Shafer belief system in the domain of information retrieval. In our multiagent system, each agent maintains a database of documents, entertains different queries from its users, and thus learns a unique dictionary of concepts. Filed for each concept is a set of keywords collected from the documents supporting that concept. A document may be filed under various concepts and thus concepts may share keywords. This provides for a metric to evaluate the relevance of a document to a query. Our proposed work enables the query of an agent to be composed at a conceptual level or expanded at a conceptual level, justified by a set of keywords, and to be learned by other agents through communications. The learned concepts are stored in each agent's unique translation table. In this manner, agents are able to evolve independently their own knowledge while maintaining translation tables through collaborative learning to help sustain the information retrieval process.


Aim: The aim of the study was to evaluate the efficiency of dental students and new graduates of College of Dentistry, King Saud University, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to select the appropriate methods of restoring endodontically treated posterior teeth (ETPT) at different conditions of remaining sound tooth structure. Materials and Methods: A questionnaire was distributed among the 4th- and 5th-year dental students and new graduates. Respondents were requested to indicate their gender and level of education and to select the preferred restoration of ETPT at different conditions. Results were analyzed using one-way frequency and two-way cross-tabulations. Results: At >50% tooth remaining (condition A), 39.9% of the respondents preferred to use an amalgam restoration, while 30.9% preferred to use a restoration followed by a crown at 50% of remaining tooth (condition B). At <50% tooth remaining (condition C), 74.6% preferred to use a cast post-and-core and a crown. Respondents changed their choices of restoration to more advanced ones when teeth served as abutments for fixed or removable prostheses. Chi-square analysis demonstrated a statistically significant relationship between the selected restorative method at condition A and both gender (P = 0.045) and level of education (P = 0.001), between the method of restoration at condition B and both the gender (P = 0.000) and the level of education (P = 0.003), and between the selected restorative method at condition C and the level of education (P = 0.000). Conclusions: Respondents demonstrated a high knowledge when selecting the appropriate method of restoring ETPT at different clinical conditions.


Introduction A key component of management of water resources lies in asset monitoring of the structures that contain water, e.g., dams and embankments. Earthworks failures can lead to disastrous consequences, including flooding, and can be very expensive to remediate. This paper presents a solution to assess the physical integrity of vulnerable earth structures (dams, embankments and cuttings) - thereby facilitating the shift from more costly responsive remediation of earthwork failures to early intervention. While current methods (including sophisticated automated procedures, sensors and SCADA systems) do provide some information regarding the health of the assets, they have a number of limitations: (1) the cost of deploying and maintaining these solutions; (2) the level of intrusiveness; (3) the need for experienced engineers validating measurements by visual inspection; (4) remoteness of many sites; and (5) low temporal resolution with limited scope for predictive approaches to asset failure. Methodology Early intervention and prevention requires identification of the incremental development of internal conditions that ultimately trigger failure. The low cost of the devices allows deployments of higher density, increasing spatial resolution and monitoring in real-time. This, unlike conventional approaches, allows better representation the soil heterogeneity both spatially and temporarily. To this end, we will present observations from our trials of automated resistivity, movement and pressure measurements. The developed sensor nodes operate at low voltages, integrates a range of analogue and digital sensors, using a single interface for measuring resistivity, pressure, motion pore pressure, and temperature, can be developed in compact form (currently 32.5cm high with diameter 14.5cm for prototyping), are non-intrusive to their compact nature and continually log data with no human intervention. We will also discuss the design aspects of the casing so that our electronic sensor nodes are robust to harsh conditions, including extreme temperatures, moisture, high voltages, and wildlife, when buried. Data is stored on a data collection hub, and due to remoteness of these sites, remote communications has been enabled through near white-space frequencies to highlight potential risks to the appropriate stakeholders in real-time. Results and conclusions This paper presents a unique, customized and cost-effective platform for automated monitoring of earthworks through prototyping a novel hardware/firmware solution in consultation with various stakeholders: (i) integration of analogue and digital sensors for measuring pressure and motion, (ii) resistivity board that is controlled by main board, (iii) variable and on-demand sampling rates that can be dynamically controlled, (iv) a prototype mechanical waterproof design for housing main board, resistivity board and relevant sensors. We show initial results for ground movement, pressure and resistivity. Resistivity results are as expected based on the literature for clay-type soil. We also observe noticeable ground movement variation with artificially induced disturbance. We conclude that it is possible, through trials at Scottish Canals assets at Falkirk Wheel, to accurately monitor multiple earthworks parameters simultaneously, continuously, in real-time and without human intervention, as well as communicate data remotely in real-time to enable prediction of the onset of earthworks failures.


Bipolar all-solid-state lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) have attracted considerable attention as a promising approach to address the ever-increasing demand for high energy and safety. However, the use of (sulfide- or oxide-based) inorganic solid electrolytes, which have been the most extensively investigated electrolytes in LIBs, causes problems with respect to mechanical flexibility and form factors in addition to their longstanding issues such as chemical/electrochemical instability, interfacial contact resistance and manufacturing processability. Here, we develop a new class of flexible/shape-versatile bipolar all-solid-state LIBs via ultraviolet (UV) curing-assisted multistage printing, which does not require the high-pressure/high-temperature sintering processes adopted for typical inorganic electrolyte-based all-solid-state LIBs. Instead of inorganic electrolytes, a flexible/nonflammable gel electrolyte consisting of a sebaconitrile-based electrolyte and a semi-interpenetrating polymer network skeleton is used as a core element in the printed electrodes and gel composite electrolytes (GCEs, acting as an ion-conducting separator membrane). Rheology tuning (toward thixotropic fluid behavior) of the electrode and GCE pastes, in conjunction with solvent-drying-free multistage printing, enables the monolithic integration of in-series/in-plane bipolar-stacked cells onto complex-shaped objects. Because of the aforementioned material and process novelties, the printed bipolar LIBs show exceptional flexibility, form factors, charge/discharge behavior and abuse tolerance (nonflammability) that far exceed those achievable with inorganic-electrolyte-based conventional bipolar cell technologies.


In-depth semistructured interviews were conducted with 14 male and female professional dancers from several dance forms. Interviews were primarily based in the 4 Ws framework (Munroe, Giacobbi, Jr., Hall, & Weinberg, 2000), which meant exploring Where, When, Why, and What dancers image. A dimension describing How the dancers employed imagery also emerged. What refers to imagery content, and emerged from two categories: Imagery Types and Imagery Characteristics. Why represents the reason an image is employed and emerged from five categories: Cognitive Reasons, Motivational Reasons, Artistic Reasons, Healing Reasons, and No reason - Triggered Imagery. There were also large individual differences reported regarding What images were used and Why. Many new insights were gained, including several imagery types and reasons not commonly discussed in sport and exercise.


Do you constantly find yourself battling to stop your kids spending hours in front of a screen? Whether it's a tv, an ipad, a pc or a playstation children are spending more and more time absorbed in the digital world and for most parents it's a cause for concern. The most frequent question parenting expert Noel Janis Norton is asked by desperate parents is how to limit and manage screen time. Parents know their children became aggressive and stressed after prolonged time on an electronic device, and they know that it limits their child's willingness to do other activities, yet they are at a loss of what to do about it. In Calmer Easier Happier Screen Time, Noel adapts her proven parenting strategies to this most complex of areas. Using the latest scientific research to show just how addictive the digital world can be for the developing brain of a child, she using the calmer, easier, happier techniques to help parents wean their children away from their electronic devices and get back in charge.


The aim of the study was to compare the apparent bioavailability of starch in raw, cooked and extruded matooke flours using weanling mice. Two control and three test groups consisting of seven mice each (initial body weight of 21.32 ± 1.05 g) were fed diets incorporating soluble unavailable starch (Control I), soluble starch (Control II) and raw, cooked and extruded matooke flours as carbohydrate bases, for three weeks. The growth rate, food intake, adipose tissue size and 12 h fasting glucose levels were measured. The mean values of the growth parameters were separated by ANOVA using GENSTAT statistical package. There was a significant difference (P<0.001) in food intake between the control and test groups. The mice fed on solubilised matooke starches (cooked and extruded) exhibited significantly higher (P<0.001) growth rates than the ones fed on raw starch, showing a higher apparent bioavailability of the former flours. The mice fed on Control I appeared malnourished despite an excessively high food intake. The raw matooke group displayed less pronounced symptoms of malnourishment despite recording the highest weight loss. The fat pad sizes were in agreement with the growth rate data. The glucose levels, though on the lower side particularly in the Control I and raw matooke flour groups, were within the normal range. The results demonstrated that solubilised matooke starches adequately met the energy requirement of a growing animal. Nonetheless extrusion cooking appeared to confer a marginal advantage over the cooked flour, due to extruded flour's lower peak viscosity. This advantage would be enhanced in humans if the rations are taken as porridges.


Distance education is a new teaching technology strictly, the development of this technology to the development of education provides more power, and in the process of the technical implementation faces the problems of slow video transmission and archive material, if it is able to seek an effective algorithm for video compression coding, can mitigate the problem to a certain extent. In this paper, aim at the characteristic of video image sequence is studied, using the discrete cosine transform of four-dimensional matrix algorithm for video image file compression coding, in the process of research this paper in view of the definition of the four-dimensional matrix and the algorithms are expounded, and then discusses the four dimensional matrix math algorithm of the cosine transform and involved in the process of video coding compression algorithm, the use of video coding compression algorithm described in this paper in DSP evaluation data. Data shows that: based on 4 d matrix of discrete cosine transform video compression algorithm has obvious superiority than the rest of the algorithm, algorithm for video coding theory to provide technical support for the implementation of remote education.


Abstract In recent years, Internet connectivity has greatly improved across the African continent. This article examines the consequences that this shift has had for East African firms that are part of global value chains (GVCs). Prior work yielded contradictory expectations: firms might benefit from connectivity through increased efficiencies and improved access to markets, although they might also be further marginalized through increasing control of lead firms. Drawing on extensive qualitative research in Kenya and Rwanda, including 264 interviews, we examine 3 sectors (tea, tourism, and business process outsourcing) exploring overarching, cross-cutting themes. The findings support more pessimistic expectations: small African producers are only thinly digitally integrated in GVCs. Moreover, shifting modes of value chain governance, supported by lead firms and facilitated by digital information platforms and data standards are leading to new challenges for firms looking to digitally integrate. Nevertheless, we also find examples in these sectors of opportunities where small firms are able to cater to emerging niche customers, and local or regional markets. Overall, the study shows that improving connectivity does not inherently benefit African firms in GVCs without support for complementary capacity and competitive advantages.


Colon cancer (CRC) is a serious health problem through worldwide. Development of novel drug without side effect for this cancer was crucial. Luteolin (LUT), a bioflavonoid has many beneficial effects such as antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-proliferative properties. Azoxymethane (AOM), a derivative of 1, 2-Dimethyl hydrazine (DMH) was used for the induction of CRC in Balb/C mice. CRC was induced by intraperitoneal injection of AOM to mice at the dose of 15 mg/body kg weight for 3 weeks. Mouse was treated with LUT at the dose of 1.2 mg/body kg weight orally until end of the experiment. The expression of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and cyclooxygense (COX)-2 were analyzed by RT-PCR and immunohistochemistry. The expressions of iNOS and COX-2 were increased in the case of AOM induction. Administration of LUT effectively reduced the expressions of iNOS and COX-2. The present study revealed that, LUT suppresses both iNOS and COX-2 expressions and act as an anti-inflammatory role against CRC.


Alluvial fans are important sedimentary environments. They trap sediment delivered from mountain source areas, and exert an important control on the delivery of sediment to downstream environments, to axial drainages and to sedimentary basins. They preserve a sensitive record of environmental change within the mountain source areas. Alluvial fan geomorphology and sedimentology reflect not only drainage basin size and geology, but change in response to tectonic, climatic and base-level controls. One of the challenges facing alluvial fan research is to resolve how these gross controls are reflected in alluvial fan dynamics and to apply the results of studies of modern fan processes and Quaternary fans to the understanding of sedimentary sequences in the rock record. This volume includes papers based on up-to-date research, and focuses on three themes: alluvial fan processes, dynamics of Quaternary alluvial fans and fan sedimentary sequences. Linking the papers is an emphasis on the controls of fan geomorphology, sedimentology and dynamics. This provides a basis for integration between geomorphological and sedimentological approaches, and an understanding how fluvial systems respond to tectonic, climatic and base-level changes.


Architecture specifications notionally define the fundamental interface between hardware and software: the envelope of allowed behaviour for processor implementations, and the basic assumptions for software development and verification. But in practice, they are typically prose and pseudocode documents, not rigorous or executable artifacts, leaving software and verification on shaky ground. In this paper, we present rigorous semantic models for the sequential behaviour of large parts of the mainstream ARMv8-A, RISC-V, and MIPS architectures, and the research CHERI-MIPS architecture, that are complete enough to boot operating systems, variously Linux, FreeBSD, or seL4. Our ARMv8-A models are automatically translated from authoritative ARM-internal definitions, and (in one variant) tested against the ARM Architecture Validation Suite. We do this using a custom language for ISA semantics, Sail, with a lightweight dependent type system, that supports automatic generation of emulator code in C and OCaml, and automatic generation of proof-assistant definitions for Isabelle, HOL4, and (currently only for MIPS) Coq. We use the former for validation, and to assess specification coverage. To demonstrate the usability of the latter, we prove (in Isabelle) correctness of a purely functional characterisation of ARMv8-A address translation. We moreover integrate the RISC-V model into the RMEM tool for (user-mode) relaxed-memory concurrency exploration. We prove (on paper) the soundness of the core Sail type system. We thereby take a big step towards making the architectural abstraction actually well-defined, establishing foundations for verification and reasoning.


This report presents marketing profiles and loan deficiency payment/marketing loan gain profiles for the advisory services followed by the AgMAS Project for the 2002, 2003 and 2004 soybean crops. Marketing profiles are constructed by plotting the cumulative net amount priced under each program's set of recommendations throughout the crop year. Loan deficiency payment/marketing loan gain (LDP/MLG) profiles are constructed by plotting the cumulative percentage of the crop on which the LDP/MLG was claimed during the crop year. Marketing profiles provide information to evaluate the style of advisory services in several ways. The percentage of crop priced is a measure of within-crop year price risk. The higher the proportion of a crop priced, the lower the sensitivity of the farmer's position value to crop price changes. For example, when 100% of the crop is priced there is no price sensitivity, which means that changes in price do not affect the value of the farmer's position. On the other hand, when the amount priced is 0%, the value of the farmer's position will vary in the same proportion as the change in price. Marketing profiles, therefore, allow investigating the evolution of price sensitivity under each service's set of recommendations along the marketing window. Marketing profiles also provide other useful information. The number of steps in the profile lines and the location of these steps in the marketing window provide information about timing, frequency and size of recommended transactions. It is also possible to determine from the marketing profile figures how intensely a program uses options markets, since when options positions are open the profile line is irregular. In the same way, LDP/MLG profiles provide information about the size and timing of LDP/MLG claims.


This thesis examines the joint impact of earnings management incentives (i.e., income smoothing, solvency management and tax management) and reinsurance, together with other institutional factors, on the magnitude and direction of claim (loss) reserves errors in the UK's property-liability insurance industry. Two reserve error definitions, found in literature, are employed to conduct the analysis. Furthermore, a panel data generalised methods of moments (GMM) estimator is employed to incorporate the dynamic nature of current and past loss reserving errors. Using the GMM estimator in a panel of 151 firms over a period from 1991 and 2005, the study finds support for the conclusions of some prior studies but also inconsistencies with other previous research. The present study finds that the inferences drawn from empirical analyses can be influenced by the definition of loss reserving errors and to some extent how other incentive variables are defined. The results of this study suggest that discretionary loss reserving behaviour tends to persist from one year to another. Therefore, ignoring the dynamic nature of loss reserving errors could lead to biased and unreliable conclusions. The empirical results of this study also find that property-liability insurance managers manipulate claims reserves in order to smooth company's earnings across accounting periods. Furthermore, empirical evidence is found which indicates that high levels of reinsurance ceded help to reduce the incidence of error in loss reserves. Contrary to expectations, the evidence presented in this thesis suggests that highly solvent insurers under-estimate their claims liabilities. However, no empirical support is found to indicate that insurers over-reserve in order to reduce and/or postpone period tax liabilities. The study also produced mixed results regarding the relation between the type of reinsurance cover used and claim reserve errors. Nevertheless, the empirical results show that firm-specific effects, such as company size and product mix, can have effect on the accuracy of insurers' reserves. Finally, as this study gives an important insight on discretionary loss reserve manipulation, its conclusions could be of interest and relevance to the business decisions of investors, policyholders, regulators, and other interested parties (e.g., credit rating agencies and accounting standard settlers).


The introduction of sustainability criteria for solid biomass/biofuels on the European Union (EU) or global level may influence the EU pellets market, e.g., by limiting the eligible biomass supply potential or specific pellet chains. This assessment focuses on greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions and the issue of sustainable forest management (SFM) for pellets potentially used in Sweden (for residential and/or industrial use). The paper includes (1) a literature review of recent studies addressing the impact of sustainability requirements (for solid biomass and/or liquid biofuels) on the bioenergy market, (2) a characterization of SFM conditions in potential pellets export countries and their capacity to enforce respective legislation, and (3) an assessment of GHG emissions for heat and electricity for the Swedish market from selected potential wood pellet chains (including torrefaction) and related GHG emissions reduction compared to fossil fuels using a life cycle assessment perspective. Most of the assessed wood pellet value chains will most likely be able to meet stringent sustainability requirements from a GHG perspective. Thus, the impact of near‐term GHG emission reduction demands on the Swedish pellets market is limited. More specifically, we find that torrefaction may be advantageous for pellets imported over long distances (i.e., over approximately 18,500 km). We conclude that demand for SFM related to solid biofuels will not have a significant or long‐lasting effect on the market for Swedish pellets. The real impacts of sustainability requirements will however depend on levels of ambition as well as the methodologies and systems boundaries applied in future systems. WIREs Energy Environ 2016, 5:413–429. doi: 10.1002/wene.199


For over three hundred years, including its most recent, "Fordist" phase, industrial capitalism has been shaping the organisation of territory, fostering urbanisation and the emergence of the great cities and industrial regions. Recently, many observers have suggested that Fordism is in crisis and a period of transition is underway to a "post-Fordist" economy, the characteristics of which are antithetical to those of Fordism. Though territorial aspects are in many ways at the core of the post-Fordist school, particularly the so-called "rise" of the industrial district, regional and especially urban factors are not systematically dealt with in the literature. There is scant empirical evidence of the territorial organisation of the post- Fordist productive systems, nor a clear delineation of the logic behind this particular structure of territorial organisation. Drawing on evidence of three case studies of industrial districts in the Third Italy, the central thesis put forward is that the pattern of cities and regions that has been evolving relatively smoothly since the beginning of the industrial era is currently undergoing a dramatic reorganisation, as a result of a new logic of post-Fordist capital accumulation. New patterns of uneven development are being forged, that are in many ways a reversal of previous and long-standing urban and regional evolutionary trends. The role of spatial and territorial factors in the evolution of certain forms of post-Fordist organisation of production are also explored. In basic outline, the thesis: o argues that we are entering a post-Fordist era and industrial districts can be marshalled as evidence of this; o offers explanations as to why these particular territorial systems of production emerged in the Third Italy, and how they relate to the logic of post-Fordist accumulation; and o concludes that post-Fordism is associated with a reorganisation of urban and regional territory at all geographical scales: regions, urban systems and the urban hierarchy, intra-urban and intra-district space.


For more than a century discussions of the relationship between the operatic stage and the socio-political scene of the Risorgimento have relied almost exclusively on serious operas (particularly those of Giuseppe Verdi) and especially on the period after 1848. Roger Parker's recent revision of Verdi's ostensibly exclusive role as "Bard of the Risorgimento" provides an opportunity to reassess the politics of Italian opera during this period, considering also other composers and works. The purpose of this study is to discuss the interaction between opera and the Risorgimento in a group of comic works composed between the revolutions of 1831 and 1848, focusing in particular on the representation and implications of national identity in Luigi Ricci's Il nuovo Figaro(1832) and in two Italian versions of Donizetti's La Fille du rgiment (1840), as well as on the significance of military themes. Furthermore, relevant cases of censorship in these and other comic works are examined. These operas uncover numerous affinities with the political discourse in contemporary serious melodrama, showing that warlike themes, choruses, and other statements of patriotism were not a prerogative of Verdi's operas, nor an exclusive feature of the serious genre. Their authors used conventional buffa procedures, such as modern European settings and encoded allegories of national character, in ways that reveal connections with the tensions and aspirations of the Risorgimento. A better knowledge of this repertory can only improve our understanding of the politics of opera during this crucial period of Italian history.


Background: Sickle cell anemia (SCA) is the most common and severest form of sickle cell disease. It affects about 3% of the Nigerian population with a high mortality in children. Hematological parameters are routinely used in the monitoring of SCA patients and might vary in crisis and steady states. Aims and Objectives: This study was aimed at comparing the hematological parameters of SCA patients in steady state with those in hemolytic and vaso-occlusive crisis states. Methodology: It was a cross-sectional study carried out at the pediatric outpatient clinic of a tertiary hospital in North West Nigeria. We recruited 170 SCA patients in steady state or in crisis state. Five milliliters of blood sample was collected for full blood count analysis using the Sysmex Xt 2000i automated hematology analyzer. Results: Hemoglobin (Hb) and hematocrit (HCT) levels for SCA patients in steady state were 8.28 ± 1.64 g/dl and 21.8 ± 4.04% while in vaso-occlusive crisis (VOC) state were 7.81 ± 1.37 g/dl and 22.05 ± 1.37% and those with hemolytic crisis were 4.45 ± 0.12 and 13.35 ± 0.67, respectively. Total white blood cell (WBC) count in steady and VOC states was 14.51 ± 5.21 × 109/l and 17.46 ± 5.26 × 109/l, respectively, while those in hemolytic crisis had WBC of 14.92 ± 5.82 × 106/l. ANOVA test was 0.0001, 0.0001, and 0.03, respectively, which indicates a statistically significant difference between the groups. The mean corpuscular volume (MCV), mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH), and mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC) in steady state were 76.67 fl ± 9.02, 27.18 pg ± 4.36, and 35.17 g/dl ± 4.25, while in VOC state, they were 74.88 fl ± 11.60, 27.24 pg ± 3.70, and 35.49 g/dl ± 1.42 and, in anemic crisis state, they were 76.63 ± 11.74, 26.71 ± 3.78 and 35.03 ± 1.20, respectively. Conclusion: Hematological parameters were lower during crisis states, although most of these were not significantly different from those in steady state apart from the WBC count, Hb, and HCT. Therefore, routine monitoring of hematological parameters should remain an important component in the management of SCA children.


The United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS estimates that over 40 million people are living with HIV/AIDS globally. An estimated 15,000 new infections occur each day, with more than 95% of these in developing countries. Sub-saharan Africa currently bears the greatest burden worldwide with 28.5 million (70%) individuals infected. In South Africa 5.2 million of the population was estimated to be infected with HIV/AIDS. Between 60% and 90% of people with HIV infection will have at least one oral manifestation at some time during the course of their disease. Oral lesions cause significant discomfort and have a major impact on quality of life. Recognition and management of these oral conditions is therefore important for the health and quality of life of the individual with HIV/AIDS. Despite the increasing number of reports on the prevalence of oral manifestations in HIV positive/AIDS patients, there is limited information about the impact of these lesions on quality of life in these patients. This research report assessed the impact of oral manifestations of HIV/AIDS on the quality of life of people living with HIV/AIDS. The objectives were to determine the oral condition of patients living with HIV/AIDS, determine patterns of utilization of oral health care facilities by these patients and explore the relationship between oral conditions in HIV/AIDS individuals and oral health related quality of life (OHRQoL). Participants included 175 consecutively consenting HIV-infected adults who presented at a Johannesburg Hospital's outpatient HIV-clinic during the period of the study, after receiving counseling about their HIV status. Data was collected using a structured selfadministered questionnaire containing items on socio demographic characteristics, antibiotic treatment and items from an adapted instrument for measure of OHRQoL-Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP). An oral examination was carried out on all the respondents by a trained examiner who was blinded to the completed questionnaire. The presence of HIV-related lesions and DMFT scores were recorded. V Of the respondents, 108 (61.7%) were on antibiotic treatment and 133 (76%) presented with at least one oral lesion. A total of 109 (62.3%) presented with multiple lesions, one hundred (57.1%) presented with pseudomembraneous candidiasis which was the most common lesion. Oral ulcers were present in 30 (17.1%) of the study population. Only one participant was diagnosed with Kaposi's sarcoma. The OHRQoL of those presenting with oral manifestations was statistically significantly lower than those without oral manifestation (Mean OHIP score of 32.3 Vs 23.3; p<0.05). Presenting with multiple lesions and being female were significant predictors of lower OHRQoL. The internal reliability for the OHIP used to measure OHRQoL was high, with a Cronbach alpha value of 0.92. Oral manifestation in HIV significantly reduces quality of life. There is an urgent need for appropriate service planning to manage oral lesions in HIV in hospital or clinic settings.


According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), more than two million workers in the United States alone are victims of workplace violence each year, leading to millions of dollars lost in employee productivity. Many people believe that bullying occurs only among school-age children and fail to acknowledge the presence and devastating effects of bullying in the workplace. It is time that this destructive issue be addressed and resolved; however, you may be asking yourself how to accomplish such a task. This guide will provide you with valuable information on the topic, as well as unique solutions to the problem. In this book, you will learn how to identify the problem of workplace bullying, how to define the workplace bully, how to identify characteristics of a targeted employee, how to identify pathological characteristic of workplace bullies, how to bust bullying, and how to bully-proof your employees. This book also discusses the indicators of a toxic workplace, the causes of workplace bullying, reasons why workplace bullying is perpetuated and unchallenged by other employees, the connection between bullying and lethal workplace violence, and the legal aspects of bullying. Furthermore, you will learn about mob bullying, the effects of bullying on the target, and the effects of bullying on the organisation. The author also covers such special topics as workplace bullying in federal, state, and local organisations; the United States armed forces; Fortune 500 companies; and medical organisations, as well as reverse bullying by employees who inappropriately assert harassment and bullying by their superiors even though they have been fairly disciplined for sub-standard job performance. This book goes one step further and provides solutions to end workplace violence, anti-bullying pledges, and examples of zero-tolerance bullying policies. If you are a manager, a supervisor, or even just an employee and you suspect bullying is occurring, you need to read this book. Whether bullying is already happening or you want to be sure it never does, This guide will provide you with everything you need to know to create a better working environment.


Using Japanese facility-level data from an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development survey, we estimate the effects of implementation of ISO14001 and publication of environmental reports on the facilities' environmental performance. While most previous studies focused on an index of emissions toxicity, this study examines three areas of impacts, none of which have been explored in the literature: natural resource use, solid waste generation, and wastewater effluent. The study is also unique in that the effectiveness of ISO14001 is considered in relation to environmental regulations. Our findings are summarized as follows. First, both ISO14001 and report publication help reduce all three impacts; the former appears more effective in all areas except wastewater. Second, environmental regulations do not weaken the effect of ISO14001. Third, assistance programs offered by local governments—a voluntary approach—promote facilities' adoption of ISO14001. These findings suggest that governments can use command-and-control and voluntary approaches concurrently.


Abstract Globalization and the evolution of the knowledge‐based economy have caused dramatic changes to the character and functions of higher education in most countries around the world. However, the impacts of globalization on universities are not uniform though business‐like practices have been adopted to cope with competition in the global marketplace. The pressure for restructuring and reforming higher education is mainly derived from growing expectations and demands of different stakeholders in society. In recent years, widespread concerns over widened access, funding, accountability, quality, and managerial efficiency are perceived as the prominent global trends related to university education. Because of the divergent political, social, economic, cultural and historical backgrounds, national/local governments may adopt similar strategies in response to pressures generated from globalization. Nonetheless, through a close scrutiny of the ways that national policies are made, we may find that governments around the globe, particularly in East Asia, have tried to make use of the globalization discourse to address/justify the local policy/political agendas. This paper aims to examine the latest higher education reform initiatives proposed by the Singapore Government, with particular reference to reflect upon how the Singapore Government reforms its university systems in the context of globalization. It is argued that the latest comprehensive review of public university governance and funding brings about a changing role of the government in the regulation, finance and provision of higher education in Singapore and eventually alters the state‐university relationship.


ABSTRACT Interpretation of petrophysical log is one of the most useful and important tools in petroleum geology. Well logs help determine the physical characteristics of a reservoir, such as lithology, porosity, permeability, producer regions and their depth and thickness, and also differentiating between oil and gas and water in a reservoir and defining hydrocarbon reserve. A continual record of the physical characteristics of rocks in various depths is called well logs. Petrophysical logs usually include gamma ray, spontaneous potential, resistance, density, neutron, nuclear magnetic resonance, and sonic. The purpose of this study is to determine those characteristics of the reservoir that cannot be specified directly through present measuring well logs, using an intelligent problem-solving system of neuro-fuzzy. In this study, porosity and permeability are determined as two of the most important reservoir characteristics having much influence on reservoir understanding, reservoir reserve, and capability of reservoir production. The system of determining reservoir characteristics (neuro-fuzzy) was tested on collected well log data from oil and gas fields in the south of Iran. The most important result obtained in this study is that if all data influencing one of the reservoir characteristics are presented to the neuro-fuzzy system, then this system will be an excellent model with low error for determining all of the complex characteristics of the reservoir. These produced intelligent systems predict porosity and permeability completely on training and testing data and the correlation coefficient is near 1 and normalized mean square error is near to zero. Engineers and researchers can predict the reservoir characteristics with very good precision by these intelligent systems. The results of this study prove that a neuro-fuzzy intelligent system is a very powerful tool for determining permeability and porosity at the wells of a naturally fractured gas condensate reservoir. It is the first time to predict porosity and permeability from well logs using adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system in a naturally fractured gas-condensate reservoir in Khuff Formation (Kangan and Upper Dalan Formation), which is a heterogeneous formation with a wide range of permeability and porosity in the Middle East; this method predicts permeability and porosity precisely in this heterogeneous formation. The other novelty of this study is the choice of appropriate input parameters to determine porosity and permeability precisely. Because of the heterogeneous condition of naturally fractured gas-condensate reservoirs in Khuff Formation, the appropriate input parameters cause the system to train optimally and thus increase the system ability to estimate the output in various conditions precisely.


The Chapter considers a number of themes. First, it highlights that questions about revenue and expenditure were often not far removed from the early debates about rights. Second, as might be expected, the concerns of these early rights advocates were dissimilar to the aims of modern mainstream human rights law, frequently being bound up with the protection of private property. This does not mean that early concerns about rights and public finances are irrelevant today. Third, some rights advocates (Paine and Kant) highlighted more progressive arguments about finance and rights that are still especially relevant today. Fourth, that the early debates treat rights as more a political than a juridical notion and this more political notion needs to be reasserted for modern rights advocacy.


Forward by Ron Storer, President, Federation of Master Builders: The housing system is intrinsically linked to almost every major area of government policy from the economy and taxation to the environment and education. It is driven by a huge range of factors from the behaviour of individuals to global economic forces. It is also in most cases the greatest asset and debt held by a household. There is a wide variation in the amount of money people spend on their housing ranging from those who own their property outright to an estimated one million households who spend more than two thirds of their income on housing costs. And yet despite its importance economically, socially and environmentally the current housing system is in crisis; namely housing supply is failing to meet demand and the current stock is unsuitable without major adaption to meet future needs. There is now an urgent need to take action to make our existing homes greener and more energy efficient. Given that our homes contribute 27 per cent of the UK's total carbo emissions and that 85 per cent of our homes will be still be in use in 2050 it is imperative if the Government is to meet its legal requirement to cut carbon emissions that a more concerted effort is made to transform our existing housing stock. A large scale programme of retrofitting is required to transform our 26 million homes. Such a programme could have a significant role in helping to reduce fuel poverty, creating new jobs in the construction sector as well as tackling energy saving. housing futures and what this might mean in terms of developing a coherent joined up policy across government and the construction sector to tackle the issue. I'm delighted that Professor Anne Power accepted our challenge and has produced this first class, thought provoking report. The report sets some big challenges for construction and specifically the FMB which we need to address and act on if we are to turn the rhetoric into reality. I believe the FMB can rise to challenge and would like to extend an invitation to everyone else with an interest in our homes and communities to work with us to ensure that we turn these challenges into the opportunities that will deliver the housing that this country deserves


During a routine inspection, cracks were discovered in several aluminum alloy (similar to either 2014 or 2017) coupling nuts on the fuel lines of a missile. The fuel lines had been exposed to a marine atmosphere for six months while the missile stood on an outdoor test stand near the seacoast. A complete check was then made, both visually and with the aid of a low-power magnifying glass, of all coupling nuts of this type on the missile. Investigation (visual inspection, spectrographic and chemical analysis, and metallographic examination) supported the conclusion that the cracking of the aluminum alloy coupling nuts was caused by stress corrosion. Contributing factors included use of a material that is susceptible to this type of failure, sustained tensile stressing in the presence of a marine (chloride-bearing) atmosphere, and an elongated grain structure transverse to the direction of stress. The elongated grain structure transverse to the direction of stress was a consequence of following the generally used procedure of machining this type of nut from bar stock. Recommendations included changing the materials specification for new coupling nuts for this application to permit use of only aluminum alloys 6061-T6 and T651 and 2024-T6, T62, and T851.


Sound policies for protecting coastal communities and assets require good information about vulnerability to flooding. Here, we investigate the influence of sea level rise on expected storm surge-driven water levels and their frequencies along the contiguous United States. We use model output for global temperature changes, a semi-empirical model of global sea level rise, and long-term records from 55 nationally distributed tidal gauges to develop sea level rise projections at each gauge location. We employ more detailed records over the period 1979–2008 from the same gauges to elicit historic patterns of extreme high water events, and combine these statistics with anticipated relative sea level rise to project changing local extremes through 2050. We find that substantial changes in the frequency of what are now considered extreme water levels may occur even at locations with relatively slow local sea level rise, when the difference in height between presently common and rare water levels is small. We estimate that, by mid-century, some locations may experience high water levels annually that would qualify today as 'century' (i.e., having a chance of occurrence of 1% annually) extremes. Today's century levels become 'decade' (having a chance of 10% annually) or more frequent events at about a third of the study gauges, and the majority of locations see substantially higher frequency of previously rare storm-driven water heights in the future. These results add support to the need for policy approaches that consider the non-stationarity of extreme events when evaluating risks of adverse climate impacts.


DOTS (Dynamic Object Tracking System) is an indoor, real-time, multi-camera surveillance system, deployed in a real office setting. DOTS combines video analysis and user interface components to enable security personnel to effectively monitor views of interest and to perform tasks such as tracking a person. The video analysis component performs feature-level foreground segmentation with reliable results even under complex conditions. It incorporates an efficient greedy-search approach for tracking multiple people through occlusion and combines results from individual cameras into multi-camera trajectories. The user interface draws the users. attention to important events that are indexed for easy reference at a later time. Different views within the user interface provide spatial information for easier navigation. Our system, with over twenty video cameras installed in hallways and other public spaces in our office building, has been in constant use for almost a year.


The novel problem of art threats, typified by threatening rap lyrics, has destabilized our First Amendment regime. We have traditionally relied on industry gatekeepers like music labels or museum curators to determine what counts as art. However, with the advent of the Internet, amateur artists can share their aesthetic output with a public audience, bypassing the threshold quality control work of the Art World. This has forced courts to acknowledge foundational questions about what kind of art is covered by the First Amendment. In brief, it covers "good" art. In this paper I offer a synthetic conception of the First Amendment that contextualizes this aesthetic gatekeeper problem within a freedom of speech doctrine that has been forced to distinguish art from threat. I echo the claims of law and rap scholars that the amateur attempt at rap should be interpreted within a permissive standard for political speech, but I remind this scholarly network that our category of art speech still connotes a threshold level of quality. Young artists need help with selfediting; they do not need to be punished. But this does not mean the amateur attempt at art should be reified as good art within our constitutional law doctrine. I thus consider some pragmatic solutions for how either civil society or the state can mirror the essential quality control work done by prior Art World actors. My thinking is informed by a noble understanding of rap as well as the cultural assumptions that explain the boundaries of the First Amendment. Copyright © 2021 Andrew Jensen Kerr. * Lecturer of Legal English, Georgetown Law. I thank Robin West, Madhavi Sunder, Greg Klass, Lexi Freeman, Sonya Bonneau, Lucius Outlaw III, Almas Khan, Rafi Reznik, Jomana Qaddour, and Bradley Girard for their constructive feedback on earlier drafts of this Article. I also thank Hayley Lawrence and Chris Ricigliano for their diligent editorial work. KERR_03_15_21 (DO NOT DELETE) 3/17/2021 6:50 PM 174 DUKE JOURNAL OF CONSTITUTIONAL LAW & PUBLIC POLICY [VOL. 16