The success of the IEEE 802.11 standard has prompted research into efficiency of the different medium access methods and their support for different traffic types. A modified version of the point coordination function (PCF) called modified PCF has been introduced as a way to improve the efficiency over the standard method. It has been shown through a simulation study and a mathematical analysis that channel utilization can be much improved compared to the standard, in case there is no so-called hidden station problem. However, under the hidden station problem, the efficiency of the modified PCF would obviously decrease. In this paper, some enhancements of the modified PCF are introduced. Firstly, we propose a retransmission process to allow frames involved in collisions to be retransmitted. Then, we propose a collision resolution mechanism to reduce the frame collision probability due to the hidden station problem. In addition, we propose a priority scheme to support prioritization for different traffic types such as interactive voice and video, and real-time data traffic in the modified PCF. To prevent the starvation of one low priority traffic, minimum transmission period is also guaranteed to each traffic type via an admission control algorithm. We study the performance of the modified PCF under the hidden station problem and the performance of the modified PCF with priority scheme through simulations. To illustrate the efficiency of the priority scheme, we therefore compare its simulation results with those of some standardized protocols: The distributed coordination function (DCF), the enhanced distributed channel access (EDCA), the PCF, and our previously proposed protocol: The modified PCF without priority scheme. The simulation results show that the increment of delay in the network due to the hidden station problem can be reduced using the proposed collision resolution mechanism. In addition, in a given scenario the modified PCF with priority scheme can provide better quality of service (QoS) support to different traffic types and also support a higher number of data stations than the previous proposals.


OBJECTIVE
To assess the predictive capability of the postconcussion symptom scale (PCSS) of the sport concussion assessment tool (SCAT) III to differentiate concussed and nonconcussed adolescents.

DESIGN
Retrospective.

SETTING
Tertiary.

PARTICIPANTS
Sixty-nine concussed (15.2 ± 1.6 years old) and 55 control (14.4 ± 1.7 years old) adolescents.

INDEPENDENT VARIABLES
Postconcussion symptom scale.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE
Two-proportion z-test determined differences in symptom endorsement between groups. To assess the predictive power of the PCSS, we trained an ensemble classifier composed of a forest of 1000 decision trees to classify subjects as concussed, or not concussed, based on PCSS responses. The initial classifier was trained on all 22-concussion symptoms addressed in the PCSS, whereas the second classifier removed concussion symptoms that were not statistically significant between groups.

RESULTS
Concussion symptoms common between groups were trouble falling asleep, more emotional, irritability, sadness, and anxious. After removal, analysis of the second classifier indicated that the 5 leading feature rankings of symptoms were headache, head pressure, light sensitivity, noise sensitivity, and "don't feel right," which accounted for 52% of the variance between groups.

CONCLUSIONS
Collectively, self-reported symptoms through the PCSS can differentiate concussed and nonconcussed adolescents. However, predictability for adolescent patients may be improved by removing emotional and sleep domain symptoms.


Roads have both positive and negative impacts in the areas surrounding them. With the expansion of roads growing at an inexorable speed in Ethiopia and all Sub-Saharan Africa, these impacts need to be well understood. A questionnaire was used to gather information on road-related impacts on the rural population. A total of 529 sample households were selected in Tigray, Northern Ethiopia. The three most common consequences cited by respondents in order of importance were dust, flooding and erosion. Close to 44% of the respondents said that the occurrence of dust has increased after construction of the road. The reduction of yield estimated by farmers ranges from 10% to 50%. Close to 11% of the sample households faced decline in crop production and income due to dust lifted up from roads. The breakpoint for road dust occurred approximately at 200 to 280 meters from the road. Roadside plantations along rural roads have proven to mitigate road-related impacts and restore the ecological balance. When linked to rural development programs, roadside planting can create employment while generating a reliable source of income for rural communities.


Based upon the textual analysis of over 2000 Chinese and English web pages, as well as on the author's ethnographic observations with three Chinese multinational corporations, six operational strategies and three communication challenges on the Chinese companies' global outreach and expansion are conceptualised. The operational strategies include Chinese companies establishing overseas production bases, closing global mergers and acquisitions, building up global brand names invested in technology and efficiency, acquiring a Zigzag route of starting from emerging markets, accumulating overseas capital from global stock markets and recruiting global talents. The three communication challenges that threaten the growth of the Chinese companies are their inefficient conflict management style, low proficiency in local cultures and lack of 24/7 communication channels with the customers.


Shared space is an innovative streetscape design that seeks minimum separation between vehicle traffic and pedestrians. Urban design is moving toward space sharing as a means of increasing the community texture of street surroundings. Its unique features aim to balance priorities and allow cars and pedestrians to coexist harmoniously without the need to dictate behavior. There is, however, a need for a simulation tool to model future shared space schemes and to help judge whether they might represent suitable alternatives to traditional street layouts. This paper builds on the authors' previously published work in which a shared space microscopic mixed traffic model based on the social force model (SFM) was presented, calibrated, and evaluated with data from the shared space link typology of New Road in Brighton, United Kingdom. Here, the goal is to explore the transferability of the authors' model to a similar shared space typology and investigate the effect of flow and ratio of traffic modes. Data recorded from the shared space scheme of Exhibition Road, London, were collected and analyzed. The flow and speed of cars and segregation between pedestrians and cars are greater on Exhibition Road than on New Road. The rule-based SFM for shared space modeling is calibrated and validated with the real data. On the basis of the results, it can be concluded that shared space schemes are context dependent and that factors such as the infrastructural design of the environment and the flow and speed of pedestrians and vehicles affect the willingness to share space.


Data integration is the problem of combining data residing at different autonomous, heterogeneous sources and providing the client with a unified, reconciled global view of the data. We discuss data-integration systems, taking the abstract viewpoint that the global view is an ontology expressed in a class-based formalism. We resort to an expressive description logic, ALCQI, that fully captures class-based representation formalisms, and we show that query answering in data integration, as well as all other relevant reasoning tasks, is decidable. However, when we have to deal with large amounts of data, the high computational complexity in the size of the data makes the use of a full-fledged expressive description logic infeasible in practice. This leads us to consider DL-Lite, a specifically tailored restriction of ALCQI that ensures tractability of query answering in data integration while keeping enough expressive power to capture the most relevant features of class-based formalisms.


Fluoride has been used in the internal recording solution for manual and automated patch clamp experiments for decades because it helps to improve the seal resistance and promotes longer lasting recordings. In manual patch clamp, fluoride has been used to record voltage-gated Na (NaV) channels where seal resistance and access resistance are critical for good voltage control. In automated patch clamp, suction is applied from underneath the patch clamp chip to attract a cell to the hole and obtain a good seal. Since the patch clamp aperture cannot be moved to improve the seal like the patch clamp pipette in manual patch clamp, automated patch clamp manufacturers use internal fluoride to improve the success rate for obtaining GΩ seals. However, internal fluoride can affect voltage-dependence of activation and inactivation, as well as affecting internal second messenger systems and therefore, it is desirable to have the option to perform experiments using physiological, fluoride-free internal solution. We have developed an approach for high throughput fluoride-free recordings on a 384-well based automated patch clamp system with success rates >40% for GΩ seals. We demonstrate this method using hERG expressed in HEK cells, as well as NaV1.5, NaV1.7, and KCa3.1 expressed in CHO cells. We describe the advantages and disadvantages of using fluoride and provide examples of where fluoride can be used, where caution should be exerted and where fluoride-free solutions provide an advantage over fluoride-containing solutions.


ABSTRACT Background Currently about 19 million people in Africa are known to be living with diabetes, mainly Type 2 diabetes (T2DM) (95%), estimated to grow to 47 million people by 2045. However, there are concerns with early diagnosis of patients with Type 1 diabetes (T1DM) as often patients present late with complications. There are also challenges with access and affordability of insulin, monitoring equipment and test strips with typically high patient co-payments, which can be catastrophic for families. These challenges negatively impact on the quality of care of patients with T1DM increasing morbidity and mortality. There are also issues of patient education and psychosocial support adversely affecting patients' quality of life. These challenges need to be debated and potential future activities discussed to improve the future care of patients with T1DM across Africa. Methodology Documentation of the current situation across Africa for patients with T1DM including the epidemiology, economics, and available treatments within public healthcare systems as well as ongoing activities to improve their future care. Subsequently, provide guidance to all key stakeholder groups going forward utilizing input from senior-level government, academic and other professionals from across Africa. Results Whilst prevalence rates for T1DM are considerably lower than T2DM, there are concerns with late diagnosis as well as the routine provision of insulin and monitoring equipment across Africa. High patient co-payments exacerbate the situation. However, there are ongoing developments to address the multiple challenges including the instigation of universal health care and partnerships with non-governmental organizations, patient organizations, and pharmaceutical companies. Their impact though remains to be seen. In the meantime, a range of activities has been documented for all key stakeholder groups to improve future care. Conclusion There are concerns with the management of patients with T1DM across Africa. A number of activities has been suggested to address this and will be monitored.


Differences in obesity and body fat distribution across gender and race/ethnicity have been extensively described. We sought to replicate these differences and evaluate newly emerging data from the All of Us Research Program (AoU). We compared body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, and waist-to-hip ratio from the baseline physical examination, and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) from the electronic health record in up to 88,195 Non-Hispanic White (NHW), 40,770 Non-Hispanic Black (NHB), 35,640 Hispanic, and 5,648 Asian participants. We compared AoU sociodemographic variable distribution to National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) data and applied the pseudo-weighting method for adjusting selection biases of AoU recruitment. Our findings replicate previous observations with respect to gender differences in BMI. In particular, we replicate the large gender disparity in obesity rates among NHB participants, in which obesity and mean BMI are much higher in NHB women than NHB men (33.34 kg/m2 versus 28.40 kg/m2 respectively; p<2.22x10-308). The overall age-adjusted obesity prevalence in AoU participants is similar overall but lower than the prevalence found in NHANES for NHW participants. ALT was higher in men than women, and lower among NHB participants compared to other racial/ethnic groups, consistent with previous findings. Our data suggest consistency of AoU with national averages related to obesity and suggest this resource is likely to be a major source of scientific inquiry and discovery in diverse populations.


Certain micronutrients are protective against cognitive decline. We examined whether there is any uniform pattern of circulating micronutrients cross-culturally that are associated with successful cognitive aging. For the U.S. sample, we used the stored serum/plasma of 115 participants, collected in Oregon, USA. The Okinawa sample consisted of 49 participants selected using similar inclusion criteria as the Oregon sample, from the Keys to Optimal Cognitive Aging Project. All participants were aged 85 years and older without cognitive impairment. We found that the Okinawan elders used fewer vitamin supplements but had similar levels of vitamin B(12) and α-tocopherol, lower folate and γ-tocopherol, compared with Oregonian elders. That is, we did not find a uniform pattern of circulating micronutrients, suggesting that micronutrients other than those examined here or other lifestyle factors than nutrition could play an important role in achieving successful cognitive aging.


In 2003, a high-temperature pressure leaching circuit to treat copper sulfide concentrates was commissioned at the copper/molybdenum operation at Bagdad, AZ. In late 2007, a medium-temperature pressure leaching circuit was commissioned at the Morenci mine in Arizona. The Morenci circuit was shut down in mid-2008, following a fire in the autoclave circuit. The onset of the global financial crisis in late 2008 resulted in significant changes to the operating profile in the Southwestern United States with respect to concentrates production, concentrates treatment, acid production and acid consumption. As a result of these changes, the Morenci concentrator was shut down, and the pressure leaching circuit remained offline. In late 2014, the increasing acid requirements in the Southwestern United States prompted a reevaluation of the Morenci concentrate leaching facilities. As a result, the pressure leaching circuit was restarted in high-temperature (200 °C) mode in May 2015 and has operated successfully for three years since recommissioning. This paper describes the current pressure leaching circuit configuration and the factors leading to the successful application of copper sulfide concentrate leaching at this location.


Relationship management is a key topic in public relations, and it is also an essential factor for the success of charitable organizations. This study explored interpersonal communication strategies in relationship management when communicators played dual roles in the context of charitable organizations in the Greater Houston Area. The investigator interviewed 13 professionals currently working in nonprofits, analyzed interview transcripts, and illustrated many interesting findings, such as contextual factors of relationship management in this study, antecedent factors of organizational citizenship behaviors, convergence of internal and external communication strategies, and the role conversion of key publics. Major interpersonal strategies were useful for nonprofits in relationship management with key publics, because they were emphasized by many professionals in nonprofits. This study not only filled many research gaps but also resulted in many important theoretical and practical implications for relationship management in nonprofits.


Using a longitudinal dataset of 317 neighborhoods from 1996 to 2002 in Utrecht, The Netherlands, this study tests whether types of crime differentially impact a) the mechanisms of social disorganization theory, and b) residents' mobility behavior and attitudes towards the neighborhood. Neighborhoods with more cohesion have less violence two years later. Also, neighborhoods perceiving more violence experience lower levels of cohesion two years later. Higher levels of perceived violence were most important for explaining who moves out of the neighborhood, as such neighborhoods had more nonwhites and more lower income households at the next time point. Burglaries (a crime that occurs in private space) appear to increase residents' sense of feeling responsibility for the neighborhood.


This paper reports on a small-scale empirical study on note-taking in consecutive interpreting. As data, the study draws on the notes produced by four subjects while interpreting one Spanish source text consecutively into Danish, on the one hand, and one Danish source text into Spanish, on the other. The aim of the study is to explore what governs conference interpreters' choice of language for their notes. The categories traditionally used to discuss, describe and explain this choice are those of source language and target language, and these categories are therefore subject to particular scrutiny here. However, somewhat surprisingly, the results of the analyses indicate that the choice of language in note-taking is governed mainly by the status of the language in the interpreters' language combination, i.e. whether it is an A- or a B-language, and much less by its status in the interpreting task, i.e. whether it functions as the source or the target language. Drawing on the concept of processing capacity and the Effort Model of consecutive, a tentative explanation of these findings is suggested.


Ferromanganese crusts occurring on seamounts are a potential resource for rare earth elements that are critical for low-carbon technologies. Seamounts, however, host vulnerable marine ecosystems (VMEs), which means that spatial management is needed to address potential conflicts between mineral extraction and the conservation of deep-sea biodiversity. Exploration of the Tropic Seamount, located in an Area Beyond National Jurisdiction (ABNJ) in the subtropical North Atlantic, revealed large amounts of rare earth elements, as well as numerous VMEs, including high-density octocoral gardens, Solenosmilia variabilis patch reefs, xenophyophores, crinoid fields and deep-sea sponge grounds. This study focuses on the extensive monospecific grounds of the hexactinellid sponge Poliopogon amadou (Thomson, 1878). Deep-sea sponge grounds provide structurally complex habitat, augmenting local biodiversity. To understand the potential extent of these sponge grounds and inform spatial management, we produced the first ensemble species distribution model and local habitat suitability maps for P. amadou in the Atlantic employing Maximum Entropy (Maxent), General Additive Models (GAMs), and Random Forest (RF). The main factors driving the distribution of the sponge were depth and maximum current speed. The sponge grounds occurred in a marked bathymetric belt (2,500 – 3,000 m) within the upper North Atlantic Deep Water mass (2.5∘C, 34.7 psu, O2 6.7–7 mg ml-1), with a preference for areas bathed by moderately strong currents (0.2 – 0.4 ms-1). GAMs, Maxent and RF showed similar performance in terms of evaluation statistics but a different prediction, with RF showing the highest differences. This algorithm only retained depth and maximum currents whereas GAM and Maxent included bathymetric position index, slope, aspect and backscatter. In these latter two models, P. amadou showed a preference for high backscatter values and areas slightly elevated, flat or with gentle slopes and with a NE orientation. The lack of significant differences in model performance permitted to merge all predictions using an ensemble model approach. Our results contribute toward understanding the environmental drivers and biogeography of the species in the Atlantic. Furthermore, we present a case toward designating the Tropic Seamount as an Ecologically or Biologically Significant marine Area (EBSA) as a contribution to address biodiversity conservation in ABNJs.


As implemented over the past twenty-seven years, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act ("ECPA"), which regulates electronic surveillance by law enforcement agents, has become incomplete, confusing, and ineffective. In contrast, a new Swiss law, CrimPC, regulates law enforcement surveillance in a more comprehensive, uniform, and effective manner. This Article compares the two approaches and argues that recent proposals to reform ECPA in a piecemeal fashion will not suffice. Instead, Swiss CrimPC presents a model for more fundamental reform of U.S. law.This Article is the first to analyze the Swiss law with international eyes and demonstrate its advantages over the U.S. approach. The comparison sheds light on the inadequacy of U.S. surveillance law, including its recurrent failure to require substantial judicial review, notify targets of surveillance, and provide meaningful remedies to victims of unlawful practices. Notably, through judicial oversight and the requirement that surveillance practices be first approved by the legislature, the Swiss significantly restrict several law enforcement methods that U.S. law leaves to the discretion of the police. This Article explains the differences in approach as stemming from the greater influence of international human rights law in Switzerland and the Swiss people's willingness to engage in a wholesale revision of their procedural law.In the United States, the courts and Congress have struggled to establish appropriate surveillance rules, as evidenced by recent controversial judgments in the courts and congressional hearings on ECPA reform. In the wake of recent disclosures about massive NSA surveillance programs that have relied on both foreign and domestic surveillance, U.S. citizens have grown increasingly concerned about the excessive use of new surveillance technologies to gather information about their private communications and daily activities. This Article analyzes the Swiss approach to domestic electronic surveillance, which, if adopted here, would significantly improve our laws.


Recently, Bayesian probabilistic models have been used for predicting software development effort. One of the reasons for the interest in the use of Bayesian probabilistic models, when compared to traditional point forecast estimation models, is that Bayesian models provide tools for risk estimation and allow decision-makers to combine historical data with subjective expert estimates. In this paper, we use a Bayesian network model and illustrate how a belief updating procedure can be used to incorporate decision-making risks. We develop a causal model from the literature and, using a data set of 33 real-world software projects, we illustrate how decision-making risks can be incorporated in the Bayesian networks. We compare the predictive performance of the Bayesian model with popular nonparametric neural-network and regression tree forecasting models and show that the Bayesian model is a competitive model for forecasting software development effort.


Background & Aim: The most common surgically treatable causes of hearing loss are middle ear diseases among which the greatest effect is related to ossicular chain dysfunction. Successful ossicular chain reconstruction certainly improves air conduction thresholds and closes air-bone gap in audiograms, but the effect of this procedure on bone conduction thresholds has remained to be elucidated. Only few standard clinical trials have been done and most studies are retrospective with methodological faults. The aim of the present study was to determine the effect(s) of ossicular chain reconstruction on bone conduction thresholds. Patients & Method: In a controlled clinical trial, pre-and post-operative bone conduction(BC) thresholds of speech frequencies were investigated in 68 patients. In order to evaluate the effect of ossicular chain reconstruction on bone conduction, the patients were divided into two groups including 34 cases each. One group received ossicular chain reconstruction during the middle ear surgery and the other one was to receive it later. In each group, mean preoperative bone conduction thresholds of any frequencies were compared with postoperative ones using paired t-test. Results: In the reconstruction group, the results revealed a significant improvement in the postoperative BC thresholds at 1000 and 2000 Hz with the largest mean improvement observed at 2000 Hz(about 9.7 db recovery). In the group without reconstruction, no significant changes were observed at any frequencies. Conclusion: The results indicated the remarkable effect of ossicular chain on bone conduction. This effect is eliminated in ossicular disruptions due to various middle ear diseases and is reproducible by successful reconstruction of the chain. The findings showed changes in bone conduction as a mechanical phenomenon affected by ossicular chain. In other words, BC thresholds are not exclusive indicators of chochlear function. We also observed that true sensorineural hearing loss is not a common major complication of middle ear surgery.


Aims The Royal College of Pathologists recommend that a median of at least 12 lymph nodes should be harvested during pathological staging of colorectal cancer. It is not always easy to harvest the required number, especially in patients with rectal cancer receiving neoadjuvant therapy. Lymph node revealing solutions, for example, GEWF, may improve nodal yield. GEWF is safe, cheap and easy to use. Methods In a controlled trial, lymph node yields were compared after secondary specimen dissection following either 24 h of further fixation in formalin (n=101) or GEWF immersion (n=99). The number, size and tumour status of additional lymph nodes identified were compared between groups. Twenty-seven cases that received long-course neoadjuvant therapy were also assessed. Results Median lymph node yield at primary dissection met national standards overall (19) but also in the long-course neoadjuvant therapy group (13). Lymph nodes were smaller in neoadjuvant cases compared with non-neoadjuvant cases (mean size range 1.3–5.6 mm vs 1.5–8.9 mm). The use of further fixation and GEWF detected more nodes at secondary dissection. The mean number of additional nodes harvested was greater with formalin (8.3) than GEWF (7.3). There was no significant difference in the mean size of the additional lymph nodes detected between groups (point estimate 1.02; 95% CI −0.58 to 2.63; p=0.211). Upstaging triggering adjunct chemotherapy occurred in 1% (2/200) of cases. Conclusions The routine use of adjunct techniques to identify additional lymph nodes is unnecessary with underlying high-quality dissection practice. Emphasis should be placed upon education and training, spending appropriate time dissecting and ensuring specimens are sufficiently fixed beforehand.


This article reviews the collective body of articles in this publication. It provides a brief discussion of the contextual need for global perspectives in teacher preparation programs for preparing teachers to acquire global perspectives. In the process, a number of questions are asked for making international teacher preparation possible. The article identifies important proposals that address exposing prospective teachers to international experiences and integrating international global education into the process of their preparation as teachers. The article also points to tensions that need resolution as the field of teacher preparation works to promote and integrate international global education in preparing globally minded educators and cosmopolitan educators.


In animals, pigment cells are essential for coloration, as seen in feathers, fur, skin and eyes. In mammals, neural crest-derived melanocytes constitute the major population of pigment cells that is located mainly in the skin epidermis, as well as in hair follicles. A minor population of pigment cells originates from the optic cup and forms the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE), a cell monolayer lying between the neural retina and the choroid. In many cell types, the Notch signaling pathway regulates diverse biological processes such as cell fate decision, differentiation, stem cell maintenance or apoptosis. In my thesis project, the role of this pathway was investigated using Notch1, Notch2 and RBP-Jκ conditional knockout mice. Disruption of the Notch pathway by inactivation of Notch1 and Notch2, or RBP-Jκ in the melanocyte lineage using Tyr::Cre transgenic mice resulted in a gene dosage-dependent precocious hair graying, with the most pronounced effect seen in mice lacking both Notch1 and Notch2 in melanocytes. Histologically, this coat color dilution was explained by the progressive elimination of melanocytes and melanocyte stem cells, identified in skin or embryos by X-Gal staining (Dct::LacZ reporter mouse line) and immunofluorescence analyses. As in neural crest-derived melanocytes, members of the Notch signaling pathway are normally expressed in pigment cells of the RPE. The RPE-restricted deletion of RBP-Jκ using Tyrp1::Cre transgenic mice resulted in a microphthalmic eye phenotype and thus indicated a role of the Notch pathway in the development of the RPE. Further analyses demonstrated that misregulation of Notch signaling in RPE induced a reduction in the number of these pigment cells. In addition to these knockout studies, I have generated transgenic mouse lines that express the constitutively activated intracellular part of Notch (NotchIC) in melanocytes (Dct::NotchIC) and RPE cells (Tyrp1::NotchIC). Since these mice rescue the phenotypes observed in the conditional Notch receptor knockouts, they are instrumental to assess the implication of active Notch signaling in pigment cell development and tumorigenesis. Moreover, it might be determined whether constitutive activation of Notch can prevent physiological hair graying and loss of stem cells. In summary, my results underline the importance of fine-tuned Notch signaling for proper hair pigmentation and, more generally, for pigment cell development.


The success of the semantic web depends on widespread participation by cultural heritage institutions and other organizations in making connections between open, structured datasets. Large university libraries are beginning to make such connections it s time for mid-size and smaller libraries to take the leap and establish themselves as playing a part in this web of data. In particular, digital collections of many of these libraries represent significant regional or local history collections; metadata of these collections exposed as linked data can bring visibility for these unique resources. But do these libraries have the resources to create semantic data? What kinds of resources and technical support do these libraries need? How much and what kind of training do their staff need for linked data projects? This presentation focuses on a collaborative linked data project between two mid-sized academic libraries--Western Carolina University and Appalachian State University. The libraries are members of the Western North Carolina Library Network and share a common catalog. Both libraries have significant special collections on Appalachian culture and history. Their project aims to expose a slice of their digital collections on Appalachia as linked data and build connections to related datasets on the web thereby exploring the possibilities of the semantic web. The project also serves as the testing bed for future such collaborative work, possibly on a larger scale. The presentation will highlight the successes and challenges faced by the presenters as they delved into this project. For example, what resources and training did they need? How successful were they in in manipulating digital collections metadata in OpenRefine; navigating the intricacies of various data models such as those from Europeana and DPLA; sorting through the multitude of controlled vocabularies that are available as linked data on the web and selecting the best possible options? How difficult or easy was it to figure out linked data jargon, such as dereferenceable URIs and RDF skeletons? What kind of technical support was needed for setting up triples stores and querying linked data via SPARQL endpoints? The presenters hope this presentation will be a useful learning experience for those who are thinking of venturing into creating access for their special collections using linked data tools particularly for those from mid-size to small libraries.


Teenage pregnancy and parenting are issues of concern particularly in areas characterised by deprivation and social exclusion. Amongst these are a number of seaside resorts, where rates of under-18 conceptions have been higher than national averages, together with their surrounding rural areas. Researchers from the
Universities of Hull, Brighton and Liverpool explored the factors that shape young people's attitudes to,and experiences of, sexual behaviour and young parenthood in three linked seaside and rural areas. They found that, although there were many characteristics of sexual behaviour which were familiar from other research, the impact of the local context – for example the hedonistic and exploitative environment of the seaside or the isolation, difficulties in accessing services and heightened 'visibility' of rural areas often
accentuated their difficulties.


Author(s): Morzfeld, M; Tu, X; Wilkening, J; Chorin, AJ | Abstract: © 2015 Mathematical Sciences Publishers. Implicit sampling is a weighted sampling method that is used in data assimilation to sequentially update state estimates of a stochastic model based on noisy and incomplete data. Here we apply implicit sampling to sample the posterior probability density of parameter estimation problems. The posterior probability combines prior information about the parameter with information from a numerical model, e.g., a partial differential equation (PDE), and noisy data. The result of our computations are parameters that lead to simulations that are compatible with the data. We demonstrate the usefulness of our implicit sampling algorithm with an example from subsurface flow. For an efficient implementation, we make use of multiple grids, BFGS optimization coupled to adjoint equations, and Karhunen-Loeve expansions for dimensional reduction. Several difficulties of Markov chain Monte Carlo methods, e.g., estimation of burn-in times or correlations among the samples, are avoided because the implicit samples are independent.


This study incorporates perceived system quality into the original expectation-confirmation based information system continuance model in order to investigate the role of perceived system quality in users' motivation to continue e-learning system use. Our proposed model was tested among university educators (n = 175) who use the popular open-source e-learning system, Moodle. The results reveal that perceived usefulness, confirmation of initial expectations, and perceived system quality significantly affected educators' satisfaction. In addition, perceived usefulness and satisfaction significantly affected continuance intention. Unexpectedly, no direct association between perceived system quality and continuance intention was found. The determinants of continuance intention explain around 64% of its total variance. The paper finishes with conclusions and implications for future research and practice.


Recent studies have presented evidence that early to mid‐twentieth‐century earthquakes in Oklahoma and Texas were likely induced by fossil fuel production and/or injection of wastewater (Hough and Page, 2015; Frohlich et al. , 2016). Considering seismicity from 1935 onward, Hauksson et al. (2015) concluded that there is no evidence for significant induced activity in the greater Los Angeles region between 1935 and the present. To explore a possible association between earthquakes prior to 1935 and oil and gas production, we first revisit the historical catalog and then review contemporary oil industry activities. Although early industry activities did not induce large numbers of earthquakes, we present evidence for an association between the initial oil boom in the greater Los Angeles area and earthquakes between 1915 and 1932, including the damaging 22 June 1920 Inglewood and 8 July 1929 Whittier earthquakes. We further consider whether the 1933 M w 6.4 Long Beach earthquake might have been induced, and show some evidence that points to a causative relationship between the earthquake and activities in the Huntington Beach oil field. The hypothesis that the Long Beach earthquake was either induced or triggered by an foreshock cannot be ruled out. Our results suggest that significant earthquakes in southern California during the early twentieth century might have been associated with industry practices that are no longer employed (i.e., production without water reinjection), and do not necessarily imply a high likelihood of induced earthquakes at the present time.

Online Material: Summary of background information about the Wilmington oil field, information about revisited earthquakes between 1900 and 1935, tables of felt events, and accounts of three earthquakes.


The knowledge residing in the mental models of clients and stakeholders is considered as a crucial source of information by system dynamicists. Despite the importance of this knowledge, the theory of SD does not provide practical means for eliciting and recording it. Thus, several methods known as problem structuring methods (PSMs) have been developed and employed in the SD community to facilitate the problem situation conceptualization in group model building (GMB). Despite the growing body of literature on the application of the PSMs, limited work has been done on assessing and comparing the relative usefulness of PSMs in terms of their potential impact on problem-solving performance. In this paper, by invoking Cognitive Fit Theory, we develop a set of propositions for the analysis of the impact of PSMs on problem-solving performance.


This essay takes a look at the works of four early literary journalists—Portuguese reporters Hermano Neves and Mário Neves, and Brazilian writers Visconde de Taunay and Euclides da Cunha—to trace the foundations of lusophone literary journalism, that is, reportage written primarily in the Portuguese language. Among the findings are that war reporting is not only a common topic in both traditions—as well as in the manifold traditions of literary journalism across the world—but that literary journalism in both Portugal and Brazil started with the subject of war, under several different perspectives—and, thus, that the shocking reality of the battlefield has played a role in the deeper humanization of journalism. The conditions of the wars that are covered vary deeply—a military uprising, a military campaign to suppress a civil uprising, a failed campaign in a frontier zone, and a major, multisided war. However, in all cases analyzed here there are clear social and political crises that have produced journalistic creativity and voice, reflecting a need to report in a more descriptive manner and with a more immersed—and immersive—approach. Most of the works analyzed in this study also had a major impact in the development of literary journalism in both Portugal and Brazil, and even as the reporting subjects changed from battlefields back into city life, the main interest in human drama has remained.


The photocatalytic sp3C–sp3C cross-coupling between tetrahydrofuran (THF) and various alkanes was accomplished with Pt loaded titanium oxide (Pt/TiO2) photocatalysts. The cross-coupling between THF and cyclohexane was systematically studied, which revealed that the reaction followed two routes: the main course was the photooxidation of both substrates on a Pt/TiO2 photocatalyst to generate radical species followed by their successive coupling; meanwhile, the minor one was a hybrid of photocatalysis by Pt/TiO2 and thermocatalysis by Pt metal nanoparticles. The activity of the Pt catalysis was suggested to consist in the activation of an sp3C–H bond in THF or alkane molecules adsorbed on its surface and promote the reaction between the activated molecules and photogenerated radical species. Thus, the Pt nanoparticles on TiO2 were believed to play a bifunctional role of an electron receiver as well as a metal catalyst.


Background: Chlamydia trachomatis (C. trachomatis), is the most common bacterial Sexually Transmitted Infection, a major cause of Pelvic Inflammatory Disease and female infertility. Since C. trachomatis infections are frequently asymptomatic with higher prevalence in developing countries, highly sensitive and affordable methods are desirable for routine screening and diagnosis. This study aimed to evaluate the performance of C. trachomatis-specific IgG antibody by ELISA as a screening tool for C. trachomatis infection, by comparing the performance of ELISA with the gold standard Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR). Method: In this cross sectional study, we enrolled 150 women attending infertility clinic at Ibadan between January and November, 2015. ELISA for detection of IgG antibodies specific to C. trachomatis major outer membrane protein (MOMP) was performed on the blood samples using third generation indirect Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) and endocervical samples were analyzed for presence of C. trachomatis nucleic acid using PCR. Socio-demographic bio-data and gynaecological history were obtained with questionnaire; data was analyzed using SPSS version 20.0. Results: Overall, 58 (38.7%) were positive for C. trachomatis specific IgG antibody by ELISA and 11 (7.3%) for C. trachomatis nucleic acid by PCR. Using PCR as the gold standard, ELISA had a sensitivity of 81.8% specificity of 64.8%, positive predictive value of 15.5% negative predictive value of 97.8% and accuracy of 66%. Conclusion: The high sensitivity of the ELISA indicates that over 80% of patients identified as being positive in the screened population are truly infected. Also, the negative predictive value approaches 100% amongst those screened out as being negative. Thus its use as a screening tool for C. trachomatis infection is warranted particularly in developing countries where cheaper and easier to use alternatives to PCR are in dire need.


The mineral calcite is currently used in a wide range of industries and the main use of calcite powder in Sri Lanka is as a non-reinforcing filler in the manufacture of rubber products. The mineral dolomite is more abundantly found in Sri Lanka than calcite and it consists of a mixture of calcium and magnesium carbonates. Dolomite is very similar to calcite, but harder, denser and slightly more acid resistant. The main aim of this study was to evaluate the suitability of dolomite as a replacement for calcite in solid tyre manufacture. A series of 90:10 natural rubber (NR)/polybutadiene rubber (BR) blend compounds was prepared according to a middle layer, solid tyre formulation by varying the calcite to dolomite ratio at 10 phr intervals. Total filler loading was kept constant at 70 phr. Cure characteristics and physico-mechanical properties of all eight blend compounds were evaluated and compared. The NR/BR blend compound containing 100% dolomite was comparable to the blend compound containing 100% calcite in terms of hardness, modulus at 300% elongation, tensile strength, abrasion weight loss, resilience, compression set and resistance to flex-cracking. The blend compound containing 100% dolomite exhibited a higher scorch safety and lower cure time in comparison to that containing 100% calcite, which are advantages during the moulding operation. However, maximum torque and minimum torque of the blend compound prepared with 100% dolomite were higher than those of the blend compound prepared with 100% calcite. The NR/BR blend compound with 10:60 calcite to dolomite ratio is the best among the blend compounds containing both calcite and dolomite in terms of physico-mechanical properties. Further, the cure characteristics and most of the physico-mechanical properties of the 100% calcite as well as 100% dolomite containing blend compounds were in accordance with the requirements of a middle layer, solid tyre compound. Results in overall indicated that abundantly found dolomite would be a suitable replacement for commonly used calcite in solid tyre manufacture.


The publication of the Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods' paper,
in enabhng collectors to determine and compare the catalogued
fresh water species with those in their immediate
neighbourhood, has been most valuable, and has given a
healthy impetus to local observation. As the list, however,
was only published by the Society but a year ago, it cannot
be expected that any considerable addition could have been
made to our knowledge in this particular study since that
time. Still, as the types for the various species were mainly
derived from southern habitats, it is possible that some
varieties peculiar to northern Tasmania may have escaped
notice, and consequently there may be a difficulty in the
exact specific determination of certain of our northern
varieties. Indeed, I find, with respect to Physa, Lymnea, and
Bithynella, that the difficulties in the way of classification are
very great, because of their extreme variability even in the
same habitat. This difficulty is, unfortunately, increased
where the full range of variability may have escaped the
classifier's notice.


This article examines the interaction between data privacy, which was a highly salient political issue before the events of September 11, and cyber-security and homeland security, which became much more salient after those events. The article illustrates the shift in salience by examining the USA-PATRIOT Act, which was passed quickly in the fall of 2001 despite containing a number of surveillance provisions that had been explicitly rejected by Congress in 2000. To understand the interaction between privacy and security, the article examines the medical privacy rule issued in 2000 under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). (In the interests of full disclosure, the authors were the lead White House officials in coordinating the privacy rule.) The analysis here shows that the HIPAA rule stands up well to the concerns of the post-September 11 era. Concerns about public safety are met by existing provisions that permit disclosures to protect national security, to react to emergency circumstances, and to respond to law enforcement inquiries. The article explores in particular detail the proposed Model State Emergency Health Powers Act, drafted in the wake of the 2001 anthrax attacks. Professors Lawrence Gostin and James Hodge have argued that this Act is justified by a new "model of information sharing" for medical information. Our article concludes that public health concerns are appropriately addressed by the current HIPAA rule, and that a "model of information sharing" sends precisely the wrong signal about how the health system will handle issues of data privacy and security. More generally, the article analyzes situations of "security vs. privacy", where the two values are antagonistic, and situations of "security and privacy", where the two values work together. Security in some instances means greater surveillance, information gathering, and information sharing. For instance, law enforcement can monitor the online movements of hackers or hospitals can more quickly report cases of anthrax infection. These situations of "security vs. privacy" are defined as instances where security is promoted by getting information to the proper decisionmakers. As these information flows increase, privacy decreases. By contrast, security measures often promote privacy. Good security is one of the standard privacy fair information practices, because otherwise any hacker can get into a sensitive database. Good security, moreover, creates audit trails about which authorized users have accessed particular systems or data. Such auditing mechanisms promote the fair information practice of accountability, by deterring wrongdoing and making enforcement more effective. Finally, the authors explain how the most cost-effective and thorough implementation of privacy occurs at the time of a computer system overhaul. This approach is fundamental to HIPAA, which provided that privacy and security protections should be built at the same time as the shift to electronic health records. The new emphasis on security after September 11, in short, is a major strategic opportunity to improve data handling practices in general, for both security and privacy.


Microcanonical thermodynamics studies the operations that can be performed on systems with well-defined energy. So far, this approach has been applied to classical and quantum systems. Here we extend it to arbitrary physical theories, proposing two requirements for the development of a general microcanonical framework. We then formulate three resource theories, corresponding to three different sets of basic operations: (i) random reversible operations, resulting from reversible dynamics with fluctuating parameters, (ii) noisy operations, generated by the interaction with ancillas in the microcanonical state, and (iii) unital operations, defined as the operations that preserve the microcanonical state. We focus our attention on a class of physical theories, called sharp theories with purification, where these three sets of operations exhibit remarkable properties. Firstly, each set is contained into the next. Secondly, the convertibility of states by unital operations is completely characterised by a majorisation criterion. Thirdly, the three sets are equivalent in terms of state convertibility if and only if the dynamics allowed by theory satisfy a suitable condition, which we call unrestricted reversibility. Under this condition, we derive a duality between the resource theories of microcanonical thermodynamics and the resource theory of pure bipartite entanglement.


Yoweri Museveni's National Resistance Movement took power in Uganda in 1986 and established what it called 'movement' or 'no-party' democracy. Reacting to a history of ethnic conflict-prone parties, the NRM aimed at transforming electoral politics into individual rather than organisational competition. Party activities became subject to strict limitations. The actual functioning of Uganda's alleged 'alternative democratic model' has not been systematically empirically scrutinised. Understanding how it is working is not only an important topic in comparative political analysis but also for appraising external donors' policy. Despite the pressures placed on other African countries to open up to organised pluralism, donors have been uncritically supportive of Museveni's regime, failing to examine the extent to which 'no-partism' can be an authentic alternative to multiparty democracy. This thesis critically investigates the no-party arrangement, both empirically and normatively. It is based on extensive fieldwork carried out in Uganda in 1999 and 2000, when interviews were conducted with parliamentarians, political organisations' officials, NGO representatives, and various policy-makers. The research reconstructs the advent of 'no-partism' in the light of the Movement's reading of the country's political history. It investigates the extent to which party-like organisations retain a presence by mapping them empirically. Finally, it analyses the way 'no-partism' works by scrutinising how political action is organised during elections, in parliament, and in policy-making. The thesis demonstrates that the no-party system is largely no longer in place - since the Movement itself has adopted a party-like organisation. Uganda currently has a 'hegemonic party system'. Opposition parties, despite the legal ban, have tried to adopt new organisational stratagems. But the ban also prompted the emergence of alternative arrangements to surrogate party activities, as it is most apparent in an atomised parliament that mainly fails to operate effectively without formal political parties.


A new data layer provides Coastal and Marine Ecological Classification Standard (CMECS) labels for global coastal segments at 1 km or shorter resolution. These characteristics are summarized for six US Marine Biodiversity Observation Network (MBON) sites and one MBON Pole to Pole of the Americas site in Argentina. The global coastlines CMECS classifications were produced from a partitioning of a 30 m Landsat-derived shoreline vector that was segmented into 4 million 1 km or shorter segments. Each segment was attributed with values from 10 variables that represent the ecological settings in which the coastline occurs, including properties of the adjacent water, adjacent land, and coastline itself. The 4 million segments were classified into 81,000 coastal segment units (CSUs) as unique combinations of variable classes. We summarize the process to develop the CSUs and derive summary descriptions for the seven MBON case study sites. We discuss the intended application of the new CSU data for research and management in coastal areas.


The field of digital humanities is transforming research and teaching inside academia, but it is also making substantial contributions in government. Government agencies, such as the U.S. Department of State's Office of the Historian, are applying technologies and methodologies developed in the field of digital humanities to government data in order to improve government transparency and the delivery of services, while lowering costs and ensuring better long-term data integrity. Focusing on the decision making processes that led the Office of the Historian to adopt specific technologies (namely, the Text Encoding Initiative and the eXist XML database) for its historical publications, this case study offers broad lessons for other government agencies and digital humanities projects and scholars.


&NA; Figure. No caption available. BACKGROUND: Biosimilars provide opportunities for improving healthcare access and outcomes and reducing overall healthcare costs for patients with cancer. OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this article is to explore the history of biosimilars, regulatory pathways, and barriers to biosimilar approval. This article also aims to describe the patient and clinician barriers to biosimilars use and the progress that has been achieved since the first biosimilar approval in Europe in 2006 and in the United States in 2015. METHODS: A literature search was conducted to retrieve articles that are highly relevant to the history of biosimilars development and regulatory pathways in the United States, Europe, Asia, and Canada. Patient and clinician perspectives on safety issues and concerns regarding immunogenicity and bioequivalence that limit use of biosimilars are also included. FINDINGS: Patient and provider concerns regarding immunologic patient safety issues, such as immunogenicity, lack of comparability, and low biosimilarity, still exist. The clinical safety, efficacy, and tolerability of biosimilars are among the top concerns in patients, prescribers, and clinicians.


In this paper, a virtual instrument for the estimation of octane number in the gasoline produced by refineries is introduced. The instrument was designed with the aim of replacing measuring hardware during maintenance operations. The virtual instrument is based on a nonlinear moving average model, implemented by using multilayer perceptron neural networks. Stacking approaches are adopted to improve the estimation performance of the instrument. Classical linear algorithms of model aggregation are compared in the paper with a nonlinear strategy, based on the neural combination of a set of first-level neural estimators. The validity of the proposed approach is verified by comparison with the performance of both linear and nonlinear modeling techniques. The designed virtual instrument has been implemented by a large refinery in Sicily, which supplied the data used during the design phase


Objective - The objective of this review was to assess which library instruction methods are most effective for improving the information skills of students at an introductory, undergraduate level, using cognitive outcomes (measuring changes in knowledge). The study sought to address the following questions:
1) What is the overall state of research on this topic?
2) Which teaching methods are more effective?

Methods - Systematic review methodology was used. Fifteen databases were searched for relevant articles retrieving 4356 potentially relevant citations. Titles and abstracts were reviewed for relevance. Of those, 257 full articles were considered in-depth using a predetermined inclusion/exclusion form. 122 unique studies met the inclusion criteria and underwent an extensive data extraction and critical appraisal process. 55 of these studies met author defined quality criteria to provide information on the effectiveness of different teaching methods. Of these, 16 studies provided sufficient information to enable meta-analyses using standardized mean difference to be undertaken.

Results - The overwhelming majority of studies were conducted in the United States (88%). 79 studies (65%) used experimental or quasi-experimental research methods. Teaching methods used in the studies varied, with the majority focused on traditional methods of teaching, followed by computer assisted instruction, and self-directed independent learning. Studies measured outcomes that correlated with Bloom's lower levels of learning (Remember, Understand, Apply).

16 studies compared traditional instruction with no instruction, and 12 found a positive outcome. Meta-analysis of the data from 4 of these studies agreed with the positive conclusions favouring traditional instruction. 14 studies compared computer assisted instruction with traditional instruction. 9 of these showed a neutral result, and meta-analysis of 8 of these studies agreed with this neutral result. 6 studies compared self-directed independent learning with no instruction, and meta-analysis of 5 of these agreed that the result was positive in favour of self-directed independent learning.
Conclusions - Based on the results of this meta-analysis, there is sufficient evidence to suggest that computer assisted instruction is as effective as traditional instruction. Evidence also suggests that both traditional instruction and self-directed independent instruction are more effective than no instruction. Additional comparative research needs to be done across different teaching methods. Studies comparing active learning, computer assisted instruction, and self-directed independent learning would greatly enrich the research literature. Further studies utilizing appropriate methodologies and validated research tools would enrich our evidence base, and contribute to the growth of knowledge about effectiveness of particular teaching methods.


Over the last several decades, law and social science scholars have documented persistent racial inequality in the United States. This review focuses on mechanisms to explain this persistent pattern. We begin with policy making, a mechanism fundamental to all the others. We then examine one particularly important policy, the carceral state, which can be described as the most important policy response to the Civil Rights Era. A significant body of scholarship on employment discrimination presents a site for explaining the transformation of law on the books into the law in action. Finally, we review scholarship on the persistence of segregation, concentrated neighborhood disadvantage and its attendant impact on racial inequality. We conclude with two themes that deserve special emphasis, the need for theory drawing these fields together, and our need, above all at this moment in our history, for public scholarship changing the discourse, politics, and law perpetuating racial inequality.


In most natural and engineered systems, a set of entities interact with each other in complicated patterns that can encompass multiple types of relationships, change in time, and include other types of complications. Such systems include multiple subsystems and layers of connectivity, and it is important to take such"multilayer"features into account to try to improve our understanding of complex systems. Consequently, it is necessary to generalize"traditional"network theory by developing (and validating) a framework and associated tools to study multilayer systems in a comprehensive fashion. The origins of such efforts date back several decades and arose in multiple disciplines, and now the study of multilayer networks has become one of the most important directions in network science. In this paper, we discuss the history of multilayer networks (and related concepts) and review the exploding body of work on such networks. To unify the disparate terminology in the large body of recent work, we discuss a general framework for multilayer networks, construct a dictionary of terminology to relate the numerous existing concepts to each other, and provide a thorough discussion that compares, contrasts, and translates between related notions such as multilayer networks, multiplex networks, interdependent networks, networks of networks, and many others. We also survey and discuss existing data sets that can be represented as multilayer networks. We review attempts to generalize single-layer-network diagnostics to multilayer networks. We also discuss the rapidly expanding research on multilayer-network models and notions like community structure, connected components, tensor decompositions, and various types of dynamical processes on multilayer networks. We conclude with a summary and an outlook.


Background The Global Program to Eliminate Lymphatic Filariasis aims to interrupt transmission of lymphatic filariasis and manage morbidity in people currently living with the disease. A component of morbidity management is improving health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in patients. Measurement of HRQoL in current management programs is varied because of the lack of a standard HRQoL tool for use in the lymphatic filariasis population. Methodology/Principal Findings In this study, the psychometric properties of three health status measures were compared when used in a group of lymphatic filariasis patients and healthy controls. The World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule 2.0 (WHODAS 2.0), the Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI), and the Lymphatic Filariasis Quality of Life Questionnaire (LFSQQ) were administered to 36 stage II and stage III lymphatic filariasis subjects and 36 age and sex matched controls in Kerala, India. All three tools yielded missing value rates lower than 10%, suggesting high feasibility. Highest internal consistency was seen in the LFSQQ (α = 0.97). Discriminant validity analysis demonstrated that HRQoL was significantly lower in the LF group than in controls for the WHODAS 2.0, DLQI, and LFSQQ, but total HRQoL scores did not differ between stage II and stage III lymphedema subjects. The LFSQQ total score correlated most strongly with the WHODAS 2.0 (r = 0.91, p<0.001) and DLQI (r = 0.81, p<0.001). Conclusions/Significance The WHODAS 2.0, DLQI, and LFSQQ demonstrate acceptable feasibility, internal consistency, discriminate validity, and construct validity. Based on our psychometric analyses, the LFSQQ performs the best and is recommended for use in the lymphatic filariasis population.


NGO organizations, corporate institutions, Trusts, Associations, Multinational Companies and Philanthropists can play vital role by funding especially through library as part of their social service i.e. by developing community library centers, land for the Library buildings, and furniture for the libraries etc. Public librarians need to tap such organizations to utilize this opportunity and provide the facilities and services to common peoples need. For the poster, researcher conducted thorough literature study regarding how in India NGO's have helped in developing the public, private as well as school libraries. There are almost 48000 NGO's registered in India out of that around 25000 NGO's one of the cause is Education that includes library related activities. Presenter initially visited their websites where hardly few pieces of information were mentioned regarding work for the library development. So using newspaper articles, blog posts, journals, magazine articles and Google search engine, databases researcher found out almost 25+ NGO's which actually work for the library development in various forms. By donating books, conducting book donation drive, book reading programs, book exchange program, donating mobiles book vans, various reading based activity programs, mobile creche equipped with books, book trunks, paining libraries, library furniture, wall hanging book kits, librarian training programs etc. Hopefully the poster tried to depict the present scenario of NGO's in connection with library and highlighted their work with pictures. The main image used for the poster was tree structure with roots where mentioned various sources of funds received by NGO, truck contains names of NGO's, five branches presents the work area of NGO's followed by pictures. It has tried to show the amount of work done and kind of plan can be developed about how NGO's need to invest in libraries.


A semantic net can be used to represent a sentence. A sentence in a language contains semantics which are polar in nature, that is, semantics which are positive, neutral and negative. Neutrosophy is a relatively new field of science which can be used to mathematically represent triads of concepts. These triads include truth, indeterminacy and falsehood, and so also positivity, neutrality and negativity. Thus a conventional semantic net has been extended in this paper using neutrosophy into a Polar Fuzzy Neutrosophic Semantic Net. A Polar Fuzzy Neutrosophic Semantic Net has been implemented in MATLAB and has been used to illustrate a polar sentence in English language. The paper demonstrates a method for the representation of polarity in a computer's memory. Thus, polar concepts can be applied to imbibe a machine such as a robot, with emotions, making machine emotion representation possible.


This thesis focuses on the issue of the gender wage gap in New Zealand that has been a prevalent topic in most countries and in a variety of academic c ircles over recent decades. Those who conclude that females are still being discriminated against in the labour market point to the use of a combination of policies, such as affirmative action and comparable worth, as a possible solution. Opponents to this view contend that there are many reasons that, combined, explain why females often earn less than their male counterparts. This thesis, encompassing a variety of statistics, illustrates that females have made, and continue to make, strong progress in all facets of the labour market. Thus, in conclusion, legislation to introduce new policies to narrow any gap is a road fraught with too many dangers and one that we do not need to go down.


ABSTRACT Cefiderocol (S-649266) is a novel siderophore cephalosporin with potent in vitro activity against clinically encountered multidrug-resistant (MDR) Gram-negative isolates; however, its spectrum of antibacterial activity against these difficult-to-treat isolates remains to be fully explored in vivo. Here, we evaluated the efficacy of cefiderocol humanized exposures in a neutropenic murine thigh model to support a suitable MIC breakpoint. Furthermore, we compared cefiderocol's efficacy with humanized exposures of meropenem and cefepime against a subset of these phenotypically diverse isolates. Ninety-five Gram-negative isolates were studied. Efficacy was determined as the change in log10 CFU at 24 h compared with 0-h controls. Bacterial stasis or ≥1 log reduction in 67 isolates with MICs of ≤4 μg/ml was noted in 77, 88, and 85% of Enterobacteriaceae, Acinetobacter baumannii, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, respectively. For isolates with MICs of ≥8 μg/ml, bacterial stasis or ≥1 log10 reduction was observed in only 2 of 28 (8 Enterobacteriaceae, 19 A. baumannii, and 1 P. aeruginosa) strains. Against highly resistant meropenem and cefepime organisms, cefiderocol maintained its in vivo efficacy. Overall, humanized exposures of cefiderocol produced similar reductions in bacterial density for organisms with MICs of ≤4 μg/ml, whereas isolates with MICs of ≥8 μg/ml generally displayed bacterial growth in the presence of the compound. Data derived in the current study will assist with the delineation of MIC susceptibility breakpoints for cefiderocol against these important nosocomial Gram-negative pathogens; however, additional clinical data are required to substantiate these observations.


We describe the development of a novel plasmid-based assay for measuring the in vivo frequency of misincorporation of amino acids into polypeptide chains in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The assay is based upon the measurement of the catalytic activity of an active site mutant of type III chloramphenicol acetyl transferase (CATIII) expressed in S. cerevisiae. A His195(CAC)-->Tyr195(UAC) mutant of CATIII is completely inactive, but catalytic activity can be restored by misincorporation of histidine at the mutant UAC codon. The average error frequency of misincorporation of histidine at this tyrosine UAC codon in wild-type yeast strains was measured as 0. 5x10(-5) and this frequency was increased some 50-fold by growth in the presence of paromomycin, a known translational-error-inducing antibiotic. A detectable frequency of misincorporation of histidine at a mutant Ala195 GCU codon was also measured as 2x10(-5), but in contrast to the Tyr195-->His195 misincorporation event, the frequency of histidine misincorporation at Ala195 GCU was not increased by paromomycin, inferring that this error did not result from miscognate codon-anticodon interaction. The His195 to Tyr195 missense error assay was used to demonstrate increased frequencies of missense error at codon 195 in SUP44 and SUP46 mutants. These two mutants have previously been shown to exhibit a translation termination error phenotype and the sup44+ and sup46+ genes encode the yeast ribosomal proteins S4 and S9, respectively. These data represent the first accurate in vivo measurement of a specific mistranslation event in a eukaryotic cell and directly confirm that the eukaryotic ribosome plays an important role in controlling missense errors arising from non-cognate codon-anticodon interactions.


While evidence is mounting that larval reef fish are active participants in the process of dispersal and settlement, the sensory and behavioural mechanisms by which these fishes disperse and return from their oceanic phase to the reefs remain unknown. On One Tree Island (Great Barrier Reef, Australia), we tested freshly collected animals in a large choice-flume on the shore. Here, we present the first evidence that larval reef fish (primarily apogonids) approaching the time of settlement are capable of detecting differences between ocean and lagoon water and prefer lagoon water. We also demonstrate that they sniff actively with well-innervated noses and that attraction to lagoon water was not affected by warmer or colder temperatures. We conclude that they used chemical signals to orient toward lagoon water. Finally, we describe ebb tide plumes of lagoon water that extend many kilometers from reefs. Such plumes could provide chemosensory cues for dispersal and settlement stages of reef fish as they develop swimming efficiency. We argue that fishes may imprint to reef odour as embryos and/or early larvae and that this could facilitate both retention near the natal reef and navigation toward reefs from greater distances.


Ideally the variability of a product line is represented completely and correctly by its variability model. However, in practice additional variability is often represented on the level of the build system or in the code. Such a situation may lead to inconsistencies, where the actually realized variability does not fully correspond to the one described by the variability model. In this paper we focus on configuration mismatches, i.e., cases where the effective variability differs from the variability as it is represented by the variability model. While previous research has already shown that these situations still exist even today in well-analyzed product lines like Linux, so far it was unclear under what circumstances such issues occur in reality. In particular, it is open what types of configuration mismatches occur and how severe they are. Here, our contribution is to close this gap by presenting a detailed manual analysis of 80 configuration mismatches in the Linux 4.4.1 kernel and assess their criticality. We identify various categories of configuration issues and show that about two-thirds of the configuration mismatches may actually lead to kernel misconfigurations.


In a debate in this journal concerning the importance of structure in the effects of musical compositions, Robert Batt suggested the first movement of Mozart9s Symphony in G Minor K. 550 as the ideal example on which research could contravene the minimal effects of structural interventions that have been observed in prior research by Konecni. This article reports the results of putting Batt9s suggestion to empirical test. As Batt pointed out, the first movement of K. 550 can be broken down into nine segments that can be broadly defined as expository (two themes), developmental, and recapitulative (two themes). The original and four differentially intrusive versions of the piece were presented to 42 college non—music-student subjects and 11 college music-student subjects. On the dimensions of pleasingness, interestingess, and a desire to own a copy of the piece, the original version consistently failed to elicit greater preference than the altered versions did in both subject populations, although all versions were much liked by these nonmusician and musician subjects.


In this paper, we consider a four-node relay-based OFDMA system. The expression of the upper bound for the achievable rate in Successive Relaying (SUR) protocol is derived by using the cut-set theorem for half-duplex systems. Based on this expression, the near-optimal solution of the achievable rate is obtained in the joint power and subcarrier allocation constraint, according to the dual problem decomposition approach and the subgradient method. Moreover, we make a comparison on the achievable rate between SUR and Simultaneous Relaying (SIR) in the pathloss model accepted by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE) Advanced system. The simulation results demonstrate the enhancement of the achievable rate in SUR protocol is expanded in high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) compared with the achievable rate in SIR protocol under both the symmetric and asymmetric cases. And for SUR protocol , the achievable rate in symmetric case performs better in high SNR.


The contemporary phenomenon of market globalization has resulted in companies becoming more international in their orientation and has also led to increased complexity in the business environment. While capital markets now offer unforeseen investment opportunities, one important development associated with these trends is the tendency for investors to be confronted with an abundance of information about myriad corporate activities. In addition to making the required compulsory disclosures, more and more companies are disclosing information on a voluntary basis--presumably in the hopes that this extra data will hasten the stock market to recognize hidden elements of corporate value. While no one would dispute that there is a growing trend toward increased corporate disclosures, the current trickle of voluntary disclosures may soon metamorphose into a veritable river of additional information. In this article we provide some insights into why the value gap is responsible for the enhanced demand for extra disclosure. We also outline some of the more important frameworks that have emerged in the contemporary literature on disclosures, and we explore the potentially critical impact of XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) on this topic. Finally, we present our views about some of the likely implications of the trend toward additional voluntary disclosures. VOLUNTARY DISCLOSURE The primary objective of traditional financial reporting is the disclosure of financial data within the framework of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). Today most companies in the developed world report under either one (or sometimes both) of the two dominant sets of accounting standards: U.S. GAAP and International Accounting Standards (IAS). Nevertheless, despite their global importance, both sets of accounting standards have major deficiencies from a capital market perspective. For example, conventional standards provide a huge scope for managerial profit manipulation. In addition, the retrospective nature of the financial reporting process means that the reported data is not always a reliable basis for forecasting future performance, which can result in a loss in credibility from a stakeholder perspective. Furthermore, contemporary accounting reports focus almost exclusively on quantitative data and, typically, reveal little about issues such as investment risks and the long-term effects of capital investments. In addition, key drivers of corporate value in critical areas of the business are not reported to investors under the traditional accounting model, for instance, human capital, customer relations, innovation, research and development (R&D), and corporate reputation. In recent years, however, both theorists and practitioners have begun to recognize the inherent shortcomings of traditional reporting and have developed models for additional voluntary disclosure (e.g., the ValueReporting[TM] framework developed by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC), which is discussed later). (1) These business-reporting frameworks promote providing information supplementary to the traditional financial report and may help investors to better identify value-driving activities. Although the developments in the field are emerging on a rather piecemeal basis, voluntary reporting is now, nonetheless, gradually being accepted as part of the company's official external reporting. [FIGURE 1 OMITTED] In general, developments in voluntary reporting are to be welcomed because of their capacity to reduce existing information asymmetries (or information gaps) between shareholders and management. Figure 1 provides an overview of these gaps. A perception gap exists if the utility of information is perceived differently by the market than by the company. An understanding gap occurs when the different stakeholders and management assess the data in different ways. An information gap means that key performance data from the perspective of market participants is not communicated to them adequately. …


Hypogammaglobulinemia (serum IgG lower than 2 SD below the age-matched mean) and clinical symptoms such as increased susceptibility to infection, autoimmune manifestations, granulomatous disease, and unexplained polyclonal lymphoproliferation are considered to be diagnostic hallmarks in patients with common variable immunodeficiency (CVID), the most frequent clinically severe primary immunodeficiency syndrome. In the present study, we investigated patients with hypogammaglobulinemia and no clinical or immunological signs of defective cell-mediated immunity and differentiated two groups on the basis of their IgG antibody formation capacity against a variety of different antigens (bacterial toxins, polysaccharide antigens, viral antigens). Patients with hypogammaglobulinemia and intact antibody production (HIAP) displayed no or only mild susceptibility to infections, while CVID patients showed marked susceptibility to bacterial infections that normalized following initiation of IVIG or subcutaneous immunoglobulin replacement therapy. There was a substantial overlap in IgG serum levels between the asymptomatic HIAP group and the CVID patients examined before immunoglobulin treatment. HIAP patients showed normal levels of switched B-memory cells (CD19+CD27+IgD−), while both decreased and normal levels of switched B-memory cells could be found in CVID patients. IgG antibody response to a primary antigen, tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV), was defective in CVID patients, thus confirming their substantial defect in IgG antibody production. Defective IgG antibody production against multiple antigens could also be demonstrated in an adult patient with recurrent infections but normal IgG levels. To facilitate early treatment before recurrent infections may lead to organ damage, the antibody formation capacity should be examined in hypogammaglobulinemic patients and the decision to treat should be based on the finding of impaired IgG antibody production.


The central aim of the thesis is to examine the use of multiple methods in institutional investors" engagement in the UK. In pursuit of that aim, the thesis seeks to examine institutional investors" engagement through the agency theory framework. Previous research on institutional investors" engagement has failed to illuminate the ways in which institutional investors" engagement in corporate governance and corporate social responsibility is applying multiple methods to engagement; particularly as a significant amount of institutional investors" engagement is conducted discreetly and the data and information relating to their engagement activities is not usually publicly disclosed. Very few researchers investigating institutional investors" engagement recognise that dialogue alone is, at times, insufficient and may not produce the results that they expect. Hence, extant research has not examined what path institutional investors take when a particular mode of engagement fails to yield the desired result.

This research examines Foreign & Colonial Investments and reveals that, when one method of institutional investors" engagement, employed to influence corporate behaviour, is unsuccessful, F&C Investments makes use of another method of engagement to influence corporate behaviour, policies and practices. Hence, the traditional approach to institutional investors" engagement is changing. For example, in the past, institutional investors" engagement in corporate governance and corporate social responsibility tended to occur separately. Institutional investors" engagement in corporate social responsibility was the focus of ethical and religious investors. However, this research clearly shows that institutional investors integrate corporate governance and corporate social responsibility issues in F&C Investments" engagement practices. The integrating of corporate governance and corporate social responsibility suggests that the practise of institutional investors" engagement may have is advancing. F&C Investments" engagement in corporate governance and corporate social responsibility indicates that corporate social responsibility has become mainstream, having progressed beyond the initial realms of religious and ethical investors to become a major aspect of corporate governance.


In recent work (von Fintel & Gillies 2010, Matthewson 2015, Lassiter 2016, Mandelkern 2016), epistemic modals have been claimed to have felicity conditions that require the evidence for the prejacent to be indirect. In contrast, I argue that epistemic modals have felicity conditions that require that the prejacent is not known as claimed in Giannakidou & Mari 2016. New linguistic data is produced in support of this position. The proposed account is argued to explain the new evidence better than accounts that rely on indirectness. The evidence in favor of this account also militates in favor of a weak semantics for must φ . In light of these findings, future prospects are explored. In particular, I suggest that this proposal paves the way for the felicity conditions of epistemic must to be derived as a conversational implicature. Furthermore, I demonstrate that a purported counterexample to the proposal, must φ statements in the conclusions of deductions, is a problem for indirectness accounts as well, and I suggest a way forward.

EARLY ACCESS


This Commentary examines three issues raised in Professor Thomas G. Griffith's Article on the connection between progressive taxation and subjective well-being, focusing on the selection of happiness as the measure of the gains of redistribution, the ability to measure happiness or subjective well-being, and the implications of using happiness in determining tax policy. After arguing that the progressive taxation debate would benefit from further exploration of why happiness is the appropriate measure of success, this Commentary raises concerns about relying on self-reporting of subjective well-being and how happiness studies should be interpreted and can be improved. Finally, this Commentary notes that studies of income and happiness may inform tax policy design by helping to determine the appropriate balance between taxes and expenditures, outlining a role for the government in informing taxpayer's perceptions of happiness, and focusing additional research necessary for an effective progressive taxation policy.


The cost of uncontrolled Avena spp. (Avena fatua and A. sterilis), through yield losses and dockages for contaminated wheat, and the cost of control methods, is reviewed, using gross margins analysis. In competition and herbicide trials in Australia, grain yield losses due to Avena spp. range from nil to 75%. A yield of 2500 kg/ha gave a yield loss of 35% resulting in a gross margins loss of 50%.

The importance of using high cost herbicides correctly is shown; if diclofop-methyl and flampropmethyl are applied incorrectly or too late so that, instead of a maximum yield increase, there is no yield increase, the gross margin is reduced from $115 to $44/ha. Avena spp. control by rotating winter and summer crops in Queensland is achieved at no cost. The significant points demonstrated in this review are applicable in many crop/weed situations.


We run an experiment in China, Paraguay and Uganda to determine how preferences for redistribution depend on the cause of the original inequality. Unlike previous studies, we move beyond the rudimentary luck/skill distinction in designing the activities subjects use to generate their income. First, we employ tasks that differentiate between two types of luck: (1) chance, in which the subject's payoff is the realization of a lottery chosen exogenously by the experimenter, and (2) risk, in which the subject herself chooses between lotteries with known payoff distributions. Second, we decompose skill into its constituent categories: (a) aptitude, as measured by an IQ test, and (b) effort, as measured by a computerized real-effort task that controls for baseline ability. We hypothesize that subjects will exhibit a preference for redistributing their group's income in order to achieve a more equitable distribution, and that the magnitude of this preference is decreasing with how much control subjects feel they have over their income level. Specifically, we hypothesize that redistribution levels will consistently be greatest in the chance treatment and least in the effort treatment, and that we can predict the likelihood of subjects redistributing more income from risk than from aptitude based on a priori knowledge about a country's average beliefs about locus of control. Though some of our results are only marginally statistically significant, we find that we can confirm our hypothesized universal attitudes toward chance and effort. Furthermore, Ugandan subjects, with on average an external locus of control, exhibit higher redistribution for aptitude relative to risk, whereas Chinese and Paraguayan subjects, with on average an internal locus of control, exhibit the opposite. Our results are related to the question of designing optimal tax policies when inequality arises, or is perceived to arise, from different sources. JEL: H21, H23, O57, P35 1 We thank research assistants at Xiamen University, Universidad Nacional de Asuncion, Kampala International University, and Brigham Young University. We are indebted to their determination. We also thank Daniele Passerman, Olga Stoddard, Holger Herz, Yagiz Ozdemir, Charles Efferson, and Ernst Fehr for helpful design feedback, coding assistance, and results interpretation. We gratefully acknowledge the Global Management Center at Brigham Young University for partially funding this project.


The dynamical interaction between three-dimensional (3-D) buoyant flow and plate-driven mantle flow beneath a mid-ocean ridge is examined using a combination of laboratory and numerical experiments. In a unique laboratory setup a layer of strongly temperature-dependent viscous fluid is heated from below and cooled from above to drive thermal convection. Forced, plate-driven flow is modeled by dragging mylar sheeting in opposite directions across the fluid surface. Uniform viscosity 3-D numerical models have been designed to simulate the laboratory runs, to provide additional information on the flow, and to attempt to isolate the effects of variable viscosity. In one type of experiment we modeled buoyancy on the scale of the partial melting region with a linear heat source beneath the spreading axis. In a second set of experiments the entire base of the tank is heated in order to investigate the interaction between plate-driven flow and larger-scale (upper mantle) convection. The pattern of segment-scale (∼100–150 km) convection beneath a spreading center is found to be a strong function of the spreading rate and the Rayleigh number (Ra) of the buoyant flow. Purely two-dimensional (2-D) flow exists only in the case of low Ra (∼105) and faster spreading rates (>4–6 cm/yr half rate). Three dimensionality is strongly enhanced during transient pulses of upwelling. Convection on the scale of the upper mantle can contribute significant long-wavelength spatial (∼600–1000 km) and temporal (20–40 m.y.) variability in upwelling rates and temperatures at spreading centers and may provide an alternative model for plume-ridge interaction. For a given Ra the upwelling near the spreading axis can essentially be described by three regimes: weakly 3-D at the slow spreading rates, strongly 3-D at slow to intermediate rates, and 2-D at fast spreading rates. The regime boundaries shift toward higher plate velocities with increasing Ra. Comparison of the laboratory and numerical experiments indicates that temperature-dependent viscosity may strengthen the position of focused upwelling centers and cause a sharper transition between 2-D and 3-D upwelling patterns. Taken together, these results suggest that buoyancy-driven, dynamic flow is an important element in the geodynamics of mid-ocean ridges.


A sensitivity analysis in an observational study tests whether the qualitative conclusions of an analysis would change if we were to allow for the possibility of limited bias due to confounding. The design sensitivity of a hypothesis test quantifies the asymptotic performance of the test in a sensitivity analysis against a particular alternative. We propose a new, nonasymptotic, distribution-free test, the uniform general signed rank test, for observational studies with paired data, and examine its performance under Rosenbaum's sensitivity analysis model. Our test can be viewed as adaptively choosing from among a large underlying family of signed rank tests, and we show that the uniform test achieves design sensitivity equal to the maximum design sensitivity over the underlying family of signed rank tests. Our test thus achieves superior design sensitivity, indicating it will perform well in sensitivity analyses on large samples. We support this conclusion with simulations and a data example, showing that the advantages of our test extend to moderate sample sizes as well.


The Arkansas Rous Sarcoma Regressor (AR) and Progressor (AP) lines of chickens represent an excellent model to study immune responses to tumors. Both lines of chickens initially develop tumors when injected with Rous sarcoma viros (RSV) or with DNA coding for the RSV oncogene v-src (v-src DNA). AR chickens will eventually regress the tumors whereas AP chickens will allow the tumors to progress to a terminal stage. By using both v-src DNA and RSV for tumor induction, we were able to compare the immune response to tumor antigens alone and tumor antigens in combination with vi raJ components, respectively. To study the ability ofv-src DNA to induce tumors in AR and AP chickens, 3-day-old AR and AP chicks were injected with v-src DNA, and the incidence and development of tumors was monitored. To gain insight into the role oflymphocytes in tumor regression, 9-week-old AR and AP chickens were injected into the wing web with either PBS (vehicle control), vsrc DNA in PBS, or RSV in PBS. Blood was collected prior to injection and during tumor development. Tumors were collected when present. Lymphocyte profiles in blood and tumors were determined by immunofluorescent staining with a panel of antibodies and flow cytometry. Based on tumor induction data, the level of the chicken's immunocompetence is important, not only in the ability to regress tumors, but also in the susceptibility to tumor induction by v-src DNA. Cell population analyses of tumor-infiltrating l)mphocytes (TIL) revealed the presence of different types and proportions of immune cells in DNA and RSV induced regressing and progressing tumors. DNA induced tumors were shown to display higher levels of regulatory T cells (CD4+) and a higher ratio ofCD4+ to CDS+ TIL than RSV induced tumors, indicating a different response occurs to tumor antigens alone versus tumor plus viral antigens. Additionally, the percentageofCD4+CD8+ TIL. a cell type usually not found in the periphery and whose function is unknown, was higher in AR tumors than AP tumors. Of particular interest was the discovery of CD8a-b+ TIL This cell type has been recently characterized using transgenic human cells, and appears to be an ineffective cytotoxic T cell subtype. The elevated proportions of this novel cell type in progressing tumors may contribute to the ineffective immune response in AP compared to AR birds. Brant Ward and Gisela Erf


The Internet consists of a large number of interconnected autonomous systems (ASes). ASes engage in two types of business relationships to exchange traffic: provider-to-customer (p2c) relationship and peer-to-peer (p2p) relationship. Internet AS-level topology can be represented by AS graphs where nodes represent autonomous systems (ASes) and edges represent connectivity between ASes. While researchers have derived AS graphs using various data sources, inferring the types of edges (p2c or p2p) in AS graphs remains an open problem. In this paper we present a new machine learning approach to edge type inference in AS graphs. Our method uses the AdaBoost machine learning algorithm to train a model that predicts the edge types in a given AS graph using two node attributes–degree and minimum distance to a Tier-1 node. We train a model for a BGP graph and validate the model using ground truth AS relationships and CAIDA's inferred AS relationship dataset. Our results show that the model achieves over 92% accuracy on a number of BGP graphs.


This report identifies the sources and characteristics of existing data on short haul passenger traffic in the United States domestic air market. The availability of such data, the amount of processing required to reduce it to a usable form, and the costs involved in acquiring the data from each source are also considered. Available from National Technical Information Service, U.S. Department of Commerce, Springfield, Virginia 22161.


Analyzing networks involves understanding the complex relationships between entities, as well as any attributes they may have. The widely used node-link diagrams excel at this task, but many are difficult to extract meaning from because of the inherent complexity of the relationships and limited screen space. To help address this problem we introduce a technique called motif simplification, in which common patterns of nodes and links are replaced with compact and meaningful glyphs. Well-designed glyphs have several benefits: they (1) require less screen space and layout effort, (2) are easier to understand in the context of the network, (3) can reveal otherwise hidden relationships, and (4) preserve as much underlying information as possible. We tackle three frequently occurring and high-payoff motifs: fans of nodes with a single neighbor, connectors that link a set of anchor nodes, and cliques of completely connected nodes. We contribute design guidelines for motif glyphs; example glyphs for the fan, connector, and clique motifs; algorithms for detecting these motifs; a free and open source reference implementation; and results from a controlled study of 36 participants that demonstrates the effectiveness of motif simplification.


Thomas Weiss oversimplifies when he identifies the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) with the classicist position of nonconfrontation. The ICRC defines humanitarian action to include advocacy through public and private channels to protect individuals and communities against violations of international humanitarian law. Weiss rightly points out the difficulty of making belligerents, or "unprincipled actors," understand the value of nonpartisan and impartial action. Still, the ICRC remains committed to finding new language for communicating the principles of humanitarian action and new techniques of negotiation. In this regard the ICRC is classicist. But this classicism places the ICRC on the side of the solidarists in defending the interests of individuals and communities in distress, and on the side of the maximalists in its advocacy of international humanitarian law.