Prophetic Politics: Christian Social Movements and American Democracy David S. Gutterman. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2005. I began reading this book with radio reports on Hurricane Katrina in the background. I paused to listen for an interview with a weary pilgrim from New Orleans. Having escaped from Superdome hell, he had arrived in Houston with nothing more than his MacDonald's uniform as a badge of his earnestness. After resting a few hours, he wanted to search immediately for a job. Framing himself within an Exodus-shaped story of wilderness crisis escaped through wandering, he felt that he had struggled through to redemption: "This here is the Promised Land. I ain't gom' back to New Orleans." At that very moment, David Gutterman was pulling my attention to the social level of biblical Exodus narratives that surface as themes of evangelically inspired political movements. For me, and probably for you, his persuasive analysis will change your estimate of the Bible's flexible vitality as a source of calls to transformation. Gutterman, a political scientist at Linfield College with an ethical bent, is concerned about the compatibility between religious discourse and democratic practice -and this defines his book's timely relevance. Since the presidential elections of 2000 and especially 2004, many Democratic party members have felt a dilemma. Sensing that they have been defeated by the religiously motivated who scorn secular indifference to spiritual matters, they wonder how to recover political power. But pretending to be religious would be dishonest. And even when they possess religious beliefs, they are so wedded to the "wall of separation" First Amendment interpretation that they feel constitutional inhibitions against bringing them to discourse about public issues-preferring to shun any alliance predicated on faith. Without being a political handbook for such Democrats, this book will clarify many issues for them. Gutterman's interdisciplinary analysis derives its theory and democratic norms from cultural studies and its conceptual orientations from Sacvan Bercovitch's American Jeremiad (1978), and the diverse writings of Hannah Arendt and Paul Ricoeur. He gains primary guidance from Arendt's notion of a democratic story telling in which participants offer their visions as opinion rather than certitude; it invites perspectives from other stories told in the same spirit of search for sensus communis-that condition in which we are drawn out of private perspectives into contemplating things as others see them. The democratic mentality, so understood, is a state of doubt about what we personally believe while we entertain options suggested by others. Apart from developing this interesting conception of how democratic citizens would create a distinctive story culture, Gutterman focuses on the Hebrew Bible's Exodus narrative and selected American evangelical movements that have emphasized it in prescribing for America's ills. Gutterman follows Bercovitch in mapping a recurrent Exodus paradigm in social polemics: identification of failures in the wilderness, threat of divine punishment, and promise of redemption after self transformation (9). Biblical Exodus moves from hellish bondage, to a covenant for release, a period of journey and test of worthiness as God's covenant partner, and redemption through delivery to Canaan, the promised land. Gutterman's impressive ingenuity lies in showing how four separate evangelical movements accept this "narrative scaffolding" of Exodus to imagine their situation in the American "wilderness" as they tell the new stories of Mosaic redemption. Those movements are sketched through the twentieth-century prophets Billy Sunday (1862-1935) and Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968), and two significant formally organized contemporary groups, Promise Keepers and Call to Renewal. How the Exodus story is retold among them is used as a measure of their compatibility with democratic politics. …


In 2008, the then Chief Medical Officer commissioned Baroness Deech to chair an Independent Working Group looking at the position and participation of women in the medical profession. We update and extend the Deech report to cover academic medicine in the UK. In doing so, we are not offering a systematic or exhaustive review of the data. Rather, we describe female participation rates in medicine and academic medicine based on secondary analysis. We demonstrate that although women are equally represented in medicine, they are under-represented in academic medicine. We conclude by arguing that, although progress has been made, inequity in academic medicine matters because: (a) it is a waste of public investment due to a loss of research talent; (b) as a consequence, some areas of medicine are underresearched at a cost to patients and society; and, (c) discriminatory practices and unconscious bias continue to occur.


Live streaming is a form of media that allows streamers to directly interact with their audience. Previous research has explored mental health, Twitch.tv and live streaming platforms, and users' social motivations behind watching live streams separately. However, few have explored how these all intertwine in conversations involving intimate, self-disclosing topics, such as mental health. Live streams are unique in that they are largely masspersonal in nature; streamers broadcast themselves to mostly unknown viewers, but may choose to interact with them in a personal way. This study aims to understand users' motivations, preferences, and habits behind participating in mental health discussions on live streams. We interviewed 25 Twitch viewers about the streamers they watch, how they interact in mental health discussions, and how they believe streamers should discuss mental health on live streams. Our findings are contextualized in the dynamics in which these discussions occur. Overall, we found that the innate design of the Twitch platform promotes a user-hierarchy in the ecosystem of streamers and their communities, which may affect how mental health is discussed.


We give an overview of the papers published in this special issue on spatial statistics, of the Journal of Statistical Software. 21 papers address issues covering visualization (micromaps, links to Google Maps or Google Earth), point pattern analysis, geostatistics, analysis of areal aggregated or lattice data, spatio-temporal statistics, Bayesian spatial statistics, and Laplace approximations. We also point to earlier publications in this journal on the same topic.


Over the last 150 years the corporation has risen from relative obscurity to become the world's dominant economic institution. Eminent Canadian law professor and legal theorist Joel Bakan contends that today's corporation is a pathological institution, a dangerous possessor of the great power it wields over people and societies. In this revolutionary assessment of the history, character, and globalization of the modern business corporation, Bakan backs his premise with the following observations: The corporation's legally defined mandate is to pursue relentlessly and without exception its own economic self-interest, regardless of the harmful consequences it might cause to others.The corporation's unbridled self-interest victimizes individuals, society, and, when it goes awry, even shareholders and can cause corporations to self-destruct, as recent Wall Street scandals reveal.Governments have freed the corporation, despite its flawed character, from legal constraints through deregulation and granted it ever greater authority over society through privatization.But Bakan believes change is possible and he outlines a far-reaching program of achievable reforms through legal regulation and democratic control. Featuring in-depth interviews with such wide-ranging figures as Nobel Prize winner Milton Friedman, business guru Peter Drucker, and cultural critic Noam Chomsky, The Corporation is an extraordinary work that will educate and enlighten students, CEOs, whistle-blowers, power brokers, pawns, pundits, and politicians alike.


The purpose of this article is to show the usefulness of technical analysis in credit markets. We document that an application of a simple moving average timing strategy to US high-yield and US investment-grade corporate bond portfolios sorted by option-adjusted spread generates investment timing portfolios that substantially outperform the corresponding benchmark. For portfolios with high uncertainty, as measured by the option-adjusted spread, the abnormal returns generate economically and statistically significant returns relative to the capital asset pricing model, the four-factor model and additionally the bond factor model from Asness et al. (J Finance 68:929–985, 2013). Our results remain robust to different moving average formation periods, transaction costs, long–short portfolio construction techniques and alternative definitions of information uncertainty.


In ocean-bottom seismic (OBS) data processing, wavefield separation results are sometimes affected by high levels of noise on the vertical component Z, while the pressure component P is in general of good quality. Nonetheless, Z is needed to achieve complete pre-stack wavefield separation and also to drive processes such as mirror imaging and up-down deconvolution. To address the problem of noise on Z affecting wavefield separation results, we propose a new method which first estimates a multiple model from the downgoing wavefield in a least-squares fashion. Next, this multiple model is used as a measure of seismic signal coherency to calculate an enhanced upgoing wavefield with minimal noise degradation. We show the benefits of this new method on a real data example from the Caspian Sea


Side weirs are diversion structures extensively used in irrigation, flood protection and combined sewer systems. Accurate estimation of the discharge coefficient ( C d ) of side weirs is essential to compute the water surface profile over the weirs and to determine the lateral outflow rate from the system. In this paper, we have utilized a linear genetic programming (LGP) technique to develop new empirical formulas for the estimation of C d of sharp-edged rectangular side weirs located in circular channels. For this aim, we have employed a total of 1,686 laboratory experimental observations in both sub- and supercritical flow regimes in order to train and validate the proposed models. The performance of the LGP-based models was also compared with those of different multilinear and nonlinear regression models in terms of root mean squared errors, mean absolute errors, and determination coefficient. The results indicated that an explicit LGP-based model using only mathematical functions could be employed successfully in C d estimation in both sub- and supercritical flow conditions. Genetic-based sensitivity analysis among the input parameters demonstrated that Froude number at upstream of the weir has the most impact on the C d estimation.


The phytohormone abscisic acid (ABA) plays important regulatory roles in many plant developmental processes including seed dormancy, germination, growth, and stomatal movements. These physiological responses to ABA are in large part brought about by changes in gene expression. To study genome-wide ABA-responsive gene expression we applied massively parallel signature sequencing (MPSS) to samples from Arabidopsis thaliana wildtype (WT) and abi1-1 mutant seedlings. We identified 1354 genes that are either up- or downregulated following ABA treatment of WT seedlings. Among these ABA-responsive genes, many encode signal transduction components. In addition, we identified novel ABA-responsive gene families including those encoding ribosomal proteins and proteins involved in regulated proteolysis. In the ABA-insensitive mutant abi1-1, ABA regulation of about 84.5% and 6.9% of the identified genes was impaired or strongly diminished, respectively; however, 8.6% of the genes remained appropriately regulated. Compared to other methods of gene expression analysis, the high sensitivity and specificity of MPSS allowed us to identify a large number of ABA-responsive genes in WT Arabidopsis thaliana. The database given in our supplementary material (http://jcs.biologists.org/supplemental) provides researchers with the opportunity to rapidly assess whether genes of interest may be regulated by ABA. Regulation of the majority of the genes by ABA was impaired in the ABA-insensitive mutant abi1-1. However, a subset of genes continued to be appropriately regulated by ABA, which suggests the presence of at least two ABA signaling pathways, only one of which is blocked in abi1-1.


While artist-researchers have been productive within the domains of the literary arts, visual arts, dance and drama, there is little musical arts-based educational research reported in the literature. This article introduces a research methodology to address this deficit: musically enhanced narrative inquiry (MENI). The article describes the methodology and its foundation in narrative inquiry, enhanced by artsinformed research processes. It provides an example of a MENI research project, Teaching Lives, that employs narrative and musical processes to explore and represent the personal, practical knowledge embedded within the stories of an experienced schoolteacher. The article is accompanied by three short audio files: musical representations of the data that integrate the recorded words of the participant with music, composed by the researcher, to illuminate the teacher knowledge within the narratives. IJEA Vol. 18 No. 9 http://www.ijea.org/v18n9/ 2


of the original article: Though its existence has been known for well over 30 years, only recently has the supplementary motor area (SMA) and its role in the cortical organization of movement come to be examined in detail by neuroscientists. Evidence from a wide variety of investigational perspectives is reviewed in an attempt to synthesize a conceptual framework for BEHAVIORAL AND BRAIN SCIENCES (1987) 10:2 321 Continuing Commentary understanding SMA function. It is suggested that the SMA has an important role to play in the intentional process whereby internal context influences the elaboration of action. It may be viewed as phylogenetically older motor cortex, derived from anterior cingulate periarchicortical limbic cortex, which, as a key part of a medial premotor system, is crucial in the "programming" and fluent execution of extended action sequences which are "projectional" in that they rely on model-based prediction. This medial system can be distinguished from a lateral premotor system postulated to have evolved over phytogeny from a different neural source. An anatomico-physiologic model of the medial premotor system is proposed which embodies the principles of cyclicity and reentrance in the process of selecting those neural components to become active in conjunction with the performance of a particular action. The postulated dynamic action of this model in the microgenesis of a discrete action is outlined. It is concluded that although there is a great deal to be learned about the S M A, a convergence of current evidence can be identified. Such evidence suggests that the SMA plays an important role in the development of the intention-to-act and the specification and elaboration of action through its mediation between medial limbic cortex and primary motor cortex. The role of corollary motor discharges, the corpus callosum, and the supplementary motor cortices in bimanual coordination


We explore the determinants of corporate failure in Australia using a large panel of public and private non-financial companies. A novel finding of our research is that corporate failure depends on 'structural' company-level characteristics. For instance, public companies are more likely to fail than comparable private companies; perhaps because the greater separation of ownership and control within public companies allows their managers to take greater risks. Consistent with overseas research, we find that cyclical company-specific factors are important determinants of failure; a corporation is more likely to fail if it has low liquidity, low profitability or high leverage. Cyclical and structural company-level characteristics are the key determinants of the relative risk of a company failing, while aggregate (macroeconomic) conditions appear to be an important determinant of annual changes in the rate of corporate failure. We quantify the potential contribution of corporate failure to financial stability risks using a 'debt-at-risk' framework. By our estimates, less than 1 per cent of aggregate corporate debt is currently at risk, with debt at risk concentrated in some very large companies. Our estimates suggest that trade credit (or business-to-business lending) is an important component of the relationship between corporate failure and financial stability.


Efficiently learning accurate models of dynamical systems is of central importance for developing rational agents that can succeed in a wide range of challenging domains. The difficulty of this learning problem is particularly acute in settings with large observation spaces and partial observability. We present a new algorithm, called Compressed Predictive State Representation (CPSR), for learning models of high-dimensional partially observable uncontrolled dynamical systems from small sample sets. The algorithm exploits a particular sparse structure present in many domains. This sparse structure is used to compress information during learning, allowing for an increase in both the efficiency and predictive power. The compression technique also relieves the burden of domain specific feature selection. We present empirical results showing that the algorithm is able to build accurate models more efficiently than its uncompressed counterparts, and we provide theoretical results on the accuracy of the learned compressed model.


A model has been recently set up (since 2006) that provides the snow conditions, along with other hydrometeorological parameters, for all Norway at 1 km resolution. This model is called "Senorge" (meaning "See Norway"), and is described in this work. It is an operative model that is run daily predicting snow water equivalent, snow depth, snow changes (for melting and snowfalls), and snow wetness, and the results are published daily in the Senorge website (www.senorge.no). Though melting is estimated with a temperature index approach, a simple module describing snow metamorphism has been implemented and tested against several measurements performed in snow pillows. The goals and ambitions are various, and range from water resources monitoring and water availability assessment for hydroelectric power to avalanche warning and evaluation of skiing condition. Efforts are currently being made to improve this model, in particular implementing a full energy balance model and trying some procedures of data assimilation of remotely sensed data. In addition, a progress in the snowpack description in order to provide information about avalanche occurrences is being investigated


We introduce Papilio, a new visualization technique for visualizing permissions of real‐world Android applications. We explore the development of layouts that exploit the directed acyclic nature of Android application permission data to develop a new explicit layout technique that incorporates aspects of set membership, node‐link diagrams and matrix layouts. By grouping applications based on sets of requested permissions, a structure can be formed with partially ordered relations. The Papilio layout shows sets of applications centrally, the relations among applications on one side and application permissions, as the reason behind the existence of the partial order, on the other side. Using Papilio to explore a set of Android applications as a case study has led to new security findings regarding permission usage by Android applications.


Load balancing is a widely accepted technique for performance optimization of scientific applications on parallel architectures. Indeed, balanced applications do not waste processor cycles on waiting at points of synchronization and data exchange, maximizing this way the utilization of processors. In this paper, we challenge the universality of the load-balancing approach to optimization of the performance of parallel applications. First, we formulate conditions that should be satisfied by the performance profile of an application in order for the application to achieve its best performance via load balancing. Then we use a real-life scientific application, MPDATA, to demonstrate that its performance profile on a modern parallel architecture, Intel Xeon Phi, significantly deviates from these conditions. Based on this observation, we propose a method of performance optimization of scientific applications through load imbalancing. We also propose an algorithm that finds the optimal, possibly imbalanced, configuration of a data parallel application on a set of homogeneous processors. This algorithm uses functional performance models of the application to find the partitioning that minimizes its computation time but not necessarily balances the load of the processors. We show how to apply this algorithm to optimization of MPDATA on Intel Xeon Phi. Experimental results demonstrate that the performance of this carefully optimized load-balanced application can be further improved by 15\% using the proposed load-imbalancing optimization.


Natural SIV infection of sooty mangabeys (SMs) is nonprogressive despite chronic virus replication. Strikingly, it is characterized by low levels of immune activation, while pathogenic SIV infection of rhesus macaques (RMs) is associated with chronic immune activation. To elucidate the mechanisms underlying this intriguing phenotype, we used high-density oligonucleotide microarrays to longitudinally assess host gene expression in SIV-infected SMs and RMs. We found that acute SIV infection of SMs was consistently associated with a robust innate immune response, including widespread upregulation of IFN-stimulated genes (ISGs) in blood and lymph nodes. While SMs exhibited a rapid resolution of ISG expression and immune activation, both responses were observed chronically in RMs. Systems biology analysis indicated that expression of the lymphocyte inhibitory receptor LAG3, a marker of T cell exhaustion, correlated with immune activation in SIV-infected RMs but not SMs. Our findings suggest that active immune regulatory mechanisms, rather than intrinsically attenuated innate immune responses, underlie the low levels of immune activation characteristic of SMs chronically infected with SIV.


When comparing prediction models, it is essential to estimate the magnitude of change in performance rather than rely solely on statistical significance. In this paper we investigate measures that estimate change in classification performance, assuming 2-group classification based on a single risk threshold. We study the value of a new biomarker when added to a baseline risk prediction model. First, simulated data are used to investigate the change in sensitivity and specificity (ΔSe and ΔSp). Second, the influence of ΔSe and ΔSp on the net reclassification improvement (NRI; sum of ΔSe and ΔSp) and on decision-analytic measures (net benefit or relative utility) is studied. We assume normal distributions for the predictors and assume correctly specified models such that the extended model has a dominating receiver operating characteristic curve relative to the baseline model. Remarkably, we observe that even when a strong marker is added it is possible that either sensitivity (for thresholds below the event rate) or specificity (for thresholds above the event rate) decreases. In these cases, decision-analytic measures provide more modest support for improved classification than NRI, even though all measures confirm that adding the marker improved classification accuracy. Our results underscore the necessity of reporting ΔSe and ΔSp separately. When a single summary is desired, decision-analytic measures allow for a simple incorporation of the misclassification costs.


Using a large matched employer-employee dataset, the authors investigate the relationship between collective agreements, wages and restructuring in transition in three former centrally planned economies (Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland). They adopt a natural experiment approach and capture the restructuring process triggered by the launch of transition by means of cohort effects among firms founded before or at different stages of this process which enable them to control for the heterogeneity of firms in different cohorts. They find that the wage premium associated with different levels of collective agreements depends on restructuring and its timing in the transition. In early-middle transition firms, industry level agreements protect low skilled wages; whereas in late transition ones, firm level agreements increase medium and especially high skilled wages. Some cross country differences emerge in the structure of the wage premium as a result of country specific features of restructuring.


This paper presents three hyper-heuristic approaches for the stochastic open-pit mine production scheduling problem with one processing stream (SMPS) and one of its generalizations, SMPS with multiple processing streams and stockpiles (SMPS+), which aim to optimize the associated mineral value chains. Two of the proposed hyper-heuristic approaches are refined versions of approaches that have been previously proposed in the literature and applied to solve other optimization problems, while the third one is a novel approach that uses some of the ideas of the first two but also includes new features aimed to overcome their weaknesses. The three approaches are simple, fast, and general. Their performance is assessed by comparing them to each other and to other search methodologies from the literature on benchmark instances of various sizes and characteristics. This comparison indicates that the new proposed hyper-heuristic outperforms the two others, providing results that are comparable to or improve on the results obtained by the state-of-the-art problem-specific methods.


The 21 st century has brought numerous changes to the clinical reading (i.e., image or virtual pathology slide interpretation) environment of pathologists and it will continue to change even more dramatically as information and communication technologies (ICTs) become more widespread in the integrated healthcare enterprise. The extent to which these changes impact the practicing pathologist differ as a function of the technology under consideration, but digital "virtual slides" and the viewing of images on computer monitors instead of glass slides through a microscope clearly represents a significant change in the way that pathologists extract information from these images and render diagnostic decisions. One of the major challenges facing pathologists in this new era is how to best optimize the pathology workstation, the reading environment and the new and varied types of information available in order to ensure efficient and accurate processing of this information. Although workstations can be stand-alone units with images imported via external storage devices, this scenario is becoming less common as pathology departments connect to information highways within their hospitals and to external sites. Picture Archiving and Communications systems are no longer confined to radiology departments but are serving the entire integrated healthcare enterprise, including pathology. In radiology, the workstation is often referred to as the "cockpit" with a "digital dashboard" and the reading room as the "control room." Although pathology has yet to "go digital" to the extent that radiology has, lessons derived from radiology reading "cockpits" can be quite valuable in setting up the digital pathology reading room. In this article, we describe the concept of the digital dashboard and provide some recent examples of informatics-based applications that have been shown to improve the workflow and quality in digital reading environments.


In the analysis of the interferometric spectrum, an accurate knowledge of instrument line shape is required. The instrument line shape of the interferometric spectrum can be distorted owing to errors in the measured interferogram, which are generally categorized into the intensity error and the phase error. The intensity error that is due to the effect of the field of view, optics misalignment, instrument noise, and smearing effect causes a symmetric distortion of the instrument line shape, and the phase error causes an asymmetric distortion. This paper describes a fast Fourier transform technique for simulating the distortion effects, and the technique is applied to the analyses of atmospheric absorption spectra and laboratory spectra. It is shown that correct information can be retrieved from the distorted spectrum using the nonlinear least-squares method. From analyses of HF absorption spectra obtained in a laboratory and solar CO absorption spectra obtained from a balloon-borne interferometer, it is found that the retrieved amount of absorbing gas is less than the correct value in most cases if the interferogram distortion effects are not included in the analysis.


Reducing CO_2 emissions alone will not suppress global warming, and it is necessary to capture the CO_2 that has been cumulatively emitted into the atmosphere as well. For this reason, negative CO_2 emission technology, a technology to capture CO_2 from the atmosphere, is considered essential. Especially, direct capture of CO_2 from the air, so-called direct air capture (DAC) has attracted much attention as one of promising technologies, because of the high potential capacity of CO_2 capture. In general, absorption, adsorption, and membrane separation are known as representative CO_2 capture technologies, and DAC is basically based on these technologies. In particular, DAC using absorption and adsorption methods has already reached the level of plant scale, but the desorption process of captured CO_2 from the absorbent or adsorbent consumes a large amount of heating energy and water. On the other hand, membrane separation is generally considered as a most cost- and energy-efficient process among these capture technologies, but DAC by membrane separation has not been considered at all due to the immaturity of the membrane performance for CO_2 capture, especially CO_2 permeance. However, recent developments in membrane technology have brought the possibility that membrane processes can be considered as a new approach to DAC. In this article, the potential of membrane technologies as DAC is discussed and future technology target is proposed. Graphical abstract


Organizations need relevant and specific information systems to operate their carbon emissions, energy use, and other green activities to support its management of sustainability initiatives and related accounting and other reporting requirements. Green information systems (IS) and environmental management information systems (EMIS) thus become necessary for monitoring and controlling activities and procedures regarding environmental concerns. In the IS scholarly community, we have not yet given full attention to carbon management and environmental management IS, despite our increasing efforts in research around green information systems. In this paper, we aim to introduce the concepts of environmental management information systems by discussing some of their common software characteristics, such as whether support for ISO 14001 is provided. We provide an overview of a collection of such green and sustainable information systems and will discuss thoughts on directions for conducting IS research on these topics at the conference.


This widely acclaimed work provides a lively counterbalance to the standard assessment-measurement-accountability prescriptions that have made showing you did your job more important than actually doing it. Now extensively revised, it articulates a postmodern theory of public administration that challenges the field to redirect its attention away from narrow, technique-oriented scientism, and toward democratic openness and ethics. The authors incorporate insights from thinkers like Rorty, Giddens, Derrida, and Foucault to recast public administration as an arena of decentered practices. In their framework, ideographic collisions and everyday impasses bring about political events that challenge the status quo, creating possibilities for social change. "Postmodern Public Administration" is an outstanding intellectual achievement that has rewritten the political theory of public administration. This new edition will encourage everyone who reads it to think quite differently about democratic governance.


Objective To investigate the topological alterations of the whole-brain white-matter (WM) structural networks in patients with neuromyelitis optica (NMO). Methods The present study involved 26 NMO patients and 26 age- and sex-matched healthy controls. WM structural connectivity in each participant was imaged with diffusion-weighted MRI and represented in terms of a connectivity matrix using deterministic tractography method. Graph theory-based analyses were then performed for the characterization of brain network properties. A multiple linear regression analysis was performed on each network metric between the NMO and control groups. Results The NMO patients exhibited abnormal small-world network properties, as indicated by increased normalized characteristic path length, increased normalized clustering and increased small-worldness. Furthermore, largely similar hub distributions of the WM structural networks were observed between NMO patients and healthy controls. However, regional efficiency in several brain areas of NMO patients was significantly reduced, which were mainly distributed in the default-mode, sensorimotor and visual systems. Furthermore, we have observed increased regional efficiency in a few brain regions such as the orbital parts of the superior and middle frontal and fusiform gyri. Conclusion Although the NMO patients in this study had no discernible white matter T2 lesions in the brain, we hypothesize that the disrupted topological organization of WM networks provides additional evidence for subtle, widespread cerebral WM pathology in NMO.


Abstract The electricity supply system is undergoing major regulatory and technological change with significant implications for the way in which the sector will operate (including its patterns of carbon emissions) and for the policies required to ensure socially and environmentally desirable outcomes. One such change stems from the rapid emergence of viable small-scale (i.e., smaller than 500 kW) generators that are potentially competitive with grid delivered electricity, especially in combined heat and power configurations. Such distributed energy resources (DER) may be grouped together with loads in microgrids. These clusters could operate semi-autonomously from the established power system, or macrogrid , matching power quality and reliability more closely to local end-use requirements. In order to establish a capability for analysing the effect that microgrids may have on typical commercial customers, such as office buildings, restaurants, shopping malls, and grocery stores, an economic model of DER adoption is being developed at Berkeley Lab. This model endeavours to indicate the optimal quantity and type of small on-site generation technologies that customers could employ given their electricity requirements. For various regulatory schemes and general economic conditions, this analysis produces a simple operating schedule for any installed generators. Early results suggest that many commercial customers can benefit economically from on-site generation, even without considering potential combined heat and power and reliability benefits, even though they are unlikely to disconnect from the established power system.


This paper proposes a novel feature extraction framework from mutli-party multimodal conversation for inference of personality traits and emergent leadership. The proposed framework represents multi modal features as the combination of each participant's nonverbal activity and group activity. This feature representation enables to compare the nonverbal patterns extracted from the participants of different groups in a metric space. It captures how the target member outputs nonverbal behavior observed in a group (e.g. the member speaks while all members move their body), and can be available for any kind of multiparty conversation task. Frequent co-occurrent events are discovered using graph clustering from multimodal sequences. The proposed framework is applied for the ELEA corpus which is an audio visual dataset collected from group meetings. We evaluate the framework for binary classification task of 10 personality traits. Experimental results show that the model trained with co-occurrence features obtained higher accuracy than previously related work in 8 out of 10 traits. In addition, the co-occurrence features improve the accuracy from 2 % up to 17 %.


This paper reflects upon some mixed messages found in recent consultation and framework documents that have been issued as part of the debate surrounding the Government's emphasis upon education and training within its 'modernisation' agenda. It identifies the long-standing arguments about 'testing' versus 'learning' or 'contextual' paradigms and suggests that, perhaps, there is still scope to influence the future direction of social work. The author has drawn upon his research with social workers and their team managers in current post-qualification award programmes to argue for a renewed emphasis upon the inter-personal and relationship aspects of educational processes within more broadly conceived socio-cultural contexts. A focus upon reflexively defined concepts of 'engagement' and 'assessment' is used to explore constructivist arguments that locate individuals within an interplay of potential and constraints. It is argued that constructive engagements within revised conceptions of assessment can form the basis of a framework of continuing professional development that starts from and develops the unique realities of social work practice. This requires the committed involvement of more people, in the negotiation of a professional practice agenda for knowledge creation through relationships, rather than the imposition of more measures.


Abstract Special needs educators (SNEs) and their counterparts are expected to play a significant role in schools' work towards inclusive practices. Studies do, however, indicate a rather diversified picture regarding the occupational groups assigned to work with special support and their workroles, within and between different countries. In Sweden, one can differentiate between two such occupational groups, SNEs with qualifications in special educational needs at advanced level and support teachers (SuTs) with varying teacher education and education in special educational needs. The aims of this article are to investigate the occurrence of SNEs and SuTs within the compulsory school system in 10 municipalities in Sweden and the occupational roles of those SNEs and SuTs in relation to the inclusion agenda. A questionnaire was sent out in 2012 to all SNEs and SuTs in 10 municipalities (n = 511, response rate 61.6%). Main results indicate that: (a) there is wide variation between municipalities regarding the extent to which SNEs or SuTs are assigned to work with special support; (b) the characteristics of the occupational role of SNEs are more in line with inclusive practices than those of the role of SuTs; (c) there is consensus between the two occupational groups regarding what they think should characterize the occupational role of SNEs; (d) SNEs consider, more than do the SuTs themselves, that the role of SuTs should be more in line with that of a "traditional special-education teacher". Results are discussed in relation to Thomas Skrtic's theoretical accounts of inclusive education and Andrew Abbott's notion of jurisdictional control.


A new computational model from Scott Bornheimer, Shankar Subramaniam, and colleagues (University of California, San Diego, CA) predicts how the GTPase cycle operates in one of several modes.

Several GTPase cycle models exist, but many include only the G protein, its activator (often a receptor), GTP, GDP, and phosphate. Subramaniam's group added a GAP, the G protein deactivator, to the equations, and used experimental data from the GTPase cycle of a mouse G protein stimulated by a acetylcholine receptor (largely from Mukhopadhyay and Ross. PNAS. 96:9539–9544) to build their model.

"Variability in the concentration of the players in vivo is common," says Subramaniam. "How will the cell achieve maximum or moderate turnover? What happens when it's starved of GAP? How can the cell compensate to accomplish the same end point?" The model can now predict answers to these questions.

Four modes were found in which G protein activity is unaltered by changes in receptor or GAP concentrations. Between these extremes are infinite variations. In some modes, particularly when G protein levels are low, the cycle operates while the G protein and receptor are not physically clustered. In this mode, GAPs are able to shut down G protein signaling entirely.

In other situations, clustering is required for G protein activity, and GAPs can change the signaling amplitude but cannot eliminate it. The authors are now using FRET to determine how local clustering changes with altered component concentrations.

Reference:

Bornheimer, S.J., et al. 2004. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. doi:.10.1073/pnas.0407009101 [PubMed] [Cross Ref]


Tritium is a by-product of civil nuclear reactors, military nuclear applications, fusion programmes and
radiopharmaceutical production. It commonly occurs, though not exclusively, as tritiated water (HTO)
or organically-bound tritium (OBT) in the environment but may exist as other forms in nuclear-related
construction and fabrication materials. During the lifetime of nuclear sites (especially those involving
heavy water) tritium becomes variably incorporated into the fabric of the buildings. When nuclear
decommissioning works and environmental assessments are undertaken it is necessary to accurately
evaluate tritium activities in a wide range of materials prior to any waste sentencing. Of the various
materials comprising UK radioactive wastes, concrete and metal account for approximately 20% of
the total weight of low level waste (LLW) and 12% and 35% of the total weight of intermediate level
waste (ILW).
Proper sampling and storage of samples are significant factors in achieving accurate tritium activities.
The degree of loss of 3H and cross-contamination can be significantly reduced by storing samples in
an air/water tight container in a freezer (-18°C). The potential for tritium contamination is dependent
on the 3H form. Most 3H loss originates from tritiated water which is easily exchanged with
atmospheric hydrogen in the form of water vapour at room temperature. However, the loss of more
strongly bound 3H, produced in-situ in materials by neutron activation, is not significant even at room
temperature. Such tritium is tightly retained in materials and does not readily exchange with water or
diffuse.
In nuclear reactor environments tritium may be produced via several neutron-induced reactions,
2H(n,g)3H, 6Li(n,a)3H, 10B(n,2a)3H and ternary fission (fission yield <0.01%). It may also exist as
tritiated water (HTO) that is able to migrate readily and can adsorb onto various construction materials
such as structural concrete. In such locations it exists as a weakly-bound form that can be lost at
ambient temperatures. Bioshield concretes present a special case and systematic analysis of a
sequence of sub-samples taken from a bioshield core (from UKAEA Winfrith) has identified a
strongly-bound form of 3H in addition to the weakly bound form. The strongly bound 3H in concrete is
held more strongly in mineral lattices and requires a temperature of >850°C to achieve quantitative
recovery. This more strongly retained tritium originates from neutron capture of trace lithium (6Li and
potentially 10B) distributed throughout minerals in the concrete. The highest proportion of strongly
bound 3H was observed in the core sections closest to the core. Weakly bound tritium is associated
with water loss from hydrated mineral components.
Tritium is retained in metals by absorption by free water, hydrated surface oxidation layer, H ingress
into bulk metal and also as lattice-bound tritium produced via in-situ neutron activation. Away from
the possible influence of neutrons, the main 3H contamination to metals arises from absorption and
diffusion via atmospheric exposure to the HTO. Here contamination is mainly confined to the metal
surface layer. The tritium penetration rate into metal surfaces is controlled by the metal type and its
surface condition. Where metals are exposed to a significant neutron flux and contain 6Li, 7Li and 10B
then in situ 3H production will occur which may propagate beyond the surface layer. In such cases
tritium may exist in two forms namely a weakly bound HTO form and a non-HTO strongly bound
form. The HTO form is readily lost at moderate temperatures (~120°C) whereas the non-HTO
requires up to 850°C for complete extraction.


Background Expressing empathy builds trust with patients, increases patient satisfaction, and is associated with better health outcomes. Research shows that expressing empathy to patients improves patient adherence to medications and decreases patient anxiety and the number of malpractice lawsuits. However, there is a dearth of research on teaching empathy to premedical students. The Clinical Science, Technology, and Medicine Summer Internship of Stanford Medicine (also called the Stanford Anesthesia Summer Institute) is a 2-week collaborative medical internship for high school and undergraduate students to inspire learners to be compassionate health care providers. The summer 2020 program was adapted to accomplish these objectives in a fully remote environment because of the COVID-19 global pandemic. Objective This study aims to measure the change in empathy and competencies of participants in clinical and communication skills before and after program participation. Methods A total of 41 participants completed only the core track of this program, and 39 participants completed the core + research track of this program. Participants in both tracks received instructions in selected clinical skills and interacted directly with patients to improve their interviewing skills. Research track participants received additional instructions in research methodology. All participants completed web-based pre- and postsurveys containing Knowledge and Skills Assessment (KSA) questions. Participant empathy was assessed using the validated Consultation and Relational Empathy measure. A subset of participants completed optional focus groups to discuss empathy. The pre- and post-KSA and Consultation and Relational Empathy measure scores were compared using paired 2-tailed t tests and a linear regression model. Open-ended focus group answers were then analyzed thematically. Results Participants in both tracks demonstrated significant improvement in empathy after the 2-week remote learning course (P=.007 in core track; P<.001 in research track). These results remained significant when controlling for gender and age. A lower pretest score was associated with a greater change in empathy. Participants in both tracks demonstrated significant improvement in KSA questions related to surgical skills (P<.001 in core track; P<.001 in research track), epinephrine pen use (P<.001 in core track; P<.001 in research track), x-ray image interpretation (P<.001 in core track; P<.001 in research track), and synthesizing information to solve problems (P<.001 in core track; P=.05 in research track). The core track participants also showed significant improvements in health communication skills (P=.001). Qualitative analysis yielded 3 themes: empathy as action, empathy as a mindset, and empathy in designing health care systems. Conclusions Summer internships that introduce high school and undergraduate students to the field of health care through hands-on interaction and patient involvement may be an effective way to develop measurable empathy skills when combined with clinical skills training and mentorship. Notably, increases in empathy were observed in a program administered via a remote learning environment.


Deployments of biometric technologies are already widely disseminated, i.e. the protection of biometric reference data becomes vital in order to safeguard individuals' privacy. Biometric template protection techniques are designed to protect biometric templates in an irreversible and unlinkable manner (ISO/IEC IS 24745). In addition, these schemes are required to maintain key system properties, e.g. biometric performance or authentication speed. Recently, template protection schemes based on Bloom filters have been introduced and applied to various biometric characteristics, such as iris or face. While a Bloom filter-based representation of biometric templates is irreversible the originally proposed system has been exposed to be vulnerable to cross-matching attacks. In this paper we address this issue and demonstrate that any kind of Bloom filter-based representation of biometric templates can be transformed to an unordered set of integer values which enables a locking of irreversible templates in a fuzzy vault scheme from Dodis et al. which can be secured against known cross-matching attacks. In addition, experiments which are carried out on a publicly available iris database, show that the proposed scheme retains the biometric performance of the original system.


This case study illustrates the research career trajectory of two lay researchers after they joined a Big Lottery funded study to explore loneliness and isolation among older people living in a town in the north of England, UK. The two lay researchers were of pensionable age themselves and engaged in all aspects of the research process as full members of the research team. Following research methods training and their substantive input into study design, they engaged fully in an approach of peer-interviewing of other older adults as the main study method. Following this initial exposure to undertaking research, these exemplars
of public involvement in research went on to be involved in other research as co-researchers at a local and national level. Initially the paper sets out the lay researchers' personal backgrounds and expectations from involvement in research. The impact of their involvement in research on their quality of life and that of their community is presented. Latterly, the societal impact of the lay researcher's involvement is examined. The difference they made to the initial study design and conduct is described first followed by their development as substantial research resources for other studies and community initiatives. Overall the impact of these lay researchers has been significant and the paper provides an example of
how involvement in research can impact on individuals and communities to great effect.


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Nine different techniques were used to record the initial change in the physical and hydrological properties of a freshly tilled soil surface following successive cycles of wetting and drying. The study was made in the field on a sandy clay loam soil ploughed and harrowed and then exposed to three simulated rainfall events of 76 mm/h for 15 minutes. Although the degradation of the soil surface increased with each successive rainfall, the most significant changes were observed after the first rainfall. Qualitative observations of clod size distribution and crust development provide a good indication of the early stages of soil surface degradation. Complementary physical data were quickly obtained using a hand held shear vane. These techniques are simple and robust enough that they can be used in on-farm research programmes, where resources, both human and technical are at a premium. Tension infiltrometry provided hydrological information that complemented the physical information provided by the above techniques, but is not as simple.


Streptomycin-resistant (Sm(R)) strains of the fire blight pathogen Erwinia amylovora were first isolated in southwest Michigan in 1991. Since that time, resistant strains have progressed northward to other apple-producing regions in the state. A total of 98.7% of Sm(R) strains isolated between 2003 and 2009 in Michigan harbored the strA-strB genes on transposon Tn5393. strA and strB encode phosphotransferase enzymes that modify streptomycin to a nonbactericidal form. Mutational resistance to streptomycin, caused by a point mutation-mediated target-site alteration of the ribosomal S12 protein, occurred in 1.3% of E. amylovora strains from Michigan. Tn5393 was originally introduced to E. amylovora on the plasmid pEa34; thus, the first Sm(R) strains isolated contained both pEa34 and the ubiquitous nonconjugative plasmid pEA29. More recently, we have observed Sm(R) strains in which Tn5393 is present on pEA29, suggesting that the transposon has moved via transposition from pEa34 to pEA29. Almost all of the strains containing Tn5393 on pEA29 had lost pEa34. Of 210 pEA29::Tn5393 plasmids examined, the transposon was inserted at either nucleotide position 1,515 or 17,527. Both of these positions were in noncoding regions of pEA29. Comparative sequencing of the housekeeping genes groEL and potentially variable sequences on pEA29 was done in an attempt to genetically distinguish Sm(R) strains from streptomycin-sensitive (Sm(S)) strains isolated in Michigan. Only 1 nucleotide difference within the total 2,660 bp sequenced from each strain was observed in 2 of 29 strains; multiple sequence differences were observed between the Michigan strains and E. amylovora control strains isolated in the western United States or from Rubus spp. Alterations in virulence observable using an immature pear fruit assay were detected in three of eight Sm(R) strains examined. Our current genetic data indicate that only two Sm(R) strain genotypes (strains containing pEA29::Tn5393 with Tn5393 inserted at either nucleotide position 1,515 or 17,527 on the plasmid) are responsible for the dissemination of Tn5393-encoded streptomycin resistance in Michigan, and that the Sm(R) and Sm(S) strains in Michigan compose a homogenous group.


BACKGROUND
The substantial proportion of individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD) who have or are expected to develop concomitant cognitive impairment emphasizes the need for large, well-characterized participant cohorts to serve as a basis for research into the causes, manifestations, and potential treatments of cognitive decline in those with PD.

OBJECTIVE
To establish a multi-site clinical core that cognitively and clinically characterizes patients with PD by obtaining quality longitudinal clinical, neuropsychological, and validated biomarker data.

METHODS
Six hundred nineteen participants with idiopathic PD (68.0 ± 9.1 years, 7.1 ± 6.2 years since diagnosis, 70% males) were enrolled in the Pacific Northwest Udall Center (PANUC), one of the Morris K. Udall Centers of Excellence for Parkinson's Research, Clinical Consortium and underwent comprehensive clinical and neuropsychological assessment. Participants were diagnosed with no cognitive impairment (PD-NCI), mild cognitive impairment (PD-MCI), or dementia (PDD) at a diagnostic consensus conference.

RESULTS
A substantial proportion of the overall sample was diagnosed with cognitive impairment at baseline: 22% with PDD and 59% with PD-MCI. A higher rate of cognitive impairment was observed in men than women (87% vs. 68%, p < 0.0001), despite a higher level of education. Most patients older than 50 years at the time of diagnosis and with disease duration greater than 10 years were cognitively impaired or demented.

CONCLUSIONS
The PANUC Clinical Consortium is a clinically and cognitively well-characterized cohort of patients with PD. Baseline cohort characteristics demonstrate a high rate of cognitive impairment in the sample, as well as potential sex differences with regard to cognitive diagnosis. The PANUC Clinical Consortium, with its access to biomarker, genetic, and autopsy data, provides an excellent foundation for detailed research related to cognitive impairment in PD.


Contamination of blood cultures is believed to occur mainly during the venepuncture procedure. Consequently, meticulous preparation of the venepuncture site is widely recommended. To determine whether the contamination rate is indeed affected by the quality of the antiseptic procedure at the venepuncture site, 181 paired cultures were collected from 176 patients during a 6-month period after either strict antiseptic cleansing of skin with alcohol followed by povidone-iodine, or after brief disinfection with alcohol alone. The contamination rate was not influenced by the antiseptic procedure, and corresponded to the accepted percentage reported in most other studies. Eight false positive cultures (4.4%) were obtained after strict antisepsis of the skin and 6 (3.3%) after short simple cleansing with alcohol (P = 0.39). Our results suggest that contamination of blood cultures may not be related to the venepuncture procedure--regardless of the antiseptic technique used--but may be due to later stages of laboratory handling and processing of the specimens. Review of the literature has provided further indirect evidence to support this conclusion.


We derive expressions for the spectrum of the field produced by planar, secondary Gaussian Schell-model sources after propagation in free-space, homogeneous dispersive media, and graded-index fibers. Our results show, for the first time to our knowledge, the development of correlation-induced spectral changes (the Wolf effect) as a function of the propagation distance from the source plane. An important result of our study is the prediction of the enhancement of the Wolf effect for propagation in media of index of refraction larger than unity. In the case of graded-index fibers having a parabolic index profile, the source spectrum is shown to reproduce periodically at distances at which such fibers image the source.


History has written that women play an important role in developing the UMMAH. From the birth of Hawa as a companion to Prophet Adam a.s, the great impact of women's role in the society is clearly portrayed in the famous proverb " the hand that rock the cradle, rock the world". Therefore, underlying the phrase, rhythms and motions are reflected by the characteristics of the women. In Islam, Muslim women are regarded as a class of their own. They are highly respected as our companions, guiders and mothers in a family institution. However in modern society, their womanhood roles have increased. They are highly educated and become a part of the nation building together with the man. They can be involved in many different fields from teaching, nursing, managerial to professional engineers. In Malaysia, Muslim women fill many universities as educators. They themselves are professionals and involve in educating technocrats and professionals. Universiti Teknologi Malaysia is one of the engineering universities in Malaysia with the main aims to educating engineers. This university has a blend of engineering educators from both genders. Although engineering is the field dominated by man, the current trend shows significant increase in women engineering educators as well as the graduates. 30% of the engineering educators in UTM are represented by Muslim women. 13% of these women are recognized for their contributions and achievement and was awarded with professorship. 2% of Muslim women educators in UTM are the university executive members which involve in university decision making.


Pulse Transit Time (PTT) measurement has showed potential in non-invasive monitoring of changes in blood pressure. In children, the common peripheral sites used for these studies are a finger or toe. Presently, there are no known studies conducted to investigate any possible physiologic parameters affecting PTT measurement at these sites for children. In this study, PTT values of both peripheral sites were recorded from 64 children in their sitting posture. Their mean age with standard deviation (SD) was 8.2 2.6years (ranged 3 to 12years). Subjects' peripheries path length, heart rate (HR), systolic (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) were measured to investigate any contributions to PTT measurement. The peripheral pulse timing characteristic measured by photoplethysmography (PPG) shows a 59.5 8.5ms (or 24.8 0.4%) difference between the two peripheries (p<0.05). The results also revealed PTT is directly proportional to age (p<0.05). HR, SBP, peripheral path length and peripheral site also contributed significantly (p<0.05) to PTT variations, except for DBP. Results also suggest an upward trend in PTT with age. Hence, changes in any of these physiologic parameters can affect the nominal PTT value of a child.


perception based approach to content based image representation and this paper aims to introduce the problems and challenges concerned with the design and the creation of CBIR systems, which is based on a free hand sketch (Sketch based image retrieval – SBIR). With the help of the existing methods, describe a possible solution how to design and implement a task specific descriptor, which can handle the informational gap between a sketch and a colored image, making an opportunity for the efficient search hereby .The content based image retrieval (CBIR) is one of the most popular, rising research areas of the digital image processing. Most of the available image search tools, such as Google Images and Yahoo! Image search, are based on textual annotation of images. In these tools, images are manually annotated with keywords and then retrieved using textbased search methods. The performances of these systems are not satisfactory. The goal of CBIR is to extract visual content of an image automatically, like color, texture, or shape.. The used descriptor is constructed after such special sequence of preprocessing steps that the transformed full color image and the sketch can be compared. We have studied EHD, HOG and SIFT. Experimental results on two sample databases showed good results. Overall, the results show that the sketch based system allows users an intuitive access to search-tools .The SBIR technology can be used in several applications such as digital libraries, crime prevention, photo sharing sites. Such a system has great value in apprehending suspects and identifying victims in forensics and law enforcement. A possible application is matching a forensic sketch to a gallery of mug shot images. The area of retrieve images based on the visual content of the query picture intensified recently, which demands on the quite wide methodology spectrum on the area of the image processing.


In this paper we present a novel geometric approach to motion planning for constrained robot systems. This problem is notoriously hard, as classical sampling-based methods do not easily apply when motion is constrained in a zero-measure submanifold of the configuration space. Based on results on the functional controllability theory of dynamical systems, we obtain a description of the complementary spaces where rigid body motions can occur, and where interaction forces can be generated, respectively. Once this geometric setting is established, the motion planning problem can be greatly simplified. Indeed, we can relax the geometric constraint, i.e., replace the lower-dimensional constraint manifold with a full-dimensional boundary layer. This in turn allows us to plan motion using state-of-the-art methods, such as RRT∗, on points within the boundary layer, which can be efficiently sampled. On the other hand, the same geometric approach enables the design of a completely decoupled control scheme for interaction forces, so that they can be regulated to zero (or any other desired value) without interacting with the motion plan execution. A distinguishing feature of our method is that it does not use projection of sampled points on the constraint manifold, thus largely saving in computational time, and guaranteeing accurate execution of the motion plan. An explanatory example is presented, along with an experimental implementation of the method on a bimanual manipulation workstation.


Problem. Personal feedback from AFM personnel indicated deep uncertainty as to the legitimate basis for, and practice of, meditation within the Bible in general and the counsels of White in particular. The ongoing debates within the SDA Church concerning meditation and the lack of formal denominational guidance on how to meditate exacerbated the uncertainty. As a consequence, primary devotional habits for many employees primarily revolved around to prayer, Bible study and corporate worship. Yet there remained a reported hunger on the part of many employees for a more meaningful sense of God's presence in their lives. The problem therefore was whether and how spiritual growth could be nurtured among AFM employees through enabling them to both understand and apply the counsels of the Bible and of Ellen G. White on meditation. Method. A study was conducted on the topic of meditation as found in current literature, the Bible, and the writings of White, followed by the development of a meditation model suitable for use within an Adventist environment. Ten AFM employees participated on a voluntary basis in an initial seminar, which included a summary of the above study and an orientation to the meditation model. Each employee participated in an initial in-depth interview, after which each employee worked through the meditation model provided for eight weeks, followed by a final in-depth interview. Results. The results indicated that the practice of biblical meditation brought significant personal spiritual benefits to the research participants, with 80% of the research participants indicating their intent to continue the practice of biblical meditation. The results also indicated that biblical meditation may not be a suitable devotional habit for all people, suggesting that different people will find different devotional habits to be meaningful. Conclusions Biblical meditation is an important and powerful devotional habit with deep roots within the Bible and the writings of White. Biblical meditation within an Adventist theological context may be experienced as intensely personal, deeply transformational, and providing the framework for a dynamic encounter between the Holy Spirit and the practitioner. To avoid extremes of subjectivity, biblical meditation may be most suitable for an individual if practiced within an active and loving Christian community. Adventist practitioners are recommended to gain a broad understanding of the principles of meditation as revealed in the Bible and writings of White before engaging in meditation. New practitioners are recommended to engage in meditations as per the enclosed meditation model until confident in the use of the principles contained therein. Practitioners are recommended to approach biblical meditation with an expectation of God's transforming presence and a submissive attitude to the deep work of God. Finally, practitioners are recommended to find a mechanism for journaling that ensures confidentiality and encourages open personal reflection.


Abstract The proper and dignified management of the dead is one of the three pillars of the humanitarian response to disasters, along with the rescue and care of survivors and the provision of essential services. First launched in 2006, the widely used publication Management of Dead Bodies after Disasters: A Field Manual for First Responders offers practical and easy-to-follow guidelines. It has become the go-to guide not only for non-experts confronted with dead bodies in the aftermath of a catastrophe, but also for those responsible for disaster planning and preparedness in countries with well-developed forensic services. Ten years after the publication of the 2006 Manual, a revised edition has been released. The inclusion of a decade of experience in its field implementation, as well as the incorporation of recent scientific developments in mass fatality management, makes the revised Manual an invaluable resource for first responders confronted with the realities of dead body management following a disaster.


Abstract Objective: Ngoma ceremonies are used throughout Central and South Africa to help people address "difficult issues," including medical illness. They are examples of ceremonies that use strong rhythms and dance for this purpose in indigenous cultures throughout the world. This study sought to modify an ngoma ceremony to make it appropriate for biomedical use and to determine its acceptance and potential for benefit for people living in the United States. Methods: The Congolese Zebola ceremony, an African healing practice, was modified to be religion-neutral and to involve only moderate exercise. Seventeen participants were recruited for the current study. Most participants were living with a chronic illness (n=15), and a few had no medical diagnoses (n=2). Participants spent 10 minutes in a focused activity, such as meditation, yoga, or prayer. They then danced to the Congolese rhythm Zebola for an hour and a half, with a rest every 20 minutes. Afterward, they indicated whether the experience was positive, neutral, or negative and wrote a narrative describing their experience and what they saw as strengths and weaknesses of the ceremony. They then participated in a focus group discussion. Data from the narrative and focus group discussion were coded, tabulated, and analyzed for themes. Results: Sixteen of seventeen participants found the ceremony to be a positive experience. None found the form uncomfortably foreign or disturbing. Participants described diverse benefits, including increased exercise tolerance, stress reduction, feelings of group support, and beneficial spiritual experiences. Conclusions: Further study of the modified ngoma ceremony is warranted. Global health programs should consider the potential benefits of transferring technologies in both directions rather than only from technologically advanced countries to less technologically advanced ones.


This paper explores differences and similarities between novice and expert users of interactive artifacts. In order to achieve this, protocol analysis was used to identify users' cognitive categories, knowledge categories and knowledge representation. This research is based on the premises that knowledge — domain-specific knowledge in particular — plays a significant role in distinguishing a novice from an expert user, and the way in which they use technologically interactive devices. The differences between expert and novice users were compared and identified with associated knowledge and knowledge representation for each cognitive category. These constitute the features that differentiate them as they reflect the kind of processes, representations, strategies or knowledge organisation that may occur for each cognitive category during the interaction. The paper also addresses the transitional process through which a novice becomes an expert and concludes about this finding's implication to design.


I have always been embarrassed at being boringly centrist. On my bad days I have felt lacking in testosterone or intestinal fortitude. Many of my closest professional friends seem clearer in their minds than I feel. I pretend I'm Leon Kass, former chair of the President's Council on Bioethics, when I teach Jim Childress, a distinguished professor at the University of Virginia and thoughtful defender of autonomy and respect for persons--and vice versa. I want to have it not just both ways, but all ways. This is not a comfortable position. Judith Berling, an old friend and scholar of Chinese religion, grew up in Iowa. She used to say that she had one foot in Tokyo and the other in Dubuque--and that it was a reach, and left her vulnerable. So it is, and it's a vulnerability to which I can relate. To give myself a little credit, I know some of the reasons I take refuge in the middle. One is the unfortunate demonizing and labeling that goes on in the politically crisper factions. For example, Kass's "The Wisdom of Repugnance," an essay on cloning published in The New Republic a few years before he took the helm of the President's Council, is often characterized as if it were a simple appeal to gut feeling, when even a casual reading will show it is not. One may disagree with the substance of Kass's arguments, but they should be taken on in the good faith in which they were advanced. Similarly, critics of thinkers such as Childress who defend nuanced views about the importance and role of autonomy or respect for persons in setting bioethics policy often ignore the nuance, and write as if their foes stood for a disconnected and unencumbered ideal of the self. The result is a caricature of a position that may, in fact, not take our inter-dependencies with sufficient seriousness, but that nevertheless is scarcely tone deaf to the social nature of human life. Something parallel happens with reference to religion. I am a traditionally religious man, a weekly churchgoer, and have tried to integrate that commitment into my work. Thus I find it painful when religious arguments or theological perspectives are dismissed out of hand, systematically excluded from policy debates, even when the rationale for that dismissal is expressed with the intelligence and conviction of Ronald M. Green, who argues that religious persons must "avoid appeal to religiously defined goals or other values that are not widely shared." (1) My own views (and tradition) largely accord with Green's, but I would not exclude the voice of an Orthodox rabbi. On the other hand, the sociologist John Evans's argument that bioethics as a field has systematically excluded religion is too sweeping. The fact that religion has not been treated as politically decisive does not prove that it has been excluded altogether. I may participate in an argument even if I don't win. We need much more serious discussion about the mechanisms for setting public policy about bioethics, but that debate could well begin with some caveats: that religion need not lead to political dogmatism, and that no religious card should be trump. In the United States religion is an important part of the discussion, but only a part. One subject on which the crisp views are at loggerheads is the question of the status and use of human embryos. The claims are familiar: from the moment of conception or existence of the diploid nucleus the embryo has the moral status of the writer and reader of this prose. Or, the earliest embryo is simply a resource for advancement of the human prospect, and quibbles about its creation or preservation reflect ignorance of embryology and perhaps superstition. The clash results in argument conducted as war, reminding me of the apocryphal story of the minister preaching in a small church with the windows open: A spring breeze refreshes the room, blowing notes off the pulpit. Someone sitting in the first pew picks them up to see that the minister had written in the margin, "Weak point, yell like hell. …


Introduction Bowel cancer is the third most common cancer in the United Kingdom forming up to 13.6% of all newl1y diagnosed cancers (1). Bowel cancer screening colonoscopy allows early polyp detection at a curable stage. Complete resection and follow-up of large polyps is crucial to prevent malignant progression. The aim of this study was to review the management of polyps with diameters ≥2 cm, particularly of sessile polyps, to assess the enbloc resection rates, completeness of resection using endoscopic mucosal resection (EMR) vs surgery and the incidence of malignant polyps. Methods Patients were identified retrospectively from a regional bowel screening programme database. Details of index colonoscopy including polyp characteristics, method of resection and complications were recorded. Histology results were reviewed for all polyps. Outcomes from follow-up endoscopic surveillance were analysed. Results One hundred and fifty-eight patients (102 males, 56 females, mean age 66.2 years) with polyps ≥2 cm were identified from 2182 screening colonoscopies from January 2010 to August 2013. Caecal intubation rate was 96.8% in this group. Largest polyp size for each patient ranged from 20 to 60 mm (mean 26.6 mm). The incidence of adenocarcinoma was 11.9% (n = 19), all located within the left colon, with 12 requiring surgical resection. One hundred thirty nine patients (n = 139) had 155 non-malignant large polyps, mostly tubulovillous or villous histology (n = 110, 79%). Thirty-six patients had 37 sessile polyps which underwent primary resection by EMR (n = 26) or surgery (n = 11). Polyp diameter was larger in the surgery group with mean polyp diameter of 40.4 vs. 28.0 mm (p < 0.05). EMR enbloc resection rate was 11.5% (n = 3 out of 26). Completeness of excision was 38.4% (n = 10) at 3 months and 92.3% (n = 24) at 1 year. EMR complications included 1 perforation, 1 post polypectomy syndrome and 1 bleed. Surgical resection included: anterior resection in 2, TEMS excision in 7 and right hemicolectomy in 3. Conclusion Sessile polyps ≥2 cm are relatively uncommon in an asymptomatic bowel cancer screening programme (37 in 2182 colonoscopies). They can be successfully resected by EMR without recurrence in 92.3% at 1 year providing a 3 month site check is performed in all piecemeal polypectomies. Reference Cancer for National Statistics 2010. Office for National Statistics. http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171778_263537.pdf Disclosure of Interest None Declared.


It is axiomatic that strategic flexibility is a key success factor in generating competitive advantage. Despite this maxim, often peddled in the normative literature, empirical studies have produced inconsistent results for the strength and direction of this relationship. We synthesize these results and provide empirical support for a general, moderate, and positive effect of strategic flexibility on firm performance. Moreover, we find that strategic flexibility indirectly affects financial performance through its positive effects on innovation capability and superior market position, and that strategic flexibility has a negative direct effect on financial performance. Importantly, the meta-analytic evidence also indicates that the strategic flexibility-performance relationship depends on measurement methods, the research context, and certain environmental characteristics. Exploratory analyses regarding the antecedents of strategic flexibility reveal many meaningful differences to the predominant expectations in prior research. Overall, our results provide the necessary nuance to discerning the specific antecedent and consequential effects of strategic flexibility, thereby providing valuable implications for managers, and outlining a research agenda for future inquiries.


A hallmark of graph neural networks is their ability to distinguish the isomorphism class of their inputs. This study derives hardness results for the classification variant of graph isomorphism in the message-passing model (MPNN). MPNN encompasses the majority of graph neural networks used today and is universal when nodes are given unique features. The analysis relies on the introduced measure of communication capacity. Capacity measures how much information the nodes of a network can exchange during the forward pass and depends on the depth, message-size, global state, and width of the architecture. It is shown that the capacity of MPNN needs to grow linearly with the number of nodes so that a network can distinguish trees and quadratically for general connected graphs. The derived bounds concern both worst- and average-case behavior and apply to networks with/without unique features and adaptive architecture -- they are also up to two orders of magnitude tighter than those given by simpler arguments. An empirical study involving 12 graph classification tasks and 420 networks reveals strong alignment between actual performance and theoretical predictions.


The purpose of this essay is to review some significant themes present in the works of Virtue Ethics (VE) authors (mainly, but not exclusively, neo-Aristotelian ones). First it focuses some VE's criticism versus modern ethics, for example the concentration on duty, arguing, on the contrary, that it is necessary to identify the telos-flourishment of human life and to preserve love-friendship as crucial for societies. According to VE, norms are not sufficient to act well: we need to be inspired by the phronimos and to possess phronesis. That implies the importance of the community and the necessary role of emotions. Then the essay focuses on virtues as dispositions to perform morally good actions and react with the appropriate emotions. Virtue has intrinsic value and makes good action spontaneous, but its primary effect is to enable us to desire, identify, evaluate, command, choose and execute the good in a certain situation.


Quite a few strategies have been proposed for integrating mobile ad hoc networks and the Internet. A need has been felt for an analytical model that would facilitate a formal definition and comparison of different integration strategies without actually implementing them in a simulated environment. In this paper, we present an analytical framework based on the concept of a Relay Path Set (RPS). This model can be used to describe, compare the different strategies for integrating mobile Ad Hoc networks and the Internet, propose new strategies and suggest improvements in the existing strategies at different module levels. The proposed model has been applied on a few of the existing Integration strategies and performance comparison has also been made. We also discuss the future work that can be carried out using the proposed framework.


Many articles have cited a study of apatite and zircon fission‐track ages from the Eastern Cordillera of the central Andes, Bolivia, as evidence for a marked acceleration of uplift rates over the last 40 m.yr. However, we show that an artifact of the graphical technique used to interpret the data, namely the common‐variable problem, drives the apparent increase. In order to determine what can be inferred about exhumation history from the data, we developed a simple quantitative forward model to calculate the coupled apatite and zircon age profiles as a function of height and then used Markov Chain–Monte Carlo techniques to estimate the family of solutions that provide reasonable fits to the data. This model improves on linear regression analysis of elevation‐age plots, which treats apatite and zircon data as independent systems. Results suggest that both exponential or step‐function velocity models fit the data well. We prefer the exponential model, however, because it appears to be more consistent with uplift history as inferred from paleoelevation data. In this model, the exhumation rate doubles every 20–35 m.yr. from about 120 m/Ma at 50 Ma to around 400–750 m/Ma for the present. Thus, we concur with the original interpretation of an acceleration in the exhumation rate, but our inference is based on a more physical model along with paleoelevation data. This interpretation differs from other reinterpretations of the data based on linear regression analysis that suggest that exhumation began at 40 Ma and then increased sharply sometime between 30 and 10 Ma. More fission‐track data, especially zircon data, are needed to distinguish between these two scenarios.


We investigate the enhancement of nonlinearity in one-dimensional (1D) photonic crystals (PCs) with Kerr nonlinearity by numerical Z-scan experiments based on the finite-difference time-domain technique. Focused Gaussian beams with well-defined waists and Rayleigh lengths necessary for Z-scan experiments are generated through a conjugated manipulation of the Gaussian beams propagating in free space. The Z-scan measurements used for bulk materials are naturally extended to 1D PCs after incorporating the frequency- and power-density-dependent reflections into their linear and nonlinear absorptions. The closed- and open-aperture Z-scan traces for the 1D PCs are obtained and a symmetric method is employed to modify the asymmetric closed-aperture traces. The nonlinearity enhancement factors at different frequencies in the first and second bands are derived numerically and analytically. A good agreement is found between the numerical and analytical results in the case of weak nonlinearity. Moreover, the dependences of the enhancement factor on the incident power density for different frequencies in the 1D PCs are extracted and they are found to be much different from those in bulk materials. It is revealed that the variation of the group velocity with increasing power density is responsible for the power-density dependence of the enhancement factor. It indicates that in practice one must deliberately choose the working frequency and power density of PC-based devices in order to achieve a maximum enhancement of nonlinearity.


This essay is an inquiry into the problem of biological form, which unites different aspects of the subject, from evolution to cognition, within a common perspective. Historical approaches to this problem have employed various dualisms to separate different parts of the processes that generate form, whether in organismic development, evolution or cognition, and to locate different causes and characteristics in these parts, to one of which is usually ascribed a distinct essence, which is regarded as the generator of distinctive form. A number of these dualisms are examined, starting with that of Descartes, out of which emerges an alternative approach to the problem.


Landscape plays a crucial role in modern life for urban dwellers even though the majority of their time is spent indoors [1]. In this context, vision is the dominant sense that connects urban residents to landscapes. The visual quality of urban environments, consequently, can have a great influence on the quality of life. But how can visual quality be assessed? Research into urban landscape preference is relatively limited, and there are significant shortcomings with existing methods. For example, the method of asking people to rate photographs of the scenes cannot capture the subjective value of urban environments as experienced on a daily basis.
This paper presents a novel method, Active Perception Technique (APT), to measure visual preference for everyday urban scenes. Windowscape is used as a convenient, useful tool in this method. In addition to photographic evidence, APT uses graphic responses where participants are asked to draw from memory what they recall seeing of their windowscapes. APT is designed to identify the most and least visually preferred features of urban windowscapes, and hence how to combine common urban features to predict preference for windowscapes.
The method is demonstrated by studying postgraduate students of two Auckland universities. APT produced several original results. As one might expect, natural features of urban windowscapes were preferred over built ones; however, some natural features contributed more strongly to overall preference than others. Preferences for some features were found to differ across home and workplace windowscapes. Personal association with features was also found to impact on visual preferences.
Results obtained from APT can be useful for policy makers, and planners to enhance the visual quality of built environments. APT may also have other uses; including examining the perceived significance of cultural features in everyday urban landscapes. Furthermore, it can show how landscape preferences differ between populations, such as tourists and local residents.


As the scale of high-performance computing (HPC) systems continues to grow, increasing levels of parallelism must be implored to achieve optimal performance. Recently, the processors support wide vector extensions, vectorization becomes much more important to exploit the potential peak performance of target architecture. Novel processor architectures, such as the Armv8-A architecture, introduce Scalable Vector Extension (SVE) - an optional separate architectural extension with a new set of A64 instruction encodings, which enables even greater parallelisms.In this paper, we analyze the usage and performance of the SVE instructions in Arm SVE vector Instruction Set Architecture (ISA); and utilize those instructions to improve the memcpy and various local reduction operations. Furthermore, we propose new strategies to improve the performance of MPI operations including datatype packing/unpacking and MPI reduction. With these optimizations, we not only provide a higher-parallelism for a single node, but also achieve a more efficient communication scheme of message exchanging. The resulting efforts have been implemented in the context of OPEN MPI, providing efficient and scalable capabilities of SVE usage and extending the possible implementations of SVE to a more extensive range of programming and execution paradigms. The evaluation of the resulting software stack under different scenarios with both simulator and Fujitsu's A64FX processor demonstrates that the solution is at the same time generic and efficient.


The current discourse in Australian languages education is that if children study languages in the early years, then languages uptake in secondary schools will increase. There has been little coherent data collection and analysis, however, to support or challenge this discourse. This article draws on findings from an ARC Linkages study in NSW involving cross-sectoral languages study data (2007 to 2014), school case studies and teacher surveys to explore links between primary school provision, uptake and continuation to Year 12. The study focused on 348 schools in two demographic areas – inner city Sydney and Wollongong. The three key findings were that uptake in upper secondary school is primarily a factor of scaling for tertiary entry; that socioeconomic status (SES) is a key factor in K-10 languages provision and uptake and that community languages have been marginalised from day schools. The paper argues that language programs and policy need to be based not on common beliefs but on consistent data collection. It also argues that two key issues need to be addressed to reverse the decline in language study: a review of the tertiary scaling of languages and government strategies which work from issues of equity of access for students in lower-SES schools.


Objective: Dating violence is a significant health problem among youth that leads to adverse health outcomes, including injuries. Reciprocal violence (perpetrated by both partners) is associated with increased injury in adults, but very little is known about the prevalence and context for reciprocal violence, as well as injury rates, among youth. We sought to determine the prevalence and scope of reciprocal dating violence and injury occurrence among urban youth in a high-risk community. Methods: Analyses were based on data from the Youth Violence Survey, conducted in 2004, and administered to over 80% of public school students in grades 7, 9, 11, and 12 (N=4,131) in a high-risk, urban school district. The current analyses were restricted to those who reported dating in the past year and who also reported any dating violence (n=1,158). Dating violence was categorized as reciprocal (the participant reported both violence perpetration and victimization) and non-reciprocal (the participant report either violence perpetration or victimization, but not both). Results: Dating violence reciprocity varied by sex. Girls who reported any dating violence were more likely to report reciprocal dating violence (50.4%) than were boys (38.9%). However, reciprocity did not vary by race/ethnicity or grade level. Reciprocal dating violence was more common among participants who reported more frequent violence experiences. Reciprocal violence was also associated with greater injury occurrences relative to non-reciprocal relationships (10.1% versus 1.2%). Conclusion: Reciprocal dating violence is common among adolescents and leads more often to injury outcomes. In particular, relationships in which boys report reciprocal violence against their partner appear to lead to more frequent injury occurrences. These findings underscore the importance of addressing dating violence and factors that increase risk for reciprocal violence and therefore exacerbate injury occurrence.


Background: Obesity changes body composition including fat free mass (FFM), regarded as the "pharmacologically active mass". Scaling drug doses to obese patients by total body mass (TBM) results in overdose. We aimed to determine the success rate of inducing anaesthesia in normal, overweight and obese patients with propofol, using an adjusted body mass scalar (ABM), which embodies the increased FFM of obese patients. Methods: Ninety-six patients were divided into three groups according to body mass index (BMI): normal, overweight and obese. Propofol 2 mg/kg ABM was administered according to the equation: ABM = IBM + 0.4(TBM – IBM), where IBM = ideal body mass. Induction success was assessed clinically and by electroencephalographic spectral entropy. Results: The groups were similar regarding gender, age, height and IBM. One patient was morbidly obese (BMI = 44). State entropy (SE) decreased to < 60 in 33/33, 28/29 and 33/34 patients in the normal-weight, overweight and obese groups respectively, an overall success rate of 97.5% (95% confidence interval 92.7% to 99.4%). Median lowest achieved SE values and median times that SE remained < 60 did not differ between groups, however the individual values ranged widely in all three groups. Induction failed in the two patients whose SE did not decrease to < 60 (one overweight and one obese). Conclusions: The ABM-based propofol induction dose has a high success rate in normal, overweight and obese patients. Further studies are required to determine the feasibility among morbidly obese patients.


The two factors that make TPAMI a wonderful journal are largely immune to disruption by a change of editors. Our community is a fertile source of exciting intellectual creations and scientific discoveries, and this factor ensures there are fine papers for the journal to publish. The other factor is the large community of volunteers who find and promote strong papers. The journal owes a great deal to the tremendous efforts, skill, and professionalism of the Associate Editors in Chief (AEICs). In 2011, TPAMI received 944 submissions, of which 171 were accepted. On average, from submission to first decision took 4.8 months, to accept took 10 months, to online publication 11.1 months, and to paper 17.5 months. Note that these numbers are not cumulative. In 2012, TPAMI received 1,033 submissions, of which 166 have thus far been accepted. On average, from submission to first decision took 3.6 months, to accept took 7.8 months, to online publication 8.4 months, and to paper 14.6 months. You can see the effect of the extra pages that Ramin organized. Figures for 2013 are not yet in, but as of September there were 703 submissions, of which 14 had already been accepted. These statistics suggest that the journal is generally efficient at handling papers.


The revised Belgian Youth Justice Act (YJA) (2006) is featured as a case study due to the important restorative justice dimensions that it has introduced. The legal system in Belgium is dominated by a civil law regime with a deep-seated tradition in youth justice characterized by an almost exclusively 'treatment'-oriented approach. Whilst the implementation of the revised YJA has encountered some challenges, it has also revealed that it is possible to prioritize restorative processes within a conventional civil law regime. That being said, the fundamental change that the Act aspired to achieve is only made possible by the application of additional measures.


Due to increases in design complexity, routing a reset signal to all registers is becoming more difficult. One way to solve this problem is to reset only certain registers and rely on a software initialization sequence to reset other registers. This approach, however, may allow unknown values (also called X-values) in uninitialized registers to leak to other registers, leaving the design in a nondeterministic state. Although logic simulation can find some X-problems, it is not accurate and may miss bugs. A recent approach based on symbolic simulation can handle Xs accurately; however, it is not scalable. In this work we analyze the characteristics of X-problems and propose a methodology that leverages the accuracy of formal X-analysis and can scale to large designs. This is achieved by our novel partitioning techniques and the intelligent use of waveforms as stimulus. We applied our methodology to an industrial design and successfully identified several Xs unknown to the designers, including three real bugs, demonstrating the effectiveness of our approach.


We studied two groups of samples called "La Calera" and "Amotape," in situ from the Peruvian districts of Alto Laran and Amotape, respectively. Different techniques were needed to characterise them. By using X-ray diffractometry, we determined their phases as well as corroborated the cation exchange process in some samples; however, in other samples there was a large interplanar spacing. Through transmission Mössbauer spectroscopy, we obtained the valence state of iron. Consequently, we determined that the samples contained calcium and sodium clays. Additionally, we proceeded to optimise the calcium clays by cation exchange to obtain sodium clays, which can be used in wastewater treatment and other applications.