Historically, urban growth occurred around water bodies due to factors such as easy access to transportation, water supply, and drainage. With the expanded transportation network along with peoples. desires to live in more pristine environments, dense growth from the cities began to spread to surrounding previously undeveloped areas. Significant sprawl continues to occur throughout the nation based on short-term goals rather than a regional, holistic approach. Changes in impervious covers due to the developments are inevitable, however, the effects of these changes are challenging from policy, regulatory and technical perspectives. In this paper, a multi-objective decision framework has been developed to guide the determination of an effective imperviousness that can best achieve the various challenges pertinent to a site where a newer or re-development is being planned. The simulation optimization approach developed here will determine the minimum reduction in impervious cover necessary, under the given site-constraints, so that the developers can strive to meet or possibly exceed this target reduction. Constraints are placed on a site depending on its vicinity to a number of regional challenges that have been grouped into three major categories: (a)hydrologic considerations including variability in rainfall and pre- and post-development flow volumes/peak runoff rates, and groundwater recharge; (b) sustainability (green) considerations including on-site retention/detention and water reuse in terms of its reliability and effectiveness in reducing stormwater volumes/peak flows; and (c) water quality considerations including pollutant load reductions to the receiving water bodies. Metrics for evaluating the various considerations are expressed both quantitatively (e.g., cost factors) and qualitatively (e.g.,weighting factors for the objective functions).


What we know already
Patient reported outcome measures (PROMs) are an increasingly popular and prevalent method of ascertaining the impact of an intervention in health. For example there are PROMs measuring the success of intervention in diabetes, surgery and mental health. There is currently no such measure of specialist spiritual care.
What this paper adds
This paper describes the development of the Lothian spiritual care PROM from the literature. It shows where the items within the PROM came from and how they fit with current spiritual care theory.
Why this is important.
It is important to ground any PROM in a well developed theoretical understanding of what it is supposed to measure. Without this, the measure may be unreliable, so considerable effort needs to be devoted to the underpinning philosophy. This applies to any scale development. Any valid scale needs to be situated in a testable conceptual model.
How this impacts upon chaplaincy
The PROM that is constructed from this process is likely to be a valid measure of the impact of what chaplains do. A valid measure of specialist spiritual care is consistent with developing the evidence base for chaplaincy and could help service planning in a structured manner.


This study investigated common features of students' attitudes towards studying science and mathematics in comprehensive and secondary schools in three countries. Data were obtained by conducting a survey (N = 581) in Norway, Finland and Russia. A Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) provided a model with a three-factor solution consisting of factors: the perception of the teacher, anxiety towards science and mathematics, and motivation. The results suggest that most students are motivated to study sciences and mathematics. Data analysis indicate gender differences in attitudes to students' future studies and career plans.  Most girls recognized the importance of these subjects for their future studies and careers, while boys showed more interest than girls in local career opportunities in industry. Teachers have a significant role in directing students' attitudes toward science and mathematics. Students experienced that the teachers who use innovative teaching approaches, both motivate and reduce anxiety, in their learning process.


The potential for laccase (EC 22.214.171.124) to be used within the area of textile coloration, specifically for the generation of decorative surface pattern design, remains relatively unexplored. The current study presents a novel process for the coloration of wool and nylon 6,6 fibres via laccase oxidation of aromatic compounds as an alternative to conventional dyeing methods. Emphasis was placed on producing a diverse colour palette, which was achieved through the investigation of three different aromatic compounds as laccase substrates: 1,4‐dihydroxybenzene, 2,7‐dihydroxynapthalene and 2,5‐diaminobenzenesulphonic acid. Reaction processing parameters such as buffer systems and pH values, laccase and aromatic compound concentrations, and reaction times were investigated, all in the absence of additional chemical auxiliaries. Enzymatically dyed fabrics were tested against commercial standards, resulting in reasonably good colour fastness to wash. To demonstrate the coloration and design potential by laccase catalysation of aromatic compounds, specially constructed fabrics using a combination of undyed wool, nylon and polyester yarns were dyed using the one‐step laccase‐catalysed coloration process. The use of different fibre types and weave structures enabled simple colour variations to be produced. Shadow, reserve and contrasting effects were achieved with the laccase‐catalysed dyeing process developed. Important advantages over conventional processing methods include the use of simpler and milder processing conditions that eliminate additional chemical use and reduce energy consumption.


For me, it is best summed up in the numerous articles that have appeared in so many leading business magazines around the world about the ongoing success of one company, in an industry where many of the world's top brands are fighting for survival. I refer, of course, to the automotive industry and that stellar brand, Toyota. How have they done it? My take on it, is that after all has been said and done, Toyota do one thing brilliantly well. In fact they probably do it better than any other company on the planet today. That is Listening. Listening to their employees, with more than 50,000 suggestions being put forward annually. Listening to their dealer network and empowering them to make the right decision in the interests of their clients.


Toll-like Receptors (TLRs) are not only crucial for the initiation of immune response, but also play a key role in several inflammatory diseases. This study postulated a potential contribution of TLR3 and TLR9 in the initial triggering of inflammatory ambiance via Nuclear Factor Kappa-light-chain-enhancer of Activated B Cells (NF-κB) activation in Chronic Virus Hepatitis (CVH) with later participation in inflammation induced carcinogenesis. The study was carried out on a 100 of chronic hepatitis Egyptian patients: 50 of virus C (CHC) and 50 of virus B (CHB) etiologies including: 20 and 15 cases with mild liver fibrosis (stages 1 or 2), 10 and 15 cases with liver cirrhosis (stage 4) and 40 cases of virus associated Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC), 20 of each etiology, respectively. Fifteen gender and age-matched, individuals were enrolled in the study as healthy controls. Toll-like receptor 3 or 9 expression on peripheral blood monocytes and liver tissue was evaluated in CHC and CHB patients respectively and in control cases. Liver tissue NF-κB expression and serum levels of Tumor Necrosis Factor-α (TNF-α), Interleukin (IL)-1β and IL-6 were measured in all cases of the study. The results showed a significant increase of all parameters in CHC and CHB patients compared to controls. Gradual but significant increment was recorded from mild fibrosis to cirrhosis, reaching the highest in HCC groups. Increased expression of TLRs in peripheral blood monocytes and liver tissue was running hand in hand with increased serum levels of TNF-α, IL- and IL-6 favoring the current postulation. This was further supported by the parallel increase in NF-κB expression in liver tissue especially in HCC group suggesting a potential link between chronic hepatic injury, fibrosis and HCC. These findings await further implementation and inclusion in therapeutic research.


With the advent of instantaneous information and the trend toward shrinking adherence to the truth, the conversation surrounding the ability of judges to conduct outside research into the matters before them is gaining urgency. In a "post-truth" world, the role that the judiciary plays in our democracy must shift from trier of fact to guardian of factual integrity. And to do this, the professional ethics rules assigned to the judiciary may need re-evaluation. This Essay argues that the judiciary's ambivalence to its role as fact finder must be overcome, and where appropriate, judges may be empowered to seek out supplemental information to be shared with the parties to better identify the truth at the center of the controversy. Further, in light of the many powers judges already possess to investigate the facts, including to elicit witness testimony, further expanding the courts' powers to research the matters before them will not undermine the unbiased nature of the judiciary. It will, rather, strengthen previously sanctioned powers of investigation to better protect against the ever-shifting political tides keen to influence the judicial outcomes handed down from the court.


Although many extreme weather events were documented throughout the medieval period, few are known in great detail due to a lack of detailed documen-tary and archaeological evidence. A case study with a high volume of evidence is the windstorm of 15 January 1362 which primarily affected southern and eastern England. Its effects and the responses of contemporary society in its aftermath are documented relatively widely across the British Isles, with standing building evidence supporting the written evidence at certain locations. As a result, it is possible to trace the short to medium term impact of this event including how the event was perceived, what reactions were taken across the different layers of medieval society and to what extent any preparations were made against 'the next storm'.


This paper examines the impacts of military expenditures on varies sectors of the Ethiopian economy in general and social programs (education and health expenditures) in particular. Unlike most similar studies, a medium-sized macro econometric model and a specific country data set are used to estimate the impacts of defense expenditures. The simulation results indicate that an increase in military expenditures adversely affect output growth and the current account balance. The result also show that there was a trade-off between military expenditures and social; programs.


The pulmonary route is gaining increasing popularity as a fast and effective way of delivering drugs to the lungs both locally and systemically. There are several reasons for this interest, noted Conrad Winters, PhD, director, and Filipe Neves, PhD, group leader, both from the Drug Product Development Group at Hovione. "Firstly, advances in device technology have made inhalation drug delivery more convenient and patient-friendly. Secondly, from a therapeutic angle, the lungs provide a high absorption area with extensive vascularization, leading to rapid delivery of the drug. Moreover, because it circumvents first-pass metabolism, lower doses can be administered compared with the oral route."


The research aim and objectives of this study was fourfold as follows: Firstly,
to evaluate the number of motorcar waste tyres generated annually in
Malaysia. Secondly, to study the current disposal methods and their impacts
on the environment. Thirdly to determine the various issues /problems
pertaining to waste tyre management, and finally to evaluate the status of
current policies and regulations in relation to waste tyre management
The methodology for the study consisted of desktop research, field
observations, questionnaire surveys and discussions with relevant authorities
and associations in the public and private sectors. The field `work was carried out from September 2002 to December 2003 in the Klang Valley
(Kuala Lumpur and Selangor Darul Eshan). Three different sets of interview
forms was pre-tested in September 2002, (for tyre dealers, related
associations, tyre manufacturers and government agencies), improved and
used to gather primary data beginning December 2002. A total of 109 tyre
dealers, 13 government agencies, 3 tyre manufacturers, 3 landfill operators,
3 waste tyre users (recycling and reusers), 2 tyre related associations, 2
principal rubbish collectors, 2 related organizations and 50 tyre consumers
were interviewed in the survey. All data were then analyzed quantitatively
and qualitatively.
The results of the study indicated the following:
i. There is a steady increase in the motorcar waste tyre generated
annually in the country. The number of motorcar waste tyres generated
annually in the country was estimated to be 8.2 million or approximately
57,391 tonnes. About 60% of the waste tyres are disposed via unknown
routes.
ii. Waste tyres in Malaysia are neither categorized as solid waste or
hazardous waste. It is generally considered as business or trade waste;
hence currently, there is no specific law or regulation, which govern waste
tyre management.iii. Tyre dealers face considerable pressure when the waste tyres
accumulates in their premises, often resulting in improper storage of the
wastes, which in turn invites penalties from the local authority. In light of the
above situation, they usually employ private rubbish collectors to dispose
their waste tyres. They do not have any guidance or assistance from their
principals or authorities for proper management and disposal of waste
tyres.
iv. Although private rubbish collectors charge a fee to collect waste tyres,
it is unknown to what extend these tyres are disposed off in an environmental
friendly and legal way. There is no verifiable data on this issue. However, the
private waste collectors complained that the gate fees at the landfill are not
attractive for their business.
v. Other industry users such as tyre shredders, recyclers and other
physical users also make use of waste tyres. Currently there is no
institutional approach for managing waste tyre as a resource in Malaysia.
Existing companies operate purely on business ethics, with profit being the
bottom line. Without a policy and management structure in place, it is costly
and difficult for the recycling companies to get a steady supply of waste tyres.
Thus, these companies are now using alternative materials such as used and
rejected gloves and tyre buffing, hence reducing the demand for waste tyres.
This is a complex issue and highlights the need to examine the "tyre
dumping" practices in Malaysia.vi. Although the landfill is the easiest and a legal avenue to dispose
waste tyres, the gate fee for waste tyres disposal is considered expensive by
many private rubbish collectors. Private rubbish collectors collect waste tyres
from the dealer's premises together with other rubbish: thus they charge a
minimum extra fee. On the other hand, a high gate fee at the landfill deters
the private rubbish collectors from dumping waste tyres at the landfill. Left
with little choice they have to find alternative places within their budget to
dispose the tyres.
vii. Other industry users collect waste tyres for retreading, rubber reclaim
and shredding. However, the demand for products made of recycled waste
tyre materials is very limited and there is no regulatory support as in some
developed countries Although there are some beneficial applications of waste
tyres, the controlling or hindering factors are a steady market demand for the
end products and a continuous supply of waste tyres.
viii. High waste tyre volume consuming options such as 'artificial reef
construction ' and 'rubberized asphalt road surfacing' seems not to be
favoured options today. The Department of Fisheries has stopped using
waste tyres to construct artificial reefs, whereas the latter option never got
started commercially in the country. Large-scale operations that can remove
this waste quickly and cheaply is needed. With these major options being
discarded or less favoured the volume of waste tyres to be disposed would
increase rapidly.ix. The adverse environmental impacts due to improper management of
waste tyres, was deduced from field observations and "ad-hoc" data from
interviews with municipal health inspectors and landfill operators. They
include mosquito breeding , air pollution associated with open burning of
tyres (particulates, odour, visual impacts, and other harmful contaminants
such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon, dioxin, furans and oxides of
nitrogen), aesthetic pollution caused by waste tyre stockpiles and illegal
waste tyre dumps (habitat for vermin such as rats and snakes), and other
impacts such as alterations in hydrological regimes when gullies and
watercourses become dumping sites. These environmentally related
problems occur because of the lack of a formal, well-coordinated
management system for waste tyres.
x. There is a serious lack of producer responsibility for waste tyre
management in Malaysia. Tyre producers or manufacturers are not
concerned about the final disposal of their product at the end of its life.
They leave it solely to their dealers to tackle this issue. The lack of producer
responsibility in managing the waste makes the management of waste tyres
a more difficult task.
xi. Generally there is a lack of awareness and concern among the
industry and the public on the environmental and health impacts due to
improper management of waste tyres.xii. Lack of consistent and available information/data about waste tyre
generation and management hinders the understanding of current
management scenarios, which is critical in order to formulate pragmatic
solutions. There is a lot of uncertainty how an issue in one sector of the
industry can influence a sustainable change in another sector.
xiii. It is concluded from the study that the important factors for
establishing an effective waste tyre management system includes (a) the
formulation of a national policy for waste tyre management, (b) the creation
of incentives for the use of waste tyre recovered materials and to mandate
the use of these materials in specified activities, (c) a single qualified
concessionaire, (d) assistance to exploit value from waste tyres,(e)
imposition of a levy, (f) extended producer responsibility, (g) a centralized
administration and enforcement structure, and (h) public awareness
programme.


In this paper we propose a new multilayer classifier architecture. The proposed hybrid architecture has two cascaded modules: feature extraction module and classification module. In the feature extraction module we use the multilayered perceptron (MLP) neural networks, although other tools such as radial basis function (RBF) networks can be used. In the classification module we use support vector machines (SVMs)---here also other tool such as MLP or RBF can be used. The feature extraction module has several sub-modules each of which is expected to extract features capturing the discriminating characteristics of different areas of the input space. The classification module classifies the data based on the extracted features. The resultant architecture with MLP in feature extraction module and SVM in classification module is called NEUROSVM. The NEUROSVM is tested on twelve benchmark data sets and the performance of the NEUROSVM is found to be better than both MLP and SVM. We also compare the performance of proposed architecture with that of two ensemble methods: majority voting and averaging. Here also the NEUROSVM is found to perform better than these two ensemble methods. Further we explore the use of MLP and RBF in the classification module of the proposed architecture. The most attractive feature of NEUROSVM is that it practically eliminates the severe dependency of SVM on the choice of kernel. This has been verified with respect to both linear and non-linear kernels. We have also demonstrated that for the feature extraction module, the full training of MLPs is not needed.


This paper shows the effects of buildings on the required geographical spacing between co- channel FBWA systems, where one system is a mesh (or possibly a collection of point to point links) and the other system is a conventional 802.16 or similar PMP system. Purpose For consideration in the TG2 meeting at session # 15 Notice This document has been prepared to assist IEEE 802.16. It is offered as a basis for discussion and is not binding on the contributing individual(s) or organization(s). The material in this document is subject to change in form and content after further study. The contributor(s) reserve(s) the right to add, amend or withdraw material contained herein. Release The contributor grants a free, irrevocable license to the IEEE to incorporate material contained in this contribution, and any modifications thereof, in the creation of an IEEE Standards publication; to copyright in the IEEE's name any IEEE Standards publication even though it may include portions of this contribution; and at the IEEE's sole discretion to permit others to reproduce in whole or in part the resulting IEEE Standards publication. The contributor also acknowledges and accepts that this contribution may be made public by IEEE 802.16. Patent Policy and Procedures The contributor is familiar with the IEEE 802.16 Patent Policy and Procedures (Version 1.0) , including the statement "IEEE standards may include the known use of patent(s), including patent applications, if there is technical justification in the opinion of the standards- developing committee and provided the IEEE receives assurance from the patent holder that it will license applicants under reasonable terms and conditions for the purpose of implementing the standard." Early disclosure to the Working Group of patent information that might be relevant to the standard is essential to reduce the possibility for delays in the development process and increase the likelihood that the draft publication will be approved for publication. Please notify the Chair as early as possible, in written or electronic form, of any patents (granted or under application) that may cover technology that is under consideration by or has been approved by IEEE 802.16. The Chair will disclose this notification via the IEEE 802.16 web site .


This post includes the table of contents, introduction and our comment as the editors of an interdisciplinary volume that explores the implications for law and policy of changes in marriage and family over the past half century. The volume includes chapters by leading social science researchers and family law scholars whose work focuses on these matters. The book captures the complexity of debates about the regulation of marriage and families and the best policy paths forward, through contributions by authors with widely varying perspectives. But it also aims to inform these debates by situating them in a framework grounded in social science research. This reflects our view that although family policy is, and should be, influenced by social and political values, it should also be shaped by empirical evidence. Our comment offers reflections on the legal and policy challenges posed by the dramatic changes in family life, as described and analyzed by the book's contributors. The challenges are complex and do not lend themselves to simple solutions. Marriage has declined substantially, and a family law regime that assumes that most families are based on marriage is fast becoming outmoded. At the same time substantial research evidence supports that children benefit from the increased stability of marriage relative to other family forms. Marriage also continues to enjoy strong public support and to represent an important life goal for individuals across social classes, despite the increasingly significant links between family form and socioeconomic status and education. Moreover, the fact that access to marriage is a key political goal for advocates for gay equality indicates its continued social importance. We discuss the debates about the abolition of marriage, but conclude that the law should retain marriage as a status open to all couples desiring to register their commitments. We also recognize that little evidence supports the utility of promoting marriage and that many children will continue to be born into non-marital families. Thus we conclude that strengthening and supporting these families emerges is a key policy goal, and we explore some of the wide range of legal and policy reforms described by the volume's contributors that might advance this goal.


Process industries are in general depending, in one way or the other, on fluid mechanics.Specifically, paper manufacturing, which probably is the dominant processindustry in Sweden, is depending on the flow of cellulose fibres suspended in water.As a part of the process the suspension, consisting of fibres in water, is spread out onor between two moving permeable weaves, i.e. wires. The speed of this is usually 10–30 m/s and the suspension is spread out by a plane jet issuing from a headbox nozzle.It has been show that the conditions in the headbox and jet have a large influence onthe quality of the final paper sheet. Primarily, streaks in the paper sheet are believedto be the result of streamwise streaks in the headbox jet.The thesis is aimed at the flow phenomena which occur in the headbox jet. Theinvestigations have been made with numerical calculations, stability theory and modelexperiments using water, as well as experiments with a real paper machine headboxand fibre suspension. In the thesis an introduction to the hydrodynamics of planeliquid jets is presented together with a description of the paper forming process andthe fluid mechanics of headbox flow.The basic flow and stability of a two-dimensional plane liquid jet has been investigatedby numerical calculations, stability theory and experiments. The calculationsof the laminar basic flow is successfully compared to pitot-tube measurements of thestreamwise velocity profile. By visualisations of the flow it is found that wave disturbanceson the jet has a severe effect on the flow. These waves can be predicted bylinear stability theory, which shows the presence of five convectively unstable modes.These can be divided into three types and by comparison with the experiments thetype of the visible waves is determined. These waves seem to initiate a break-up ofthe jet, which leads to strong streamwise streaks inside the jet.By flow visualisation of headbox flow of an experimental paper machine, togetherwith analysis of the resulting paper structure using the wavelet method the correspondencebetween flow disturbances and paper quality was investigated. It was shownthat the wave instability, which is present on the low Reynolds number water jet, alsocan be found in the real the headbox jet. It is shown that these waves play an importantrole in the dynamics of the headbox jet and also have an influence on the final papersheet.


Objective To determine risk factors of medical injury, defined as untoward injury from diagnostic or therapeutic healthcare interventions. Identifying risk factors for medical injuries could inform the development of preventive interventions. Methods A hospital-based case–control study. Cases and controls were selected among patients discharged from a large Midwestern teaching hospital between 1 January 2003 and 31 December 2004. Cases (n=268) were selected in a three-step process. First, medical injuries in the discharge database were identified using the Wisconsin Medical Injury Prevention Programme Surveillance Criteria. Second, provisional cases were randomly chosen from patients flagged with a medical injury. Provisional controls were randomly selected from patients not flagged with a medical injury, matching for Diagnosis Related Group of the provisional cases. Third, a chart review determined ultimate case–control status. Severity of illness and risk of mortality were calculated using the All Patients Refined–Diagnosis Related Groups system. Zahn's comorbidity score was calculated. Conditional logistic regressions were run with injury status as the dependent variable. Results Among the 268 cases, 47.8% were procedure-related injuries and 44.8% were medication-related injuries. Conditional logistic regressions found higher severity of illness and higher risks of mortality were related to risk of medical injury (OR 3.29 (95% CI 1.05 to 10.31) and OR 5.16 (95% CI 1.42 to 18.79), respectively). Additional regressions showed the Zahn comorbidity score related to the risk of medical injury (OR 1.63, 95% CI 1.31 to 2.02). Conclusions Patients with higher severity of illness, higher risk of inpatient mortality and multiple comorbidities are at increased risk for a medical injury.


Many semiconductor devices, such as heterostructure lasers and silicon bipolar transistors, require large concentrations of free carriers in the conduction and/or valence band of an active region. Under these conditions the band gap of the material is reduced by the many-body interactions of the carrier gas. The band gap narrowing results from a lowering of the conduction and raising of the valence band edge energies and is evaluated for a range of carrier concentrations. (10(^17) - 10(^22) cm_^-3)) in p-type Si and P- and n-type GaAs, Ga(_0.47) In(_0.53) As and Ga(_0.28) In(_0.72) As(_0.6) P(_0.4) at T = OK. A plasmon-pole approximation for the carrier gas dielectric function is used in the calculations. For all these materials, the largest energy shift occurs in the band containing the free carriers. For comparison the band edge shifts in all four materials are evaluated at finite temperature (300 K). The band gap narrowing at finite and zero temperatures differ notably only for low carrier concentrations (p < 5 x 10(^19) cm (^-3) in p-type Si) where the thermal excitation of the carriers reduces their screening effect so producing smaller band gap reduction. High hole concentrations also lead to increased optical losses in semi-conductor lasers due to intervalence band absorption (IVBA) transitions. These losses, which are considered to be partially responsible for the temperature dependence of threshold current densities in some semiconductor lasers, are evaluated in bulk laser materials using a pseudopotential band structure model. The temperature dependencies of the IVBA coefficients in GaAs, Ga(_0.47) In(_0.53) As and Ga(_0.28) In(_0.72) As(_0.6) P(_0.4) are shown to be either small or the coefficients themselves are negligible. Intervalence band absorption is also calculated for a 100/200 A GaAs/Ga(_0.7) al(_0.3) As quantum well laser structure for which the electronic band structure is determined using a variational k^-p approach. The wavelength dependence of the IVBA coefficients differs notably from corresponding results derived using simpler effective mass and pseudopotential models. In particular the k.p model gives significant contributions to the total loss, from certain 'forbidden' transitions.


The computer workstation, introduced by Sun Microsystems in 1982, was the tool of
choice for scientists and engineers as an interactive computing environment for the development
of scientific codes. However, by the mid-1990s, the performance of workstations
began to lag behind high-end commodity PCs. This, coupled with the disappearance of
BSD-based operating systems in workstations and the emergence of Linux as an opensource
operating system for PCs, arguably led to the demise of the workstation as we
knew it.

Around the same time, computational scientists started to leverage PCs running
Linux to create a commodity-based (Beowulf) cluster that provided dedicated compute
cycles, i.e., supercomputing for the rest of us, as a cost-effective alternative to large
supercomputers, i.e., supercomputing for the few. However, as the cluster movement
has matured, with respect to cluster hardware and open-source software, these clusters
have become much more like their large-scale supercomputing brethren — a shared
datacenter resource that resides in a machine room.

Consequently, the above observations, when coupled with the ever-increasing performance
gap between the PC and cluster supercomputer, provide the motivation for a
personal desktop cluster workstation — a turnkey solution that provides an interactive and parallel computing environment with the approximate form factor of a Sun SPARCstation
1 "pizza box" workstation. In this paper, we present the hardware and software
architecture of such a solution as well as its prowess as a developmental platform for parallel codes. In short, imagine a 12-node personal desktop cluster that achieves 14 Gflops on Linpack but sips only 150-180 watts of power, resulting in a performance-power ratio that is over 300% better than our test SMP platform.


In this study we aim to explore automatic methods that can detect online documents of low credibility, especially fake news, based on the style they are written in. We show that general-purpose text classifiers, despite seemingly good performance when evaluated simplistically, in fact overfit to sources of documents in training data. In order to achieve a truly style-based prediction, we gather a corpus of 103,219 documents from 223 online sources labelled by media experts, devise realistic evaluation scenarios and design two new classifiers: a neural network and a model based on stylometric features. The evaluation shows that the proposed classifiers maintain high accuracy in case of documents on previously unseen topics (e.g. new events) and from previously unseen sources (e.g. emerging news websites). An analysis of the stylometric model indicates it indeed focuses on sensational and affective vocabulary, known to be typical for fake news.


Abstract The procedural deficit hypothesis (PDH) claims that language deficits in children with specific language impairment (SLI) are caused by sequence learning deficits. Previous studies provided evidence that were both in favor and against this hypothesis. Few studies reported on sequence learning pattern in SLI children using various modifications of the serial reaction time (SRT) task. The present study aimed to examine the PDH by examining sequence learning pattern in SLI using an adapted SRT task. The study also examines the sequence learning pattern among typically developing and SLI children. Results are discussed with relevance to sequence learning pattern and language deficits in SLI children.


The main target of this work is to improve human-robot interaction capabilities, by adding a new modality of sense, touch, to KASPAR, a humanoid robot. Large scale distributed skin-like sensors are designed and integrated on the robot, covering KASPAR at various locations. One of the challenges is to classify different types of touch. Unlike digital images represented by grids of pixels, the geometrical structure of the sensor array limits the capability of straightforward application of well-established approaches for image patterns. This paper introduces a novel histogram-based classification algorithm, transforming tactile data into histograms of local features termed as codebook. Tactile pattern can be invariant at periodical locations, allowing tactile pattern classification using a smaller number of training data, instead of using training data from everywhere on the large scale skin sensors. To generate the codebook, this method uses a two-layer approach, namely local neighbourhood structures and encodings of pressure distribution of the local neighbourhood. Classification is performed based on the constructed features using Support Vector Machine (SVM) with the intersection kernel. Real experimental data are used for experiment to classify different patterns and have shown promising accuracy. To evaluate the performance, it is also compared with the SVM using the Radial Basis Function (RBF) kernel and results are discussed from both aspects of accuracy and the location invariance property.


Soil management is one of the most important factors influencing the structure of soils. The interaction of management (including tillage and crop rotation history) with soil biochemistry, soil aggregation, and soil humus composition was determined in a native prairie and a producer field situation in 1997. A comparison of a native prairie and an adjacent conventional corn (Zea mays L.)-soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] rotation on the same soil type found that the Webster soil (fine-loamy, mixed, superactive, mesic Typic Endoaquoll) after soybean (C 3 plant) was lower in monosaccharide content and protein content as determined by ion chromatography, and lower in phenolic acid content than the Webster soil after corn (C 4 plant) or in native prairie as determined by gas chromatography. A wet, nested sieve aggregate stability measurement determined that the prairie soil had a higher mean aggregate size (1.85 mm) when compared with the soil in the presence of decomposing corn (1.0 mm) or soybean (0.34 mm) residues. Mean aggregate size was found to be correlated with soil monosaccharide content (r = 0.75), total soil protein content (r = 0.995 *** ), total soil phenolic acid content (r = 0.997 *** ), and alkaline extractable humic substance content (r = 0.98 ** ). Alkaline extractable humic substances were correlated with the phenolic acid content of the humic substances (r = 0.996 *** ). The results suggest that the decrease in soil stability after soybean growth was due to a decrease in the content of soil humic substances caused by the substantially lower phenolic acids content (humic acid precursors) in the soybean residue.


State, Society, and Popular Leaders profiles the incorporation of the lower classes into the governing system of ancient Rome. In 287, the Hortensian law made the decisions of the plebs binding on the whole people. This event is often referred to as the great plebeian victory, a landmark in Roman history. In this original study, Rachel Feig Vishnia maintains that the real turning point in the relations between the plebs and the patricians can be found eighty years earlier. Based on the works of Livy and most recent scholarships, this book provides a new and controversial view of one of the most exciting periods in Roman history.


Background : Obsessive-compulsive disorders and depression have a high prevalence during pregnancy; therefore, pregnant women may take clomipramine and also take other drugs or consume foods that contain caffeine. As investigations about the teratogenic effects of clomipramine and its concurrent administration with caffeine during organogenesis period are scarce, we aimed to study the teratogenicity of simultaneous administration of clomipramine and caffeine in rat fetus. Methods : After dividing 42 pregnant rats to several case and control groups, we injected different doses of caffeine and clomipramine to the animals. All the injections were performed on the eighth until the 15th day of pregnancy. We removed the fetuses on the 17th day of pregnancy and studied the morphological features and apparent anomalies of the fetuses macroscopically. Results : We found a significant rate of mortality, apparent anomalies, abnormal torsion, shrinkage of skin and subcutaneous bleeding in fetuses of rats receiving high doses of caffeine or a combination of caffeine and clomipramine. Statistical analysis of the data revealed a significant increase (P ≤ 0.001) in teratogenicity of high doses of caffeine and its combination with clomipramine. Conclusion: This study implies simultaneous intake of high amounts of caffeine and clomipramine lead to teratogenicity. We recommend pregnant women to avoid uncontrolled consumption of foods that contain caffeine or drugs that contain high amounts of this substance. They should not also take clomipramine with caffeine in the first trimester of pregnancy. Abstract


Many methods have been used to measure rock joint surface roughness more accurately. However, true roughness has been distorted and underestimated by differences in the sampling interval of the measurement methods. Thus, current measurement methods produce a dead zone and distorted roughness profiles. This study proposes a new rock joint surface roughness measurement method by use of a camera-type three-dimensional (3D) scanner as an alternative to current methods. For this study, the underestimation of artificial roughness is analyzed by using the current measurement method of laser profilometry. We then replicate eight specimens from two rock joint surfaces, and digitize them by 3D scanners. Finally, the roughness coefficient values obtained from eight numbers of the 3D surface data sets and from 320 numbers of two-dimensional profiles data sets are analyzed by using the current measurement methods and our proposed measurement method. The artificial simulation confirms that the sampling interval is one of main factors for the distortion of roughness and shows that current methods may not consider the inclination of waviness. The experimental results showed that the camera-type 3D scanner produced 10 % larger roughness values than those of the current methods. The proposed new method is a faster, more precise and more accurate method than the current methods for the measurement of rock joint roughness, so that it can be promising technique in this area of study.


This study addresses a social capital literature that has targeted a White majority in the United States. Hispanic/Latino audiences, especially new immigrant populations, have not been primary subjects in most studies. Information about the social connectedness of minorities has come from secondary sources. The goal of this study was to understandhow Hispanics/Latinos compare to Anglo, families in rural Kansas, to different levels of social capital. This comparison also looked into the differences of social connectedness and community involvement. The study was done in English and Spanish in order to reach the under-represented population. According to political scientist Robert Putnam (2000), it is through experiences of faceto-face interaction with those from different backgrounds, that people learn to trust each other. Connections create networks that allow social trust to spread throughout society. At the individual level, there has been strong, consistent evidence that social connectedness has positive effects. Individuals have the capacity and the choice to build their social connectedness and community engagement. Those assets can be shared with the collective family, organization, community, state, or country. When individuals have access to networks of supportive and accepting associates, it can generate an array of personal and societal benefits that include preventing or overcoming illness, improving health, supporting child development, mitigating poverty, addressing racial inequalities, preventing crime, and addressing other social concerns. When one builds a stock of personal relationships and other social connections from which he or she can call upon in times of need, it is called social capital. This study, in part, assessed social connectedness and community engagement of people in Kearny County, a rural location in Southwest Kansas that has a 30% Hispanic/Latino population. Surveys were sent to selected households in English and Spanish, and two small focus groups were conducted in the two languages. Statistical analyses indicated support for the hypothesis that Spanish-speaking populations build and maintain social connections and are engaged in community. The independent variables including gender, age, race/ethnicity, education, income, and community durability, were analyzed with dependent variables made of scaled items to measure social connectedness and community engagement. Race/ethnicity, education, and income appeared to be the strongest predictors of social connectedness and community engagement. Implications of the results are discussed.


The only extraterrestrial life detection experiments ever conducted were the three which were components of the 1976 Viking Mission to Mars. Of these, only the Labeled Release experiment obtained a clearly positive response. In this experiment 14 C radiolabeled nutrient was added to the Mars soil samples. Active soils exhibited rapid, substantial gas release. The gas was probably CO2 and, possibly, other radiocarbon-containing gases. We have applied complexity analysis to the Viking LR data. Measures of mathematical complexity permit deep analysis of data structure along continua including signal vs. noise, entropy vs.negentropy, periodicity vs. aperiodicity, order vs. disorder etc. We have employed seven complexity variables, all derived from LR data, to show that Viking LR active responses can be distinguished from controls via cluster analysis and other multivariate techniques. Furthermore, Martian LR active response data cluster with known biological time series while the control data cluster with purely physical measures. We conclude that the complexity pattern seen in active experiments strongly suggests biology while the different pattern in the control responses is more likely to be non-biological. Control responses that exhibit relatively low initial order rapidly devolve into near-random noise, while the active experiments exhibit higher initial order which decays only slowly. This suggests a robust biological response. These analyses support the interpretation that the Viking LR experiment did detect extant microbial life on Mars.


A Shewhart chart based on normality assumption is not appropriate for skewed distributions since its Type-I error rate is inflated. This study presents X and S control charts for monitoring the process variability for skewed distributions. We propose Weighted Standard Deviation (WSD) X and S control charts. Standard deviation estimator is applied to monitor the process variability for estimating the process standard deviation, in the case of the WSD X and S control charts as this estimator is simple and easy to compute. Unlike the Shewhart control chart, the proposed charts provide asymmetric limits in accordance with the direction and degree of skewness to construct the upper and lower limits. The performances of the proposed charts are compared with other heuristic charts for skewed distributions by using Simulation study. The Simulation studies show that the proposed control charts have good properties for skewed distributions and large sample sizes.


This Article will summarize Argentine law on government contracts as it exists today, with special reference to the contracts of the Federal Government. Due to the French origin of the theory and to the fact that this Article is addressed to an American readership, a tentative comparison with the main legal rules on the subject of these two countries will be offered. A discussion of the practical consequences of the application of the administrative contract doctrine, and some possible solutions to the problems created thereby will be then put forward. But first, the basic issues that this doctrine gives rise to will be defined and the French origin of the concept of contract administratif and its reception in Argentina will be explained. The analysis offered will be limited to the general substantive legal regime of Government contracts leaving aside the issues arising from the contracting procedure, i.e., the rules on competitive bidding. To the extent that this substantive regime results from laws and regulations, only those directly applicable to Government contracts shall be considered. Thus, the analysis will only deal tangentially with the impact on these contracts of the exercise of public powers granted by statutes that may affect indirectly the performance of the private contractor. Since such statutes may reach all Government contracts and not only those defined as "administrative" (unless a tautological definition is used, i.e., one that characterizes as "administrative" only those Government contracts that can be reached by laws granting regulatory or police powers to the Government), it may be argued that the issues raised by those statutes lie outside the scope of the doctrine of the administrative contract. Therefore, the issue of the conflict between the legislative powers of the State and the principle of the sanctity of the contract shall not be treated. GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS UNDER ARGENTINE LAW: A COMPARATIVE LAW OVERVIEW


The case of Johnson v. M'Intosh, 21 US 543 (1823), is taught in many property law classes and is the only information given to new law students about the property rights of Indian nations. However, the case is often misunderstood as denying title to those nations. A close reading of the opinion, in light of three later cases decided in the early 19th century, reveals that the Supreme Court intended to recognize "Indian title" while granting the United States a right of first refusal if tribes sought to sell property on the open market to non-Indians. Far from denying tribal property rights, Justice Marshall's opinion in this case, as explicated by later cases, actually sought to protect tribal title from expropriation by the United States unless the tribes voluntarily consented to the transfer of land.
While it is true that the opinion contains offensive and racist language, assumptions, and arguments, it is important not to ignore the ways in which the opinion sought to criticize, as well as justify, conquest and to put a halt to it in the future. Of course, history did not turn out that way but it did result in our current reality where conquest was incomplete. There are 567 federally-recognized Indian nations in the US and if property law professors teach students that conquest was complete and that tribes have no property rights in their land, those messages have current consequences for tribes trying to exercise sovereignty and property rights today. The truth is that Indian nations have both sovereignty and property rights over their lands and they do not have a mere license or "permission from the whites to occupy" (as the Supreme Court suggested in the 1955 case of Tee-Hit-Ton v. United States).
Both property law professors and scholars of federal Indian law should understand both the offensive racist reasoning in the decision and the ways in which the opinion represents one of the most pro-Indian nation decisions in the history of the Supreme Court. Treating the opinion as simply a racist relic of the past, like the Dred Scott decision, and nothing more, deprives Indian nations of the ability to use the case (and later cases like it) as a bulwark against further non-consensual deprivation of tribal property rights. And such a misreading of the case infects current politics by suggesting that tribes are being unreasonable when they seek to have their property rights be given equal respect to the property rights of non-Indians.
The importance of recognizing that federal law does protect tribal title can be seen easily if one simply considers the Standing Rock Sioux's opposition to a pipeline that threatens their ancient lands—lands that are currently protected both by tribal law, a treaty with the United States, and federal statutes and common law. Understanding Indian title as an estate in land that is every bit as powerful as the fee simple—as equally "sacred" in the words of the Supreme Court—is the message we should be sending to new lawyers, not the opposite.


In this Article, we demonstrate that the stockholder's appraisal remedy — long-dismissed in corporate law scholarship as useless or worse — is in the middle of a renaissance in public company mergers. We argue that this surge in appraisal activity promises to benefit public shareholders in circumstances where they are most vulnerable. We first show a sea change in the use of appraisal in Delaware. Relying on our hand-collected data, we document sharp recent increases in the incidence of appraisal petitions, in the size of the petitioners' holdings, and in the sophistication of the petitioners targeting public deals. These litigants appear to invest in target company stock after the announcement of the merger and with the intention of pursuing appraisal. In short, this is appraisal arbitrage. There is every reason to believe that appraisal now stands as the most potent legal challenge to opportunistic mergers. We also present evidence showing that these appraisal petitions bear strong markers of litigation merit — they are, in other words, targeting the right deals. Nevertheless, defense lawyers have recently suggested that appraisal arbitrage constitutes some sort of "abuse" of the remedy and ought to be stopped. This nascent argument has matters precisely backwards. This new world of appraisal should be welcomed and indeed encouraged. Our analysis reveals that appraisal arbitrage focuses private enforcement resources on the transactions that are most likely to deserve scrutiny, and the benefits of this kind of appraisal accrue to minority shareholders even when they do not themselves seek appraisal. In this way, the threat of appraisal helps to minimize agency costs in the takeover setting, thereby decreasing the ex ante cost of raising equity capital and improving allocative efficiency in public company mergers and acquisitions. We offer some modest reforms designed to enhance the operation of the appraisal remedy in Delaware.


* Expectations about the COP18 Doha round of climate negotiations were low and countries were successful in making some progress, but only incrementally. A second commitment period (from 1 January 2013 to 31 December 2020) for reducing emissions by amendment to the original Kyoto Protocol were agreed. Doha has left the door open for more progress ahead as the new treaty is supposed to be signed in 2015 and come into effect in 2020.

* Industrialised and heavily polluting countries such as Canada, Russia, Japan, and New Zealand who were members of Kyoto did not approve this second commitment, and the US and China, the world's two largest carbon emitters, have also largely opposed it. Doha called (unofficially) for the remaining Kyoto Protocol countries to increase their ambition in committing to reduce emissions in the range of 25-40% by 2014. This was a call though, not a firm decision.

* A debate ensued regarding the carbon market that exists in the EU, more specifically about how many non-used "emission credits" a country could transfer to the second commitment period. This is the so called "hot air" carbon credit issue. While some countries such as Poland wanted to keep the carbon credits, developing countries wanted such hot air credits to be abolished. The EU finally allowed Poland to keep its unused credits.

* Developed countries spectacularly failed to put any real money on the table or to agree on the roadmap to the 2020 $100 billion a year target. The decision calls for public funds for adaptation without any specific figure calling in developed countries to make such a pledge "when their financial circumstances permit".

* Doha has brought an important innovation by agreeing to begin addressing the issue of "loss and damage", due to the pressure of developing countries. The parties agreed to establish by COP 19 international mechanism to address loss and damage from climate change.


Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome is becoming a prevalent disease for both adults and children. It is described as the cessation of breath for at least 10 seconds during sleep. Detecting sleep apnea is considered as a troublesome and timeconsuming method, which requires the patients to stay one or more nights in dedicated sleep disorder rooms with sensors physically attached to their body. Undiagnosed thereby untreated sleep apnea patients are under high risk of hypertension, heart attack, traffic accident through fatigue and sleeplessness. In this project, nasal and oral respiratory information is obtained with utilizing thermocouple and oxygen saturation in the blood is obtained with utilizing pulse oximeter. An analog hardware circuit is designed to readout thermocouple and pulse oximeter signals. According to this respiratory and pulse oximetry signals, obstructive sleep apnea is detected in real time with using a software implemented into an ARM based processor. An Android mobile application is developed to record and display the oxygen saturation, heart rate and respiratory signal data during sleep. ARM based processor and mobile application communication is established via Bluetooth interface to reduce cabling on the patient. In summary, a portable, low cost and user friendly device to detect obstructive sleep apnea which is able to share the necessary information to the patients and doctors for the duration of the whole sleep cycle is developed.


Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis infection in horses, known as 'pigeon fever', or 'dryland distemper', is a re-emerging bacterial disease causing external or internal abscesses, or chronic limb infection (lymphangitis) (Aleman and others 1996) worldwide. Two biovars exist, biovar ovis and biovar equi , which can be distinguished by nitrate reduction and genetic fingerprinting methods (Biberstein and others 1971, Dorella and others 2006). C pseudotuberculosis biovar equi infection is prevalent in the western USA and appears to be spreading to regions not previously considered endemic (Foley and others 2004). While research has shown that various fly species are capable of vectoring C pseudotuberculosis to horses, insects are not the reservoir for infection (Spier and others 2004). Soil is speculated to be the reservoir for the bacteria, although studies of the ecology of the organism are lacking. There are only limited studies on the survival of C pseudotuberculosis in soil (Augustine and Renshaw 1982, 1986). Thus, the aims of this investigation were to study the impact of selected environmental conditions including different soil types, ambient temperature, moisture level and presence of equine faeces for the persistence and multiplication potential of C pseudotuberculosis and to determine its longevity in a regulated milieu.

Two different …


Ultraviolet (UV) radiation from sunlight has been implicated in causing skin cancer and, perhaps not coincidentally, suppresses the immune response. UV-dependent immune suppression depends on the absorption of its electromagnetic energy by an epidermal photoreceptor. Trans-urocanic acid (UCA) isomerizes to cis-UCA in response to UV exposure, and epidermal UCA has long been known to act as a UV photoreceptor that can mediate immune suppression. The mechanism whereby cis-UCA affects the immune response, however, has been unclear. Cis-UCA forms a ringlike structure in solution, and Walterscheid et al.--who serendipitously observed that the serotonin [5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT)] receptor antagonist ketanserin blocked UV- and cis-UCA-mediated immune suppression--used competitive binding assays to show that radiolabeled cis-UCA bound to human serotonin receptors. Immunoprecipitation analysis with antibodies directed against cis-UCA or serotonin confirmed the structural similarity of the two compounds, and saturation binding studies indicated that cis-UCA bound to the human 5-HT2A receptor with a Kd of 4.6 nM. Cis-UCA stimulated calcium mobilization in L-NCG-5-HT2A cells but not in untransfected controls [LM(TK–) cells], and this calcium mobilization was blocked by ketanserin. UV- or cis-UCA-induced immune suppression in mice was blocked by antibodies directed against serotonin (as well as by antibodies directed against cis-UCA) and by 5-HT2A receptor antagonists. Thus, the authors propose that the ability of cis-UCA to suppress the immune response--and that of UV radiation--is mediated through the 5-HT2A receptor. J. P. Walterscheid, D. X. Nghiem, N. Kazimi, L. K. Nutt, D. J. McConkey, M. Norval, S. E. Ullrich, Cis-urocanic acid, a sunlight-induced immunosuppressive factor, activates immune suppression via the 5-HT2A receptor. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 103, 17420-17425 (2006). [Abstract] [Full Text]


This textbook presents in a unified manner the fundamentals of both continuous and discrete versions of the Fourier and Laplace transforms. These transforms play an important role in the analysis of all kinds of physical phenomena. As a link between the various applications of these transforms the authors use the theory of signals and systems, as well as the theory of ordinary and partial differential equations. The book is divided into four major parts: periodic functions and Fourier series, non-periodic functions and the Fourier integral, switched-on signals and the Laplace transform, and finally the discrete versions of these transforms, in particular the Discrete Fourier Transform together with its fast implementation, and the z-transform. This textbook is designed for self-study. It includes many worked examples, together with more than 120 exercises, and will be of great value to undergraduates and graduate students in applied mathematics, electrical engineering, physics and computer science


Leveraging knowledge from geographically disparate subsidiaries is a crucial source of competitive advantage for multinational corporations (MNCs). This study investigates the determinants of knowledge transfers to and from newly acquired subsidiaries in three transition economies in Central and Eastern Europe. It is hypothesized that the determinants of conventional knowledge transfers from MNC parents to subsidiaries and reverse knowledge transfers from subsidiaries to MNC parents are based on different transfer logics. A sample of 105 acquired subsidiaries revealed that organizational characteristics are important in conventional knowledge flows from headquarters, so that subsidiaries acquired with competence-creating objectives receive significantly larger inflows. Knowledge characteristics are important in reverse flows to headquarters so that subsidiaries whose knowledge is more relevant are able to transmit significantly larger outflows. Host country locations have significant moderating effects. The significance of the directional context in knowledge transfers is an important new finding.


Apr 28, 2016 Aug 12, 2016 One of the existing problems in the field of dentistry is the use of utilizing materials. Utilizing materials in dentistry must have high rigidity and resistance and a beautiful appearance. The weak formulation of dentistry materials causes irritation, side effects, and increases the cost of healthcare. Therefore, farms and organizations related to dentistry care are trying to produce highly efficient products. Therefore, in the current research, we attempted to recognize and rank the factors that impact on the utilization of nanotechnology in dentistry by an MCDM Fuzzy approach. The statistical community of the present research includes dentists and university experts, who are active in the field of Nano-Dentistry in Mazandaran, Dentist College in Sari . They are selected by the consensus of two groups. The first group included managers and superordinate experts of the organization with 32 people for localizing the modeling. In the second group, five experts as the statistical sample were selected. Materials and methods: The descriptive method and descriptive survey were used. Therefore, by exploring the scientific exts, the criteria were recognized, and their reliability then proved by experts. Results: By using the screening (decimal-fuzzy), 21 factors were recognized as important and effective in the use of nanotechnology in dentistry. To determine the impact and influence of these factors, the DEMATEL technique was used. Conclusion: According to the results, decreasing dental plaque had the most impact, and the cost of technology was the most influential factor..


We consider the problem of wireless communication across medium boundaries, specifically across the water-air interface. In particular, we are interested in enabling a submerged underwater sensor to directly communicate with an airborne node. Today's communication technologies cannot enable such a communication link. This is because no single type of wireless signal can operate well across different media and most wireless signals reflect back at media boundaries. We present a new communication technology, translational acoustic-RF communication (TARF). TARF enables underwater nodes to directly communicate with airborne nodes by transmitting standard acoustic signals. TARF exploits the fact that underwater acoustic signals travel as pressure waves, and that these waves cause displacements of the water surface when they impinge on the water-air boundary. To decode the transmitted signals, TARF leverages an airborne radar which measures and decodes these surface displacements. We built a prototype of TARF that incorporates algorithms for dealing with the constraints of this new communication modality. We evaluated TARF in controlled and uncontrolled environments and demonstrated that it enables the first practical communication link across the water-air interface. Our results show that TARF can achieve standard underwater bitrates up to 400bps, and that it can operate correctly in the presence of surface waves with amplitudes up to 16 cm peak-to-peak, i.e., 100,000X larger than the surface perturbations caused by TARF's underwater acoustic transmitter.


Robert Schumann frequently expressed his deep admiration for the novels of Jean Paul Friedrich Richter, the late-eighteenth-century German novelist, essayist, and satirist. Schumann imitated Jean Paul's prose style in his own fiction and music criticism, and said once that he learned "more counterpoint from Jean Paul than from my music teacher." Drawing on the recent, groundbreaking work in musico-literary analysis of scholars such as Anthony Newcomb, John Daverio, and Lawrence Kramer, Erika Reiman embarks on a comparative study of Jean Paul's five major novels and Schumann's piano cycles of the 1830s, many of which are staples in the repertoire of concert pianists today.The present study begins with a thorough review of Jean Paul's literary style, emphasizing the digressions, intertextuality, self-reflexivity, and otherworldliness that distinguish it. The similarly digressive style that Schumann developed is then examined in his earliest works, including the enduring and highly original "Carnaval" (1835), and in cycles of the later 1830s, notably Davidsbundlertanze/ and Faschingsschwank aus Wien.Finally, an analysis of three one-movement works from 1838-39 reveals links with Jean Paul's exploration of the idyll, an ancient genre that had experienced an eighteenth-century revival. Throughout, the author attempts to keep in mind the actual sound and performed experience of the works, and suggests ways in which an awareness of Jean Paul's style might change the performance and hearing of the cycles. Erika Reiman, received her Ph.D. in Musicology from the University of Toronto (1999) and has taught at Brock University, Wilfrid Laurier University, the University of Guelph, and the University of Toronto; she is also active as a pianist and chamber musician.


Much current debate about undergraduate student research involves a focus on 'students as partners' and co-constructors of knowledge (Healey, Flint & Harrington 2014, 2016). This debate reveals interesting tensions between student freedom and the role of structuring frameworks. Undergraduate lecturers and research supervisors might feel we are in a quandary concerning how far we can help manage a balance between supportive frameworks and the independence that student researchers need to develop. Will the use of the Research Skill Development (Willison & O'Regan, 2006/2018) framework and other frameworks at every step of the undergraduate research journey form a constraint, or an essential scaffold? This paper considers frameworks, scaffolds and the need for freedom and creative co-construction of knowledge to enable successful undergraduate research within the context of final year research and writing at undergraduate third year (UK), honours (Australia) or senior/fourth year (US and Canada).


The Mean-Teacher (MT) scheme is widely adopted in semi-supervised object detection (SSOD). In MT, the sparse pseudo labels, offered by the final predictions of the teacher (e.g., after Non Maximum Suppression (NMS) post-processing), are adopted for the dense supervision for the student via hand-crafted label assignment. However, the sparse-to-dense paradigm complicates the pipeline of SSOD, and simultaneously neglects the powerful direct, dense teacher supervision. In this paper, we attempt to directly leverage the dense guidance of teacher to supervise student training, i.e., the dense-to-dense paradigm. Specifically, we propose the Inverse NMS Clustering (INC) and Rank Matching (RM) to instantiate the dense supervision, without the widely used, conventional sparse pseudo labels. INC leads the student to group candidate boxes into clusters in NMS as the teacher does, which is implemented by learning grouping information revealed in NMS procedure of the teacher. After obtaining the same grouping scheme as the teacher via INC, the student further imitates the rank distribution of the teacher over clustered candidates through Rank Matching. With the proposed INC and RM, we integrate Dense Teacher Guidance into Semi-Supervised Object Detection (termed DTG-SSOD), successfully abandoning sparse pseudo labels and enabling more informative learning on unlabeled data. On COCO benchmark, our DTG-SSOD achieves state-of-the-art performance under various labelling ratios. For example, under 10% labelling ratio, DTG-SSOD improves the supervised baseline from 26.9 to 35.9 mAP, outperforming the previous best method Soft Teacher by 1.9 points.


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Jacques Monod attached as much importance to the manner in which ideas were expressed as to the ideas themselves. The study of regulatory enzymes was becoming one of the research topics of Jacques Monod's laboratory. First, the fact that Um-barger's observations were confirmed: the inhibitory effect of L-isoleucine was specific. One of the highlights of the symposium was, undoubtedly, Jacques Monod's presentation of the concluding remarks. These ideas were further elaborated in the Journal of Molecular Biology, in a review article entitled "Allosteric proteins and cellular control systems." This text was written by Jacques Monod during 1962. Models of steric hindrance and allosteric effect were being completed by a less plausible model by direct interaction. The general discussion in the 1963 review finishes with the generalization of the concept of allosteric protein. These molecules would be the key component of any system of biological control, from the regulation of enzyme activity to enzymatic adaptation, passing by hormone action. The hypothesis is put forward that gene repressors are also allosteric proteins. In the course of the year 1963, the author presented to Jacques Monod a first draft of his thesis work. They then had to find a mechanism which would create interactions between identical sites within the oligomer. A presentation beginning with the mathematical model was finally adopted, which could not fail to please Jacques Monod by its highly theoretical and formal aspect.


Introduction: Despite the presence of effective guidelines for the management of acute myocardial infarction, there is underuse of thrombolytics, antiplatelet drugs, angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors, beta blockers and hypolipidaemics. Gender and age based differences have been reported. Our aim was to determine the percentage of patients who were receiving these drugs during hospital admission and discharge. Method: A case record study of 349 patients who were admitted to our hospital with a diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction during the year 2004-2006, was done. The age, gender, drugs prescribed during the three days following admission and on discharge, comorbidities, outcome and duration of stay, was noted for each patient. Results : Of the 349 patients, 81% were males and 19% were females. The average ages of presentation were 57.98 years in men and 65.02 years in women. The percentages of patients who received antiplatelet agents, thrombolytics, beta blockers, ACE inhibitors, hypolipidaemics and anticoagulants on hospital admission were 95, 42, 43, 46, 79, 85%,respectively. The prescription rate of antiplatelet agents, beta blockers, ACE inhibitors, hypolipidaemics on discharge was 98, 66, 68, 92% respectively. Conclusions: Our study showed that the initiation of treatment in both the gender and age groups varied. However, the use of drugs among the various groups was almost equal on discharge, except for hypolipidaemics. A majority of the females and elderly patients received all the drugs on hospital discharge, reflecting a lack of gender or age disparity. Although the use of thrombolytics, beta blockers and ACE inhibitors was low on admission, proper use after adjusting for confounding factors might be higher.


Investment arbitration is increasingly making the headlines because of both its potential to overly restrict the policy space of states and its significant costs for parties. Against this background of negative side-effects, it is worth asking whether it is used predominantly in situations that at least appear legitimate. We focus on the hypothesis that investment arbitration is used as a response to the effects of two types of shocks on investors – shocks caused by severely dysfunctional governance at the national level and shocks caused by economic crisis. Whereas investment arbitration could gain legitimacy if used to redress or mitigate severe governance deficiencies, its use in the context of economic crisis could be viewed as putting the countries' economy in double jeopardy. Investment arbitration would further hurt countries already in great difficulty and would thus be used in a situation that does not appear plainly legitimate. We test links between governance, economic crises and investment arbitration using an original dataset that includes investment claims filed under the rules of all arbitration institutions as well as ad hoc arbitrations. We find that bad governance, understood as corruption and lack of rule of law (using the WGI Corruption and WGI Rule of Law indexes), has a statistically significant relation with investment arbitration claims, but economic crises do not when considered separately. Yet, bad governance and economic crises considered together are a good predictor of when countries get hit by investment arbitration claims.


This action research project sought to determine the effects implementing food prep activities in the Montessori primary classroom (ages 2.5-6) had on children's willingness to try new food. Before the food prep activities were implemented, parent questionnaires and student conferences were used to better understand the children's food preferences. During the intervention, tally sheets and observation forms were used to track student participation and their reactions to the foods. After the intervention, additional parent questionnaires were distributed and student conferences were conducted to determine current food preferences of the four foods that were included in the food prep activities. The results indicate that engagement and participation in food prep and cooking lessons increased children's willingness to try new food. Future research is needed to determine if implementing similar strategies in the home will support children's willingness to try new food.


T T his paper examines the role of professionalism in promoting effective, efficient, impartial, fair, equitable and ethical municipal service delivery. The paper starts by identifying relevant literature on the topic. It further focuses on the identifi- cation of the characteristics of a profession. These characteristics include: intensive compulsory education at recognised educational institutions as prerequisite for entry, existence of a code of conduct, organising into a professional association, a mono- poly in a particular field of work and intellectual rather than manual work. These characteristics are used as yardsticks to determine whether public administration (hence municipal administration) is a profession or not. Attention is paid to the role of municipal administration education and training in promoting professionalism. The role of the Institute for Local Government Management of South Africa in promoting professionalism has been identified. The professional roles of municipal managers are identified and explained. These roles are acknowledging politics, acting as leaders, promoting ethics and acknowledging workplace diversity. It is concluded that muni- cipal employees must be willing to pay the price for choosing to uphold their obliga- tions as citizens (as whistle-blowers) in the face of governmental corruption and irre- sponsible conduct. The price they must be willing to pay include victimisation.


The reliability of airborne light detection and ranging (LiDAR) for delineating individual trees and estimating aboveground biomass (AGB) has been proven in a diverse range of ecosystems, but can be difficult and costly to commission. Point clouds derived from structure from motion (SfM) matching techniques obtained from unmanned aerial systems (UAS) could be a feasible low-cost alternative to airborne LiDAR scanning for canopy parameter retrieval. This study assesses the extent to which SfM three-dimensional (3D) point clouds—obtained from a light-weight mini-UAS quadcopter with an inexpensive consumer action GoPro camera—can efficiently and effectively detect individual trees, measure tree heights, and provide AGB estimates in Australian tropical savannas. Two well-established canopy maxima and watershed segmentation tree detection algorithms were tested on canopy height models (CHM) derived from SfM imagery. The influence of CHM spatial resolution on tree detection accuracy was analysed, and the results were validated against existing high-resolution airborne LiDAR data. We found that the canopy maxima and watershed segmentation routines produced similar tree detection rates (~70%) for dominant and co-dominant trees, but yielded low detection rates (<35%) for suppressed and small trees due to poor representativeness in point clouds and overstory occlusion. Although airborne LiDAR provides higher tree detection rates and more accurate estimates of tree heights, we found SfM image matching to be an adequate low-cost alternative for the detection of dominant and co-dominant tree stands.


Spatiotemporal activity modeling, which aims at modeling users' activities at different locations and time from user behavioral data, is an important task for applications like urban planning and mobile advertising. State-of-the-art methods for this task use cross-modal embedding to map the units from different modalities (location, time, text) into the same latent space. However, the success of such methods relies on data sufficiency, and may not learn quality embeddings when user behavioral data is scarce. To address this problem, we propose BranchNet, a spatiotemporal activity model that transfers knowledge from external sources for alleviating data scarcity. BranchNet adopts a graph-regularized cross-modal embedding framework. At the core of it is a main embedding space, which is shared by the main task of reconstructing user behaviors and the auxiliary graph embedding tasks for external sources, thus allowing external knowledge to guide the cross-modal embedding process. In addition to the main embedding space, the auxiliary tasks also have branched task-specific embedding spaces. The branched embeddings capture the discrepancies between the main task and the auxiliary ones, and free the main embeddings from encoding information for all the tasks. We have empirically evaluated the performance of BranchNet, and found that it is capable of effectively transferring knowledge from external sources to learn better spatiotemporal activity models and outperforming strong baseline methods.


The interaction of rain with a moving vehicle leads to the partial deposition
of water drops on its surface. This results in thin surface bound film or rivulet flows moving under the combined action of gravity and aerodynamic forces. In the transportation industry, an actively engineered guidance of these flows has been identified as an effective measure to influence for example the soiling process of cars or the accretion of ice on airplanes, when flying through clouds of supercooled liquid drops. However, methodologies presently applied in the design process are mainly restricted to empirical testing in environmental wind tunnels. A simulation of such aerodynamically driven wetting is desirable, but to date involves extremely high computational efforts and costs and is in general not feasible.

A significant decrease in this computational cost can be achieved by identifying and physically describing recurring elements of aerodynamically driven thin liquid flows in the form of models. These models can then be employed in computational schemes, allowing a coarser grid resolution. The development of such models for a selection of exemplary surface bound liquid flows is the goal of the present experimental and analytical study.

To this aim a wind tunnel experiment has been designed in which a freely developing wetting pattern on a surface under controlled input conditions can be examined using visualization techniques. The acquired information about the flow of films, rivulets and drops allows changes in the wetting patterns under variation of input parameters to be identified, most on a statistical basis. The derived dependencies can then be used as input for model formulation.

The modeling that has been carried out concentrates on the dynamics of aerodynamically driven film flows and on instability mechanisms which can explain the breakup of films and the formation of dry patches on the surface. The dynamics of the resulting film is then analyzed, exhibiting its characteristic V-shaped contraction into a rivulet. Finally, a criterion for the onset of aerodynamically driven rivulet meandering is introduced. The models developed for these flows exhibit good agreement with the experimentally captured data indicating that the main influencing factors have been properly identified. This offers the possibility to improve the numerical code used in vehicle development.

In an outlook, it is proposed that the categorization of wetting patterns can serve as a framework to allow more detailed investigation on constitutive elements of a wetting pattern. In particular, it is suggested that future research concentrates on the dynamics of rivulet flow, as this element is prevalent in wetting patterns and existing explanations of rivulet stability and propagation are sparse, especially when an outer airflow is involved.


A method is presented for converting between Guitar Hero difficulty levels by treating the problem as one of machine translation, with the different difficulties as different languages. The Guitar Hero I and II discs provide aligned corpora with which to train bigram-based language models and translation models. Given an Expert sequence, the model can create sequences of Hard, Medium, or Easy difficulty that retain the feel of the original, while obeying heuristics typical of those difficulties. Training the model requires a single pass through the corpus, while translation is quadratic in the length of the Expert sequence. The method outperforms a recurrent neural network in producing sequences that match the hand-designed levels. The method may make it easier for amateurs to produce content for the Rock Band Network.


This paper discusses environmental complaints made by citizens living close to industrial polluters in China. Data collected from a questionnaire survey in Suzhou City is used for the analysis. The results confirm a marginal level of citizen environmental complaints in the study area at present. Meaningful findings include the fact that citizens have a tendency to complain collectively, and that perception of the level of environmental information provided by companies significantly determines a citizen's likelihood of lodging environmental complaints. Therefore, the disclosure of corporate environmental information must be emphasized continuously; citizens must be encouraged to correctly understand the environmental performance of companies so that they might make appropriate complaints. Governments need to show their support for citizen-led environmental complaint initiatives. The successful cases would convince them to keep a closer eye on their neighbouring polluters.


This paper investigates and analyzes the in-band crosstalk generated in the photonic packet synchronizer that consists of a sequence of optical fiber delay lines and 2 /spl times/ 2 optical switches. This paper shows that the second-order in-band crosstalk is dominant and its contribution is proportional to the square of the number of delay lines. It is found that coherent, partially coherent, and incoherent in-band crosstalk may coexist at the output of the synchronizer, causing the power penalty to vary with the delay time of the main signal. A close-form formula is derived for the mean and variance of the beating noise between the main signal and a crosstalk element. The power penalty caused by the in-band crosstalk is further numerically studied and a guideline for the requirement of the optical switches used in the synchronizer is provided.


Objectives: To evaluate implementation of 1994 United States Public Health Service guidelines for zidovudine (ZDV) use in HIV‐infected women and their newborns by describing the prevalence of use of perinatal ZDV and other antiretrovirals and by investigating determinants of not receiving perinatal ZDV. Design/Methods: The Perinatal AIDS Collaborative Transmission Study is a prospective cohort study designed to collect information related to mother‐to‐child HIV transmission that was conducted in New York City (NY), Newark (NJ), Baltimore (MD), and Atlanta (GA), U.S.A. The current analysis was restricted to infants born between July 1994 and June 1998. Results: Utilization rates for antenatal, intrapartum, and neonatal ZDV increased from 41% to 70% during the 4‐year period. Use of combination antiretrovirals increased from fewer than 2% of women in 1994 to 1995 to 35% in 1997 to 1998. Antenatal and neonatal ZDV use increased each year, but intrapartum ZDV use reached a plateau after 1996. Mother‐infant pairs with the following characteristics were less likely to have received a complete 3‐part ZDV regimen: older maternal age, CD4 count >500 cells/μl, preterm birth, cocaine or heroin use during pregnancy, positive newborn drug screen test result, and smoking or alcohol use during pregnancy. By multivariate logistic regression adjusted for hospital and year of birth, cocaine or heroin use during pregnancy (odds ratio [OR], 2.3; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.6‐3.3), maternal CD4 count (OR, 0.4; 95% CI, 0.2‐0.8; comparing <200 with >500 cells/&mgr;l), and preterm birth (OR, 1.6; 95% CI, 1.1‐2.5) remained independently associated with not receiving the complete ZDV regimen. Conclusions: ZDV use by pregnant HIV‐infected women and their infants has increased dramatically since publication of the 1994 guidelines. Nevertheless, women who abuse substances, give birth preterm, or have less advanced immunosuppression, were at substantial risk of not receiving the complete ZDV regimen.


This report has been prepared in connection with a research project at IIASA designed to analyze and to compare the decision procedures followed in different countries for the siting of liquefied energy gas installations. Four liquefied energy gas facilities worldwide were identified for detailed case study, including Mossmorran-Braefoot Bay in the UK; other sites are in the USA, the Netherlands, and the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG). There are a number of features that distinguish the Mossmorran-Braefoot Bay developments from these others, including the following:

(1) The substances to be handled at the Mossmorran installations are LPG's and not LNG; individual hazard properties are different and may lead to a different evaluation of hazard consequence.

(2) The installations will represent export rather than import facilities for their host country.

(3) The LPG facilities involved were considered within the decision and approval process as part of a larger package of petrochemical developments, involving an ethylene cracker and possible downstream industries at the same sites. The decision process for the LPG facilities alone cannot be easily separated from the package as a whole; the main objectors to the decision, moreover, emphasized that they regarded ethylene to be the most hazardous of the substances involved.

(4) Site screening was undertaken by Shell and Esso, so that from the perspectives of all other parties, Mossmorran-Braefoot Bay can be considered as a one-site decision process.

(5) The decision and participatory procedures involved are UK-specific.

(6) Processing as well as storage and transshipment facilities are involved.

(7) The installations are currently under construction.


Despite the global burden of lung cancer, current treatment regimens are marred by low efficacy and dose-related toxicity. Accordingly, novel therapeutic strategies are highly warranted.
RNA interference and RNA aptamer platforms hold great therapeutic potential for regulating aberrant proteins implicated in lung cancer pathogenesis. Clinical translation, however, has been hampered by the lack of safe and efficacious delivery vectors.
Due to their unique quantum properties and tunable design, nanoparticles are materializing as potent gene carriers. This thesis focused on the engineering and characterization of two nanoparticle constructs for the delivery of siRNA and RNA aptamer oligonucleotides.
The first nanocarrier was comprised of a gold core and an organic shell, consisting of alternating hydrophilic and hydrophobic domains. This "striped" conformation enabled energy-independent cell membrane penetration and endosomal evasion. When conjugated to anti-sense oligonucleotides, these nanoparticles retained their penetrating capacities. However when conjugated to siRNA, nanoparticles lost their cell- penetrating capabilities and entered cells through energy-driven endocytic routes, compromising their gene silencing efficiency.
The second nanocarrier consisted of a detonation nanodiamond core with a shell of RNA oligonucleotides. Nanodiamond-siRNA constructs were found to be biocompatible, to exhibit robust cellular internalization, and to downregulate mRNA and protein expression in two gene models. Knockdown potential, however, was limited by endosomal sequestration and slow siRNA release. In future, nanodiamonds would benefit from the attachment of acid-buffering polymers to enable endosomal escape and more potent gene silencing effects.
Nanodiamonds were additionally functionalized with RNA aptamers for cancer cell targeting and therapeutic EGFR blockade. These chimeras were found to enhance binding affinities to EGFR targets relative to unfunctionalized aptamers, and to selectively induce cell apoptosis in EGFR-expressing lung cancer cell lines. As these aptamers were able to target both wild-type and mutant EGF receptors, they can potentially serve as adjuncts to TK inhibitors and anti-EGFR monoclonal antibodies in the clinic, thus expanding the scope of EGFR therapies.
The work in this thesis accentuates the importance supra-molecular assembly in the context of biointerfacial interactions and proposes design schemas for those endeavoring to develop nanoparticle carriers for oligonucleotide delivery and cancer therapy.


Democracy establishes relationships of political equality, ones in which citizens equally share authority over what they do together and respect one another as equals. But in today's divided public square, democracy is challenged by political thinkers who disagree about how democratic institutions should be organized, and by antidemocratic politicians who exploit uncertainties about what democracy requires and why it matters. This book mounts a bold and persuasive defense of democracy as a way of making collective decisions, showing how equality of authority is essential to relating equally as citizens. The book explains why the US Senate and Electoral College are urgently in need of reform, why proportional representation is not a universal requirement of democracy, how to identify racial vote dilution and gerrymandering in electoral districting, how to respond to threats to democracy posed by wealth inequality, and how judicial review could be more compatible with the democratic ideal. What emerges is an emphatic call to action to reinvigorate our ailing democracies, and a road map for widespread institutional reform. The book highlights the importance of diverse forms of authority in democratic deliberation and electoral and representative processes—and demonstrates how that authority rests equally with each citizen in a democracy.


How will the withdrawal of ISAF forces from Afghanistan in 2014 affect the states of Central Asia and other parties with interests in the region? What will the effect be on economic interests (the "New Silk Road") and will risks such as drug trafficking and cross-border terrorism increase? This paper considers these questions with specific reference to the Afghanistan policies of the Central Asian states.


The study attempts to uncover the characteristics of materialism groups in Malaysia among young adult consumers. It assesses the differences between materialism groups, i.e., low and high materialistic groups, using demographic and peer communication dimensions. The data was collected through self-administered questionnaires. The sample consisted of 956 respondents. The majority of the respondents were Malays followed by Chinese and Indians. The proportion of female respondents was higher than the male respondents. Most of the respondents were single and in the age group of between 19-29 years old. Independent sample t-tests were used to compare mean scores for the study variables between 'high' materialism and 'low' materialism groups and significant mean differences were found between 'high' and 'low' materialism groups in terms of peer communication construct. Specifically, it was found that the 'high' materialism group has considerably greater ratings on the construct. Internal consistency reliability assessment using Cronbach coefficient alpha revealed that the two dimensions had high reliability. A stepwise discriminant analysis performed on peer communication variable found that peer communication variable was significant in differentiating the two materialism groups. The implications, significance and limitations of the study are discussed.


This study examines the motives of employees to engage in work related social media use - i.e. the use of personal social media accounts to communicate about work-related issues. The theory of planned behavior (TPB) was used to explain this behavior. Because social media can enable users to express their identities, social identity expressiveness and self-identity expressiveness were added to the TPB model. Through an online questionnaire, using purposive sampling technique, 514 Dutch employees were asked about their social media use and motivation to do so. We used structural equation modelling (SEM) to test our hypotheses. Results indicate that these identity constructs enhance the predictive ability of the TPB. As such, work-relation social media use is likely to take place spontaneously rather than deliberately and consciously planned.


The influence of urbanization, modernization and acculturation processes as causes for the development of body image concerns and eating disorders are documented in the literature. Women exposed to a Western idea of "beauty" as skinny and thin may be more vulnerable to body dissatisfaction. The elements of Western society that contribute to women's body dissatisfaction are captured and described in BORDO's empire of images (2003) and FREDRICKSON and ROBERTS' objectification theories (1997). Both theories rest on the assumptions that women's bodies are seen as passive elements in Western society, and that as a result women often engage in activities that measure, modify, and control their bodies to meet Western standards of beauty and attractiveness. Homogenization, normalization, and objectification have not been studied among immigrant women, nor have similarities and differences been explored across ethno-cultural communities. Participatory methodology informed the data collection process and analysis. A series of three separate parent focus groups were held with each of the Tamil and Mainland Chinese mothers of elementary school children respectively, for a total of six focus groups and 13 participants. Through dialogue, newcomer immigrant mothers were invited to define their cultural idea of beauty and to confront it with the Canadian one. For both Chinese and Tamil mothers, the homogenization, normalization, and objectification of their bodies appeared to occur in similar ways. Immigrant women and their daughters tend to internalize the Western ideals of women's thinness; this makes them self-conscious about their own bodies. URN: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs130126