Managing energy consumption has become a critical issue for computer system designers. End-users are forced to charge battery-powered devices on a daily basis because battery technology has not kept pace with the demands of the power-hungry processors and peripherals used in today's mobile devices. Thousands of servers in data-centres also use power-hungry processors which result in huge costs for power and cooling. This is impacting our environment by accelerating global climate-change. To help mitigate these problems, processor manufacturers have implemented various powermanagement mechanisms, including dynamic voltage and frequency scaling (DVFS) and low-power idle modes, to reduce and manage the power consumption of their processors. These mechanisms are controlled by the operating system (OS) and in the past, their use could result in significant improvements in energy efficiency. However, changes in semiconductor technology are altering the effectiveness of these mechanisms. This thesis shows that on recent platforms, using DVFS results in only marginal reductions in systemlevel energy consumption for realistic workloads such as MPEG video playback. However, we find that the system-level energy consumption of lightly loaded web-servers can be reduced without impacting throughput or response latency. This results in an improvement in energy efficiency. However, several trends exist which are leading to diminishing returns from traditional powermanagement mechanisms. We analyse these trends to determine their impact on the effectiveness of the energy-management techniques used in systems today, and look into the future to see what might help to reduce the energy consumption of the computer systems of tomorrow.


An ultra-wideband CMOS integrated sampling mixer subsystem was designed and fabricated using Jazz Semiconductor's 0.18-mum enhanced RF CMOS process. A two-stage switching strategy is implemented to synchronously merge a low-noise amplifier (LNA) with a sampler to achieve high gain, fast sampling, low noise figure, low power consumption, and enhanced RF power efficiency. The LNA and sample-and-hold capacitor are switched using two synchronized strobes generated on-chip. Characteristics of the sampling strobe, the sampling clock jitter, and their effects on the sampling bandwidth are discussed. Measured results show unprecedented performance of 9-12-dB voltage conversion gain, 16-25-dB noise figure, and power consumption of only 21.6 mW (with buffer) and 11.7 mW (without buffer) across dc to 3.5 GHz with 100-MHz sampling frequency.


This article presents representations of oil in Chad which have been drawn from ethnographic interviews with a variety of actors, most notably with local oil workers and inhabitants from the oil-producing areas of the country. It reveals that a decade of oil exploitation in Chad was sufficient enough time for a collective imaginary to emerge regarding the implicit and explicit effects of oil. Expectations about the impact of the extractive industry on local development have not been met, which has led communities to develop sometimes paradoxical feelings towards, beliefs about, and representations of oil. What began as a belief that oil is a gift from god to help to alleviate poverty has given way to a disappointed sense that oil is in fact a curse. This has seen people use metaphors involving fire, the devil, disease, animals, and cursed money to express the harsh realities of Chad's mining industries. These myths, representations, and discussions about oil embody and explicate the resource curse theory.


The car industry is confronted with fundamental changes in society, technology and economy and forced to rethink its concept of mobility. Through constant strategic foresight, trend management and a holistic mobility vision, car manufacturers must develop innovative strategies that reflect current and future trends, in order to meet customer needs, technological standards and economic imperatives. Therefore, car manufacturers are shifting their value chain more and more towards the aftermarket and information technology (IT). Used as a tool for image branding and innovation monitoring, a closer look reveals that car manufacturers are constantly increasing their investment activities in technology start-ups. This indicates that the car industry is in the middle of a transformation process, transforming from a car producer to a mobility provider. Based on an analysis of future driving factors in the car industry and in-depth interviews, we identified six crucial megatrends: peak oil and global warming, connectedness, safety regulations, sharing economy, urban mobility and aging society. Furthermore, four shaping consumer trends were revealed: ownerless, simplicity, eco-lifestyle and personalization. In summary, the most successful providers in the mobile market might be those who understand thoroughly the consumers' needs and behaviour, in order to offer the mobility services they desire.


The life stories of five Balkan Anglophiles emerging in the nineteenth
 century - two Serbs, Vladimir Jovanovic (Yovanovich) and Cedomilj Mijatovic
 (Chedomille Mijatovich); two Greeks, Ioannes (John) Gennadios and Eleutherios
 Venizelos; and one Bulgarian, Ivan Evstratiev Geshov - reflect, each in its
 own way, major episodes in relations between Britain and three Balkan
 Christian states (Serbia, the Hellenic Kingdom and Bulgaria) between the
 1860s and 1920. Their education, cultural patterns, relations and models
 inspired by Britain are looked at, showing that they acted as intermediaries
 between British culture and their own and played a part in the best and worst
 moments in the history of mutual relations, such as the Serbian-Ottoman
 crisis of 1862, the Anglo-Hellenic crisis following the Dilessi murders,
 Bulgarian atrocities and the Eastern Crisis, unification of Bulgaria and the
 Serbo-Bulgarian War of 1885, the Balkan Wars 1912-13, the National Schism in
 Greece. Their biographies are therefore essential for understanding
 Anglo-Balkan relations in the period under study. The roles of two British
 Balkanophiles (a Bulgarophile, James David Bourchier, and a Hellenophile,
 Ronald Burrows) are looked at as well. In conclusion, a comparison of the
 Balkan Anglophiles is offered, and their Britain-inspired cultural and
 institutional legacy to their countries is shown in the form of a table.


To meet the anticipated demand for wireless access to the broadband Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) network, the concept of wireless ATM has been proposed in 1994 [1]. One of the main challenges in the design of a wireless ATM network resides in the conception of a Medium Access Control
(MAC) protocol that will handle the different ATM services while providing an efficient utilization of the wireless channel. In this thesis, we propose a new Adaptive Reservation TDMA (AR-TDMA) MAC protocol for wireless ATM
networks. AR-TDMA combines the advantage of distributed access and centralized control for transporting Constant Bit Rate (CBR), Variable Bit Rate (VBR) and Available Bit Rate (ABR) traffic efficiently over a wireless channel. The contention slots's access is governed by two novel framed
pseudo-Bayesian priority Aloha protocols that we introduce in this thesis. Either one of these protocols can minimize the contention delay and provide different access priorities for heterogeneous traffic. Analytical and simulation results indicate that the framed pseudo-Bayesian priority Aloha protocols offer a significant delay improvement for high priority packets with Poisson traffic, while low priority packets only experience a slight
performance degradation. A detailed comparison and discussion of implementation and robustness issues is presented in this thesis to help the design engineer choose the right protocol that suits the application scenario.
In the context of the AR-TDMA protocol, results show that the priority algorithms improve real-time traffic Quality-of-Service (QoS). The AR-TDMA resource allocation algorithm grants to terminals reserved access to the wireless ATM channel by considering their requested bandwidth and QoS.
We propose scheduling algorithms for CBR, VBR and ABR traffic. Furthermore, we also introduce a method to dynamically adjust the number of uplink control slots per frame as a function of the estimated contention traffic. Finally, an algorithm is proposed to integrate these algorithms to provide ubiquitous wireless ATM services. Performance results show that the AR-TDMA MAC protocol can achieve high throughput in the range of 90 to 95% while maintaining reasonable QoS for all ATM services.


Cancer is a disease that claims the lives of millions of people every year around the world. To date, multiple risk factors that may contribute to its development have been described. In recent years, a factor that has been associated to cancer development is the presence of bacterial infections that could contribute to its occurrence not only by favoring the inflammatory process, but also through the release of proteins that trigger tumorigenesis. One of the bacterial species that have recently generated interest due to its possible role in cancer development is Salmonella enterica. Nevertheless, for more than a decade, attenuated strains of Salmonella enterica have been proposed as a treatment for different neoplasms due to its bacterium tropism for the tumor microenvironment, its oncolytic activity and its ability to activate the innate and adaptive immune responses of the host. These two facets of Salmonella enterica are addressed in detail in this chapter, allowing us to understand its possible role in cancer development and its well-documented antitumor activity.


ABSTRACT The Covid-19 pandemic marks a shift in the EU's approach to the multilateral system. Just at a time when the EU aspires to avoid being crushed between the US and China, the World Health Organization (WHO) became one of the new battlegrounds in world politics. This norm-setting international organization for health was already under pressure due to a plethora of other organizations trespassing its mandate, reduced core funding and weak governance, reinforced by a strongly decentralized structure. This article will use the exit, voice and loyalty approach to analyse how the EU operated in the multilateral system during the first phase of the Covid-19 crisis with the WHO and vaccines race as case studies. A comparison is made with the EU's positioning on global health in the previous decade. Is the EU truly committed to upholding multilateralism in global health through the WHO, and has the Covid-19 pandemic made a structural change?


This article addresses empirically recent concerns about a dichotomy between capital markets and real estate market fundamentals. Motivated by recent decreases in capitalization (cap) rates in light of weak market fundamentals some analysts have argued that the latter no longer matter in real estate asset pricing. Some other analysts argue that these phenomena reflect a structural shift in the way investors' factor market fundamentals in their pricing decisions. Building on the findings of past empirical research, the authors emphasize that the true effect of market fundamentals can be analyzed and understood only after controlling for the effect of interest rates, which recently reached record-low levels. Empirical analysis of cap rate levels and spreads provides evidence of the strong effect of interest rates on cap rate levels, and systematic effects of market fundamentals on both cap rate levels and spreads that reveal a myopic (inefficient) view on the part of real estate investors. No statistically decent evidence is found to point to a weakening of the effect of market fundamentals or a shift towards a forward-looking (efficient) view of such fundamentals in the last two years.


The population of Baltic Dunlins Calidris alpina schinzii is very small and is declining rapidly. To optimize conservation efforts, knowledge about the location of staging and wintering sites is crucial. As part of intensive studies on Dunlins in Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Germany during the last 40 years, chicks and breeding adults have been marked, which has resulted in 110 recoveries during migration and winter. The majority of these recoveries are from western and northern Europe during the months immediately before and after the breeding season (21 February to 16 August), whereas there are only ten recoveries outside this period. Five of these ten recoveries, including four of six midwinter recoveries, are from N and NW Africa (Mauritania, Tunisia and Morocco). Given the relatively small probability of obtaining recoveries from these areas, the data indicate that the main wintering areas of the Baltic Dunlin are the estuaries in northern Africa, which it shares with other European and Nearctic populations of small-sized Dunlins breeding in Greenland, Svalbard, Iceland, Faeroe Islands, Ireland and Great Britain, The autumn migration period of the Baltic Dunlin is so short that the post-breeding moult must take place primarily at the wintering grounds. During spring and autumn, the Baltic Dunlin migrates well before the larger and much more numerous alpina subspecies, which breeds in arctic Eurasia. The recovery data suggest that the estuaries in the Baltic, the Wadden Sea, SE and S England, the Atlantic seaboard in France, and the Iberian Peninsula are of similar importance for the Baltic Dunlin as they are for the alpina Dunlins.


The Influence of Anthropogenic Development of Water on Coyotes and Kit Foxes in the Great Basin and Mojave Deserts Lucas K. Hall Department of Plant and Wildlife Sciences, BYU Master of Science Anthropogenic provisioning of water (water developments) to enhance abundance and distribution of wildlife is a common management practice in arid regions where water is limiting. Despite the long-term and widespread use of water developments, little is known about how they influence distribution, competition dynamics, and behavior of native species. To elucidate the potential influences of water developments on native species, we tested hypotheses concerning the occurrence and behavior of native kit foxes (Vulpes macrotis). First, we tested the indirect effect of water hypothesis (IEWH) which proposes that water developments negatively affect the arid-adapted kit fox by enabling a water-dependent competitor (i.e., coyote; Canis latrans) to expand distribution in arid landscapes. We tested the two predictions of the IEWH (i.e., coyotes will visit areas with water more frequently and kit foxes will avoid coyotes) and evaluated relative use of water by canids in the Great Basin and Mojave Deserts from 2010 to 2012. We established scent stations in areas with (wet) and without (dry) water and monitored visitation by canids to scent stations and water sources using infrared-triggered cameras. There was no difference in the proportions of visits to scent stations in wet or dry areas by coyotes or kit foxes at either study area. There was no correlation between visits to scent stations by coyotes and kit foxes. Visitation to water sources was not different for coyotes between study areas, but kit foxes visited water sources more in Mojave than Great Basin. The intense visitation to water by kit foxes in Mojave challenges our understanding that this species does not readily drink water. Our results did not support the IEWH in the Great Basin or Mojave Deserts for these two canids. Second, we tested three hypotheses that have been proposed to explain spatial variation in vigilance behavior. The predator-vigilance hypothesis (PVH) proposes that prey increase vigilance where there is evidence of predators. The visibility-vigilance hypothesis (VVH) suggests that prey increase vigilance where detection of predators is impeded or visibility is obstructed. The refuge-vigilance hypothesis (RVH) proposes that prey may perceive areas with low visibility (greater cover) as refuges and decrease vigilance. We evaluated support for these hypotheses using the kit fox, a solitary carnivore subject to intraguild predation, as a model. From 2010 to 2012, we used infrared-triggered cameras to record video of kit fox behavior at water developments in the Mojave Desert. The RVH explained more variation in vigilance behavior of kit foxes than the other two hypotheses (AICc model weight = 0.37). Kit foxes were less vigilant at water developments with low overhead cover (refuge) obstructing visibility. Based on our results, the PVH and VVH may not be applicable to all species of prey. Solitary prey, unlike gregarious prey, may use areas with concealing cover to maximize resource acquisition and minimize vigilance.


This essay is an exercise in philosophy. It asks, "what are the colors?", and ultimately provides a primitivist answer. The essay has four parts. The first is entitled "Stage setting" and has two subparts. In 1.1, I provide an explanation of how we should understand the question of which this essay is concerned. The goal of 1.2 is to provide an adequate taxonomy of views. Part 2 is entitled "Dispositional views" and has three subparts. In 2.1, I argue against appearance dispositional views. In 2.2, I argue against reflectance dispositionalism. Finally in 2.3, I provide a general argument against the colors being dispositions. Part 3 is entitled "Categorical views" and has three subparts. In 3.1, I argue against micro-structuralism. In 3.2, I argue against Cohen's relationalism. Finally in 3.3, I argue for and defend non-relational primitivism. In the last major section of this essay I look at whether we should give up on the colors actually being instantiated. This section has only one subpart, and in it I reject the argument that the best explanation of mass disagreement about the colors is that irrealism is true.


In most of the important agricultural regions of the world, evaporation in the growing season exceeds the precipitation, and also often the sum of precipitation and plant available water in the root zone. This causes a need of supplemental irrigation for effective agricultural use. Information about the greatest possible water consumption in given periods, therefore, is important for the water policy of a given region. Several methods for estimation of the maximum (potential) evaporation have been suggested, and many methods have been compared earlier (W.M.O. 1966, Heldal 1969, Kristensen 1971, Iruthayaraj and Marachan 1978). In Denmark a screened sunk iron pan has been used as a standard since 1956 (Aslyng and Hansen 1960). This standard pan and other methods for estimating potential evaporation have been compared during a 15-year period. The results are reported and discussed.


Principally, joint stock companies are governed by the principle of majority rule, which means that while they are formed and continue to work through participation of every shareholder, only those who hold a majority of voting shares can make decisions in companies. The principle relies on contract and is often supported by company law. In the main, it is advantageous to companies, the Judiciary and the economy. It facilitates collective action, allows management to focus on the daily running of the company business and encourages corporate financing, which is decisively important for corporations. It also saves, by curbing minority actions, the courts' time and the public budget. In one sense, however, it can also be dangerous to the rights and interests of minority shareholders. Using the majority rule, majority shareholders may fix for themselves private benefits or adopt policies which are poor and consequently harmful to companies. Such danger could discourage likely investors from investing their capital in companies and might undermine one of the main purposes of the corporation as an institution introduced by law and business practice to solve problems encountered in raising substantial amounts of capital. This research seeks to study in the light of English and Iranian company laws difficulties deriving from application of the majority rule for minority shareholders and possible ways and mechanisms which can be used to sensibly curb the occurrence of such difficulties. To this objective, it identifies four factors which can explain how and why the rule is liable to abuse by majority shareholders and examines the mechanisms provided by company laws of England and Iran which attempt to strike a balance between the rule of majority and interests of minority shareholders.


The authors' aim in this article is to deal with a new option of writing a hermeneutical text by using the metaphor of a Talmud page. They present this through the multiplicity in which three researchers contemplate a single set text. This case concerns the life story of Zoheira, a Bedouin student at a teacher's college. The use of the Talmudic layout as a metaphor of a scientific text presents a preference of a polyphony of voices, rather than one voice, when dealing with ambiguous texts. It also changes the places of both the reader and the researcher.


This thesis provides an overview of the social and entrepreneurial careers and strategies of merchants during the first modern "commercial" era, 1830-75. It examines merchants as migratory entrepreneurs during the integration of peripheral regions into the transatlantic economy via commerce, technology transfer, and ideology. Merchants organized, operated and expanded overseas commerce, importing textiles and exporting pastoral products. They used a variety of strategies and firm structures to discover and exploit niches in a competitive, developing market. They also influenced the process of economic development and state building as capitalists and risk-bearers, financing both production and politics. Based on archival material from diverse collections in both the United Kingdom and South America, the research offers a qualitative account of the entrepreneurial activities of the British merchant elite in Uruguay. It uses case studies of British immigrant entrepreneurs, whose privileged access to capital and technology allowed them to expand the market for imported products and to exploit upstream opportunities in modernizing export production. Uruguay's distinctive institutional and geographical characteristics allowed merchants to access markets, maximize their social and political connections, and to hedge political and market risks. British merchants used Montevideo as an alternative regional port to Buenos Aires, and the implications of this opportunity have been underexplored in the literature. In establishing and expanding their operations in Uruguay, merchants gained region-specific capital in the form of geographically fixed upstream investments, market knowledge, and positions in elite networks. The social connections of Anglo-Uruguayan
merchants were essential in providing resources and influence for their entrepreneurial activities, but were also their point of entry into the contest over the economy and polity of the River Plate region. British merchants' incentives changed towards engagement in the political and ideological struggles of the Uruguayan civil war, the guerra grande of 1839-51, as they contested political outcomes by acting as suppliers, financiers, and lobbyists. This involvement created an AngloUruguayan subset of River Plate merchants, who went on in subsequent decades to reshape the economy through investment and entrepreneurship.


Modern way of ECR multicharged ion sources development is connected with increasing of microwave frequency up to tens of GHz. Millimeter wave gyrotrons are used now at a few laboratories. Traditional mirror magnetic traps with min B configuration for suppressing of MHD instabilities became too expensive because very strong magnetic field is needed. So prospection of axisymmetric plasma trap with MHD stabilization is a quite relevant subject of modern plasma physics. The simplest trap of such kind is CUSP one. The zero level of magnetic field in the center of the trap doesn't allow to achieve a good confinement in classical regime. In a gasdynamic regime of plasma confinement was studied. The same regime may be realized in the CUSP geometry trap if plasma density is high enough. A small CUSP trap was designed for plasma creation by 37,5 GHz gyrotron radiation under ECR conditions. Temporal evolutions of plasma parameter in experiments were quite smooth and stable. Experimental ion charge state distribution corresponds with calculated one for optimal plasma conditions.


Ten-year-old Geneva double curtain trained de Chaunac vines were hedged at one of three times (postbloom, full canopy development, and veraison) and to one of three severities (retaining five, 10, or 15 leaves per shoot) combined in a 3 x 3 factorial treatment arrangement along with an unhedged control. Yield was not influenced by treatments in 1985, but was reduced linearly by increased hedging severity in 1986 and 1987 and to some degree by delaying hedging. Clusters per vine were affected least by 10-leaf and postbloom hedging. Cluster weight and berries per cluster were reduced linearly by increasing severity of hedging. Berry weight was highest in vines least-severely hedged at full canopy development. Soluble solids (°Brix) and total anthocyanins were reduced proportional to severity of hedging in 1985 and 1987, but this trend was reversed in 1986. Both °Brix and anthocyanins decreased linearly with delays in hedging in 1985. Titratable acidity tended to decrease with delayed hedging and when hedging became less severe. Increases in pH in 1985 were associated with decreased hedging severity and delayed hedging. Control vines tended to be equal to, if not superior to, all hedging treatments in terms of many yield and fruit composition parameters. In general, all significant undesirable yield and fruit composition responses were found in treatments involving the five-leaf severity and the full canopy and veraison timings.


service Email alerting top right corner of the article Receive free email alerts when new articles cite this article-sign up in the box at the Objective: To develop cross-culturally valid and comparable questionnaires for use in clinical practice, tobacco cessation services and multiethnic surveys on tobacco use. Methods: Key questions in Urdu, Cantonese, Punjabi and Sylheti on tobacco use were compiled from the best existing surveys. Additional items were translated by bilingual coworkers. In one-to-one and group consultations, lay members of the Pakistani, Chinese, Indian Sikh and Bangladeshi communities assessed the appropriateness of questions. Questionnaires were developed and field tested. Cross-cultural comparability was judged in a discussion between the researchers and coworkers, and questionnaires were finalised. Questionnaires in Cantonese (written and verbal forms differ) and Sylheti (no script in contemporary use) were written as spoken to avoid spot translations by interviewers. Results: The Chinese did not use bidis, hookahs or smokeless tobacco, so these topics were excluded for them. It was unacceptable for Punjabi Sikhs to use tobacco. For the Urdu speakers and Sylheti speakers there was no outright taboo, particularly for men, but it was not encouraged. Use of paan was common among women and men. Many changes to existing questions were necessary to enhance cultural and linguistic appropriateness—for example, using less formal language, or rephrasing to clarify meaning. Questions were modified to ensure comparability across languages, including English. Conclusion: Using theoretically recommended approaches, a tobacco-related questionnaire with face and content validity was constructed for Urdu, Punjabi, Cantonese and Sylheti speakers, paving the way for practitioners to collect more valid data to underpin services, for sounder research and ultimately better tobacco control. The methods and lessons are applicable internationally. E stimates of the prevalence of the use of tobacco-related substances depend almost entirely on self-report. Clinical records of smoking habits and changes are also based on self-report. Thus, there are barriers to the accumulation of good-quality information on ethnic minority groups, particularly those who may have little or no competency in English. About 23% of immigrants to the UK, born in China, Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, have little skill in English, and more than half cannot function fully in an English-speaking environment. 1 Insufficient attention has been paid to the issues this raises in both medical practice and epidemiological studies—for example, the bias resulting from excluding non-English speakers because of language barriers between researchers and potential participants, or the …


This paper critically reviews what is known, based on analyses of micro-level U.S. data, about the role of religion in various interrelated decisions that people make over the life cycle, including investments in secular human capital, cohabitation, marriage, divorce, family size and employment. It also identifies gaps in our knowledge, and suggests agenda items for future research in the field. These include use of statistical models that allow for non-linearities in the effects associated with religious participation; consideration of contextual effects; and analyses that address anomalies found in earlier work regarding patterns of non-marital sex and divorce among conservative Protestants. Further work is also needed to increase our understanding of the role that religious factors are playing as various dimensions of the second demographic transition, along with elements of "American exceptionalism," continue to unfold in the U.S.


The Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) was
established in 1967, with the signing of the Bangkok Declaration
(ASEAN Declaration) by Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines,
Singapore and Thailand. When ASEAN was established, it was conventional
wisdom that the new organization would be short-lived and
many observers thought that ASEAN would probably be destroyed by
disputes between the member countries. Despite these early speculations
on its long-term viability, ASEAN has gradually grown as
an important regional grouping, with increased recognition from the
outside world, and has played a very significant role in the promotion
of regional co-operation in political and economic affairs
during the last twelve years.
The promotion of regional economic co-operation was the principal
objective of ASEAN at its founding in 1967. However, an
analysis of the factors accounting for the formation of ASEAN suggests
that it was not established primarily as a vehicle for
economic development in the member countries. The five countries
grouped themselves together in 1967 mainly for political and security
reasons. The political objectives of the five countries were twofold.
The first objective was to build up regional political cohesion
as a counter-weight to the great powers who appeared to be
competing with each other in regional political affairs. The
second objective was to strengthen the national stability of the
five countries in the face of the growing communist threat which
was perceived to be of two kinds - an internal threat from communist
subversion and insurgency and an external threat from China.
However, because of the sensitive nature of international and
regional political environment, ASEAN was initially formally limited
to activities such as the promotion of regional co-operation in
economic, social, cultural, educational, scientific and administrative
fields. These were areas of a non-controversial nature.
The early 1970's marked the beginning of a new era in the
Southeast Asian political environment. The U.S.A. was gradually
withdrawing from the Vietnam war while developing friendly relations
with China. The relations between the U.S.A. and the Soviet Union
had also entered into a new era and the word 'detente' became a
watchword in the Soviet-American relations. The Great Cultural
Revolution in China came to an end and China appeared to have changed
its aggressive policy towards the ASEAN countries since the end of
the Cultural Revolution. The Indo-Chinese war came to an end in
1975 with the fall of South Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos into the
communist •hands and the new Indo-Chinese communist states were predominantly
occupied with the re-construction of their economies.
All these factors combined to bring a relatively stable political
environment into Southeast Asia in the mid-1970's at least for a
short period.
These political developments have had a profound impact on
ASEAN. In particular, the changing attitudes of China towards ASEAN
countries have considerably reduced the fear of external communist
threat to them. That, in turn, has caused the ASEAN countries to
place greater emphasis on internal political stability. As a consequence,
such issues as economic development and regional economic
co-operation have begun to gradually overshadow the previous
regional preoccupation with security and defence. The ASEAN has
realised that economic and social progress in the member countries
is the best weapon to combat internal communist subversion and
insurgency.
As ASEAN economies are export-led economies, international
trade plays an important role in the economic development of these
countries. Except in the case of Singapore, the economies of the
ASEAN countries are based on agriculture and mining industry. They
produce raw materials and commodities which have been the main
sources of foreign exchange for these countries. In recent years,
most of the international commodity markets have been characterised
by such features as deteriorating terms of trade, fluctuating prices
and demand and increased use of substitution in consumer countries.
The instability in the commodity markets has resulted in the instability
of export earnings which in turn has considerably weakened the
economic development of the ASEAN countries in recent years. One
adverse consequence of this heavy dependency on the export of primary
products has been the growing international indebtedness of
the ASEAN countries as their export earnings have always been
exceeded by their import expenditures.
The recent efforts of the ASEAN countries to diversify exports
through a process of industrialization have been weakened by a
number of factors of which the marketing of manufactured products
is the most important. The internal markets of the ASEAN countries
cannot provide adequate outlets for goods manufactured in these
countries due to the low level of the purchasing power of the people.


Tribune Libre: The uniqueness of place, action and time We recently had the pleasure of re-reading the Tribunes Libres of Ghislain de MARSILY (1994) and Jacques GANOULIS (1996), especially their discussions of a new typology for hydrological models and the analysis of uncertainty. It appears, however, that some confusion and alternative interpretations of hydrological modelling still persist. It is therefore important, notwithstanding our agreement with many of the authors' points, to re-examine some aspects of hydrological modelling in order to clarify certain ambiguities. A distinction made by de MARSILY, between models conditioned by observable phenomena and the physically-based models employed when no phenomena have been observed, invites criticism in terms of the practices to which it leads. GANOULIS' argument, that physically-based models can provide a viable description of processes if differing spatial and temporal empirical coefficients are used, does not stand up to a detailed analysis of the effects of scale. In other words, the issues addressed by these authors arise from the impossibility of using purely physically-based modelling in practical applications due to the difficulty of taking into account and transcribing the characteristics and unique behaviour of each unit of landscape or sub-catchment. To this we can now respond that there are now other lines of thought concerning what are known as physically-based models. Where distributed modelling is concerned, that all places have unique characteristics is a geographical aphorism. The fact remains that the limitations of modelling, expressed by de MARSILY (1994) as the three principles of uniqueness of place, action and time, can be better defined by performing more detailed analysis in the context of uniqueness. Uniqueness limitations partly explain the wide-ranging developments in modelling in respect of both the theory and tools specific to particular applications. One cannot help but notice that expectations of quantitative prediction in hydrology have increased in parallel with the availability and power of computers. This evolution, however, is essentially due to technological advances rather than real scientific progress. Why? Principally, because of the unique characteristics of catchments: in our view, catchments transcend all available theories concerned with hydrological modelling. Moreover, this does not change if better physical hypotheses are proposed, nor if predictions are made for the variables or "non-observable phenomena" discussed by de MARSILY. In this paper, we address these questions and suggest a relevant approach to hydrological modelling for taking into account the unique character of catchments.


An ozone reaction model combined with CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) technique was developed in this research. In the simulation of ozonation, hydrodynamic behavior caused by bubbling of ozone contacting-gas is important as well as reaction kinetics. CFD technique elucidated hydrodynamic behavior in the selected ozone contactor, which consisted of three main chambers. Back-mixing zone was found in each chamber. The higher velocities of water were observed in the second and third chambers than that in the first one. The flow of the opposite direction to the main flow was observed near the water surface. Based on the results of CFD simulation, each chamber was divided into small compartments, and hydrodynamic behavior and effective volume were discussed. Mass balance equations were also established in each compartment with reaction terms associated with DOC, odor compounds, bacteria, bromide ion and bromate ion. This reaction model was intended to predict dissolved ozone concentration, especially. We concluded that the model could predict favourably the mass balance of ozone, namely absorption efficiency of gaseous ozone, dissolved ozone concentration and ozone consumption. After establishing the model, we discussed the effects of hydrodynamic behavior on dissolved ozone concentration.


Modifying the stiffness of the structure is usually not a feasible solution to enhancing damping, since changing the stiffiless effects the natural frequency changing and eventually the condition of resonance will be reached. Therefore, one of the recommendatory ways to reduce the response on structural elements is to improve damping characteristics. The objectives of this study are to present empirical methodology to detect damping characteristics of structural elements, and determine the optimal location of sensor to detect structural failure by analyzed data from both experimental and numerical analysis. Using orthotropic composite plates comprised of 977-2 Carbon fiber/IM7 epoxy, the natural frequencies ofstructural bending modes and damping ratio of the composite plates were experimented by free vibration test, and then comparison was made between the experimental results and the numerical analysis done by finite element method. The effectiveness of crack on a structure in damped free vibration was confirmed by the analysis using edge-notched composite plate. The results represented the natural frequency of a composjte plate was consistent with changing sensor location, and showed good agreement for both experimental and numerical analysis.


There is now a wealth of evidence that some of the most important regions of the genome are found outside those that encode proteins, and noncoding regions of the genome have been shown to be subject to substantial levels of selective constraint, particularly in Drosophila. Recent work has suggested that these regions may also have been subject to the action of positive selection, with large fractions of noncoding divergence having been driven to fixation by adaptive evolution. However, this work has focused on Drosophila melanogaster, which is thought to have experienced a reduction in effective population size (N(e)), and thus a reduction in the efficacy of selection, compared with its closest relative Drosophila simulans. Here, we examine patterns of evolution at several classes of noncoding DNA in D. simulans and find that all noncoding DNA is subject to the action of negative selection, indicated by reduced levels of polymorphism and divergence and a skew in the frequency spectrum toward rare variants. We find that the signature of negative selection on noncoding DNA and nonsynonymous sites is obscured to some extent by purifying selection acting on preferred to unpreferred synonymous codon mutations. We investigate the extent to which divergence in noncoding DNA is inferred to be the product of positive selection and to what extent these inferences depend on selection on synonymous sites and demography. Based on patterns of polymorphism and divergence for different classes of synonymous substitution, we find the divergence excess inferred in noncoding DNA and nonsynonymous sites in the D. simulans lineage difficult to reconcile with demographic explanations.


Matching logic is a new program verication logic, which builds upon operational semantics. Matching logic specications are constrained symbolic program congurations, called patterns, which can be matched by concrete congurations. By building upon an operational semantics of the language and allowing specications to directly refer to the structure of the conguration, matching logic has at least three benets that could be key factors in its usability: (1) One's familiarity with the formalism reduces to one's familiarity with the operational semantics of the language, that is, with the language itself; (2) The verication process proceeds the same way as the execution of the program, making debugging failed proof attempts manageable because one can always see the \current conguration" and \what went wrong", same like in a debugger; and (3) Nothing is lost in translation, that is, there is no gap between the language itself and its verier. Moreover, direct access to the structure of the conguration facilitates dening sub-patterns that one may reason about, such as disjoint lists or trees in the heap, as well as supporting framing in various components of the conguration at no additional costs.


ABSTRACT This article presents an analysis of how lesbian couples in Sweden negotiate birth motherhood in a context where equality is thought to be achieved by being and doing the same [Gullestad, M. (2002). Invisible fences: Egalitarianism, nationalism and racism. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 8(1), 45–63. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9655.00098]. We do so by studying narratives of how 20 couples arrived at the decision of who will be the (first) birth mother, a decision unique to a small group of parents with theoretical implications for motherhood norms, kinship and within-couple decision-making extending beyond the couples themselves. Most couples interviewed planned to have two children and take turns carrying, a plan that to some extent solves the challenge of equality and sameness. Genetic links were downplayed and instead, the embodied and often desired experience of pregnancy was foregrounded. In deciding who would be the (first) birth mother, the couples' reasoning centred on age and desire, both presented as harmless and 'natural' determinants that defused a potentially disruptive decision.


Allocated area for planted-forest in Ketapang Regency, especially in Durian Sebatang river basin and its surrounding are in critical condition with low land- productivity and poor hydrologic characteristic. These areas have to be conserved with vegetative method. One of the efforts to synergize soil and water conservation and economic interest is immediately to rehabilitate the critical areas with Planted-Forest (Hutan Tanaman Industri—HTI). Planted-forest system can be arranged to control the rate of erosion.
The aim of this study is to predict the rate of erosion at the existing condition and the change of erosion rate at the planting-rotation system (cutting system) in the planted-forest of Acacia sp. The planting- rotations are 5 years, 6 years, 7 years and 8 years during the range of 11 years study.
 The research uses the version 3.3 of GIS Arc View program to make the land-unit map. The amount
 of surface erosion (sheet erosion) estimated base on the land-unit map. The calculation of the erosion rate uses the Modified USLE method (Snyder,1989), in which factors influencing the amount of surface erosion are Rain Erosivity (R), Land Erodibility (K), Length and Elevation of slope (LS) and Soil Conservation Factor and Planting System (VM).
 The results of the study show that the rate of erosion at the existing condition is 1,24 mm/year. Its a light danger erosion level, under the soil loss tolerance limits (2 mm/year). During the 11 first years of HTI development, the rate of erosion in planted forest with planting rotation of 5, 6, 7 and 8 years ranges from 0,91 mm/year to 2,66 mm/year. Its included in a very light to heavy erosion danger level. The lowest average erosion rate is found in the planting rotation of 7 year, continued by 8, 6 and 5 year. At first cycle, the rates of erosion in all planting rotation are more than the amount of existing erosion. Its caused by land clearing activity for plantation, but at further cycle, those are decrease until under the existing condition when the vegetation at conservation areas reach to an optimal growth. The rates of erosion in HTI can be controlled if we arrange the allocation of land utilization t consider by soil type. The reasonable planting-rotation of HTI with Acacia sp vegetation's type to be applied in the research area is 6 years or 7 years. The optimal planting rotation is decided base on amount of erosion rate, soil stability, wood utilization and economic value. The expectation of this research can be contribute in soil conservation and social economic integrated development program.


The effect of sorption conditions on the rate and capacity of lead uptake
by powderized biomass of Rhizopus oligosporus was first carried out in shake
flask experiments. Lead sorption by Rhizopus oligosporus was also investigated
in different types of contactor such as stirred tank bioreactor, airlift fennenter and
packed-bed column. The experimental data of lead adsorption in different sorption
conditions (pH, temperature, solution viscosity, lead and biomass concentration)
and different operating variables of the contactor (agitation speed and air flow rate)
were analysed using Langmuir and Freundlich sorption isotherm models. The
mechanism of lead uptake by the cell was examined using TEM micrograph,
EDXA and FTIR photoacoustic. The experimental data of lead sorption by Rhizopus oligosporus fitted well
to Langmuir and Freundlich sorption isotherm models, indicating that the sorption
was similar to that for ion-exchange resin. This means that the sorption is a single
layer metal adsorption which occured as a molecular surface coverage. This
assumption was confirmed by the examination of lead sorption using TEM
micrograph, EDXA and FTIR photoacoustic, which showed that during sorption
most of lead was adsorbed on the surface of cell.From shake flask experiment, it was found that the biomass concentration
and initial solution pH optima for lead sorption at initial lead concentration
ranging from 50-200 mglL was 0.5 g/L and pH 5, respectively. In term of the
ratio of initial lead concentration to biomass concentration, the optimum value for
lead sorption was 750 mg/g. In all types of contactor investigated, maximum lead
uptake capacity increased with increasing temperature and drastically decreased
with increasing solution viscosity. Lead adsorption kinetic parameters values,
calculated using Langmuir and Freundlich models, were significantly varied with
sorption condition. Intraparticle diffusion rate constant (Kp) and equilibrium
adsorption rate (Kₐ decreased with increasing solution viscosity, while diffusion
coefficient (D) increased with increasing solution viscosity. On the other hand,
D was decreased with increasing temperature while Kad was not significantly
different at different temperatures. When 5 L stirred tank bioreactor was used as
a contactor, the highest lead uptake capacity was obtained at agitation speed
ranging from 50-150 rpm (Re = 3,900 - 11,700). On the other hand, the optimum air tlowrate for lead sorption in 2 L airlift fermenter was obtained at 2 vvm.
Increased in the degree of turbulence as created by increased in degree of agitation
(stirred tank bioreactor) and air flowrate (airlift fermenter), significantly reduced
Kad and D but has no effect on Kp-
The maximum lead uptake capacity obtained in shake flask, stirred tank
bioreactor and airlift fermenter at optimum sorption conditions was 126, 79 and
74 mglg, respectively. Absolute removal of lead ions from solution was achieved
when fixed packed-bed column was used as a contactor. However, the maximum
lead uptake capacity (24 mg/g) was 3 times lower than that obtained in stirred
tank bioreactor or an airlift fermenter.


As a key component of the carbon cycle, soil CO2 efflux (SCE) is being increasingly studied to improve our mechanistic understanding of this important carbon flux. Predicting ecosystem responses to climate change often depends on extrapolation of current relationships between ecosystem processes and their climatic drivers to conditions not yet experienced by the ecosystem. This raises the question of to what extent these relationships remain unaltered beyond the current climatic window for which observations are available to constrain the relationships. Here, we evaluate whether current responses of SCE to fluctuations in soil temperature and soil water content can be used to predict SCE under altered rainfall patterns. Of the 58 experiments for which we gathered SCE data, 20 were discarded because either too few data were available or inconsistencies precluded their incorporation in the analyses. The 38 remaining experiments were used to test the hypothesis that a model parameterized with data from the control plots (using soil temperature and water content as predictor variables) could adequately predict SCE measured in the manipulated treatment. Only for 7 of these 38 experiments was this hypothesis rejected. Importantly, these were the experiments with the most reliable data sets, i.e., those providing high-frequency measurements of SCE. Regression tree analysis demonstrated that our hypothesis could be rejected only for experiments with measurement intervals of less than 11 days, and was not rejected for any of the 24 experiments with larger measurement intervals. This highlights the importance of high-frequency measurements when studying effects of altered precipitation on SCE, probably because infrequent measurement schemes have insufficient capacity to detect shifts in the climate dependencies of SCE. Hence, the most justified answer to the question of whether current moisture responses of SCE can be extrapolated to predict SCE under altered precipitation regimes is "no" – as based on the most reliable data sets available. We strongly recommend that future experiments focus more strongly on establishing response functions across a broader range of precipitation regimes and soil moisture conditions. Such experiments should make accurate measurements of water availability, should conduct high-frequency SCE measurements, and should consider both instantaneous responses and the potential legacy effects of climate extremes. This is important, because with the novel approach presented here, we demonstrated that, at least for some ecosystems, current moisture responses could not be extrapolated to predict SCE under altered rainfall conditions.


Sydney Olympic Park, the main venue of the 2000 Summer Olympic Games, contains world class sporting facilities, residential areas, a commercial centre and extensive parklands. It was previously 760 hectares of degraded land that required extensive restoration and remediation. Remediation of the site commenced in 1992, well in advance of the US Brownfields initiative, and provides useful information for other contaminated land managers in the selection of clean-up options, environmental monitoring and assessment, and adaptive management success. Treatment of the estimated 9,000,000 cubic metres of waste was carried out insitu, as a preferable alternative to off-site transfer. This has necessitated ongoing monitoring to ensure the remediation options chosen remain effective in protecting environmental health and safety. The monitoring program has provided baseline data and management tools for long term assessment. Compilation of historic site data provided the necessary context for new monitoring programs, initiated to give a more complete environmental picture, which included leachate toxicity monitoring, sediment quality triad studies, sediment core analysis, bioaccumulation assessment and bioremediation studies. Promising initial results indicate attenuation of leachate toxicity, undetectable impacts on the surrounding environment due to site influences and identification of optimum conditions for bioremediation. The monitoring has also suggested streamlining some monitoring and highlighted areas of potential concern, assisting in the prioritisation of resource allocation.


The object of the study is Dwijendra Text (hereinafter abbreviated to DT). It containsinteresting narrations and is importantly related to the dharmayatra, the holy religious journeymade by Dang Hyang Nirartha, the charismatic figure, in Bali, Lombok and Sumbawa. Beforethe analysis of reception was conducted, the corpus text of the DT texts completely andstructurally telling the religious journey made by Dang Hyang Nirartha was successfullydetermined. The analysis in this study was made to answer the following questions: what is thenarrative structure of the DT text; what are the enlightenment image entities of the dharmayatraof the DT text; how do people appreciate the dharmayatra of the DT text? The answers to thenarrative structure of the DT text; the image entities and the appreciation provided by people arethe main objectives of this study.The theories adopted in this study are the theory of reception introduced by Jauss, thetheory of semiotics introduced by Pierce and the theory of mythology introduced by Barthes. Asa qualitative study, the data needed were collected by the methods of observation, note taking,documentation and interview supported with a sound recorder and pictures. The results of theanalysis are informally presented, meaning that they are verbally described in the form of wordswhich are systematically composed based on the problems formulated in this study.The analysis of the narrative structure of the DT text contains narrative units which are inthe forms of theme, characters and plots. They all unite to form stories which are mythological,legendary, symbolic, hagiographic and suggestive in nature. Based on the analysis ofenlightenment image entities, it can be concluded that there are three basic entities leading to thecreation of the DT text. They are first enlightenment; second protection of Hinduism; and thirdconstruction of temple institutions. Based on the reception analysis, it can be concluded thatpeople, through their literary works, books, articles and websites, appreciate the discourse of thedharmayatra performed in Bali, Lombok and Sumbawa.The ten essential findings in this study can be described as follows. (1) The corpus text ofthe DT, which is in the form palm-leaf manuscript (lontar) and was obtained from GriyaBaturening Mambal, is kept as a collection at the Perpustakaan Lontar Fakultas SastraUniversitas Udayana (the Library of Palm-leaf Manuscripts of the Faculty of Letters, UdayanaUniversity). It is coded under no. 1514, kropak (box) no. 293. The DT text describes the real journey of Dang Hyang Nirarta, the great holy Hindu teacher, concretely, completely andstructurally. (2) As a literary text of history, the DT text has a highly narrative structure formedby theme, characters and plots which are unified in the forms of mythologies, legends,hagiographies, symbolisms and suggestive. (3) The dharmayatra made by Dang Hyang Nirartha,as described in the DT text, gave enlightenment and welfare to the kingdom and its people. (4)The teacher-learner (guru-sisya) teaching contained in the DT text may inspire a harmonious andethic relationship as far as teaching-learning process and priesthood are concerned. (5) Theconcern about the principle of unity in diversity taught by him may give relevant multiculturalperception of the current and upcoming way of life and Indonesianization. (6) The DT textreveals that those who belong to the Brahmin caste (Brahmana) have been descended from him.However, if viewed from the spiritual and priesthood points of view, he has been the source ofspirituality for Hindus, Buddhists, Moslems and those who do not belong to any religion (kapir).(7) The DT text shows that he is also called Pedanda/Bhatara Sakti Wawu Rawuh as he washighly powerful (sakti) and has symbolized the complete mastery of material and spiritualknowledge. (8) The religious journey (dharmayatra) made by him from Java to Bali, Lombokand Sumbawa aimed at protecting Majapahit Hinduism from being suppressed by Islam whichhad already spread all over the Archipelago. The protection of Hinduism and the construction ofthe temple institutions referred to the religious meaningfulness implemented by him. (9) Thisstudy explains that in Lombok he spread three religious teachings such as Gama Siki GamaThirtha, Gama Kalih Budha Paksa, and Gama Tiga Selame Metu Telu. (10) High appreciation isprovided to the dharmayatra he made in Bali, Lombok and Sumbawa. Such an appreciation orreception highly varies; in other words, it is expressed in the forms of literary works, books,articles and websites.


CEPS and the International Observatory on Financial Services Cooperatives (IOFSC) at HEC Montreal have initiated an annual monitoring exercise on banking business models in the EU. Based on their balance sheet structures, 147 European banks that account for more than 80% of the industry assets were categorised in four business models. The Monitor emphasises the ownership structures and assesses the financial and economic performance, resilience and robustness, before, during and after the financial and economic crises across retail diversified-, retail focused-, investment-, and wholesale oriented banks. Inter alia, this edition of the Monitor finds that banks that engage more in traditional retail banking activities with a mix of funding sources fared well as compared to other bank models during the different phases of the crisis.


LIRKIS CAVE, designed and built at the home institution of the authors, is an immersive virtual reality environment of unique, cylinder based construction with stereoscopic video output provided by twenty 55" 3D LCD displays. While the visualization engine of the CAVE is optimized for the unusual display arrangement, motion tracking and 3D mouse input, it originally lacked in support of other input devices. In this paper we deal with the problem of extending and optimizing the peripheral devices support by introducing a socket-based approach, which connects an external input processing application directly to a distributed virtual scene rendering application.


Background & Objectives: Zagros Mountains, which are between the flatlands of Mesopotamia and the Iranian plateau, surround the western border of the country. This region was the cradle of great civilizations like Mesopotamia and Elam. This study aimed to test the boundary role of the Zagros Mountains in the genetic structure of the region through evaluating the paternal lineages inheritance and patterns of genetic polymorphisms. Methods: Two hundred and ninety seven blood samples were collected from unrelated men of the different local areas of the northwest of Iran. Haplogroup frequencies were used to calculate and compare the population genetic parameters as genetic distance and genetic diversity. Results : In this research distribution time and entrance of the haplogroup G2-M406 estimated around 8800 years before present, the age of first human residential in the Zagros mountains area, Frequency of central Asian lineages in the eastern side of the mountains observed notable more than west side. While, European paternal lineages in the western side was more than eastern side of the mountains. Conclusion : This research emphasized the westward distribution and migration from Iranian plateau to the Europe through Turkey and Caucasus. This research has drown reliable phylogenetic tree of the surrounding population and showed an important geographic barrier role for these mountains to gene flow from neighboring regions and free movements of the local people. Moreover, the important role of the Zagros Mountains as a geographic barrier to gene flow from neighboring regions clearly highlighted in this research


Loyalty is passé in the modern time and professionalism is the buzzword in the contemporary corporate world. The reasons of employee attrition are also changing. Now-a-days employee leaves an organization for many reasons. Some leave for growth, some leave for some family problems but majority of people switchover jobs due to only one reason that is DISSATISFACTION. Undoubtedly satisfaction and dissatisfaction sort of things have different meaning for different people but having majority of people satisfied is pretty germane for sustainable growth and high level of productivity in any organization. A threadbare analysis of attrition brings some major concerns like not having objectivity in job allocation, employee recognition and fairness in career advancements for consideration. They are also important causes of dissatisfaction for employees in organizations. This dissatisfaction finally gets a vent in the form of changing the job. This subjectivity in the issues of employee handling is the key for dissatisfaction. Management Control System is fully capable of bringing objectivity in the organization and managing this dissatisfaction which would finally be translated into high employee retention, and better productivity and better organizations.


Proposed problems, solutions, and classics should be submitted online at americanmathematicalmonthly.submittable.com/submit. Proposed problems must not be under consideration concurrently at any other journal, nor should they be posted to the internet before the deadline date for solutions. Proposed solutions to the problems below must be submitted by September 30, 2023. Proposed classics should include the problem statement, solution, and references. More detailed instructions are available online. An asterisk (*) after the number of a problem or a part of a problem indicates that no solution is currently available.


Background Voretigene neparvovec is a gene therapeutic agent for treatment of retinal dystrophies caused by bi-allelic RPE65 mutations. In this study, we report on a novel and objective evaluation of a retinotopic photoreceptor rescue. Methods Seven eyes of five patients (14, 21, 23, 24, 36 years, 1 male, 4 females) with bi-allelic RPE65 mutations have been treated with voretigene neparvovec. The clinical examinations included visual acuity testing, dark-adapted full-field stimulus threshold (FST), dark-adapted chromatic perimeter (DAC) with a 30-degree grid, and a 30 degrees grid scotopic and photopic chromatic pupil campimetry (CPC). All evaluations and spectral domain optical coherence tomography were performed at baseline, 1 month and 3 months. Results All except the oldest patient had a measurable improvement of the rod function assessed via FST, DAC or scotopic CPC at 1 month. The visual acuity improved slightly or remained stable in all eyes. A cone function improvement as measured by photopic CPC was observed in three eyes. The gain of the dark-adapted threshold with blue FST and the DAC stimuli (cyan) average correlated strongly with age (R2>0.7). The pupil response improvement in the scotopic CPC correlated with the baseline local retinal volume (R2=0.5). Conclusions The presented protocols allow evaluating the individual spatial and temporal effects of gene therapy effects. Additionally, we explored parameters that correlated with the success of the therapy. CPC and DAC present new and fast ways to assess functional changes in retinotopic maps of rod and cone function, measuring complementary aspects of retinal function.


Vitamin B1 (thiamine) is one of the organic micronutrients essential for growth of algae. However, there is no direct method for the quantification of this vitamin in natural waters. Bioassay is the only protocol currently available to measure B1 in the marine environment. We have developed a new method for the direct determination of B1, along with vitamin B12 (cobalamin) in seawater. Solid‐phase extraction with a column of C18 resin followed by elution with methanol was used to extract dissolved B1 from seawater. The eluted vitamin was then analyzed by reversed phase high‐performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) using ammonium acetate (0.05 M) and methanol as mobile phases in pressure gradient mode. Ultraviolet‐visible (UV‐Vis) detection at 270 nm was used to quantify B1 levels. The calibration curve was linear from 0 to 0.60 µM and the detection limit of the protocol was on the order of 0.083 pM. This new method was successfully applied to the determination of vitamin B1 in filtered coastal seawater, porewater, and river water samples. Concentrations of vitamin B1 in those aquatic environments ranged from 0.15 nM in river to 0.75 nM in porewaters, with spike recoveries ranging from 93% to 98%.


The United States is obligated under the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) treaty to make patent rights available and enjoyable without discrimination as to the "field of technology" of the invention. No specific areas of technology may be singled out for unjustified special treatment. Yet the United States is doing just that with respect to computer-implemented business methods. Doctrinally, such methods are subject to an especially high bar for patentability. Statutorily, patents on such methods may be challenged in invalidity proceedings that are exclusively available for so-called "covered business method patents." The law seems to reflect a skepticism that computer-implemented business methods should be broadly eligible for patenting, as well as a distaste for how many owners of such patents have enforced their rights. While these may be real problems and serious policy challenges, blatant discrimination by technological field is not a proper solution.
The United States' handling of computer-implemented business methods goes far beyond the kind of justifiable differential treatment that TRIPS tolerates. In the pharmaceutical context, for example, the inventions are subject to unique regulations and market restrictions. A country's patent laws may properly extend the term of a drug patent to offset a lengthy regulatory review period, or may properly allow generic drug makers to begin seeking their own regulatory approval during the patent term. For computer-implemented business methods, the legal differences in treatment correspond to no specific aspects of the subject matter, but arguably reflect broader problems in the United States patent system concerning patent examination quality and litigation abuse.
None of this discrimination is in violation of the treaty, however, unless computer-implemented business methods are a "field of technology" under TRIPS. Congress and the USPTO have ostensibly assumed not, focusing on the fact that such methods use existing computer technology but do not create new computer technology per se. But that goes to how inventive the method is, not whether it is technological. The text of the treaty, the pre- and post-ratification conduct of the member countries, and the historical and normative context all suggest that computer-implemented business methods are indeed technological. While the computerization of such processes is not usually inventive enough to ultimately be patented, employing computers for practical business purposes nonetheless brings such methods within the scope of the treaty and deserving of nondiscriminatory treatment. As the United States considers more changes to the availability and enjoyment of patent rights, it should discontinue this discrimination.


The financial industry has adopted Python at a tremendous rate recently, with some of the largest investment banks and hedge funds using it to build core trading and risk management systems. This hands-on guide helps both developers and quantitative analysts get started with Python, and guides you through the most important aspects of using Python for quantitative finance. Using practical examples through the book, author Yves Hilpisch also shows you how to develop a full-fledged framework for Monte Carlo simulation-based derivatives and risk analytics, based on a large, realistic case study. Much of the book uses interactive IPython Notebooks, with topics that include: Fundamentals: Python data structures, NumPy array handling, time series analysis with pandas, visualization with matplotlib, high performance I/O operations with PyTables, date/time information handling, and selected best practices Financial topics: mathematical techniques with NumPy, SciPy and SymPy such as regression and optimization; stochastics for Monte Carlo simulation, Value-at-Risk, and Credit-Value-at-Risk calculations; statistics for normality tests, mean-variance portfolio optimization, principal component analysis (PCA), and Bayesian regression Special topics: performance Python for financial algorithms, such as vectorization and parallelization, integrating Python with Excel, and building financial applications based on Web technologies


Background: In influenza epidemiology, analysis of paired sera collected from people before and after influenza seasons has been used for decades to study the cumulative incidence of influenza virus infections in populations. However, interpretation becomes challenging when sera are collected after the start or before the end of an epidemic, and do not neatly bracket the epidemic. Methods: Serum samples were collected longitudinally in a community-based study. Most participants provided their first serum after the start of circulation of influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 virus in 2009. We developed a Bayesian hierarchical model to correct for nonbracketing sera and estimate the cumulative incidence of infection from the serological data and surveillance data in Hong Kong. Results: We analyzed 4,843 sera from 2,097 unvaccinated participants in the study, collected from April 2009 to December 2010. After accounting for nonbracketing, we estimated that the cumulative incidence of H1N1pdm09 virus infection was 45% (95% credible interval [CI] = 40%, 49%), 17% (95% CI = 13%, 20%), and 11% (95% CI = 6%, 18%) for children ages 0–18 years, adults 19–50 years, and older adults >50 years, respectively. Including all available data substantially increased precision compared with a simpler analysis based only on sera collected at 6-month intervals in a subset of participants. Conclusions: We developed a framework for the analysis of antibody titers that accounted for the timing of sera collection with respect to influenza activity and permitted robust estimation of the cumulative incidence of infection during an epidemic.


Let $G$ be a finite abelian group, and let $S$ be a sequence of elements in $G$. Let $f(S)$ denote the number of elements in $G$ which can be expressed as the sum over a nonempty subsequence of $S$. In this paper, we slightly improve some results of Pixton on $f(S)$ and we show that for every zero-sum-free sequences $S$ over $G$ of length $|S|=\exp(G)+2$ satisfying $f(S)\geq 4\exp(G)-1$.


Companies have access to a variety of financial resources to implement available profitable investment projects, to settle overdue debts, to increase working capital, and to pay dividends to shareholders. These resources include cash from operating activities and the sale of assets (as intra-organizational sources of financing), borrowing loans from the bank, issuance of bonds, and issuance of new shares (as outside the organization sources of financing). Financing and its effects on the returns and risk of the company choose sources that minimize financing costs. Then, to prioritize the parameters, the hierarchical method, Topsis, and ANP were used. The results of this study indicated that the factors of efficiency, cost, sustainability, being operational, fairness, and transparency have been the most important criteria for choosing the financing method, as well as forming sub-consortia, receiving facilities, issuing participation bonds, establishing investment companies, presence in the securities market, creating a shareholder plan, and finally attracting foreign capital have been identified as financing methods. Also, the transparency of the financing method in the surveyed companies to identify the appropriate financing method had the least importance.


Stuttering is a common speech disorder that can impact in the quality of life of adults who stutter (AWS). In order to manage this condition, it is necessary to measure and assess the stuttering severity before, during and after any therapeutic process. To evaluate it, monitoring biosignals -included the respiratory patterns - could be an option; however is not clear the difference between speech conditions. Therefore, we compare the respiratory patterns and biosignals during speech of adults who stutter (AWS) and who not stutter (AWNS) to describe the differences and patterns of blocks and fluent speech. Sixty-six participants (AWS=33, AWNS=33) were asked to perform a reading task. We record the respiratory patterns and biosignals (pulse, saturation and galvanic response) using standardized system. We assess the differences among three conditions: fluent speech from ANWS, blocks from AWS and fluent speech from AWS. A higher number of expiratory volume peaks and amplitudes were found during the blocks segments compared to the fluent speech segments. These different patterns could be used to differentiate speech conditions using a recognition algorithm to automate evaluations in a real-time environment for stuttering diagnosis or follow-up.


The rarity of reports in the literature of brief and spatially limited observations of drizzle at temperatures below −20 °C suggest that riming and other temperature‐dependent cloud microphysical processes such as heterogeneous ice nucleation and ice crystal depositional growth prevent drizzle persistence in cold environments. In this study, we report on a persistent drizzle event observed by ground‐based remote sensing measurements at McMurdo Station, Antarctica. The temperatures in the drizzle‐producing cloud were below −25 °C and the drizzle persisted for a period exceeding 7.5 hr. Using ground‐based, satellite, and reanalysis data, we conclude that drizzle was likely present in parts of a widespread cloud field, which stretched more than ~1,000 km along the Ross Ice Shelf coast. Parameter space sensitivity tests using two‐moment bulk microphysics in large eddy simulations constrained by the observations suggest that activated ice freezing nuclei and accumulation‐mode aerosol number concentrations aloft during this persistent drizzle period were likely on the order of 0.2 L−1 and 20 cm−3, respectively. In such constrained simulations, the drizzle moisture flux through cloud base exceeds that of ice. The simulations also indicate that drizzle can lead to the formation of multiple peaks in cloud water content profiles. This study suggests that persistent drizzle at these low temperatures may be common at the low aerosol concentrations typical of the Antarctic and Southern Ocean atmospheres.


Nigeria, with more than 250 ethnic groups and a current population of about 170 million inhabitants is the most populous African country. With a crude oil production of 2.5 million barrels per day, Nigeria also ranks as the largest producer of crude oil in Africa and the sixth largest producer in the world. The fisheries sector, which is also important, has grown considerably since the country gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1960. However, government fisheries departments lack officers responsible for field data collection; consequently, catch data are often exaggerated or unreported. Using standard procedures, we re-estimated (i.e., reconstructed) the Nigerian marine fisheries catches from 1950 to 2010 to account for likely under-reporting and non-reporting of the catch of fish and shrimps trawlers, artisanal and subsistence fishers, foreign legal and illegal fleets and discards. This led to catches of about 34,000 t in 1950, 540,000 t in 2005 and 490,000 t in 2010. Reconstructed domestic catches were about twice the data supplied to the FAO. Taxonomically, sardinellas (Sardinella spp.) represented the largest contribution to domestic catches, followed by bonga shad (Ethmalosa fimbriata) and croakers (Pseudotolithus spp.). Under-reporting is becoming more pronounced over time, thus debunking the myth of massive over-reporting by Nigeria. Increasing illegal and unreported catches by foreign vessels constitute a growing threat to the sustainability of the stocks. In all, while catches are under-reported, the marine fisheries of Nigeria are overexploited.


Background Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is diagnosed using the estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) and the urinary albumin:creatinine ratio (ACR). The eGFR is calculated from serum creatinine levels using the Modification of Diet in Renal Disease (MDRD) or Chronic Kidney Disease Epidemiology Collaboration (CKD-EPI) equations. Aim To compare the performance of one versus two eGFR/ACR measurements, and the impact of equation choice, on CKD diagnosis and classification. Design and setting Cohort study in primary care in the Thames Valley region of the UK. Method Data were from 485 participants aged >60 years in the Oxford Renal Cohort Study with at least two eGFR tests. The proportion of study participants diagnosed and classified into different CKD stages using one and two positive tests were compared. Prevalence of CKD diagnosis and classification by CKD stage were compared when eGFR was calculated using MDRD and CKD-EPI equations. Results Participants included in the analysis had a mean age of 72.1 (±6.8) years and 57.0% were female. Use of a single screening test overestimated the proportion of people with CKD by around 25% no matter which equation was used, compared with the use of two tests. The mean eGFR was 1.4 ml/min/1.73 m2 (95% CI = 1.1 to 1.6) higher using the CKD-EPI equation compared with the MDRD equation. More patients were diagnosed with CKD when using the MDRD equation, compared with the CKD-EPI equation, once (64% versus 63%, respectively) and twice (39% versus 38%, respectively), and 16 individuals, all of who had CKD stages 2 or 3A with MDRD, were reclassified as having a normal urinary ACR when using the CKD-EPI equation. Conclusion Current guidance to use two eGFR measures to diagnose CKD remains appropriate in an older primary care population to avoid overdiagnosis. A change from MDRD to CKD-EPI equation could result in one in 12 patients with a CKD diagnosis with MDRD no longer having a diagnosis of CKD.


The production of the same or similar phenotypes (observed biochemical, physiological, and morphological characteristics of a person determined by his/her genotype) by different genetic mechanisms. There are two types: (1) allelic heterogeneity – when different alleles at a locus can produce variable expression of a condition; and (2) locus heterogeneity – the term used to describe disease in which mutations at different loci can produce the same disease phenotype.


Incredible Edible Todmorden is a community enterprise which arose out of grass-roots community activity and promotes a radical approach to community building, embracing the core values of kindness, inclusion and mutuality.  This paper explores the evolution of this innovative initiative, highlighting the way in which it has been driven and shaped by its commitment to these core values as it transforms public spaces and the lives of those it touches along the way.  Using food as the focus of their activities, Incredible Edible Todmorden is an exemplar of translating sustainability goals into action, and the paper explores how this approach has impacted on the community and individuals who have engaged in their activities.  Drawing from interviews with activists, other local sources and evaluations of Incredible Edible, the paper clarifies how their radical approach to community work exemplifies elements of Freirian philosophy of informal education and human development, centring love and kindness as the foundation for all dialogue.


It would seem anomalous that an orchestral musician would have less than normal hearing in order to monitor an exacting musical output. However, some recent studies show that a proportion of symphony musicians do have hearing impairments of various pathologies of which noise exposure, including the music alone, is the dominant causal factor. Intense music exposures in symphony orchestras often exceed the intensity standards of hearing conversation. A basic procedure for industrial hearing conservation is the control of the sound at the source, but the very purpose of the orchestra prevents its use. Hearing protection which is used voluntarily by some musicians presents a different sound picture. The control of intensity of music exposures is necessary but is separate from the concern of the present study with industrial issues and the perceptual-motor performance of musicians. Relevant aspects which are briefly reviewed include the incidence, susceptibility, and severity of hearing impairment among musicians; musical performance of the hearing impaired and the effects of various pathologies on their performance; medical-legal rules of impairment, disability, and handicap; and the incidence of compensible losses among musicians of certain orchestras. Illustrative results are presented of a preliminary study of hearing among 13 volunteer members of The Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. It is suggested that a three- phase study be done: (1) a comparative study of hearing among symphony orchestras; (2) development of comprehensive tests to determine hearing-related performance; (3) provision of a rational basis for hearing criteria in the case of musicians for dealing with their employment, transfer, retirement, disability, handicap, and award of compensation. A fourth issue requiring concurrent study is the conserving of the hearing of orchestral musicians.


PurposeThis paper reports findings from a research project about human information behaviour in the context of serious leisure. Various forms of information activities in this context have been identified and categorised to depict common patterns of information seeking, sharing, using and producing.Design/methodology/approachThe project adopted a qualitative approach in an interpretive paradigm using a thematic analysis method. Data-collection technique was semi-structured interview and 20 volunteers were recruited via a maximum variation sampling strategy. The collected data was transcribed and thematically analysed to identify the main concepts and categories.FindingsThe participants have been experiencing six qualities of serious leisure during their long-term engagement with their hobbies or voluntary jobs and their experiences can be fully mapped onto the serious leisure perspective. The findings also confirmed serious leisure is a unique context in terms of the diversity of information activities embedded into a wide range of individual and collective actions in this context. Information seeking and sharing in serious leisure is not only a source of personal satisfaction for the participants, it also can provide them with a sense of purpose in a meaningful journey towards self-actualization and social inclusion.Research limitations/implicationsThe generalisability of the findings needs to be examined in wider populations. Nonetheless, the existing findings can be useful for follow-up research in the area.Practical implicationsThis study will be useful in both policy and practice levels. In the policy level, it will be beneficial for cultural policy makers to gain a better understanding about the nature of leisure activities. In the practice level, it will be helpful for serious leisure participants to understand the value of information seeking and sharing in their leisure endeavours. Also, information professionals can use it to enhance the quality of their services for the serious leisure participants who are usually among devoted patrons of libraries, museums, archives and galleries.Social implicationsLearning about serious leisure can provide new insights on people preferences in terms of choosing different entertaining and recreational pursuits – such as indoor and outdoor hobbies – in their free time.Originality/valueThe informational aspects of serious leisure is an emerging and evolving ground of research. This paper provides empirical evidence on this topic from a specific context in the regional areas in Australia.


The exact pro-oxidant and antioxidant status in alcoholic liver disease among the chronic alcoholics is still not clear. Alcoholic liver disease (ALD) & its complications are still one of the most frequent causes of death in both developing and developed counties. The present study was conducted to add a new insight to the question, whether ethanol induces oxidative stress, change in the level of antioxidant vitamins ascorbic acid & vitamins E (non- enzymatic antioxidant parameters), trace elements Zinc & Selenium & activities of antioxidant enzymes superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GPx) & catalase in erythrocytes. Study was performed in 40 patients with alcoholic liver disease (study subject) & compared to 40 age & sex matched healthy subject (controls). It was observed that they was a significant increase in MDA (Malondialdehyde), SOD, GPx and significant decrease in ascorbic acid, vitamin E, zinc, selenium & catalase activity in patients with alcoholic liver disease when compared to controls. The results of our study have shown higher free radical production, as evidenced by the increased MDA & decreased levels of ascorbic acid, vitamin E, selenium & catalase activity, supporting the hypothesis that they is increased oxidative stress in patients with ALD. The increased activities of antioxidant enzymes may be a compensatory regulatory response to increased oxidative stress. The decreased antioxidative status support the hypothesis that lipid peroxidation is an important causative factor in the pathogenesis of ALD. These data clearly indicates that, antioxidant mechanisms might be impaired in these patients. These findings also provide a therotical basis for the development of novel therapeutic strategies such as antioxidant supplementation.


Numerous accounts of social bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) seeking human interactions have been documented. While there are several cases of dolphins seeking human interactions with no apparent benefit, dolphins may also be enticed to interact with humans through gradual habituation, usually involving a food source. Marine mammals frequently feed in association with commercial fisheries. Dolphins residing in the Indian River Lagoon (IRL), Florida, USA, may become conditioned to approaching commercial blue crab boats since the fishery regularly discards old bait fish at each trap. This routine may inadvertently acclimatize wild bottlenose dolphins to approach fishing vessels to feed on this supplemental food source. From 1998 to 2001, an adult bottlenose dolphin residing in the IRL estuary system regularly associated with commercial blue crab fishing boats. Focal observations revealed that the animal has become conditioned to approaching commercial crab boats (n = 110 min, n = 6 observations), spending all of its observed time feeding on discarded bait fish, following crab boats, or begging. The dolphin is readily resighted and well-known by fishers due to its tendency to closely approach and beg at fishing boats. The habituated dolphin is site-specific, with all observations and sightings (including fisher reports) occurring within a small 12.88 km area. This unintentional food provision and habituation of wild IRL dolphins to local fisheries may negatively impact the population. On 26 May 2001, this habituated dolphin approached a commercial vessel with a recreational fishing lure lodged in its mouth. Numerous reports from recreational fishers indicate that IRL dolphins also forage in association with recreational fisheries. Feeding and close interactions between wild dolphins and humans can lead to both animal and human injuries and fatalities. This paper documents the habituation of an IRL bottlenose dolphin to fishing vessels and reports the potentially harmful consequences of these interactions.


Toxic leadership and toxic organisations appear to be common now, especially in the US where many of the statistics are available. Williams (2017 ) cites a number of studies and surveys that show a 50 per cent estimate in leaders and managers in the US who are ineffective, incompetent, or toxic, with increasing turnover and failure rates in chief executive officers as high as 75 per cent and up to 40 per cent of Fortune 500 executives engaging in misconduct. But the problem is also found in other countries— Veld sm a n's (2012 ) research has found a 30 per cent toxic leadership rate internationally in a survey of the literature showing that the most common causes are hubris, ego, and a lack of emotional intelligence. A number of authors have identified the ways in which organisations are toxic and the role of leadership in producing toxicity: the use of punitive and bullying management practices, lack of compassion and empathy, 'creeping' bureaucracy, overemphasis on the 'bottom line', performance assessment oriented towards individual rather than team performance, and little evidence of concern for and contributions to the community (e.g. Lipman-Blumen 2005; Padilla, Hogan and Kaiser 2007 ).


Penyamun is a central fi gure of rumors of public construction sacrifi cerumors and head-hunting rumors that have been recorded in Southeastern Asia since the beginning of the 20th century (Haddon 1901; Drake 1989; Erb 1991; Barnes 1993; Forth 1991; Hoskins 2002). The aim of the present article is to analyze the present-day form of such rumors on the island of Sumba in eastern Indonesia. All rumors discussed herein focus on the fi gure of penyamun, a foreigner yearning for body parts or blood of the inhabitants of Sumba. In the Loli region of western Sumba these rumors were in the past directed especially at the Dutch colonizers and missionaries, but they have continually absorb new features and at present are directed especially at tourists, immigrants and representatives of the state. All variants of rumors about penyamun have one common feature: the principal negative protagonist is foreigner, often non-Sumbanese. Therefore, we can interpret these rumors also as a way of defi ning oneself in opposition to foreign infl uences and strengthening the cohesion of the group disseminating the rumor.


This paper presents a general methodology based on the matrix pencil method (MPM) for the fitting of frequency-domain responses in order to be properly represented in time-domain analysis. By virtue of the proposed method, a rational fitting of the frequency-domain responses can be inferred, which, in turn, helps with their inclusion into time-domain calculations. The proposed technique is well suited for the estimation of any type of function including the case of those with superimposed noise. The main feature of the method is its direct solution, hence avoiding any iteration in the estimation process. Moreover, the method does not require starting poles as opposed to the vector-fitting (VF) method. This paper presents the validation of the proposed approach by fitting the frequency responses of general a priori known functions, artificially created noisy functions and those of power components, namely: the elements of a power transformer admittance matrix and the characteristic admittance and propagation functions of a single-core sheathed cable. Finally, a time-domain analysis referring to lightning transients on a transmission line is presented.


This thesis is a research conducted to find out if the specific absorption rate (SAR), imposed on the human head from cellular phones, can be reduced without having an significant impact on the overall performance and reception of the phone. The SAR values are influenced by various different variables like, type and size of the antenna, position of the antenna relative to human head, radiated power from the antenna, distance and angle from human head and finally the material covering the phone. The methodologies that will be used are to investigate three different approaches to SAR reduction. First approach is to investigate if the size and type of the material shielding the human head have significant impact on the SAR radiation, second approach is to investigate if the angle of the phone in relation to human head have significant impact and as the third approach is to investigate if it is possible to change the composition of the material which would ultimately lead to SAR reduction. Electric properties of the material are described by two variables conductivity and permittivity, and in the third part of the thesis I will change these two variables and then investigate how the SAR values change. Result will be presented as a 3D graph and it will directly present how SAR values relate to the material used as a phone casing. The distance and antenna variations will not be investigated. The distance values will be fixed to 2.5 cm from the human head and the antenna length will be quarter of the 900 MHz wave length. The investigations will be performed in a simulation program called FEMLAB and the results will be showed in text and figures.


Synthesis routes to nanostructured titanium dioxides (spherical nanoparticles, nano- tubes, mesostructure) have been studied. Their potential applications in various fields based on coating technology have been explored, i.e., dye-sensitized solar cells (using ruthenium sensitizer and some results of natural dyes), photocatalysts for self-cleaning films (TiO 2 on textiles), antibacterial coating for multifunctional textiles (TiO 2 -SiO 2 on cotton), and recent result on antifouling coating on wood. The synthesis/preparation procedures were developed to obtain green protocols based on combined techniques of hydro- or solvo-thermal (templated, seeded, deposition), sol–gel (templated, room temperature, dip coating), and solvent-casting techniques. Discussion on the properties and synthesis mechanism is presented. It will be shown that sonication has important role to shorten the preparation of nanotube titania and has been proposed as one green synthe- sis route. The changing of morphology of titanium dioxide has presented unexpected results to the shifting of photoactivity into visible irradiation.


The Hardwood Industry in United States has been challenged by low-cost competition from overseas. Although cost reduction strategies have had minimal success, the proximity of industry to the domestic market has large implications on a more customer-focused strategy. The problem arises that individual companies and supply chains evolved based on the principles of economies of size and not on the flexibility to adapt to customer needs and changing resource constraints. An increased rate at which material and information flows through the hardwood supply chains is the key to the industries' ability to be customer-focused. Information systems may offer benefits for the industry, but changes in material flow of a company or supply chain cannot necessarily be predicted when implementing information systems. It was hypothesized that by understanding the dynamics between information flow and material flow throughout the supply chain, performance improvement would be possible through more effective release and use of information. A case study analysis of a hardwood supply chain was utilized to identify the effect of increased information flow on the material flow of the supply chain. Value Stream Mapping was utilized to benchmark the current state of lead times of information flow and material flow. System Dynamics was utilized to understand the relationships between the information flow and the material flow. Finally, simulations were performed to identify the specific effects on material flow as increased information flow is released through different information strategies. The study showed that increased information flow between supply chain members increased material flow through the supply chain. For a case study supply chain, an increase in information flow, through advanced knowledge of customer demand by a supplier, was found to reduce the inventory buffers throughout the supply chain by up to 38 percent and increase the total material flow through the supply chain by 10 percent. In addition to the increased information flow caused by the advanced knowledge of demand (18 percent), information flow