In this paper, we propose and investigate a ring-based wavelength-division-multiplexing passive optical network (WDM-PON) providing both Rayleigh backscattering (RB) noise mitigation and fiber-fault protection. The proposed ring-based WDM-PON has a dual-ring architecture to protect and restore any fiber fault. Besides, the ring architecture also can mitigate the RB beat noise, since the RB and the upstream wavelengths are propagating in opposite directions. Here, we discuss and analyze the characteristics of the downstream signals using 10 Gb/s ON-OFF keying (OOK), 10 Gb/s differential phase-shift keying, and 10 Gb/s orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) modulations, respectively. Moreover, we also investigate the upstream traffic using the 2.5 Gb/s OOK and 10 Gb/s OFDM generated by the directly modulated reflective semiconductor optical amplifier-based optical network unit, respectively.


The Consortium for Continental Reflection Profiling (COCORP) announces the availability of data packages and tapes for the Minnesota and Arkansas areas for the cost of reproduction and shipping. These data were produced by COCORP whose operation is part of the U.S. Geodynamics Project sponsored by the National Academy of Sciences and funded by the National Science Foundation. The executive group of the consortium consists of members from Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Princeton University, Rice University and the University of Wisconsin. Cornell University is the operating institution.


This paper addresses several key issues in extraction and mining of an academic social network: 1) extraction of a researcher social network from the existing Web; 2) integration of the publications from existing digital libraries; 3) expertise search on a given topic; and 4) association search between researchers. We developed a social network system, called ArnetMiner, based on proposed methods to the above problems. In total, 448,470 researcher profiles and 981,599 publications were extracted/integrated after the system having been in operation for two years. The paper describes the architecture and main features of the system. It also briefly presents the experimental results of the proposed methods.


The Economic Impact of Digital Technologies offers a profoundly illuminating examination of ICT transformations in Europe and its critical role in greater social inequality. It presents scholars and policy makers with original and practical tools to benchmark and assess the ICT diffusion and inclusion process. The core message of the book is that a coherent European strategy for embedding ICT technologies in society is long overdue.


Abstract Mental health inpatients' self-reported violence risk predicts actual aggressive outcomes. Anger, for which there are well-evidenced interventions, commonly precedes inpatient aggression. We aimed to determine whether patients' self-reported anger added incremental validity to violence prediction beyond routinely completed violence risk assessments. A correlational, pseudo-prospective study design was employed. N = 76 inpatients in secure hospitals completed self-report validated anger measures; routinely collected clinicians' ratings on structured professional judgment tools, and aggressive incident data for a 3-month follow-up period were extracted from clinical records. Thirty four (45%) participants were violent; self-reported anger and clinician-risk ratings were significantly positively correlated. Self-reported anger predicted aggressive outcomes but not incrementally beyond relevant risk assessment subscale and item scores. It may not be beneficial for all patients to self-report anger as part of continuous violence risk assessments, but those who score highly on anger-relevant items of risk assessment tools could be considered for further assessment to support risk-management interventions.


Photograph of a heavily-damaged two-story brick and concrete building. Inscription on the back of the photo, "You can see how close this is to the bay - just across a paved street - and see how bare it is all around. This was full of buildings, notice the thick brick walls covered with a concrete layer. This is just across the street south of the Nueces Hotel."


ABSTRACT In order to detect temporal and spatial variations in detrital supply in the upper part of the last depositional sequence of late Pleistocene-Holocene age, we conducted a combined petrographic and stratigraphic study in the Romagna coastal plain, south of the Po delta, Northern Italy. We analyzed heavy minerals and the bulk composition of sands from cores and surface samples. By using petrographic and stratigraphic data on composition of modern beach and major river deposits, new aspects of detrital dispersal mechanisms and the depositional history of the study area are documented. The heavy-mineral distribution, coupled with the dolostone and volcanic rock fragment contents of bulk sands, allow identification of three different petrofacies: Petrofacies A, Petrofacies B, and Petrofacies C, which have been interpreted as of apenninic, mixed Eastern Alps/Po River basin, and Po River catchment basin provenance, respectively. Distribution of the three petrofacies changed through time in response to landward and seaward shifting of the coastline. During the late Pleistocene lowstand, a pure Apenninic provenance characterized the Romagna coastal plain (Petrofacies A). During the Holocene transgression, when the shoreline migrated tens of kilometers west of its present position, eastern Alpine sediment sources fed littoral facies (Petrofacies B), probably as a result of southward transport by littoral drift. This sediment supply continued during the early regressive phases and was cut off by a change in coastal morphology related to the development of the early Po delta. This led to the establishment of a sediment supply entirely related to the Po River catchment basin (Petrofacies C). Changes in the compositional signature of sand in the youngest beach ridges mark the abandonment of the early Po delta due to an avulsion event and testify to the establishment of a coastal system fed by rivers draining the Apennines (Petrofacies A). We emphasize sand petrography as an important tool in studying the internal architecture of sandy clastic depositional units on detailed spatial scales, and its use in deciphering the depositional history of complex sedimentary successions. FIG. 1. Location of the study area. End_Page 829------------------------


In response to calls for reform an innovative course which has at its core element a dynamical statistical software package, Fathom, was developed as an alternative approach to traditional introductory statistics in college. This study was designed to examine the course's effects on students' understanding of graphical representations of data. Because particular attention was paid to the processes students used when they were actually solving statistics problems with the help of Fathom, the study conveys more than general notions concerning whether or not technology might aid in the learning of statistics; the findings reveal some of the ways in which students used technology to perform specific tasks when solving problems and how technology helped their thinking. In particular, the study suggests that students using technology are more likely to engage in interpretation and translation of graphically presented information, while, in the absence of technology students only engage in interpretation. Additionally, while when approaching problems with paper-and-pencil, students rarely engage in extrapolation – the most cognitively demanding aspect of graphical comprehension – introduction of technology encourages students to make conjectures about observed trends in the data, and actively search for evidence to support their claims.


Uniform stability of a learning algorithm is a classical notion of algorithmic stability introduced to derive high-probability bounds on the generalization error (Bousquet and Elisseeff, 2002). Specifically, for a loss function with range bounded in $[0,1]$, the generalization error of $\gamma$-uniformly stable learning algorithm on $n$ samples is known to be at most $O((\gamma +1/n) \sqrt{n \log(1/\delta)})$ with probability at least $1-\delta$. Unfortunately, this bound does not lead to meaningful generalization bounds in many common settings where $\gamma \geq 1/\sqrt{n}$. At the same time the bound is known to be tight only when $\gamma = O(1/n)$. Here we prove substantially stronger generalization bounds for uniformly stable algorithms without any additional assumptions. First, we show that the generalization error in this setting is at most $O(\sqrt{(\gamma + 1/n) \log(1/\delta)})$ with probability at least $1-\delta$. In addition, we prove a tight bound of $O(\gamma^2 + 1/n)$ on the second moment of the generalization error. The best previous bound on the second moment of the generalization error is $O(\gamma + 1/n)$. Our proofs are based on new analysis techniques and our results imply substantially stronger generalization guarantees for several well-studied algorithms.


Undergraduate students are required to absorb knowledge about programming in a relatively short time frame before being required to apply that knowledge in different programming contexts. At the University of Karlstad, the usual progression is from imperative to object oriented languages. Less time is spent on introducing functional languages. This paper is a report on work in progress on taking ideas from the functional paradigm and applying them at an early stage to imperative language programming in an effort to improve the students' understanding of programming paradigms and facilitate an easier transition to functional programming languages.Experience indicates that a high percentage of students find this transition difficult and that one of the main difficulties is a conceptual one - escaping from the "imperative mindset". In this project, a programming style is developed using functional ideas; minimising the number of local and non-local variables, passing functions as objects, using functions in data structures, and the students are asked to program in this style throughout one course using an imperative language. The students then go on to a further course where a functional language is introduced. After this course the students are interviewed to determine whether the ideas and programming style from the first course have helped to form a clearer conceptual model of both the imperative and functional paradigms.


Many of the issues of importance to forest man- agement and policy have important social components. Yet, in the South, social research on forests has lagged behind economic and biophysical research. In this paper we identify some impor- tant new opportunities for social research on forests in the South, focusing on non industrial private forests because they represent the majority of the South's timberland. We identify six important areas for social research. One, research on diversity of forest land owners and how different landowners relate to and use their for- ests. Two, social relationships of forest landowners, including household and family structure and social network analysis. Three, research that applies recent advances in common pool re- source management to issues such as forest health and water qual- ity. Four, qualitative research that seeks to understand how envi- ronmental values are constructed and operate in complex decision-making processes and social relationships. Five, work on forest-related rural development, particularly the in poor, non- urbanizing areas of the South that have been affected by global- ization and declines in agriculture. Six, research on urbanization and forests.


Psoriasis is a common, chronic, immune mediated disorder.The disease is arising as a result of dysregulated interactions of the innate and adaptive immune system in the context of skin epithelium and connective tissue. The biological drug Etanercept(ETN) approved for use in treated psoriasis. ETN is tumor necrosis factor- α (TNF-α) inhibitor. In this study, 48 psoriatic patients were taken before and after treatment who attended to the Dermatology and Venereology Department in Baghdad Teaching Hospital during the period from December 2016 to September 2017and 50 samples were used as healthy control group. The results showed that most psoriatic patients 52.08 % were within the second and third decades 20-35 year, and the majority of psoriatic patients were males 62.5% and the ratio of male to female is 1.67:1. Moreover, the results demonstrated that the males were more expected psoriasis compare with females. Blood samples were collected and TNF- α was estimated in sera of all subjects by using Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA). The TNF- α mean levels in psoriatic patients before treatment was 189.5±26.0 ng/ml, and after treatment was 223.6±41.1 ng/ml compar with the healthy control group 93.5±2.4 ng/ml. The results showed significant differences between the studied groups.


BACKGROUND
Low serum retinol can be useful as an indicator of depleted liver vitamin A stores, particularly in population-based studies. However, serum retinol concentrations decrease transiently during infection, independent of any changes in liver stores. The magnitude of the decrease in serum retinol is often proportional to indicators of disease severity.

OBJECTIVE
We examined the relation of serum retinol in children with culture-positive shigellosis with severity of illness, anthropometric indicators of nutritional status, urinary retinol excretion, and serum concentrations of C-reactive protein, alpha1-acid glycoprotein, retinol binding protein, and transthyretin.

DESIGN
This was a prospective study assessing the clinical and laboratory measurements at admission and recovery of 90 children with dysentery (66 with shigellosis) hospitalized in Bangladesh.

RESULTS
Serum retinol concentrations were low at admission but were significantly greater at discharge even though no vitamin A supplements were given during the illness (0.36 +/- 0.22 compared with 1.15 +/- 0.50 micromol/L, P < 0.001). Serum retinol concentrations were lower in children with Shigella dysenteriae type 1 infection than in children with shigellosis due to less virulent strains of Shigella. Low serum retinol was independently associated with S. dysenteriae type 1, high serum C-reactive protein concentrations, and low weight-forage in multiple regression analysis.

CONCLUSIONS
This study showed that shigellosis was associated with a significant, transient decrease in serum retinol concentrations of approximately 0.8 micromol/L, and that this change was significantly associated with severity of disease and poor underlying nutritional status, particularly low weight-for-age.


The initiation of Cross-Line of Control (LoC) trade across Jammu and Kashmir in October 2008 signaled the beginning of a new era. It was 61 years ago in 1947 that trade across line of control had stopped. The initiative has received support from business community since its start despite numerous impediments including barter exchange of goods, lack of communication, no banking channels, deficient legal contract enforcement, limit on tradable goods, structural difficulties in free movement and other barriers. This study examines how business entities and individuals in Jammu and Kashmir view trade transactions with the other side and perceptions about the economic viability of Cross-LoC trade. More specifically the paper presents primary data obtained from various stakeholders mainly the businessmen who trade on Uri-Muzaffarabad and Poonch-Rawalakote routes (The two transitory points from where the present Cross-Loc trade takes place). The study reveals that trade has increased significantly and trade in agriculture commodities has shown a robust growth, while handicrafts sector that constitutes backbone of the region's economy has not performed up to expectations.


Otolith chemistry of juvenile Pacific bluefin tuna Thunnus orientalis was measured to assess differences in composition among 3 nursery areas in the North Pacific Ocean: East China Sea, Sea of Japan and the Pacific Ocean off Shikoku. Six elements (Li, Mg, Ca, Mn, Sr and Ba) were mea- sured in whole otoliths using solution-based inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Univari- ate contrasts of T. orientalis otoliths collected in 1994 and 1995 indicated that concentrations of 5 ele- ments (Li, Mg, Ca, Mn, Sr) differed among nurseries. Concentrations of Ca and Sr were significantly higher in the Pacific Ocean than in either marginal sea (East China Sea or Sea of Japan) nursery, while concentrations of Li, Mg and Mn were higher in fishes inhabiting marginal seas. Discriminant analysis showed clear separation of elemental fingerprints between Pacific Ocean and marginal sea nurseries, and to a lesser degree separation between the 2 marginal sea groups. Temporal stability of the elemental fingerprint was examined over a 3 yr period (1995 to 1997) in the East China Sea. Significant interannual trends were observed for 3 elements (Mg, Mn and Ba); however, elemental fingerprints of T. orientalis from the Pacific Ocean nursery were markedly different from all year- classes in the East China Sea.


This paper is a brief report on how external conditions, the type of weapon and ammunition that are used, and the aiming method affect the results of firing. It is shown that the sighting accuracy sharply increases when a telescopic sight is used, but it is necessary to have information on the range to determine the sighting angle and the lead angle. A brief review is given of telescopic sights supplied with information on the range, beginning with the use of a nonfixed-base rangefinder and ending with a laser rangefinder. © 2005 Optical Society of America


During the latter stages of the nineteenth century and well into the twentieth, the trajectory of organized sports followed significantly different paths in North America and Great Britain. Nowhere was this more evident than in the field of professional coaching where the American model of full-time coaches in universities and athletics clubs contrasted with the ever-increasing preference for amateur coaches in many British sports. While the American model was adopted enthusiastically in many European countries, there was considerable resistance to this approach in Britain. This paper utilizes contemporary media commentary to contrast the characteristics of coaching practice and philosophy that typified American and British approaches during the Victorian period and explores some of the arguments offered in Britain against the adoption of specialized American coaching methods.


The world of logistics is constantly evolving and in the same way, the sixth edition of this established book has evolved to represent the current trends, best practice and latest thinking in global logistics. It serves as a forum allowing the contributors, a range of acknowledged sector specialists, to discuss key logistics issues and share their authoritative views. To keep its contemporary focus new chapters have been added covering subjects including: agile supply chains, creating shareholder value, IT, performance measurement, internet trading and humanitarian supply chains. The remaining chapters have all been updated.


The link between walking speed, rectus femoris (RF) muscle quality [echo intensity (EI)], and maximal and rapid strength in older adults is not well understood. PURPOSE: To examine the relationships between walking speed, RF EI, and maximal and rapid isometric torque characteristics of the leg extensors in elderly females. METHODS: Twenty elderly females (age = 67 ± 4 years; height = 159 ± 6 cm; mass = 68 ± 7 kg) underwent one diagnostic ultrasound assessment followed by three isometric maximal voluntary contractions (MVC) of the leg extensors and a 6-min walk test. RF EI was measured on the right leg using a portable B-mode ultrasound imaging device and linear-array probe. Walking speed was determined as the average speed during the 6-min walk test. For each MVC, participants sat in an upright position and were instructed to push "as hard and fast as possible" against a load cell for 3-4 s. Isometric MVC peak torque (PT) was determined as the highest mean 500 ms epoch during the entire 3-4 s MVC plateau. Peak rate of torque development (RTD) was calculated during each MVC as the highest slope value for any 50 ms epoch that occurred over the initial 200 ms of the torque-time curve. Pearson correlation coefficients (r) were used to examine the relationships between walking speed, EI, PT, and RTD. A partial correlation was used to examine the relationship between walking speed and RTD when controlling for EI. RESULTS: Mean ± SD values were 1.55 ± 0.23 m/s for walking speed, 144.16 ± 19.48 AU for EI, 107.62 ± 23.79 Nm for PT, and 872.35 ± 365.16 Nm/s for RTD. There were significant relationships between walking speed and RTD (r = 0.451; P = 0.046) and EI (r = -0.497; P = 0.026). There was a significant negative relationship between EI and RTD (r = -0.469; P = 0.037). No significant relationships were observed between PT and walking speed (r = 0.394; P = 0.085) or EI (r = -0.413; P = 0.071). With EI as a control variable, there was no significant relationship between walking speed and RTD (r = 0.285; P = 0.238). CONCLUSION: We found a significant positive relationship between walking speed and RTD of the leg extensors in elderly females. Although the reason for this is uncertain, partial correlation analysis suggested that this relationship may be explained by the variance shared (collinearity) between walking speed and RF EI. From a functional standpoint, an age-related decrease in RTD due to its apparent collinearity with RF EI, may significantly impact the quality of life among older adults by impairing their ability to perform important timedependent movement tasks (i.e., walking fast to catch the bus or train, quickly crossing the street to avoid oncoming traffic, etc.). Consequently, given the influence of EI on RTD, it is possible that training programs used to improve muscle quality may also be used to help improve rapid strength, which could be beneficial for increasing walking speed as well as a multitude of other functional performance abilities in the elderly.


This paper reviews debates, approaches, and discourses on gender, technology and development. The aim is to contribute towards the understanding of the nature, concerns and contributions of ongoing research in the gender, information communication and technology for development field. It outlines the major themes and methodological approaches to the field by reviewing and calling for changes in the theoretical and empirical directions of this area of study. It concludes with analysis of major themes emanating from the field.


© Stichting Focaal and Berghahn Books. New counterterrorism systems are spreading throughout the world. Many are based on behavior detection by skilled officers; others deploy techno-scientific theories and soft ware-mediated environments. All of these systems raise critical questions about scientific and legal evidence; profiling, costs, and effectiveness. However, much of the recent scholarship on this topic is based on secondhand information and fails to attend to key transformations in security discourses and in practice. Rather than offering just an overview and theoretical critique, this article draws from our ethnographic data on counterterrorism in the UK (with reference to the broader global securityscape) and examines the phantasmagoria of fears and threats, the experimentations, myriad "expert" theories, and productivity in this realm. In doing so, the article examines how, beyond utilitarian notions of efficiency and security, counterterrorism practices perform multiple cultural roles for those charged with its delivery. We discuss particular examples of counterterrorism deployments and explore the production of theories about the human in security discourses and practices.


Fire scars in giant sequoia [Sequoiadendron giganteum (Lindley) Buchholz] were used to reconstruct the spatial and temporal pattern of surface fires that burned episodically through five groves during the past 2000 years. Comparisons with independent dendroclimatic reconstructions indicate that regionally synchronous fire occurrence was inversely related to yearly fluctuations in precipitation and directly related to decadal-to-centennial variations in temperature. Frequent small fires occurred during a warm period from about A.D. 1000 to 1300, and less frequent but more widespread fires occurred during cooler periods from about A.D. 500 to 1000 and after A.D. 1300. Regionally synchronous fire histories demonstrate the importance of climate in maintaining nonequilibrium conditions.


With the recognition of cyberspace as a warfighting domain by the U.S. Department of Defense, we anticipate increased use of malicious software as weapons during hostilities between nation-states. Such conflict could occur solely on computer networks, but increasingly will be used in conjunction with traditional kinetic attack, or even to eliminate the need for kinetic attack. In either context, precise targeting and effective limiting of collateral damage from cyber weaponry are desired goals of any nation seeking to comply with the law of war. Since at least the Morris Worm, malicious software found in the wild has frequently contained mechanisms to target effectively, limit propagation, allow self-destruction, and minimize consumption of host resources to prevent detection and damage. This paper surveys major variants of malicious software from 1982 to present and synthesizes the control measures they contain that might limit collateral damage in future cyber weapons. As part of this work, we provide a framework for critical analysis of such measures. Our results indicate that a compelling framework for critical analysis emerges by studying these measures allowing classification of new forms of malware and providing insight into future novel technical mechanisms for limiting collateral damage.


Comprehensive knowledge of the air pollutants effects on the human health generally is a crucial requirement in developing effective policies for reducing such adverse effects related to ambient air pollution. Such knowledge would be essential in helping various affected countries, including the less developed countries (LDCs), to develop effective regulatory frameworks for assessing and managing air quality in the workplaces. Developed and developing countries therefore need to develop effective techniques or strategies focused towards improving the workplace monitoring competence in diverse industrial environments. Such initiatives are essential in reducing or eliminating the industrial pollutants within the workplaces while also helping in developing effective working environment standards to preserve the workers' health. This research will therefore investigate the relationship between the quality of air in the working environment and the occupational health. The study particularly attempt to determine whether individuals working in the metal industries are at higher risks of air-related health effects as compared to those in other industries. A qualitative and quantitative method will apply, using both the primary and secondary data. A survey will be the major primary data collection tool while various cases will provide the secondary data (Reijula, 2008, p.8) A questionnaire (Appendix A) was distributed in Jubai Industrial City, Saudi Arabia and completed by 178 study participants from three diverse industries: metal, petrochemical and building material. Chapter IV includes the analyzed data from the three groups of workers stratifying those gathered data for two vital aspects that might impact on the result by being confounders which are smoking habits and age. A retrospective person time cohort study took place for assessing the relative risk of air pollution exposure to the workers' occupational health problems such as respiratory disease, occupational asthma, and scar tissue. Relating Air Quality in the Work Environment to Occupational Health Disease 6


Fire development is generally characterized in terms of evolution of heat release with time, and its determination thus represents an essential aspect of a fire hazard analysis. Since it is not a fundamental property of a fuel, heat release cannot be calculated from the basic material properties, and one generally resorts to experiments to determine it. In this article, we present a theoretical formulation that allows the determination of the burning rate of fuels for pool fires in a closed compartment. It is based on an energy balance at the pool fire surface and includes radiative and convective heat components from the flame to the pool surface by relating them to the ambient oxygen mass fraction at the flame base. Fuel response to vitiated air as well as burning enhancement due to hot gases and confinement are taken into account. The formulation was first compared with the empirical correlation determined by Peatross and Beyler before being implemented in a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code and validated against two experiments involving a hydrogenated tetra-propylene pool fire test enclosed in a confined and mechanically ventilated compartment. These experiments were conducted in conditions for which external heat fluxes were either negligible or significant. It is shown that this approach is able to correctly predict the fuel mass loss rate and provides a reasonable assessment of the heat flux from the flame to the pool surface.


Importance
Differences in cardiovascular autonomic activity between individuals with psychiatric disorders and healthy controls have been observed, but whether cardiovascular autonomic abnormalities are associated with subsequent psychiatric disorders is unknown.

Objective
To investigate whether differences in cardiac autonomic function as indexed by resting heart rate and blood pressure are associated with psychiatric disorders during the lifetime of men in Sweden.

Design, Setting, and Participants
We conducted a longitudinal register-based study of Swedish men whose resting heart rate (n = 1 039 443) and blood pressure (n = 1 555 979) were measured at military conscription at a mean (SD) age of 18.3 (0.6) years during the period from 1969 to 2010, with register-based follow-up data available until the end of 2013. Analyses were performed from November 18, 2015, to June 9, 2016.

Main Outcomes and Measures
Dates of inpatient/outpatient diagnoses of anxiety disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder, depressive disorders, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and substance use disorders and convictions for violent crimes, between 1973 and 2013, were obtained from nationwide registers. Adjustments were made for height, weight, body mass index, cardiorespiratory fitness, cognitive ability, and socioeconomic covariates.

Results
After adjustment for covariates, Cox regression models with up to 45 years of follow-up data showed that men (mean [SD] age of 18.3 [0.6] years at conscription) with resting heart rates above 82 beats per minute had a 69% (95% CI, 46%-94%) increased risk for obsessive-compulsive disorder, a 21% (95% CI, 11%-33%) increased risk for schizophrenia, and an 18% (95% CI, 13%-22%) increased risk for anxiety disorders compared with men with resting heart rates below 62 beats per minute. Similar associations were observed with systolic/diastolic blood pressure. In contrast, lower resting heart rate and lower systolic blood pressure were associated with substance use disorders and violent criminality.

Conclusions and Relevance
Our results suggest that for men, differences in heart rate and blood pressure in late adolescence are associated with lifetime major psychiatric disorders, with higher levels associated with obsessive-compulsive disorder, schizophrenia, and anxiety disorders and lower levels associated with substance use disorders and violent behavior. Differences in autonomic nervous system functioning may predate or represent an early marker of psychiatric disorders.


Wikis have recently been adopted to support a variety of collaborative activities within libraries. This article and its companion wiki, LibraryWikis (http://librarywikis.pbwiki.com/), seek to document the phenomenon of wikis in libraries. This subject is considered within the framework of computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW). The author identified thirty-three library wikis and developed a classification schema with four categories: (1) collaboration among libraries (45.7 percent); (2) collaboration among library staff (31.4 percent); (3) collaboration among library staff and patrons (14.3 percent); and (4) collaboration among patrons (8.6 percent). Examples of library wikis are presented within the article, as is a discussion for why wikis are primarily utilized within categories I and II and not within categories III and IV. It is clear that wikis have great utility within libraries, and the author urges further application of wikis in libraries.


It has been shown that evolutionary and developmental processes can be used for emergence of scalability, robustness and fault-tolerance in hardware. However, designing a suitable representation for such processes is far from straightforward. Here, a bio-inspired developmental genotype-phenotype mapping for evolution of spiking neural microcircuits in an FPGA is introduced, based on a digital neuron model and cortex structure suggested and verified previously by the authors. The new developmental process is based on complex multi-cellular protein-protein and gene-protein interactions and signaling. Suitability of the representation for evolution of useful architectures and its adaptability is shown through statistical analysis and examples of scalability, modularity and fault-tolerance.


Spikelet number per panicle is a major tar- get trait for improving rice (Oryza sativa L.) yield in upland fi elds and is strongly affected by water stress. The rice panicle consists of rachis branches and spikelets, in which pre- fl owering spikelet abortion often occurs. We investigated the effect of timing and intensity of water stress at the early reproductive stage on the morphology of rice panicles in fi eld and pot experiments. In the fi eld experiment, water stress caused high rates of prefl owering spikelet abortion, and spikelet number was reduced by 48% on average. Pot experiments revealed the effects of water stress on panicle morphology were dependent on the developmental stage, and water stress at the meiosis stage (10-20 d before heading) induced the highest frequency of prefl owering spikelet abortion. At the meiosis stage, a mild water stress (no visible effect and less than 20% reduction in biomass production) was suffi cient to cause a considerable increase in secondary rachis branch abortion (70%) and resulted in a 40 to 45% reduction in spikelet number per panicle. Reduction in plant water status under drought conditions was related to prefl owering spikelet abortion, suggesting that the drought avoidance mechanism is effective for maintaining spikelet number in upland rice.


This study seeks to investigate the attitudes, beliefs and experiences of second language (L2) international students regarding tutor written feedback and its impact upon their learning in a UK university. The present study uses qualitative interpretive research paradigm that synthesizes the academic literacies (AL) approach and critical discourse analysis (CDA) to investigate students' perceptions of feedback on their assessed work. The AL approach positions the students' feedback experiences as socially situated phenomena enmeshed within the wider socio-cultural context of academia. The data for this study came from two main sources: (1) semi-structured in-depth interviews with 26 students of varying nationalities and departments (2) teachers' feedback sheets. To collect appropriate qualitative data, the participants read aloud their tutor feedback comments, which were transcribed verbatim and analysed using CDA techniques. The data were divided into various themes such as functions of feedback, helpful and unhelpful feedback, feedback and its impact on self-esteem, motivation, confidence and the power-differentials of the student-teacher relationship. The findings of the study have shown that assessment feedback is a unique form of communication which takes place within the wider socio-cultural context of a UK university. The study highlights that the process of giving and receiving feedback involves a complex interplay of self-esteem, identity, motivation, emotion and the power relations. The study also highlights that the participants have had little or no experience of receiving such feedback in their countries of origin. Therefore, the move from one academic context to a UK university turned out to be challenging for L2 international students. The study sheds light on the question of how different linguistic, educational and cultural backgrounds of L2 international student presented them challenges while coming to terms with new assessment expectations, writing requirements and academic culture of a UK university. The CDA of tutor comments on students' assignments revealed that the amount of feedback varied from tutor to tutor. Moreover, the tone of comments indicated a lack of balance between praise, criticism and suggestions. By looking at the student perspective, the study has offered deep insights into the reasons why international students show dissatisfaction with feedback, what problems they encounter while making meaning of the feedback discourse situated in new educational and socio-cultural environment. In brief, to better understand assessment feedback as a socially situated practice, this research has addressed the questions of how the interplay of issues such as discourse, identity, power, control and social relationships mediated students' perceptions of feedback.


Aim: To present results from a nested association study of the complement factor H (CFH) gene region using a novel methodology that uses a high-resolution genetic linkage disequilibrium map to estimate a point location for a causal mutation. Method: Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) case–control data from a genomewide single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) panel were used to identify the target interval to be genotyped at higher density in a second independent panel. The pattern of linkage disequilibrium (LD) and segmental duplications across this region are described in detail. Result: Data were consistent with other studies in that strong association between the Y402H variant and AMD is observed. However, composite likelihood analysis, which combines association data from all SNPs in the region, and uses genetic locations on a high-resolution LD map, gave a point location for a causal variant between exons 1 and 2 of the CFH gene. Conclusion: The findings are consistent with evidence that, in addition to the widely described Y402H variant, there is at least one and, most probably, several other mutations in the CFH gene which determine disease manifestation in AMD. A genetic model in which multiple mutations contribute to a varying degree to disease aetiology has been previously well described in ophthalmic genetics, and is typified by the COL2A1 and ABCA4 genes.


The purpose of this study was to characterize the ways in which psychologists address research hypothesis risk in academic articles, and to support undergraduates in learning to write about such risk using argument diagramming prewriting activities. First, 90 articles recently published in top social, developmental, and cognitive psychology journals were examined for their presentation of research hypothesis 'risk' – an element of the intellectual merit of a research study denoting the novelty and importance of the study being conducted. Second, an experimental study was conducted involving 82 students in undergraduate research methods classes. They were assigned to either argument diagram or traditional instruction conditions. Research reports were coded for explicit discussion of risk. Students using argument diagramming were significantly more likely to write about risk when compared to matched classes given no diagramming support.


Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) in public places has become a widely accepted method of surveillance for the purpose of public safety and crime management (Moran, 1998). Over recent years, increased public concern, media attention and political pressure over high levels of disruptive behaviour and violence in schools have prompted educators to search for new and more effective methods of combating the problem (Christie, Petrie and Christie, 1998). One of the methods explored has been the introduction of CCTV into the educational environment. The practice has since become increasingly widespread in many countries, including The United States of America and The United Kingdom (The United States Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, 2002: Association of Teachers and Lecturers, 2008). This increase is reflected in Australia where the number of schools implementing CCTV surveillance has continued to rise (Australian Education Union, 2003).
It would appear that this trend is set to continue as an increasing number of Australian schools implement CCTV. This raises questions regarding the purpose of the increase and the effectiveness of CCTV for the purpose. As there is currently no research available to address those questions, the purpose of this project was to identify the perceptions of key stakeholders in education on the use of CCTV in schools. To determine the perceptions of key stakeholders, a sample of six participants were purposefully selected to include principals, early childhood and primary teachers. The participants shared their perceptions during individual, semi-structured interviews.
It was established through this research that a perception exists that CCTV in schools has the potential to contribute to significant improvements to school safety and performance. In addition to the identification of the perceived benefits of CCTV, the research also established several serious concerns over the process of management and control of CCTV within the school environment.
As a result of the findings of the study it was recommended that there is a significant need for further consultation with key stakeholders in education prior to the discussion of future decisions regarding the implementation of CCTV surveillance in schools.


Often the finest artists do not make the best teachers. Many frustrated college students of art know this all too well as they suffer through unstructured classes with inexperienced teachers or graduate student instructors. In these situations, it is easy to blame the teachers. But the problem is largely institutional: most students graduating with MFAs from art schools receive little if any instruction in teaching art. If you find yourself in this predicament as teacher or student, this book is for you. The first book to provide a comprehensive guide for teaching college-level art, The Art of Teaching Art is the culmination of respected artist and instructor Deborah Rockman's two decades of teaching experience. Believing that drawing is the backbone of all of the visual arts, she begins with a complete explanation of drawing concepts that apply to any subject matter, e.g., composition, sighting processes, scaling techniques, and methods for linear and tonal development. She then illustrates these concepts with step-by-step methods that easily translate to classroom exercises. Next, she applies the drawing principles to every artist's most important and challenging subject, the human figure. After an extended section on understanding and teaching perspective that explores illusionistic form and space, the focus of the book shifts to the studio classroom itself and the essential elements that go into making an effective learning environment and curriculum. From preparing materials lists and syllabi, to setting up still-lifes, handling difficult classroom situations, critiquing and grading student artworks, and shooting slides of student artworks, she leaves no stone unturned. The Art of Teaching Art is the guide every new or experienced teacher of college-level art must have. Its helpful suggestions and numerous examples of student artwork from Rockman's classes will impart confidence to the inexperienced and fresh inspiration to the veteran instructors.


This is the final report of the Defra project OF0164.
Organic farming aims to create an economically and environmentally sustainable agriculture, with the emphasis placed on self-sustaining biological systems rather than external inputs. Building soil fertility is central to this ethos. 'Soil fertility' can be considered as a measure of the soil's ability to sustain satisfactory crop growth, both in the short- and longer-term. It is determined by a set of interactions between the soil's physical environment, chemical environment and biological activity. The aim of this project was, therefore, to provide a better scientific understanding of soil fertility under organic farming.
The approach was to undertake a comprehensive literature review at the start of the project to assess and synthesise available information. Studies were then designed to address specific questions identified from the literature review.
The literature review was written during the first year of the project. In addition to submitting written copies to DEFRA, the chapters were posted on a project website: www.adas.co.uk/soilfertility.
The Review was based around key questions:
• What are the soil organic matter characteristics and the roles of different fractions of the soil organic matter?
• Do organically managed soils have higher levels of organic matter (SOM), with a resultant improvement in soil properties?
• Is the soil biology different in organically managed soils, in terms of size, biodiversity and activity?
• Do organically managed soils have a greater inherent capacity to supply plant nutrients?
• What are the nutrient pools and their sizes?
• What are the processes and rates of nutrient transfer in relation to nutrient demand?
• What are the environmental consequences of organic management?
The project also included a large amount of practical work. This necessarily covered a wide range of topics, which were examined in a series of separate studies:
• Soil microbiology: a series of measurements focusing on two sites, undertaken by University of Wales Bangor (UWB)
• Field campaigns in autumn 1999 and spring/summer 2000: separate field sampling campaigns focusing especially on nutrient pools, undertaken by HDRA, ADAS and IGER
• Incubation studies: a series of three separate experiments to look in more detail at N dynamics, managed by ADAS, with support from IGER and HDRA
From the literature review and the practical work, the following was concluded:
Organic matter is linked intrinsically to soil fertility, because it is important in maintaining good soil physical conditions (e.g. soil structure, aeration and water holding capacity), which contribute to soil fertility. Organic matter also contains most of the soil reserve of N and large proportions of other nutrients such as P and sulphur.
Field management data gathered from farmers showed, however, that organic matter returns are not necessarily larger in organic systems. Many non-organically farmed soils receive regular manure applications and the generally higher yielding crops on conventional farms may return larger crop residues. Conversely, many organic fields receive little or no manure, relying on the fertility building ley phase for organic matter input. This observation is important. Management practices within organic and non-organic systems are diverse, and all have consequences for soil fertility.
The Executive Summary at the start of the main attached report has additional sections on Soil Structure, Soil Biology, and Nutrient Cycling with some greater detail on comparisons of organic and conventional management and the consequences for soil fertility.


Title of dissertation: NOVICE MIDDLE-SCHOOL MATHEMATICS TEACHERS LEARNING TO PROMOTE STUDENT SENSE MAKING THROUGH PRODUCTIVE DISCUSSION Emily Joy Yanisko, Doctor of Philosophy, 2013 Dissertation directed by: Professor Patricia F. Campbell Department of Teaching and Learning, Policy and Leadership. While mathematics education researchers have long characterized student performance marked by mathematical explanations, arguments, and justifications as evidence of mathematical reasoning and understanding (e.g. Schoenfeld, 1992), current education policy has begun to move in a similar direction, emphasizing sense making and mathematical communication as features of mathematics education (Common Core State Standards Initiative, 2010). However, designing and implementing instruction with these features is challenging (e.g. Lampert, 1990). Furthermore, classroom and instructional norms norms must be carefully developed for this discursive-heavy instruction to be equitable (e.g. Boaler & Staples, 2008). If mathematical discussions are to be a feature of the mathematics classroom, then teachers must learn to learn from their own teaching to enact practices that promote discussion (Hiebert, Morris & Glass, 2003). This study is a qualitative investigation of how three novice middle-school mathematics teachers learned to promote in-class student discussion, with a focus on the features of and strategies for instruction to which they attended, as well as their negotiation of challenges that arose during practice. Supported by a mentor, these teachers participated in a reflective teaching cycle that included a continuing teacher seminar, planning sessions, classroom observations, and reflection sessions over the course of 5 months. Through case studies, these teachers' instructional planning, practice and reflection were analyzed. Each case offers a perspective addressing how a teacher approached promoting student sense making through discussion, the challenges faced, and how those challenges were negotiated. Cross-case analysis yielded five findings. First, the teachers found that building relationships with their students encouraged student participation in discussion. Second, the teachers were able to leverage accountability in the design and implementation of their lessons. Third, school context either supported or impeded the teachers' ability to engage students in discussion. The fourth finding illuminated the ways in which the organizational practice of tracking students impacted teacher perceptions and eventual decision-making. The final finding clarified the effect of mentoring support on teacher efficacy and self-efficacy. These findings have implications for mathematics teacher education, as well as induction mentoring programs. NOVICE MIDDLE-SCHOOL MATHEMATICS TEACHERS LEARNING TO PROMOTE STUDENT SENSE MAKING THROUGH PRODUCTIVE DISCUSSION By Emily Joy Yanisko Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2013 Advisory Committee: Professor Patricia F. Campbell, Chair Professor Andrew M. Brantlinger Professor Lawrence M. Clark Professor Susan De La Paz Professor Jennifer D. Turner ©Copyright by Emily Joy Yanisko 2013


International Journal of Exercise Science 8(2): 154-163, 2015. The purpose of this investigation was to determine if there are changes in metabolic markers of bone turnover within the 24-hour period following an acute bout of jogging or water exercise. Ten healthy females (2230 yr.) underwent three trials with different ground impact forces: jogging, water aerobics and control. For the jogging and water aerobics trials, subjects exercised for 30 min at 60-70% of predicted maximal heart rate in addition to a 5 min warm up and cool down. For the control trial, subjects rested for 40 min, i.e., the total exercise time of the other trials. For each trial, blood samples were collected pre, immediately post, 1 hr. post, and 24 hr. post exercise. All samples were analyzed for levels of osteocalcin, bone specific alkaline phosphatase and cross-linked N telopeptides. A repeated-measure ANOVA was used to determine if there were differences between impact levels or over time. There were no significant differences over time, or between impact levels of exercise. Therefore these results indicate that healthy young women demonstrate no changes in bone turnover within 24 hr. of a single bout of exercise. Due to biochemical markers of bone turnover responding in a similar manner regardless of activity type, these findings suggest that water aerobics can be seen as a beneficial form of exercise for maintenance of bone density.


Migration from Africa to Europe is a hotly debated topic. But reporting has mainly focused on the European perspective, while North African states' policy approaches and civil societies' attitudes toward migrants have largely been ignored. Morocco, however, plays a key role as both a transit country and as a destination. The country's new migration policy announced in 2013 has led to some needed reforms over the past two years. Yet, raids of irregular migrant settlements in early 2015 suggest the limits of the new policy. Understanding the dynamics underlying Moroccan migration policies is, therefore, crucial to fully grasping the migration unfolding in the region and to working out sensible policy solutions.


Objectives: We aimed to predict the usage of dental services in Germany from 2000 to 2015 based on epidemiologic and demographic data, and to compare these predictions against claims within the statutory health insurance. Methods: Indicators for operative (number of coronally decayed or filled teeth, root surface caries lesions, and fillings), prosthetic (number of missing teeth), and periodontal treatment needs (number of teeth with probing pocket depths (PPDs) ≥ 4 mm) from nationally representative German Oral Health Studies (1997, 2005, 2014) were cross-sectionally interpolated across age and time, and combined with year- and age-specific population estimates. These, as well as the number of children eligible for individual preventive services (aged 6 to 17 y), were adjusted for age- and time-specific insurance status and services' utilization to yield predicted usage of operative, prosthetic, periodontal, and preventive services. Cumulative annual usage in these 4 services groups were compared against aggregations of a total of 24 claims positions from the statutory German health insurance. Results: Morbidity, utilization, and demography were highly dynamic across age groups and over time. Despite improvements of individual oral health, predicted usage of dental services did not decrease over time, but increased mainly due to usage shifts from younger (shrinking) to older (growing) age groups. Predicted usage of operative services increased between 2000 and 2015 (from 52 million to 56 million, +7.8%); predictions largely agreed with claimed services (root mean square error [RMSE] 1.9 million services, error range −4.6/+3.8%). Prosthetic services increased (from 2.4 million to 2.6 million, +11.9%), with near perfect agreement to claimed data [RMSE 0.1 million services, error range −8.3/+3.9%]). Periodontal services also increased (from 21 million to 27 million, +25.9%; RMSE 5.2 million services, error range +21.9/+36.5%), as did preventive services (from 22 million to 27 million, +20.4%; RMSE 3 million, error range −13.7/−4.7%). Conclusion: Predicting dental services seems viable when accounting for the joint dynamics of morbidity, utilization, and demographics. Knowledge Transfer Statement: Based on epidemiologic and demographic data, predicting usage of certain dental services is viable when accounting for the dynamics of morbidity, utilization, and demographics.


Consensus clustering (CC) is an unsupervised class discovery method widely used to study sample heterogeneity in high-dimensional datasets. It calculates "consensus rate" between any two samples as how frequently they are grouped together in repeated clustering runs under a certain degree of random perturbation. The pairwise consensus rates form a between-sample similarity matrix, which has been used (1) as a visual proof that clusters exist, (2) for comparing stability among clusters, and (3) for estimating the optimal number (K) of clusters. However, the sensitivity and specificity of CC have not been systemically studied. To assess its performance, we investigated the most common implementations of CC; and compared CC with other popular methods that also focus on cluster stability and estimation of K. We evaluated these methods using simulated datasets with either known structure or known absence of structure. Our results showed that (1) CC was able to divide randomly generated unimodal data into pre-specified numbers of clusters, and was able to show apparent stability of these chance partitions of known cluster-less data; (2) for data with known structure, the proportion of ambiguously clustered (PAC) pairs infers the known number of clusters more reliably than several commonly used K estimating methods; and (3) validation of the optimal K by choosing the most discriminant genes from the discovery cohort and applying them in an independent cohort often exaggerates the confidence in K due to inherent gene-gene correlations among the selected genes. While these results do not yet prove that any of the published studies using CC has generated false positive findings, they show that datasets with subtle or no structure are fully capable of producing strong evidence of consensus clustering. We therefore recommend caution is using CC in class discovery and validation.


ABSTRACT This article aims to investigate the Grand Challenges which arise in the current and emerging landscape of rapid technological evolution towards more intelligent interactive technologies, coupled with increased and widened societal needs, as well as individual and collective expectations that HCI, as a discipline, is called upon to address. A perspective oriented to humane and social values is adopted, formulating the challenges in terms of the impact of emerging intelligent interactive technologies on human life both at the individual and societal levels. Seven Grand Challenges are identified and presented in this article: Human-Technology Symbiosis; Human-Environment Interactions; Ethics, Privacy and Security; Well-being, Health and Eudaimonia; Accessibility and Universal Access; Learning and Creativity; and Social Organization and Democracy. Although not exhaustive, they summarize the views and research priorities of an international interdisciplinary group of experts, reflecting different scientific perspectives, methodological approaches and application domains. Each identified Grand Challenge is analyzed in terms of: concept and problem definition; main research issues involved and state of the art; and associated emerging requirements. BACKGROUND This article presents the results of the collective effort of a group of 32 experts involved in the community of the Human Computer Interaction International (HCII) Conference series. The group's collaboration started in early 2018 with the collection of opinions from all group members, each asked to independently list and describe five HCI grand challenges. During a one-day meeting held on the 20th July 2018 in the context of the HCI International 2018 Conference in Las Vegas, USA, the identified topics were debated and challenges were formulated in terms of the impact of emerging intelligent interactive technologies on human life both at the individual and societal levels. Further analysis and consolidation led to a set of seven Grand Challenges presented herein. This activity was organized and supported by the HCII Conference series.


Migration, both within and between countries, has increased worldwide in recent years. While migration in itself need not present a risk to health, it is often characterized by increased stress and individual vulnerability to disease and inequalities in access to care. Migrants from high tuberculosis (TB) prevalence countries may be at risk of TB before leaving their country, during travel and after resettlement. In many high-income countries, more than half of the TB cases emerging today occur in patients born in another country. In less affluent countries, shifts in TB epidemiology associated with population movements are also being reported. Foreign-born persons often face several barriers to care in a new country as a result of inadequate knowledge of, or coverage by, the health care services, differences in culture and language, lack of money, comorbidity, concern about discrimination and fear of expulsion. National authorities apply different policies to screen migrants for TB and to provide preventive or curative treatment, with varying coverage, yield and effectiveness. If screening is to be of use, it needs to fit into a broader national strategy for TB care and management. Appropriate treatment needs to be provided in a manner conducive to its full completion. This is critical both for the individual patient and for public health. We discuss the main associations between TB and migration based on data from recent publications on surveillance, policy and practice.


Spreadsheets can be implemented into Science teaching as learning tools. The issue is that whether such ICT integration (Spreadsheets) into science teaching can facilitate both the: a) Promotion of specific curriculum aims and b) development of Science Skills. Apart from that, the development of the ICT strands as the new requirements resulted from the implementation of ICT in education is a necessity. Having in mind the above three areas (Curriculum aimsScience Skills – ICT strands) this study investigates the role of spreadsheets as ICT educational tools into specific lessons of science teaching in promoting these pillars. Three specifically designed science lessons have been taught into a Cypriot primary classroom. Semi-structured interviews from 30 students were conducted as well as systematic observation fields notes and Documentary-Written work analysis were completed collecting qualitative data to answers research questions. The analysis of data revealed the following main results summarized below: • The great majority of students (26 out of 30) indicated positive attitudes towards group working with the use of ICT in science teaching. Students revealed strong willingness to work collaboratively during experimental stage with the use of spreadsheets in science teaching. • Almost all students felt that these ICT integrated science lessons help them to develop specific science skills. Students appeared to apply science skills in the experimental procedure using spreadsheets within Science teaching • Student also indicated that such activities can support both the achievement of curriculum aims and development the five strands of ICT.


Advances in digital technology are expanding the boundaries of firms. Digital platform firms, which leverage a"platform"to create value through facilitating exchanges between two or more interdependent groups, are the new disrupters in the market. They exhibit distinct features such as scale without mass, positive network effects, accumulation of tremendous data, and a convoluted value creation process with user participation. Meanwhile, they bring more opportunities to traditional businesses by closely connecting suppliers and customers and reducing transaction frictions. Such a changing business landscape calls for adaptive policies and regulations. This policy paper lays out the key policy and regulatory issues around digital businesses. Competition laws need to be revisited to address the winner-take-all tendency of digital platform businesses. Tax systems should also be updated to close the loopholes available to digital platform businesses so that they pay their fair share to society. This paper also provides the first analysis of the World Bank's Digital Business Indicators initiative, which collects information on the existence and quality of regulations in broadband connectivity, digital payment, data privacy and security, as well as logistics, in 21 pilot countries. It aims to explore the possibilities for developing the regulatory and policy indicators that governments can work with to promote the digital economy.


The theoretical basis for Fitts' law is developed and extended. Several modifications are claimed to improve the model's prediction power in general, and to extend its applicability to movement tasks common on today's interactive computer systems. Original contributions include (a) a correction to the model based on a direct analogy with Shannon's Theorem 17, (b) two methods for accommodating approach angle in the calculation of task difficulty, and (c) an extension of the model to dragging tasks and compound pointing-plus-dragging tasks.
In a re-analysis of published data from experiments by Fitts' and others, the Shannon formulation is shown to provide higher correlations than the Fitts' or Welford formulation, particularly when task conditions extend under 3 bits. It is demonstrated that the Shannon formulation cannot yield a negative rating for task difficulty, unlike the Fitts or Welford formulation.
Three experiments were conducted. In the first, the mouse, tablet-with-stylus, and trackball were tested on serial pointing and dragging tasks. Model comparisons provided moderate additional evidence of an improved fit using the Shannon formulation. Using the index of performance (in bits/s) as the criterion, the tablet-with-stylus and mouse performed similarly during the pointing tasks; but the tablet-with-stylus was slightly better than the mouse during dragging. The trackball was a poor performer for both tasks.
In the second experiment, the mouse was used in a two-dimensional point-select task with rectangular targets. Two models performed significantly better than the status quo model--one substituting for target width the smaller of the target's width or height (the "smaller-of" model), the other substituting the span of the target along an approach vector through the target's centre (the W$\sp\prime$ model).
In the third experiment, the mouse was tested in a point-drag-select task. Observations support the claim that Fitts' law can model both pointing and dragging operations, even when they occur as a point-select (button-down) action followed by a drag-select (button-up) action.


In the unlicensed spectrum, any device is free to transmit without a license. Such a spectrum has significant benefits, but serious challenges must first be overcome. Foremost is the risk of drastic performance degradation due to a lack of incentive to conserve shared resources. Previous work has identified this problem for devices that transmit for longer duration than necessary. This paper demonstrates this problem for devices that always transmit at maximum power to maximize throughput. For devices that can vary transmission power, the problem is solved if devices reduce transmission power when received interference exceeds defined thresholds. We propose a co-existence algorithm to optimize system throughput when each of two such devices can transmit up to the maximum power allowed on a given channel. We show the device performance with current unlicensed band regulations is rarely optimal, and that the proposed algorithm is better.


Abstract. Due to low compressive strength and low compressive elastic modulus in comparison with these in tension, GFRP reinforcement is often used for bending elements and is rarely used for compressive structures. In this paper, the authors used finite element (FE) method based on Abaqus software to evaluate the axial load-carrying capacity of GFRP reinforced concrete (RC) columns under varying concrete grades, GFRP reinforcement ratios and tie configurations. The model of the specimens is developed using concrete damage plastic (CDP) model and linear elastic material model for GFRP bar. The consistence of the FE method is verified by the experimental results of a series of columns that tested by current authors. The analytical results show that the selected numerical method can accurately predict the behavior as well as the ultimate capacity of the columns. From simulation results, it is clear that the contribution of GFRP to the load-carrying capacity is considerable in columns with low concrete grades. While using higher concrete grades, the contribution of GFRP decrease, at concrete grade B60, contribution of GFRP is almost unimportant (2.74 %). Influence of tie spacing on load-bearing capacity of columns is also investigated. Accordingly, reducing tie spacing leads to increase load-carrying capacity. Based on study results, the authors recommend to limit tie spacing less than eight times of the GFRP bar diameter.


In May 2008, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia issued a decision in The American Council of the Blind v. Paulson. The court held that under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the Treasury Department of the U.S. government discriminates against blind and visually impaired individuals through the issuance of currency in denominations which are not readily distinguishable by touch. The Treasury Department did not file an appeal of the decision, and the case was remanded to the United States District Court for the District of Columbia to address the American Council of the Blind's request for injunctive relief. The House Subcommittee on Domestic and International Monetary Policy, Trade, and Technology held a hearing on this issue on July 30, 2008. This report discusses the court of appeals' decision and factors and viewpoints by affected parties that may have implications for a proposed remedy.


Although they have differed in their approaches, courts deciding right of publicity cases have almost uniformly assumed that the appropriate way to test the constitutionality of the claim is to weigh the plaintiff's publicity interest against the defendant's free speech claim. The question left unanswered is what could possible give sufficient weight, in particular to a nonadvertising publicity claim, to allow it plausibly to outweigh the first amendment. The paper argues that no plausible jurisprudential predicate for this practice exists unless one is willing to accept the argument that interests expressed in economic terms are inherently weightier than traditional liberty interests. If this argument is unattractive, then the premise behind applying a balancing test for publicity claims is also flawed, leaving the tort The paper suggests that, at least outside the area of advertising uses, traditional first amendment analysis leave only the smallest of spaces for publicity rights.


Mobility is a fundamental facet of being human and should be central to archaeology. Yet mobility itself and the role it plays in the production of social life, is rarely considered as a subject in its own right. This is particularly so with discussions of the Neolithic people where mobility is often framed as being somewhere between a sedentary existence and nomadic movements.
This volume examines the importance and complexities of movement and mobility, whether on land or water, in the Neolithic period. It uses movement in its widest sense, ranging from everyday mobilities – the routines and rhythms of daily life – to proscribed mobility, such as movement in and around monuments, and occasional and large-scale movements and migrations around the continent and across seas. Papers are roughly grouped and focus on 'mobility and the landscape', 'monuments and mobility', 'travelling by water', and 'materials and mobility'. Through these themes the volume considers the movement of people, ideas, animals, objects, and information, and uses a wide range of archaeological evidence from isotope analysis; artefact studies; lithic scatters and assemblage diversity.


For many years, investors have faced a dilemma in making asset allocations to commodity trading advisers (CTAs). On one hand, numerous studies indicate that investing in CTAs makes sense due to their relatively high risk-adjusted returns and low correlation with traditional assets such as stocks and bonds. At the same time, it is widely acknowledged that reported CTA returns are overstated due to survivor bias. As a result of this uncertainty, assets invested in CTAs remain relatively small when compared to hedge funds in general. In this article it is argued that CTAs possess overlooked performance characteristics-positive skew and excess kurtosis-which are of significant value to investors. Specifically, positive asymmetry in CTA returns serves as an offset to the negative asymmetry of other assets in portfolio construction. Indeed, when portfolio optimization techniques that consider higher-order moments are employed instead of simple mean-variance analysis, the resulting allocations to CTAs are significantly higher. For this reason, instead of focusing only on lower moments, investors are well advised to take into account CTA return skew and kurtosis. Ignoring skew and kurtosis can lead investors to the impression that CTAs are more risky than they really are, thereby increasing the likelihood of diminished investment returns in the process.


Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of accidental death in Australia, with substantial societal costs. Unlike crash test dummies, child vehicle passengers rarely sit still and their behaviour can often be unpredictable. Analysis of naturalistic driving video data from journeys undertaken by 12 families with young children revealed that children accounted for 12% of all potentially distracting activities, with drivers in this study interacting with rear seat child occupants 12 times as often as they did with mobile phones. Educational interventions to reduce driver distraction are discussed and the use of the naturalistic driving methodology is proposed to investigate the potential benefits of a novel, best practices-based road safety education program targeting child-related driver distraction. Outcomes of such an evaluation could be used to inform and refine future education strategies designed to minimise child- related driver distraction and crash risk, and to improve overall road safety in Australasia. Keywords: Driver distraction, Child restraint systems, CRS, Road safety, Road safety education


Pup mortality is considered a significant problem in the dog. The present study aimed to evaluate the incidence of neonatal loss in eutocic and dystocic canine deliveries and also the influence of various obstetrical interventions and course of labor on the neonatal viability in dystocic dogs and in animals subjected to elective cesarean. Also, the study aimed to determine the random blood glucose, serum total calcium and progesterone in dogs experiencing dystocia. The present study established that hypoglycemia and hypocalcemia is an infrequent cause of maternal dystocia and that the neonatal viability is maximum when an elective cesarean section is carried out when the serum progesterone concentrations are very close to basal levels. The incidence of stillbirths and neonatal mortality in canines was found to be fairly high and even higher following difficult births. The present investigation confirmed that pup mortality cannot be divorced from the assessment of the influence of whelping process and that the first 24 hours after birth was found to be the most critical period for the neonatal mortality and was closely related to the duration of labor and the type of obstetrical intervention employed to relieve dystocia. The importance of resuscitation in improving the vitality of pups born of dystocic deliveries was established and also suggested that elective cesarean in dogs is a safe technique for obtaining maximum neonatal survival.


Silas Marner (1861) depicts a stolen hoard of glittering gold at a historical moment that saw an increasing displacement of coinage by paper money in one of the major developments of industrial capitalist modernity. Reading the novel as George Eliot's aesthetic and ethical response to the modern processes of abstraction that absorbed nineteenth-century thinkers from Auguste Comte to Ludwig Feuerbach and Karl Marx, I suggest that Silas Marner consoles for a potentially impoverishing process of abstraction by refiguring it as an opportunity for a new form of value, one that transcends material limitations and depends upon human networks for its realization. Associating the "abstraction" of gold with the creation of a post-Malthusian modern economy in which giving has little personal cost and, on the contrary, produces collective, practical benefit, Silas Marner reflects the possibilities for abundance, surplus, and shared wealth that could be glimpsed in England at the outset of the 1860s. As the novel shifts from describing money as an unchanging, inanimate object to describing it instead as an exchange-value whose meaning is expressed in relation to the natural growth and repeating cycles of human experience, George Eliot offers a historically relevant fable of moral progress dependent on the abstractions common to material exchange, social sympathy, and narrative itself.


The genetic selection of keywords set, the text frequencies of which are considered as attributes in text classification analysis, has been analyzed. The genetic optimization was performed on a set of words, which is the fraction of the frequency dictionary with given frequency limits. The frequency dictionary was formed on the basis of analyzed text array of texts of English fiction. As the fitness function which is minimized by the genetic algorithm, the error of nearest k neighbors classifier was used. The obtained results show high precision and recall of texts classification by authorship categories on the basis of attributes of keywords set which were selected by the genetic algorithm from the frequency dictionary.


In this ambitious work a leading scholar undertakes a full-scale reconceptualization of international relations. Turbulence in World Politics is an entirely new formulation that accounts for the persistent turmoil of today's world, even as it also probes the impact of the microelectronic revolution, the postindustrial order, and the many other fundamental political, economic, and social changes under way since World War II. To develop this formulation, James N. Rosenau digs deep into the workings of communities and the orientations of individuals that culminate in collective action on the world stage. His concern is less with questions of epistemology and methodology and more with the development of a comprehensive theoryone that is different from other paradigms in the field by virtue of its focus on the tumult in contemporary international relations. The book depicts a bifurcation of global politics in which an autonomous multi-centric world has emerged as a competitor of the long established state-centric world. A central theme is that the analytic skills of people everywhere are expanding and thereby altering the context in which international processes unfold. Rosenau shows how the macro structures of global politics have undergone transformations linked to those at the micro level: long-standing structures of authority weaken, collectivities fragment, subgroups become more powerful at the expense of states and governments, national loyalties are redirected, and new issues crowd onto the global agenda. These turbulent dynamics foster the simultaneous centralizing and decentralizing tendencies that are now bifurcating global structures. "Rosenau's new work is an imaginative leap into world politics in the twenty-first century. There is much here to challenge traditional thought of every persuasion." --Michael Brecher, McGill University


Copper-catalyzed amidation/dimerization of anilides via regioselective C(sp2)-H functionalization is achieved. The para-selective amidation is accomplished on the anilide aromatic ring via a radical pathway leading to C-N bond formation in the presence of ammonium persulfate as a radical source/oxidant for the copper catalyst. The developed protocol tolerates a wide range of anilide substrates. The regioselectivity is confirmed by single-crystal X-ray studies.


CERN is presently designing a new chain of accelerators to replace the present Proton Synchrotron (PS) complex: a 160 MeV room-temperature H- linac (Linac4) to replace the present 50 MeV proton linac injector, a 3.5 GeV Superconducting Proton Linac (SPL) to replace the 1.4 GeV PS booster (PSB) and a 50 GeV synchrotron (named PS2) to replace the 26 GeV PS. Linac4 has been funded and the civil engineering work started in October 2008, whilst the SPL is in an advanced stage of design. Beyond injecting into the future 50 GeV PS, the ultimate goal of the SPL is to generate a 4 MW beam for the production of intense neutrino beams. The radiation protection design is driven by the latter requirement. This thesis summarizes the radiation protection studies conducted for Linac4. FLUKA Monte Carlo simulations, complemented by analytical estimates, were performed 1) to evaluate the propagation of neutrons through the waveguide, ventilation and cable ducts placed along the accelerator, 2) to estimate the radiological impact of the accelerator in its low energy section, where the access area is located, and 3) to calculate the induced radioactivity in the air and in the components of the accelerator. The latter study is particularly important for maintenance interventions and final disposal of radioactive waste. Two possible layouts for the CCDTL section of the machine were considered in order to evaluate the feasibility, from the radiological standpoint, of replacing electromagnetic quadrupoles with permanent magnet quadrupoles with high content of cobalt. The present work provides complete information on beam loss assumptions, accelerator structure and duct and maze design, in order to make the present results of sufficiently general interest and provide guidelines for similar studies for intermediate energy proton accelerators. In addition to the Linac4-specific studies, this thesis also discusses FLUKA simulations performed to test the capability of the code, in a proton therapy application, in predicting induced radioactivity from intermediate energy protons. The thesis also reviews the analytical models mostly used for the calculation of neutron streaming through penetration traversing shielding barriers, discusses the FLUKA simulations performed to test the reliability of these models and, on the basis of the simulations, derives a universal expression that can be used to estimate the neutron transmission through a straight duct in direct view of the source, model missing so far in the literature.


Providing a perfect instruction to authors can prevent most potential publication ethics errors. This study was conducted to determine the quality of ethical considerations in the instructions to the authors of Iranian research scientific journals of medical sciences (accredited by the Commission for Accreditation and Improvement of Iranian Medical Journals) in October 2011. Checklist items (n=15) were extracted from the national manual of ethics in medical research publications, and the validity of the manual of ethics was assessed. All the accredited Iranian journals of medical sciences (n=198) were entered into the study. The instructions to the authors of 160 accredited Iranian journals were available online and were reviewed. The ANOVA and Kendall Correlation coefficient were performed to analyze the results. A total of 76 (47.5%) of the 160 journals were in English and 84 (52.5%) were in Farsi. The most frequently mentioned items related to publication ethics comprised "commitment not to send manuscripts to other journals and re-publish manuscripts" (85%, 83.8%), "aim and scope" of the journal (81.9%), "principles of medical ethics in the use of human samples" (74.4%), and "review process" (74.4%). On the other hand, the items of "principles of advertising" (1.2%), "authorship criteria" (15%), and "integrity in publication of clinical trial results" (30.6%) were the least frequently mentioned ones. Based on the study findings, the quality of publication ethics, as instructed to the authors, can improve the quality of the journals.


During the 1980s the potential instability of Zimbabwe's unsustainably high budget deficit was reduced by the smooth transfer of resources from the private to the public sector via the domestic financial system, which affected private demand for financial assets. Import, exchange and price controls operated to suppress private-sector demand. This led to the build-up of private savings, which was on-lent to the government via liquid asset requirements and the crowding out of domestic deposits in the nonbank private sector's portfolio by government securities. This article uses Johansen's procedure for analysing cointegration to model the demand for real money balances in Zimbabwe, in order to determine the extent to which these constraints on the domestic asset market suppressed the demand for money in Zimbabwe. Copyright 1999 by Oxford University Press.


Bourassa et al. (Reports, 6 July 2012, p. 78) have suggested that deep convection associated with the Asian monsoon played a critical role in transporting sulfur dioxide associated with the Nabro volcanic eruption (13 June 2011) from the upper troposphere (9 to 14 kilometers) into the lower stratosphere. An analysis of the CALIPSO lidar data indicates, however, that the main part of the Nabro volcanic plume was injected directly into the lower stratosphere during the initial eruption well before reaching the Asian monsoon deep convective region.


ABSTRACT There has been growing concern about the rising numbers of students being excluded from school in England – a trend that is often set against the declining levels of exclusion elsewhere. In Wales and Scotland, for example, numbers of students permanently excluded from school have fallen dramatically. However, we argue that simple system-level comparisons might be misleading. Drawing on data derived from interviews with headteachers in Wales, this paper probes beneath the surface of official statistics and explores the diverse, and often hidden, forms of exclusion that are taking place. Without wishing to deny the damaging consequences of official exclusion from school, it argues that the other forms of exclusion may also carry negative consequences. It concludes that until the effects of these other forms of exclusion are known – at individual, institutional and system level – we should not assume that a school or a system is necessarily any more or less 'inclusive' on the basis of official data on school exclusions.


Fossils of "early" Homo have become some of the most challenging to interpret in the fossil record.  Creationists have generally argued that "early" Homo do not represent the remains of human beings, but previous statistical baraminology studies indicate otherwise.  Using the recent publications of Homo naledi and a supermatrix of characters covering all named hominins except Homo naledi , human baraminology is here re-examined.  Results continue to support inclusion of "early" Homo in the human holobaramin, and the newly discovered Homo naledi can also be placed with confidence in the human holobaramin.  Additionally, both the small Dmanisi hominins and the robust D4500 specimen can also be classified as human.  The newly-expanded human holobaramin implies a much greater diversity of human forms than previously recognized.  More importantly, the earliest humans encountered in the fossil record exhibit the greatest diversity, implying that human diversification had already begun while humans were resident in Babel.


We build upon the existing literature to formulate a class of models for multivariate mixtures of Gaussian, ordered or unordered categorical responses and continuous distributions that are not Gaussian, each of which can be defined at any level of a multilevel data hierarchy. We describe a Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithm for fitting such models. We show how this unifies a number of disparate problems, including partially observed data and missing data in generalized linear modelling. The two-level model is considered in detail with worked examples of applications to a prediction problem and to multiple imputation for missing data. We conclude with a discussion outlining possible extensions and connections in the literature. Software for estimating the models is freely available.


Introduction 'Institutions' has become a keyword within recent political and scientific discussion. It reflects the widespread realisation that a well-functioning market economy presupposes an effective institutional framework to work its wonders. In the light of global turbulence, financial unrest, the developments in the former Eastern Bloc, continued underdevelopment in the 'Third World', etc., more and more businessmen, economists, and politicians (from neo-conservatives to the New Left) are converging on the idea that economic development without 'good institutions' and an effective state is impossible. This focus on institutions raises interesting questions. First, it implies that a capitalist market economy cannot be left to itself, but is a social system in need of design and support (e.g. law and order, state governance, fiscal regulation...). From the political right to the left the emphasis on the scope and aims of governance of course differs somewhat, but the underlying premise that markets need institutional support and an effective state is becoming common ground. (1) Secondly, it has focused attention on the history of capitalist development. However, there are also other issues that present themselves, which are seldom spelled out: For example, if the market is not 'the invisible hand' which integrates individuals in society but rather something in need of institutional integrative support from society, what good is the market? If capitalist markets do not support society, i.e. form the basis on which society rests, but rather need support from the institutions of society to work, why should the institutions of society support markets, rather than, say, community or provision based on need? Such analyses may very well lead us to question the very basics of capitalism. In economics the defence for market capitalism is grounded foremost in neoclassical theory, which maintains that markets equalise supply and demand 'spontaneously' in 'equilibrium', traits of the market that provide for both coordination, freedom and 'efficiency' (in the sense of optimum resource allocation). (2) Charges have, however, been made against this theory for its lack of realism (regarding its basic assumptions), for its asocial character (in theorising 'utility functions' and 'factors of production', rather than actual living individuals with social relations, cultures, values etc.) and for its ahistorical approach to the economy. In this light, it is of specific interest to focus on New Institutional Economics (NIB). Recognising the limits in neoclassical theory, NIE has gained substantial influence (most specifically in e.g. questions on policymaking and development economics) exactly because it attempts to make neoclassical economic theory more realistic, more social, and historical in its approach. (3) This is attempted by moving beyond neoclassical economics with an institutional analysis yet at the same time sticking to its basics. Furthermore--due mainly to the works of Douglass C. North--NIE has become an established tradition in economic history in explaining the rise and evolution of market capitalism. NIE can hence be defined as a 'neoclassical' institutionalism, which politically comes close to the positions of classical liberalism. The first section of this article describes the conceptual framework of NIE, and how it differs from neoclassical economics. The second section outlines a theoretical critique of NIE. The initial focus is on the concept of 'transaction costs', which I argue is deeply problematic. Thereafter, I point to an underlying assumption of 'why not markets?' in NIE, which I argue rests on ideological rather than historical grounds. I also argue that the emphasis on institutions, ideology, and the state within NIE makes the economic sphere disappear in explanation or makes uncertain the place of that sphere in explanation. The third section focuses on the economic history of NIE with emphasis on the work of Douglass North. …


Projects are inherently risky ventures because of their exposure to both market risks and project complexities. Project decisions need to be optimum not only at the time of decision making but also in respect of future stages and available project options. Because of the growth in project complexity coupled with market volatility, the traditional methods of project appraisal are no longer adequate; they fail to respond to the dynamic situations that often prevail in the development of risky and complex projects. The authors present an approach that combines real options theory with decision tree analysis to properly evaluate a project facing uncertainties. This technique is based on mapping all the available options on a given project and incorporating market uncertainties. For a given project, a real options value, adjusted by the implementation uncertainties at a time during its progress or at its initial stage, is estimated and added to the net present value of the project—the latter computed under uncertain conditions. The adjusted net present value can account properly for the risks a project may face, while counting in the value that proactive management may bring about. A simple numerical example is included to demonstrate the application of this technique.


In one of my recent graduate classes on the Brontes, the presenter of Agnes Grey observed as an amused aside that the whole moral scheme of the novel seemed to revolve around how animals are treated. The class laughed derisively. I did not, although I could not at the time articulate my discomfort at what I now see was the dismissal of an important philosophical issue in the novel, and one which makes explicit Anne Bronte's feminist politics. The underestimation of Agnes Grey is nothing new. (1) It seems that the pious and long-suffering governess's love of animals serves only to further the impression that Agnes Grey is a rather pathetic novel lacking a political agenda. Lisa Surridge has recently noted Anne Bronte's concern for the mistreatment of animals, but claims that, in contrast to Emily Bronte, Anne shows typically Victorian sentiments (Surridge Animals 162). While Hilary Newman has pointed out that Anne Bronte "uses her characters' treatment of animals to indicate their moral stature," she doesn't specify the nature of that moral stature (237). Marilyn Gardner, in an unpublished study, is alone in recognizing the significance of "scenes of eating" in Agnes Grey; she charts Agnes's "fall" from a pastoral family life in harmony with animals, to the "civilized" communities of her employers whose "commoditization" of animals and people is evident in their attitudes to food. (2) None of these critics, however, draws out the specifically feminist politics of the structural links between women and animals in Agnes Grey. Carol Adams convincingly demonstrates in The Sexual Politics of Meat that "women and animals are similarly positioned in a patriarchal world, as objects rather than subjects," a view which has been elaborated in more recent feminist theoretical and critical works. (3) The representation of animals in Agnes Grey--as exploited and abused--is indistinguishable from its analysis of the objectification and exploitation of women. Agnes Grey's--and Anne Bronte's--concern for animals is neither Victorian sentimentality nor feminine sensitivity. In this fictional autobiography of a governess, Bronte examines what Adams calls the "intersection of the oppression of women and the oppression of animals," and the nineteenth-century social mechanisms by which both are dismissed from serious moral consideration (60). What has been overlooked in all criticism of Agnes Grey is that the heroine's suffering is contextualized and analyzed as the effect of a patriarchal and class stratified society in which those "bodies that matter"--to use Judith Butler's terms--depend for their existence upon those that do not, including women and animals. It is by virtue of a realm of abjected beings, says Butler, that others are able to materialize, that is, to become intelligible and visible in the social signifying system. As a governess, Agnes Grey occupies a marginal position in her society. Critics have examined the ways in which the anomalous class position of the governess--a member of the middle classes subjected to the ignominy of earning a living--undermines her femininity (Poovey, Shuttleworth, Langland [1995]); but Agnes Grey takes this further by revealing, through Agnes's proximity to animals, that the governess's very humanity is in question in a society which grants viable subject status only to those occupying the upper rungs of the ladder. Susanne Kappeler reminds us that the `great chain of being'--"an alleged natural and evolutionary hierarchy"--persisted well into the nineteenth century (qtd. in Adams and Donovan 331). Carl Vogt, for example, observed in 1864: "We may be sure that, whenever we perceive an approach to the animal type, the female is nearer to it than the male" (qtd. in Russett 55). The ground of the Victorian social hierarchy was "animal type" or "animal" characteristics. "Animal," synonymous with "natural" and "biological," was a category employed by those at the top of the ladder to justify the exploitation of those at the bottom. …