Surface nuclear magnetic resonance is a technique capable of providing insight into subsurface
aquifer properties. To produce estimates of aquifer properties (such as the spatial distribution of
water content and parameters controlling the duration of the nuclear magnetic resonance signal), an
inversion is required. Essential to the reliable interpretation of the estimated subsurface models is
an understanding of the uncertainty and correlation between the parameters in the estimated models.
To quantify parameter uncertainty and correlation in the surface nuclear magnetic resonance inversion,
a Markov chain Monte Carlo approach is demonstrated. Markov chain Monte Carlo approaches
have been previously employed to invert surface nuclear magnetic resonance data, but the primary
focus has been on quantifying parameter uncertainty. The focus of this paper is to further
investigate whether the parameters in the estimated models exhibit correlation with one another;
equally important to building a reliable interpretation of the subsurface is an understanding of the
parameter uncertainty. The utility of the Markov chain Monte Carlo approach is demonstrated
through the investigation of three questions. The first question investigates whether the parameters
describing the water content and thickness of a layer exhibit a strong correlation. This question
stems from applying concepts known to electromagnetic surveys (that the layer thickness and layer
resistivity parameters are strongly correlated) to the surface nuclear magnetic resonance inversion.
A water content–layer thickness correlation in surface nuclear magnetic resonance would not have
large effects for quantifying total water content but would affect the ability to identify layer boundaries.
The second question examines whether the parameter controlling the duration of the nuclear
magnetic resonance signal exhibits a correlation with the water content and layer thickness parameters.
The resolution of surface nuclear magnetic resonance typically does not consider the duration
of the signal and focuses primarily on the distribution of current amplitudes that form the suite of
transmit pulses. It is common to treat regions with short-duration signal with greater uncertainty,
but it is important to understand whether the signal duration controls resolution for medium to long
duration signals as well. The third question explores if the parameter uncertainty produced by the
Markov chain Monte Carlo approach is consistent with that produced by an alternative approach
based upon the posterior covariance matrix (for the linearised inversion). The ability of the Markov
chain Monte Carlo approach to more thoroughly explore the model space provides a means to
improve the reliability of surface nuclear magnetic resonance aquifer characterisations by quantifying
parameter uncertainty and correlation.


The theme of this thesis is on transactional support for cooperative work environments, focusing on data sharing. It is thus concerned with the provision of suitable mechanisms to manage concurrent access to shared data and resources. This subject is not new, per se. In fact, maintaining data consistency in multiuser environments is a classical problem that has been addressed thoroughly since the introduction of transaction management. However, while traditional transaction models – also called ACID (atomicity, consistency, isolation, and durability) transactions – have provided satisfactory and efficient consistency management for traditional multiuser database and business applications such as banking and flight reservation applications, they have been found to be too restrictive in the context of cooperation. Atomicity is inappropriate for cooperative environments, where activities are normally of long duration. The isolation of transactions does not allow cooperation, which is thus unsuitable for cooperative environments.Several solutions have been proposed and developed in terms of advanced transaction models and frameworks. The goal has primarily been to overcome the limitations of traditional transactions. However, although there are many solutions, there are some problems that are not solved. Among these are the problems that result from the dynamic and heterogeneous nature of cooperative work. Finding solutions to these problems has been a subject for intensive research over the past couple of decades. However, it is widely agreed that they still deserve careful attention. The solution here is to provide transactional support that not only can be tailored to suit different situations, but can also be modified in accordance with changes in the actual environment while the work is being carried out – i.e., is adaptable. As part of this solution, we have identified and extracted the beneficial features from existing models and attempted to extend these to form a transactional framework, called CAGISTrans. This is a framework for the specification of transaction models suiting specific applications. The main contribution in handling dynamic environments is in the way of organising the elements of a transaction model to allow runtime refinement. In addition, a transaction management system has been developed, built on the middleware principle, to allow interoperability and database independence, and support for non-database resources. This thereby addresses the problems induced by the heterogeneous nature of cooperative environments.The solution depends on setting requirements based on the practical reallife needs for a system supporting cooperative work. This shows how this framework meets these requirements. One of the issues that is not emphasised is system throughput. From a transaction processing perspective, this issue is generally considered to be critical. However, since transactions in cooperative environments normally span long periods of time, they are mainly more sensitive to response time performance than system throughput. A CAGISTrans system has been implemented, using several technological tools such as Java, XML and software agents. The thesis discusses the specific use of and general experience with these technological tools. The CAGISTrans prototypes have implemented the major parts of the framework. The main conclusion is that the current CAGISTrans framework is able to support the basic features of dynamic and heterogeneous transaction management, allowing users to specify models and have the system execute their transactions in a flexible and controlled manner.


This paper is aimed at the presentation of a suboptimal numerical algorithm that has been designed for the assignment of a finite dominant part of the infinite eigenvalue spectrum of a strongly stable neutral time delay control system. Once a structure of a conventional finite-dimensional controller for a delayed controlled plant is suggested, desired loci of a sufficient number of feedback poles are selected, according to required dynamical properties. The goal is to bring the dominant spectrum to prescribed one as close as possible. The first step of the procedure insists in the use of the QuasiContinuous Shifting Algorithm (QCSA). Then, the results are enhanced by an optimization procedure for a suitable objective function. The presented methodology is demonstrated by a simulation example of control of an unstable time delay system (TDS) in the MATLAB/Simulink environment. Some possibilities how to adjust the algorithm are given to the reader as well.


Innovation and entrepreneurial activities play a key role in promoting rural economic progress (Escalante,Turvey, 2006). They are the crucial ingredients towards economic
growth and job creation. Promoting these activities should take into account recent structural changes in agriculture and in rural communities. So in recent development plans
of Iran have been attended to create and develop agribusiness SMEs, because of the vast context of agribusiness and its potential to develop enterprises. Much number of conditions affect on developing agribusiness. Identifying these conditions is essential to facilitate agrienterprise SMEs. We can categorized these conditions in three major environment including physical, economical and socio-cultural environment or as a different capital
contain economic, social and environmental capital. All of these categories contain many different elements. One of this elements is management that acting as a coordinator of these capital in the best way to achieve the goal of business. This is a documentary and internet based study. It is a try to do meta-analysis the findings of the studies that they have been done in related subject to find conditions and a framework for agri-entrepreneurship.


The struggles for environmental and gender justice have challenged how theology is done in Africa. This article framed within the context of continuous search for life-giving African Christianity, argues that a radical relational solidarity that existed between African humanity and environment in some Zambian traditional societies was grounded on ecogender principle. Thus, it seeks to probe deeper into contemporary challenge of African men's alienation from environment as a consequence of colonial quest to restructure African social order. Employing decolonial theological perspective, the article tried to reinterpret some life-giving elements from Bemba and Shila cultural heritage in order to re-conceptualize contemporary African Christian ecotheology. It is from this perspective where African ecogender theology is constructed towards transformation of African human and environment relationship.


We demonstrate that the stability of the semilocal vortex can be significantly improved by the presence of a dilatonic coupling of the form e^\frac{q | \Phi |^2}{\eta^2} F_{\mu \nu}F^{\mu \nu} with q>0 where \eta is the scale of symmetry breaking that gives rise to the vortex. For q=0 we obtain the usual embedded (semilocal) Nielsen-Olesen vortex. We find the stability region of the parameter \beta = (\frac{m_\Phi}{m_A})^2 (m_\Phi and m_A are the masses of the scalar and gauge fields respectively). We show that the stability region of \beta is 0<\beta<\beta_{max}(q) where \beta_{max}(q=0)=1 (as expected) and \beta_{max}(q) is an increasing function of q. This result may have significant implications for the stability of the electroweak vortex in the presence of a dilatonic coupling (dilatonic electroweak vortex).


This paper summarizes the panel discussion at AMCIS 2006 on the evolution and trends in mobile wireless services and technology. The panelists included information systems faculty members from the United States and Mexico. The covered topics included wireless fundamentals, wireless technologies, applications and value chain evolution, wearable computing, wireless mobile issues including privacy and security, issues of worldwide mobile services and trends, and social implications. The panelists believe that there has been a virtual explosion in the ubiquitous and embedded computing industry over the past decade. Computing technology is moving beyond personal computers and is progressing into devices with embedded technology. The trend of mobile wireless technologies is moving to one single device rather than multiple devices. A single device could contain any or all of the following components, such as cellular phone, digital camera, video recording, MP3, mobile cellular TV services including digital multimedia broadcasting (DMB) and digital video broadcasting, handheld (DVB-H). Also, wearable computing such as watches, smart shirt and clothing, body sensors, and health monitoring devices are in the nascent stages. Wireless technology known as radio frequency identification (RFID) is used to identify objects, including living creatures. Various RFID applications including item tagging and electronic passports prompted valid loss of privacy concerns and triggered intense and sometimes irrational public discussion.


Fighting the War on Drugs: What Weapons for Analysis and Detection?
The abuse of drugs has become one of the most serious socialproblems in the world. According to the "United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime" (UNODC) latest report, between 149 and 272 million people used illicit substances at least once in the year 2008.The world population of "Problem drug users", defined as regular users of illicit substances is estimated at between 15 and 39 million. Amphetamines, cocaine, opiates and cannabis are the most abused substances. In addition non-medical use of prescription drugs is reportedly a growing health problem in a number of developed and developing countries.


This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of different biological immune stimulants; humic acid, β glucan and humic acid, β glucan mixture; on physiology, performance, Behaviour, and immune response to NDV and IB. A total of 540 broiler cobb chicks, were used in this study, housed in experimental unit at Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Cairo University, Egypt, with stocking density 10/ m 2 , using 12 pens, 45 chicks for each . Feed and water were provided ad libitum via trough feeders and bell drinker. Birds were divided into four equal groups. T1, T2, T3, and T4; each of them 135 chicks, three replicates, (45 each). T1 control group didn't receive any supplement, T2 group receive humax® (consists of 200 mg humate /ml) in drinking water, T3 group took meduline® (consists of 100mg β glucan /ml), T4 receive blue Immune® (consists of 100 mg humate and 50 mg β glucan /ml); all given day after day 0.5 cm/liter drinking water. Data collected were, productive performance (final body weight, feed intake, feed conversion ratio, mortality rate and European performance index, behavioral measurements; (feeding behaviour, drinking behaviour, leg and wing stretching, preening, leg scratch and resting behaviour), oxidative stress parameter and antibodies titer for NDV and IB was estimated. Results revealed significance different between different immune stimulant as humic acid either alone or in combination with β glucan recorded lower feed intake, lower feed conversion ratio, higher feeding percentage, higher drinking and welfare indices, in the same time immune responses toward NDV was the same in T2 and T4 while antibodies titer against IBV did not differed. Conclusively, it was obvious that with humic acid alone or plus β glucan has a positive effect on physiology, performance, behaviour and immune response of broiler.


A perceptual illusion provides the sensation of complex bionic hand movements to human amputees, allowing real-time movement control without the necessity of vision. Good vibrations for movement perception The ability to sense the spatial position and movements of one's own body (kinesthetic sense) is critical for limb use. Because prostheses do not provide physical feedback during movement, amputees may not feel that they are in control of their bodily movements (sense of agency) when manipulating a prosthesis. Marasco et al. developed an automated neural-machine interface that vibrates the muscles used for control of prosthetic hands. This system instilled kinesthetic sense in amputees, allowing them to control prosthetic hand movements in the absence of visual feedback and increasing their sense of agency. This approach might be an effective strategy for improving motor performance and quality of life in amputees. To effortlessly complete an intentional movement, the brain needs feedback from the body regarding the movement's progress. This largely nonconscious kinesthetic sense helps the brain to learn relationships between motor commands and outcomes to correct movement errors. Prosthetic systems for restoring function have predominantly focused on controlling motorized joint movement. Without the kinesthetic sense, however, these devices do not become intuitively controllable. We report a method for endowing human amputees with a kinesthetic perception of dexterous robotic hands. Vibrating the muscles used for prosthetic control via a neural-machine interface produced the illusory perception of complex grip movements. Within minutes, three amputees integrated this kinesthetic feedback and improved movement control. Combining intent, kinesthesia, and vision instilled participants with a sense of agency over the robotic movements. This feedback approach for closed-loop control opens a pathway to seamless integration of minds and machines.


ome of the most valuable collections documenting the lives of marginalized people in the United States reside in spaces outside traditional academic and government institutions. They exist as independently curated, highly valuable sites for remembering, owned and operated by the communities they document. How can community-based archives participate in national strategies to digitize materials documenting marginalized communities? What are the social, cultural and technological barriers to participation and what are the benefits? How might national digital strategies leverage materials in community-based archives in order to diversify the digital record while respecting community-based autonomy and authority? These are questions explored by a consortium of community-based archives awarded a $100,000 IMLS National Leadership Grant for the project "Diversifying the Digital Historical Record: Integrating Community Archives in National Strategies for Access to Digital Cultural Heritage." This paper presents preliminary findings of the first two forums sponsored by this project; namely that, while technological challenges impede the participation of community archives in national digital strategies, ethical considerations related to autonomy, custody, and stewardship also present significant barriers. Rather than create a central digital repository for community archival materials, community archives practitioners instead express a need for a structured online space to create a network, share resources and best practices, and leverage each other's expertise.


We apply the 3-dimensional radiative transport code Wind3D to 3D hydrodynamic models of Corotating Interaction Regions to fit the detailed variability of Discrete Absorption Components observed in Si IV UV resonance lines of HD 64760 (B0.5 Ib). We discuss important effects of the hydrodynamic input parameters on these large-scale equatorial wind structures that determine the detailed morphology of the DACs computed with 3D transfer. The best fit model reveals that the CIR in HD 64760 is produced by a source at the base of the wind that lags behind the stellar surface rotation. The non-corotating coherent wind structure is an extended density wave produced by a local increase of only 0.6 % in the smooth symmetric wind mass-loss rate.


Abstract : This report will present the results of an investigation into the feasibility of several modes of wireless data transmission including: (1) radio frequency modems, (2) acoustic modems (using the ship's steel hull for a path with a 'HullPhone'), (3) power line systems, such as X-lO units, and (4) possible power line utilization of telephone modems. There is a need for wireless data transmission on both Voluntary Observing Ships (VOS) and research ships for short-term installations. The availability of cables from remote areas on these ships is usually not good, and restrictions on installing cables prevent some useful measurements from being made. A case in point is the real time availability of measurements of sea surface temperature (SST) from VOS by sensors mounted inside the hull. Instruments for measuring SST are installed in sealed compartments that are near the waterline of the ship and often four decks below the main deck. Other applications include transmission of data from automated XBT launchers located on the aft deck to the science area and transmission of data from a cluster of meteorological instruments located at the bow of the ship to the bridge for interface to Service Argos or Inmarsat satellite links. Surveys of existing equipment have been made. Typical equipment has been purchased and was tested in a ship environment, including the "HullPhone". The results of these tests are presented. Suggestions for system configurations to meet the applications noted above are made with note of the product development required.


SUMMARY Sphalerite has a restricted distribution mainly along the eastern margin of the South Pennine Orefield. The main microscopic inclusions in sphalerite are pyrite, chalcopyrite, galena and calcite. Alteration of sphalerite to smithsonite is generally extensive and is usually accompanied by formation of covellite and goethite as copper and iron are released from the sphalerite lattice. Sphalerite, like galena and pyrite, has a very strong preference for association with calcite in the South Pennine Orefield. The low concentrations of iron and silver in the analysed sphalerites indicate a low formation temperature. Bivariate and multivariate analyses of sphalerite analytical data show that, although complex relationships exist among the trace elements in sphalerite, there are only five factors that account for all the variance in the distribution of the trace elements. The co-existence of galena and sphalerite in the orefield does not have any apparent effect on the partition of the trace elements.


Purpose:To report diagnostic accuracy of optical coherence tomography (OCT) disc variables using both time-domain (TD) and Fourier-domain (FD) OCT, and to improve the use of OCT disc variable measurements for glaucoma diagnosis through regression analyses that adjust for optic disc size and axial length–based magnification error. Design:Observational, cross-sectional. Participants:In total, 180 normal eyes of 112 participants and 180 eyes of 138 participants with perimetric glaucoma from the Advanced Imaging for Glaucoma Study. Methods:Diagnostic variables evaluated from TD-OCT and FD-OCT were: disc area, rim area, rim volume, optic nerve head volume, vertical cup-to-disc ratio (CDR), and horizontal CDR. These were compared with overall retinal nerve fiber layer thickness and ganglion cell complex. Regression analyses were performed that corrected for optic disc size and axial length. Area-under-receiver-operating curves (AUROC) were used to assess diagnostic accuracy before and after the adjustments. An index based on multiple logistic regression that combined optic disc variables with axial length was also explored with the aim of improving diagnostic accuracy of disc variables. Main Outcome Measure:Comparison of diagnostic accuracy of disc variables, as measured by AUROC. Results:The unadjusted disc variables with the highest diagnostic accuracies were: rim volume for TD-OCT (AUROC=0.864) and vertical CDR (AUROC=0.874) for FD-OCT. Magnification correction significantly worsened diagnostic accuracy for rim variables, and while optic disc size adjustments partially restored diagnostic accuracy, the adjusted AUROCs were still lower. Axial length adjustments to disc variables in the form of multiple logistic regression indices led to a slight but insignificant improvement in diagnostic accuracy. Conclusions:Our various regression approaches were not able to significantly improve disc-based OCT glaucoma diagnosis. However, disc rim area and vertical CDR had very high diagnostic accuracy, and these disc variables can serve to complement additional OCT measurements for diagnosis of glaucoma.


Though computational linguistics (CL) dates back to the first efforts in machine translation in the mid 1950s, it is only in the last decade or so that it has had a substantial impact on literary studies through the statistical techniques of corpus linguistics and data mining (know as natural language processing, NLP). In this essay I briefly review the history of computational linguistics from its early days involving symbolic computing to current developments in NLP and set that in relationship to academic literary study. In particular, I discuss the deeply problematic struggle that literary study has had with the question of evaluation: What makes good literature? I argue that literary studies should own up to this tension and recognize a distinction between ethical criticism, which is explicitly concerned with values, and naturalist criticism, which sidesteps questions of value in favor of understanding how literature works in the mind and in culture. I then argue that the primary relationship between CL and NLP and literary studies should be through naturalist criticism. I conclude by discussing the relative roles of CL and NLP in a large-scale and long-term investigation of romantic love.


ABSTRACT From Northern Ireland to Sierra Leone, Bosnia-Herzegovina to the Democratic Republic of Congo, Afghanistan to Nepal, the transition from war to peace has historically presented an opportunity for the adoption of international human rights treaties (IHRT). This paper examines the relationship between peace agreements and treaty ratification by exploring when, how and why peace negotiations and the agreements that result from them might affect states' decisions to adopt IHRT. Identifying peace agreements and the processes that produce them as critical junctures provides an opportunity to observe how a range of actors, for different reasons and utilising different strategies, can contribute to a state's decision to ratify a human rights treaty. The paper demonstrates that in societies attempting to transition from conflict to peace, ratification is explained not by any one theory or at the behest of any particular actor. Rather, it occurs because of a multitude of factors and efforts by various constituents that converge to shape a state's decision to commit to international human rights law during transitions from conflict to peace.


The open nature of the social network sites facilitates many opportunities for children but also makes them vulnerable for abuses from various parties. Obscenity, hate speech, and indecent contents that are not suitable for children are very common in the social network sites. The Malaysian, Spanish and Australian government regulate these contents as they regulate the contents in other traditional mass media. For the purpose of regulatory compliance most social networks do not allow children under 13-14 to access their services. However, the technology that controls this restriction can easily be evaded and the service providers are still uncertain how to label contents appropriate to child access. Both Governments and corporations agree that control is insufficient and so companies embark on self-regulation of themselves through Codes of Conduct. The objective of this paper is to compare how far the regulation and self-regulation protect children in social networks sites and what need to be done to improve the effectiveness of regulation. The paper compares social networks in Malaysia, Spain and Australia to find strengths and opportunities that could enrich regulation of social networks in those countries.


This thesis investigates a potential radiochemical method for estimating the capacity of the dual porosity Chalk aquifer to attenuate solutes. Solutes are advected by groundwater flow through fractures, but are slowed and attenuated by molecular diffusion into immobile water in the Chalk matrix. Fracture apertures are a key factor controlling rates of both advection and diffusion. The radiochemical model suggests that apertures may be estimated by comparing radon activity in groundwater with uranium-series isotope activities in the matrix. This estimate would be of great value if both radon release and solute attenuation are dominated by molecular diffusion. The thesis tests the assumptions made in the radiochemical method through a series of laboratory experiments and field observations. This has been achieved by use of • liquid-liquid extraction and luminescence spectrometry to assay Chalk core for uranium; and, • energy-discriminated liquid scintillation to determine both the radium activity of Chalk core and the radon activity in springs and pumped groundwater. The data demonstrate that • the Chalk does not possess a homogeneous distribution of radon precursors, which are dependent on both lithology and disequilibrium within the decay chain; • radon activity of pumped groundwater is highly variable and dependent on both the rate and duration of pumping; and, • spring sources demonstrate variation in radon activity which are not readily explained by the prevailing hydrogeological conditions. At a research site in Berkshire, double-porosity behaviour is shown to dominate solute transport, which can be characterised by an effective diffusion time. However, there is a clear disparity between diffusion times calculated from artificial tracer testing and estimated by the radiochemical method. This suggests that the radiochemical diffusion model is not appropriate in its current form to estimate rates of solute diffusion between fractures and the surrounding Chalk matrix.


This paper examines the effect of remittances on household expenditure patterns applying propensity score matching methods that allow designing and analyzing observational data and enable reducing selection bias. We use data from the Nepal Living Standards Survey 2010/2011. In general, remittance recipient households tend to spend more on consumption, health and education as compared to remittance non-receiving households. Although the findings do not clearly provide evidence of either the productive or non-productive use of remittances, expenditures on non-food investment categories, such as durable goods, health and education, are more apparent among remittance-receiving households compared to remittance non-receiving households, which signal the prospect of a sustainable long-term welfare gain among the former.


Author: Gaurav Kapoor Title: Exploration of a Computational Fluid Dynamics Integrated Design Methodology for Potential Application to a Wind Turbine Blade Institution: Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach, FL Degree: Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering Year: 2014 The main purpose of this thesis is to conduct a parametric sensitivity study on the blade design of AOC 15/50 wind turbine based on a CFD approach and optimize the blade design for maximizing the power output. The ANSYS Fluent flow solver using the k-ω SST turbulence model was validated by simulating the flow over two dimensional airfoils comprising the AOC 15/50 wind turbine blade. The CFD results have shown a considerable agreement with the experimental data for the airfoils. Parametric correlation study and sensitivity analysis were conducted by performing actual flow simulations over the turbine blade using ANSYS Fluent. This illustrates the dependence of power output on the blade design parameters. Parametric correlation study reveals that the blade design variables on the outer 40% of the blade span have a predominant effect on the power output of the blade, while the obtained scatter plots and determination matrix indicate the blade optimization problem setup as non-linear and quadratic fit. The most sensitive design parameters are used to formulate the flow optimization problem. A response surface optimization (RSO) methodology is employed for carrying out the blade shape optimization process. Design of Experiments (DoE) using the Latin Hypercube Sampling (LHS) algorithm is used to construct a robust response surface model, which is then searched for the optimized design using the Nonlinear Programming by Quadratic Lagrangian (NLPQL) technique. Two optimization routines are carried out by varying the geometric constraints on the blade. First optimization routine constrained the blade length and maximum chord occurring at a 40% span location from the hub to be fixed, yielding a design that performs marginally well up to the wind speed of 9.2 m/s with a maximum power increment of 7.55 % occurring at the 8.03 m/s wind speed. The search for the second optimization routine was initialized in the design space with the best candidate point obtained from the first optimization routine. Second optimization routine generated a design configuration that resulted in an increased blade length and surface area, thus leading to an overall lift force augmentation producing a 25.26% increase in the power output. Both the optimized candidates obtained were validated using the flow solver to verify the optimized design for maximized power output. The coefficient of pressure plots at various span locations of the blade bolster the claim that most of the mechanical power is produced in the outer 30-40% of the blade.


Cyril, bishop of Alexandria from 412 to 444, is renowned both as one of the most authoritative of all the fathers of the church, and at the same time as one of the most controversial of all church politicians. He oversaw the final extinguishing of pagan religion from Alexandria, and also spent the height of his career as a statesman and an author fighting the doctrines of Nestorius, whose excommunication he brought about at the Council of Ephesus (431). Having spent the first fifteen years of his episcopate writing extensive commentaries on Scripture, from 429 onwards Cyril turned his enormous learning and talent for penning and distributing polemic tracts to the development of doctrinal orthodoxy after he sensed that the new ideas coming out of Constantinople threatenedthe very core of the Christian doctrines of Incarnation and salvation. The three treatises here translated into English for the first time all belong to the period around the ecumenical council. On Orthodoxy to Theodosius was written for the emperor, a year before the council met, with the aim of persuading him that NestoriusAEs sermons were heretical and that his task as leader of both church and state was to ensure right religious observance. The Defense against the Bishops of Oriens and the Defense against Theodoret were written in the months leading up to the council when Cyril found himself required to defend his notorious oTwelve Chapters (or Anathemas),o which many bishops in other parts of the empire felt had gone too far in an anti-Nestorian direction. All three works were key parts of CyrilAEs battle for orthodoxy and mark key moments in the churchAEs progress towards the definition of Christological orthodoxy that was made at Chalcedon.


Shear connections are common connection types and they are designed to resist only shear loads. In a fire event, the axial restraint provided by adjacent structure creates unanticipated compressive and tensile forces in the beam and thus the connection. Using finite-element models, this study examines single-plate shear connections that are bolted to the beam and welded to the supporting girder. A floor subassembly, which includes the beam, girder, slab, and connection, is modeled so that appropriate forces are applied to the connection. The model is validated with the experiments of bolted lap splice plates at elevated temperatures, as well as full-scale experiments. This paper (1) illustrates efficient modeling methods for these floor subassemblies; (2) evaluates the importance of the slab in the connection response; and (3) examines the effects of the rate of heating and cooling on the connection. The results show that care needs to be taken as to how the concrete slab is represented in the model. The heating and cooling rates affect the beam stress distribution, peak temperatures, and peak displacements, but not the peak beam axial force. Also, the cooling phase creates large tensile forces in the connection which can lead to failure.


Since 1941, six Executive Orders have been issued forbidding Federal government contractors from discriminating against minority workers. In principle, all prospective contractors are required to demonstrate compliance with the law before a contract is let. The potential penalties are severe: failure to comply with the law may result in revocation of current contracts and suspension of the right to bid on future contracts. Despite these provisions, doubts have been raised about the effectiveness of the Orders. Defenders of the Orders cite cases in which contract award dates have been postponed until firms have taken steps toward compliance with the law. In this paper, we investigate these competing claims using data from 40,445 establishments sampled in 1966 and 1970. In the first section of this paper, we distinguish what can be measured from what cannot. We develop a framework to measure and interpret program effects. In the second section we discuss the design of our sample and present results of an analysis of the randomness of this sample. In the third and concluding section, we present the estimates and discuss their plausibility.


Analyzing the Nisei Week Festival in Los Angeles, Lon Kurashige provides an important account of this community institution, which "reveals the false dichotomy between assimilation and ethnic retention". As the title implies, this book traces not just the celebrations but also the ever-present conflicts within Little Tokyo, thus contradicting any simplistic view of the assimilation of the community.
Through a beautifully written narrative that integrates individual life stories with more formal documentary research, Kurashige argues that Nisei Week represented more than just a reflection of Japanese American relations with the larger dominant society. It is also a window into understanding how class and gender evolved across the festival's history.


Synchrotron X–ray reticulography measures lattice–plane orientation variations point by point on the crystal with microradian resolution capability. A fine–scale X–ray–absorbing mesh placed close to the crystal in the back–reflected diffracted beam of 'white' X–rays splits the beam into an array of microbeams whose direction differences are measured from the mesh–bar shadow shifts that result from controlled changes of the distance between the mesh and the recording high–resolution photographic plate. In the present work, lattice tilts were measured on either side of a growth–sector boundary outcropping at the surface of a single–crystal synthetic diamond cut and polished parallel to (110) in which the displacements and strains due to lattice–parameter mismatch at coherent growth–sector boundaries have been analysed in part I. Attention was concentrated on a crystallographically well–defined planar segment of a boundary separating two sectors, each of uniform, but significantly differing, concentration of substitutional nitrogen impurity, and for which the anisotropic elasticity theory of part I provided quantitative relations between the lattice–parameter relative difference, Δa0/ā0, and the lattice tilts due to coherency strains at the boundary. This enabled a novel method for determining Δa0/ā0 to be realized, using reticulographic measurements of tilts of near–surface lattice planes alone. The paper explains the reticulographic technique fully. Factors affecting the quality and reliability of reticulographic records are examined in detail. For the growth sectors concerned, the reticulographic measurement Δa0/ā0 = (1.10 ± 0.10) × 10−5 is in accord with an earlier finding by synchrotron X–ray double–crystal diffractometry, slightly revised as recommended in part I, Δa0/ā0 = (1.20 ± 0.07) × 10−5. The closeness of the findings by two quite different methods confirms the conclusion from X–ray topography that the growth–sector boundary was free from misfit dislocations compensating the lattice–parameter mismatch. On mismatch boundaries in crystals too highly absorbing for transmission X–ray topography, such comparisons of reticulographic and diffractometric measurements would reveal information otherwise inaccessible by non–destructive methods.


When Mateo punches a classmate for no apparent reason on the school bus, it's the first sign that mind-controlling alien leeches are invading Earth. Margot, the new kid, knows she has to help Mateo (who's mostly just annoyed that the alien Margot removes from the back of his neck has ruined his vintage pink polo) to save West Cove and the world. Short chapters make for a brisk pace as Margot, a freestyle wrestling prodigy, and Mateo quickly piece together an alien mystery from the sudden appearance of a beached whale that's made the whole town reek for days and the increasingly peculiar behavior of people around town. The genuine rapport the two middle-schoolers develop along the way gives this story a surprising amount of heart, and their friendship is strengthened by occasional bickering: Margot regularly calls out Mateo for his desperate people-pleasing and indecisiveness, and Mateo thinks Margot's smart, tough loner routine is a snobbish defense. After seemingly putting an end to the alien plot of world domination, the final act of the novel has the two in the lead roles of Romeo and Juliet, progressing through the play while also reflecting on their adventure and newly developed relationship. In the end, Margot sidesteps the awkwardness of the finale's staged kiss by deciding her Juliet and Mateo's Romeo would, instead of dying together before the curtain, leave the stage as just friends and hurry off to blow up the beached whale and the alien eggs housed in its carcass. The book's wacky humor and explosive action will appeal to fans of quirky science fiction, and even non-SF readers will appreciate the charming young heroes. WJ


Microbial community compositions and functions of freshwater ecosystems vary due to the environmental parameters and water chemistry. Transient bloom events play a crucial role on the community profiles. In this study, a specific focus was set to provide a snapshot of the bacterial community composition in Lake Sapanca, associated with cyanobacterial bloom by high throughput sequencing method. For this purpose, a sample was collected in the shore of Lake Sapanca during a cyanobacterial bloom, and the bacterial community profile was examined by 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing using the Illumina MiSeq platform. Cyanobacteria represented 94% of the all reads. The bacterial community was re-calculated to evaluate the bacterial diversity in detail by filtering cyanobacterial sequences. The community was dominated by Proteobacteria (44%) and Bacteroidetes (33%) species which are abundant in freshwater ecosystems having an ability to degrade complex organics. Among the classified genera, Flavobacterium and Rheinheimera dominated the bacterial community suggesting a strong link between those species and the cyanobacterial bloom. The experimental work presented here provides one of the first investigations of total bacterial communities in Lake Sapanca by the high throughput sequencing method. Further work is needed with more sampling points and time series to fully understand the bacterial diversity and dynamics.


It is anticipated that both medium- and low-voltage distribution networks will include high level of distributed renewable energy resources, in the future. The high penetration of these resources inevitably can introduce various power quality issues, including; overvoltage and overloading. This book chapter provides the current research state of the art concepts and techniques in dealing with these potential issues. The methods provided in this chapter are based on distributed control approach, tailored and suitable particularly for the future distribution composition. The distributed control strategy is a promising approach to manage and utilise the resources in future distribution networks to effectively deal with grid electric quality issues and requirements. Jointly, utility and customers the owners of the resources in the network are considered as part of a practical coordination strategy in this method. Standard IEEE test system is used for application, and to demonstrate the effectiveness of the method by providing the results.


Until recently, very little was known about medieval shoes. Glimpses in manuscript illustrations and on funerary monuments, with the occasional reference by a contemporary writer, was all that the costume historian had as evidence, not least because leather tends to perish after prolonged contact with air, and very few actual examples survived. In recent years, however, nearly 2,000 shoes, many complete and in near-perfect condition, have been discovered preserved on the north bank of the Thames, and are now housed in the Museum of London. This collection, all from well-dated archaeological contexts, fills this vast gap in knowledge, making it possible to chart precisely the progress of shoe fashion between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries.


A problem in Software Reuse (SR) is to find a software component appropriate to a given requirement. At present this is done by manual browsing through large libraries which is very time consuming and therefore expensi ve. Further to this, if the component is not the same as, but similar to a requirement, the component must be adapted to meet the requirements. This browsing and adaptation requires a skilled user who can comprehend library entries and foresee their application. It is expensive to train users and to produce these documented libraries. The specialised software design domain, chosen in this thesis, is that of Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) programs. FPGAs are user programmable microchips that have many applications including encryption and control. This thesis is concerned with a specific technique for FGPA programming that uses Evolutionary Computing (EC) techniques to synthesize FPGA programs. Evolutionary Computing (EC) techniques are based on natural systems such as the life cycle of living organisms or the formation of crystalline structures. They can generate solutions to problems without the need for complete understanding of the problem. EC has been used to create software programs, and can be used as a knowledge-lean approach for generating libraries of software solutions. EC techniques produce solutions without documentation. To automate SR it has been shown that it is essential to understand the knowledge in the software library. In this thesis techniques for automatically documenting EC produced solutions are illustrated. It is also helpful to understand the principles at work in the reuse process. On examination of large collections of evolved programs it is shown that these programs contain reusable modules. Further to this, it is shown that by studying series of similar software components, principles of scale can be deduced. Case Based Reasoning (CBR) is a problem solving method that reuses old solutions to solve new problems and is an effective method of automatically reusing software libraries. These techniques enable automated creation, documentation and reuse of a software library. This thesis proposes that CBR is a feasible method for the reuse of EC designed FPGA programs. It is shown that EC synthesised FPGA programs can be documented, reused, and adapted to solve new problems, using automated CBR techniques.


This paper reviews recent state interventions in financial crises and draws lessons for crisis management. A number of areas are identified where crisis management could be strengthened, including with regard to the tools and instruments used to involve the private sector in crisis resolution (with a view to reducing the recent enhanced role of official bailouts and the associated moral hazard), to allow for the orderly resolution of systemically important financial firms (to make these firms safe to fail), and with regard to achieving better integration with ex ante macroprudential surveillance. The paper proposes the establishment of high level systemic risk councils (SRCs) in each country with responsibility for overseeing systemic risk in both tranquil times and crisis periods and coordinating the activities of key government ministries, agencies, and the central bank.


It is essential that a solid research base be established to provide a foundation that will enable the field of early childhood teacher education to examine whether, for whom, and in what ways teacher education matters. The purpose of this article is to review several important domains in early childhood teacher education to illustrate the characteristics, key features, and significant gaps in current research, and to identify the kinds of research that are most needed to enhance the impact of early childhood teacher education. We conclude by identifying five crosscutting research priorities and describing what is needed to create a supportive environment that produces—and implements—early childhood teacher education research.


We present a comprehensive first-principles study of the ballistic transport properties of low-dimensional nanostructures such as linear chains of atoms (Al, C) and carbon nanotubes in the presence of defects. An approach is introduced where quantum conductance is computed from the combination of accurate plane-wave electronic structure calculations, the evaluation of the corresponding maximally localized Wannier functions, and the calculation of transport properties by a real-space Green's function method based on the Landauer formalism. This approach is computationally very efficient, can be straightforwardly implemented as a post-processing step in a standard electronic-structure calculation, and allows us to directly link the electronic transport properties of a device to the nature of the chemical bonds, providing insight onto the mechanisms that govern electron flow at the nanoscale.


Abstract Dilute aqueous solutions of three different calcium salts have been compared for their effectiveness as wash treatments for stabilizing the cellulose of paper objects. Treated paper samples were evaluated for chemical changes resulting from the treatment and from subsequent accelerated thermal aging. The extent of alkaline damage of the treated sheets was found to be insignificant even for photo-oxidized papers. The treatments slowed the deterioration of the paper during thermal aging, but eventually the protective benefit weakened. Neutralization of acid in the sheets had a greater stabilizing effect on the paper than did the presence of calcium. Dilute alkaline calcium washes were less effective in retarding degradation of photo-oxidized papers than the same washes of unoxidized sheets. Chemical reduction of the photo-oxidized paper followed by washing with the dilute alkaline calcium solution was very effective at slowing its deterioration during thermal aging. Treatment with the dilute alkaline calcium solution also slowed photo-oxidation of paper during exposure to near-ultraviolet radiation.


Beginning farmers are a critical demographic in the context of a dwindling farm population in the United States. Research has shown that beginning farmers differ from established farmers in demographic parameters, farm size, education, and access to land. It is important to understand whether these differences play out in natural resource management. In this paper, we examine how beginning farmers in the western United States defined, prioritized, and practiced water conservation during a period of water scarcity. We used a survey to assess farmer engagement with water conservation practices and binary logistic regression to test the role of various predictor variables for explaining farmer engagement with these conservation practices. The majority of respondents were organic growers with an average of 4.6 years of experience in agriculture. Respondents reported using irrigation improvements, soil health practices, and experimentation with drought-tolerant crops in response to drought conditions. Approaches for improving soil were the most frequently cited means of water conservation. Binary logistic regression revealed that a sense of stewardship and education level played significant and positive roles in predicting respondents' use of both building soil organic matter and using pressure irrigation as water conservation strategies. Understanding how beginning farmers engage in water conservation is key to supporting increased conservation engagement for this population.


Objective: The aim of this research was to investigate the effect of acceptance and commitment therapy and Metacognitive treatment on improvement the symptoms in women with obsessive-compulsive disorder in Khorramabad city. Methods: For this study, 45 women with obsessivecompulsive disorder in the city of Khorramabad were selected by convenience sampling and were randomly assigned in experimental and control groups using the quasi-experimental research of pretest-posttest design (15 people were in the experimental group based on the acceptance and commitment therapy, 15 people were in the meta cognitive treatment experimental group and 15 people were in the control group) The Maudsley Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory (1980) was used. The data were analyzed by ANOVA. Results: The ANOVA findings showed that there is a significant difference between the groups (p<0.001). Also, the results of the post hoc test showed that the difference between the groups based on the acceptance and commitment therapy and meta cognitive treatment and the control group was significant (p<0.001), while the experimental groups had no meaningful differences (p>0.05). Conclusion: One of the causes of obsessive thoughts and actions in adults is the weakness in setting up cognitive skills, therefore, Meta cognitive treatments and acceptance and commitment therapy are useful treatment ways for starting appropriate mechanisms to recognize inappropriate thoughts for improving symptoms of this disorder.


Social work research into migration issues has developed slowly in recent years, however research on this topic is not extensive. Whereas after the first PISA study in 2000, migration has become a major focus of research in education, the range of migration-related topics within social work research re-mains small, resulting in a limited contribution to social work knowledge from migrant peoples them-selves. Given the increasing emphasis on social work as a global endeavour: for example, work by Guru (2010); Hugman et al (2010); Negi and Furman (2010); Reutlinger et al. (2010); Homfeldt et al. (2007); this apparent lack of research interest is surprising. In addition, there is very little personal and institutional continuity in empirical research in the different fields of social work and very few comparative international research studies. In social work theory migration is not widely explored or discussed; basic terms and concepts, e.g. 'migration' itself, are often not clear in its meaning and fit for social work theory. For social work theory and practice it is essential that some agreement on concepts and terminology can be reached concerning who is it who wants to describe them-self/themselves as a migrant person/migrant people; who might need to be described thus or ad-dressed as a migrant person and who not, for example, members of the 2nd, 3rd, … Xth generation. And also by focusing on local and national situations, it is often not so clear what meaning migration really has for social work practice and what knowledge and competences are needed to respond to migration issues. By focusing on local and national situations there is also the question, for example in migrant families: Who belongs to that family and who not? What are the geographical areas which are connected with each other by family network relations and how and for what do they work with each other? For social work there is also the question how to address not only individuals but as well migrant families and migrant communities, including also communities from which migrant peoples move. This paper focuses on social work research into migration issues for young people and presents findings from a systematic literature review. Based on this review and with reference to their own research, the authors discuss and analyze some of the difficulties in social work research into migration with young people which can be identified and what the possible contribution of international comparative research might be in developing and improving social work knowledge and practice with migrant peoples and sharing that knowledge across national and international boundaries. This paper is based on the co-operation of both authors in research, beginning in 2004.


OBJECTIVE
To review indications, contraindications, and risks of using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in order to help primary care physicians refer patients appropriately for MRI, screen for contraindications to using MRI, and educate patients about MRI.

QUALITY OF EVIDENCE
Recommendations are based on classic textbooks, the policies of our MRI group, and a literature search using MEDLINE with the MeSH headings magnetic resonance imaging, brain, musculoskeletal, and spine. The search was limited to human, English-language, and review articles. Evidence in favour of using MRI for imaging the head, spine, and joints is well established. For cardiac, abdominal, and pelvic conditions, MRI has been shown useful for certain indications, usually to complement other modalities.

MAIN MESSAGE
For demonstrating soft tissue conditions, MRI is better than computed tomography (CT), but CT shows bone and acute bleeding better. Therefore, patients with trauma or suspected intracranial bleeding should have CT. Tumours, congenital abnormalities, vascular structures, and the cervical or thoracic spine show better on MRI. Either modality can be used for lower back pain. Cardiac, abdominal, and pelvic abnormalities should be imaged with ultrasound or CT before MRI. Contraindications for MRI are mainly metallic implants or shrapnel, severe claustrophobia, or obesity.

CONCLUSIONS
With the increasing availability of MRI scanners in Canada, better understanding of the indications, contraindications, and risks will be helpful for family physicians and their patients.


Although many decisions in the home are made together, between partners and within families, most digital applications for interior design are geared towards single user operation. In this paper, we present the results of a first look into how couples design together and how that is different from how professional designers collaborate in teams. Based on prior art in collaborative design, we developed a shelf design application that runs on multiple and synchronized tablets and includes a projector that projects the design real-time and real-scale in the living room. We asked pairs of participants to design with the application using two tablets in a single shared design space and using two tablets with both private and shared design spaces. The initial results with three couples in their homes reveal how they design together which might help future design applications for at home.


Bridge deck crack surveys were performed on twelve bridges on US-59 south of Lawrence, Kansas, to determine the effects of mixture proportions, concrete properties, deck type, and girder type on the crack density of reinforced concrete bridge decks. Of the twelve decks surveyed, eight are supported by prestressed concrete girders and four are supported by steel girders. Four of the decks supported by prestressed girders are cast on partial-depth precast deck panels, two are monolithic with synthetic fibers, and two have overlays. Of the four decks supported by steel girders, two have silica fume overlays (SFO) and two are monolithic. One of two decks with a silica fume overlay contains synthetic fibers in the overlay. Following the surveys, crack maps were plotted and analyzed and cracking trends were observed. The results for the US-59 bridge decks are compared with crack densities obtained in a study of low-cracking high-performance concrete (LC-HPC) bridge decks. The monolithic concrete bridge decks supported by prestressed concrete girders within this study exhibit less cracking than decks supported by steel girders. At an age of approximately three and a half years, the US-59 monolithic decks supported by prestressed girders with deck panels are not displaying significant cracking; most of the cracks are short transverse cracks aligned with the joints between the deck panels. The US-59 decks supported by prestressed girders with overlays exhibit significantly more cracking than the decks on prestressed girders without overlays. Bridge decks supported by steel girders without overlays have slightly higher crack densities than the decks with overlays. No benefits of using fibers in either the overlay or deck have been observed in this study, the sample size, however, is small. An increase in crack density was observed with an increase in average concrete slump for decks supported by both prestressed and steel girders. Decks with deck panels supported by prestressed girders exhibited an increased crack density with an increase in paste content. .


We present our recent and ongoing work on applying deep learning techniques to spoken language understanding (SLU) problems. The previously developed deep convex network (DCN) is extended to its kernel version (K-DCN) where the number of hidden units in each DCN layer approaches infinity using the kernel trick. We report experimental results demonstrating dramatic error reduction achieved by the K-DCN over both the Boosting-based baseline and the DCN on a domain classification task of SLU, especially when a highly correlated set of features extracted from search query click logs are used. Not only can DCN and K-DCN be used as a domain or intent classifier for SLU, they can also be used as local, discriminative feature extractors for the slot filling task of SLU. The interface of K-DCN to slot filling systems via the softmax function is presented. Finally, we outline an end-to-end learning strategy for training the softmax parameters (and potentially all DCN and K-DCN parameters) where the learning objective can take any performance measure (e.g. the F-measure) for the full SLU system.


Abstract Mycorrhiza is a symbiotic relationship between living cells of the roots of higher plants and non-pathogenic fungi which inhabit soil and belong to Glomeromycota (endomycorrhizae) and Basidiomycota, Ascomycota (ectomycorrhizae). Although the phenomenon of mycorrhiza was discovered by a Polish botanist F.D. Kamieński already in 1881, various stages of establishing the symbiotic relationship between the partners are still not fully understood and explained. According to the current knowledge, the roots of host plants release strigolactones, which stimulate germination and branching of spores of arbuscular fungi. As a result, the fungi synthesize molecular signals, i.e. chitooligosaccharides (COs) and lipochitooligosaccharides (LCOS), called MycF factors. Thanks to the development of molecular biology techniques the probable cascade of events during the recognition of fungal MycF factor by the host-plant has been outlined. The enzyme 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase 1 (HMGR1) and also its product, mevalonic acid (MVA), play an essential role in the biosynthesis of sterols and isoprenoids in a plant cell. The recent studies indicate that these compounds may also play a very important role during establishing of the symbiotic mycorrhizal relationship. It is believed that MVA detects and transmits MycF factor to a cell nucleus of a host-plant triggering numerous necessary mechanisms in the plant cell to activate next steps of the mycorrhizal symbiosis. The discovery of HMGR1 and MVA sheds new light on symbiotic nature of mycorrhiza. This paper is a review of the current knowledge on the signal exchange during symbiotic interactions between mycorrhizal fungi and host plants. 1. Introduction. 2. Symbiotic nature of arbuscular fungi. 3. Arbuscular mycorrhiza in early stages. 4. Exchange of signaling molecules during arbuscular mycorrhiza formation. 5. Mevalonic acid – secondary signaling molecule messengers in the arbuscular mycorrhiza. 6. Protein kinase CCaMK as a key element in the establishment of arbuscular mycorrhiza. 7. Summary


It is difficult to estimate how much distributed generation (DG) capacity will be connected to distribution systems in the coming years; however, it is certain that increasing penetration levels require robust tools that help assess the capabilities and requirements of the networks in order to produce the best planning and control strategies. The work of this Task Force is focused on the numerous strategies and methods that have been developed in recent years to address DG integration and planning. This paper contains a critical review of the work in this field. Although there have been numerous publications in this area, widespread implementation of the methods has not taken place. The barriers to implementation of the advanced techniques are outlined, highlighting why network operators have been slow to pick up on the research to date. Furthermore, key challenges ahead which remain to be tackled are also described, many of which have come into clear focus with the current drive towards smarter distribution networks.


The Special Feature led by Sutherland, Dicks, Everard, and Geneletti (Methods Ecology and Evolution, 9, 7–9, 2018) sought to highlight the importance of "qualitative methods" for conservation. The intention is welcome, and the collection makes many important contributions. Yet, the articles presented a limited perspective on the field, with a focus on objectivist and instrumental methods, omitting discussion of some broader philosophical and methodological considerations crucial to social science research. Consequently, the Special Feature risks narrowing the scope of social science research and, potentially, reducing its quality and usefulness. In this article, we seek to build on the strengths of the articles of the Special Feature by drawing in a discussion on social science research philosophy, methodology, and methods. We start with a brief discussion on the value of thinking about data as being qualitative (i.e., text, image, or numeric) or quantitative (i.e., numeric), not methods or research. Thinking about methods as qualitative can obscure many important aspects of research design by implying that "qualitative methods" somehow embody a particular set of assumptions or principles. Researchers can bring similar, or very different, sets of assumptions to their research design, irrespective of whether they collect qualitative or quantitative data. We clarify broad concepts, including philosophy, methodology, and methods, explaining their role in social science research design. Doing so provides us with an opportunity to examine some of the terms used across the articles of the Special Feature (e.g., bias), revealing that they are used in ways that could be interpreted as being inconsistent with their use in a number of applications of social science. We provide worked examples of how social science research can be designed to collect qualitative data that not only understands decision‐making processes, but also the unique social–ecological contexts in which it takes place. These examples demonstrate the importance of coherence between philosophy, methodology, and methods in research design, and the importance of reflexivity throughout the research process. We conclude with encouragement for conservation social scientists to explore a wider range of qualitative research approaches, providing guidance for the selection and application of social science methods for ecology and conservation.


Somatostatin can suppress the growth of various tumor cells including colonic cancer. Activated Wnt/ beta-catenin signaling pathway plays a critical role in tumorgenesis and development of colorectal cancer. However, the effect of somatostatin on Wnt/beta-catenin signaling pathway remains unknown. Thus, we investigated the effect of octreotide on Wnt/beta-catenin signaling pathway in human colonic cancer cell SW480. The results of 3-(4,5-imethyl thiazol-2-yl)-2, 5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide (MTT) and flow cytometric assays showed that octreotide inhibited growth, induced apoptosis and arrested the G1 cell cycle of SW480 cells in a dose-dependent manner. We demonstrated that octreotide significally up-regulated and down-regulated 13 genes and 17 genes in Wnt/beta-catenin signaling using microarray, respectively. Furthermore, as evidenced by western blot, beta-catenin protein level decreased, whereas phosphorylated beta-catenin protein level increased under octreotide. The present study reveals that octreotide can inhibit human colonic cancer cell growth through inhibition of Wnt/beta-catenin signaling pathway.


Incentive pay is a key component of management strategy, and yet field evidence on the impacts of both individual and team incentives is limited to studies carried out in high-income countries. The mechanisms that lie behind individual responses to incentives go far beyond rational considerations of wage maximization, and encompass concerns for social visibility, preferences for collective work and other behavioral norms. These norms tend to vary by culture, potentially creating considerable heterogeneity in responses to incentives across countries. We present evidence from a field experiment designed to evaluate the impact of individual and group monetary incentives and individual and group rank incentives in Accra, Ghana. We precisely estimate that, contrary to earlier findings in other settings, these incentives have no impact on productivity, work quality and firm profitability. The findings indicate that more research is needed to shed light on the cultural characteristics of the setting that determines whether performance pay is effective. † We are indebted to Michael Goodwin and Alex Nisichenko for outstanding project management and research assistance during the course of this project.


Title of Dissertation: Integrated Measurement Technique To Measure Curing Process-dependent Mechanical And Thermal Properties Of Polymeric Materials Using Fiber Bragg Grating Sensors Yong Wang, Doctor of Philosophy, 2009 Dissertation directed by: Professor Bongtae Han Department of Mechanical Engineering An innovative technique based on a fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensor is proposed to measure the critical mechanical and thermal properties of polymeric materials. The properties include (1) chemical shrinkage evolution during curing, (2) modulus evolution during curing, (3) glass transition temperature (4) coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE), and (5) visco-elastic properties. Optimum specimen configurations are proposed from the theoretical analysis. Then an efficient numerical procedure is established to determine the material properties from the measured Bragg wavelength (BW) shift. The technique is implemented with various polymeric materials. The measured quantities are verified through a self-consistency test as well as the existing testing methods such as a warpage measurement of a bi-material strip, and a TMA measurement. The evolution properties obtained at a curing temperature are extended further by combining them with the conventional isothermal DSC experiments. Based on the existing theories, the evolution properties can be predicted at any temperatures. The proposed technique greatly enhances the capability to characterize the mechanical properties and behavior of polymeric materials. Since the specimen preparation is very straightforward, the proposed method can be routinely practiced and the measurement can be completely automated. It will provide a much-needed tool for rapid but accurate assessment of polymer properties, which, in turn, will enhance the accuracy of predictive modeling for design optimization of a microelectronics product at the conceptual stage of product development. Integrated Measurement Technique to Measure Curing Process-dependent Mechanical and Thermal Properties of Polymeric Materials Using Fiber Bragg Grating Sensors


Abstract The objective of this work was to study how chemical composition of the flours, physical properties of doughs, and the processing conditions during baking were related to variability in the bread loaf characteristics using partial least squares regression analyses. Sifted flours from eight wheats were characterised and physical properties of doughs were measured. Bread loaves were baked using a small-scale, hearth loaf baking procedure with variable mixing and fermentation conditions. The chemical composition of flour samples and the physical properties of the doughs contributed more to the explanation of the variability in the bread loaf properties than did the baking process. The HMW-GS and the protein content explained much of the variation along the first two PLS-factors. Dough resistance to extension and Mixogram peak height correlated strongly with loaf height and the height/width along the first PLS-factor, whereas the dough extensibility correlated negatively. The total flour lipid content and some of the fatty acids of the total lipid fraction also varied along the first PLS-factor. The fibre components of the flours and the composition of the NSP fraction were mostly expressed along PLS-factor 2 and the subsequent PLS-factors.


Major political and economic events of the 1980s such as the international debt crisis, the 1982 Falklands War, the return to democratic rule in a number of countries, and the prolonged crisis in Central America, focused great attention on the U.S. and its dealings in Latin America. In this volume, experts from Latin America, the United States and Europe offer profound insights on the state of U.S.-Latin American relations, external debt and capital flows, trade relations, democracy, human rights, migration, and security during the 1980s.


In this work we investigate some computational aspects of the eigenvalue calculation with edge elements, those include: the importance of the grid generator and node-edge numbering. As the examples show, the sparse structure of the mass and stiffness matrices is highly influenced by the edge numbering of the different grid generators tested. Significant bandwidth reduction can be obtained by the proper combination of the edge numbering scheme with the grid generator method. Moreover, an ordering algorithm such as the Reverse Cuthill-McKee can improve the bandwidth reduction which is necessary to reduce storage requirements.


This study conducted at Gardarash station, College of Agriculture in collaboration Directorate of Agricultural Research–Erbil during June and July, 2014. A total of 92 roosters were belongs to three local lines and their main and reciprocal crosses with ISA brown. The semen collected with abdominal massage technique into tube maintained at 38-39C. Volume, pH and colour score of the semen were recorded. The wave patterns, individual motility, percentages of live/dead and abnormal/normal sperms were evaluated by using Eosin/Nigrosine stains under light microscope. Length and width of wattles were measured using Digital Caliper while the colour of wattles score recorded visually. SAS program used to study the effect of genetic groups and age of roosters on studied traits. The above traits were reanalyzed to study their affects by colour of semen and by colour of wattles. Duncan Multiple Range Test conducted to diagnosing the significance differences between the means of the levels of each factor. Correlation coefficients among the studied traits were calculated. Overall mean of ejaculate volume, sperm concentration, live sperms, abnormal sperms, mass motility, individual motility and pH value were 0.369 (ml), 4.47 (n*10)/ml, 91.35%, 12.01%, 68.40%, 75.60% and 7.12 respectively. There were significant differences among genetic groups in ejaculated volume, sperm concentration, abnormal sperm%, mass motility% and individual motility% only. Effect of age of roosters was significant on mass and individual motility only. Higher negative and significant correlation was between abnormal sperm with live sperm (-0.49), while the higher positive and significant correlation was between mass motility and individual motility (0.95). Overall means of wattle length and width were 55.61 and 46.46 (mm) respectively. The genetic group (local black with brown neck) excelled the other pure and crossed genetic groups significantly in their wattle length and width. Effect of age of roosters found to be not significant on both traits. The correlation between length and width of the wattles was highly significant (0.79). Roosters with creamy semen was significantly better than roosters with watery semen in ejaculate volume, sperm concentration, abnormal sperms and mass motility, while the roosters with milky semen had moderate values. The differences in all semen parameters according to the colour of wattles were not significant. Roosters having brown wattles had significantly greater length and width comparing with those having redden white wattles. Conclusion: The semen parameters must be evaluated individually. The results obtained from this study will help to do some further researches on freezing of semen roosters and artificial insemination. Key-Words: Poultry Genetic Groups, Age, Semen Parameters, Wattles Measurements.


This study explored the Malay's and Chinese's values and norms of the English compliments. This study aimed at studying the similarities and differences of the compliment response strategies employed by them. The similarities and differences were analyzed based on the Holmes (1988) compliment response strategies categories. From the qualitative and quantitative analysis conducted, the common linguistic features of the compliment responses structured by both races were then examined. Those are the three aims of this study which were achieved by taking the MSU students as the participants. Each respondent was given a discourse completion task (DCT) exercise and asked to write their responses based on the stated situations. Through the analysis carried out, it is revealed that the Malays and Chinese exhibited some similarities; it is observed that they tended to accept/reject the compliments on a personal achievement and belonging close to a person yet accepted or deflected/evaded the compliment on a skill. On the other hand, a few differences were also shown. It is revealed that the Malays and Chinese accepted the compliments on a job well done and a personal achievement respectively. Moreover, it is also examined that the Malays rejected the compliment on a personal achievement yet Chinese opted for the same strategy for the compliment on a belonging close to a person. Besides, it is also revealed that the Malays deflected/evaded the compliment on a non-personal item close to a person yet Chinese did the same for the compliment on a skill. From the analysis of the similarities and differences, three common linguistic features of the compliment responses were found; a variety of thank you was written when they opted for the appreciation token strategy, the word 'no' was chosen to indicate rejection and the word 'really' was used in expressing their deflection/evasion to the compliments. All these significant findings are beneficial to those who frequently engage in intercultural communications. In return, they will be able to hold conversations without fear of causing any misunderstandings and communication breakdowns especially when they take part in the act of complimenting with Malays and Chinese, since this study presents some socio cultural and pragmatic knowledge of the Malay and Chinese compliment responses.


This research explores the learning journey that was traveled by the two administrators who joined a non-governmental organisation as novices over ten years ago almost fresh from school and are now regarded as experts in their respective positions. The research attempts to describe the nature of their learning and analyse how they became the knowledgeable in their respective posts. The research is a qualitative study that analyses data obtained through interviewing the key subjects (the administrators) and the chief executive officer (CEO) of the organisation as well as the self narrative as compiled by the administrators. This research questions formalised learning as the only form of acquiring knowledge and accordingly adopted workplace learning as a theoretical framework for the study. Workplace learning stresses that knowledge is not limited to formalised settings such as schools, colleges and universities. Rather, knowledge is also constructed in informal and non-formal settings such as work-places and in families. The study found that the administrators drew on many learning strategies to acquire their knowledge and skills related to administration which includes learning through: • The teachings and support of their supervisors and peers; • Collaboration with peers and working as a team; • Seeking advice from their mentors, coaches and peers; • Modeling • Workplace affordances. The study concluded that indeed formalised learning has not been the only form of acquiring knowledge for the subjects but workplace learning has played a vital role in their career development.


This thesis studies the impact of geographic mobility on the decision of a household to whether to buy or to rent a house, and sheds light on the efficiency of mortgage default prevention policies. The first chapter provides an introduction and an overview of the ongoing policy debates on homeownership and mortgage terms. In the second and third chapters, I study the housing tenure decision in the context of a life cycle model with uninsurable individual income risk, plausibly calibrated to match key features of the U.S. housing market. I find that the relatively low ownership rate of young households is mainly explained by their high geographic mobility. Downpayment constraints have minor quantitative implications on ownership rates, except for old households. I also find that idiosyncratic earnings uncertainty has a significant impact on ownership rates. Based on these results, I argue that the long term increase in ownership rates observed over the period 1993-2009 was not necessarily due to mortgage market innovations and the relaxation of downpayment requirements, as is often argued. Instead, it was simply an implication of U.S. demographic evolution, most notably the decline in interstate migration and, less importantly, population aging. Finally, in Chapter 4, I study the impact of the relaxation of downpayment requirement on homeownership and default risk. Given its quantitative success in matching the U.S. homeownership curve, my model represents a reasonable benchmark to asses the efficiency of mortgage default prevention policies. I find that both income and mobility are the main trigger factors for default decisions. In fact, households with a higher mobility (ie. young households) rate are more likely to default. According to the welfare analysis, I suggest that policymakers include a minimum downpayment requirement of 9.5% in the new definition of the Qualified Residential Mortgage. This number should, however, be viewed with some caution, since I focus on a steady state economy, in which house prices are constant. In fact, the house price represents an important factor influencing the default rate. Potentially, the optimal minimum downpayment requirement should be set at higher value than 9.5%.


The ability to represent conditional information is central to human cognition. In two self-paced reading experiments we investigated how readers process counterfactual conditionals (e.g., If Darren had been athletic, he could probably have played on the rugby team) and indicative conditionals (e.g., If Darren is athletic, he probably plays on the rugby team). In Experiment 1 we focused on how readers process counterfactual conditional sentences. We found that processing of the antecedent of counterfactual conditionals was rapidly constrained by prior context (i.e., knowing whether Darren was or was not athletic). A reading-time penalty was observed for the critical region of text comprising the last word of the antecedent and the first word of the consequent when the information in the antecedent did not fit with prior context. In Experiment 2 we contrasted counterfactual conditionals with indicative conditionals. For counterfactual conditionals we found the same effect on the critical region as we found in Experiment 1. In contrast, however, we found no evidence that processing of the antecedent of indicative conditionals was constrained by prior context. For indicative conditionals (but not for counterfactual conditionals), the results we report are consistent with the suppositional account of conditionals. We propose that current theories of conditionals need to be able to account for online processing differences between indicative and counterfactual conditionals.


The programming language Oz integrates the paradigms of imperative, functional and concurrent constraint programming in a computational framework of unprecedented breadth, featuring stateful programming through cells, lexically scoped higher-order programming, and explicit concurrency synchronized by logic variables. Object-oriented programming is another paradigm that provides a set of concepts useful in software practice. In this thesis we address the question how object-oriented programming can be suitably supported in Oz. As a lexically scoped higher-order language, Oz can express a wide range of object-oriented concepts. We present a simple yet expressive object system, demonstrate its usability and outline an efficient implementation. A central aspect of Oz is its support for concurrent computation. We examine the impact of concurrency on the design of an object system and explore the use of objects in concurrent programming.


Silver-haired bats (Lasionycteris noctivagans) were thought only to migrate through Nebraska; however, recent surveys in eastern Nebraska report summer records of females and their young. Our study in western Nebraska also shows that silver-haired bats are summer residents. We discovered the 1st reproductively active L. noctivagans in this part of the state. We caught lactating females and volant young in riparian forests along the North Platte River and in forested areas of the Pine Ridge. Previously, adult males were not known from Nebraska in summer, and only 4 records of L. noctivagans were known from western Nebraska during migration. On 28 July we captured an adult male in a coniferous forest of the Wildcat Hills, and we have more than 100 records of migrating individuals. Lastly, an obese L. noctivagans captured on 4 November may represent an individual preparing to hibernate in the state.


Engine induced sound and vibration levels in boats for professional and leisure use is in many cases unacceptably high in term of comfort and the environment. Classical methods for passive treatment are normally less effective due to the low frequency content and often leads to an increase in weight. This contradicts the requirements for lower weight for increased speed. More efficient vibration damping methods must therefore be found. With active engine mounts, it is possible to achieve a decrease in the vibrations even when the hull is not very stiff. This is especially important in marine applications since the engines are mounted on weak and light structures. The AVIIS project aims at investigating the effects of a combined passive/active engine mount for use in boats. A Storebro 36 Royal Cruiser with two Volvo Penta engines has been used in the project. Four different approaches have been appraised, the results of which are presented here: 1. passive engine mounts, with and without thrust bearings, 2. optimized passive engine mounts, 3. passive engine mounts, rigidly mounted, 4. A combined active/passive engine mount. This paper reports the key data from the measurements and how the different primary sources have been estimated from the analysis. This analysis has then been used to select the ANVC approach.


We investigated the effect of elevated partial pressure of CO2 (pCO2) on the photosynthesis and growth of four phylotypes (ITS2 types A1, A13, A2, and B1) from the genus Symbiodinium, a diverse dinoflagellate group that is important, both free‐living and in symbiosis, for the viability of cnidarians and is thus a potentially important model dinoflagellate group. The response of Symbiodinium to an elevated pCO2 was phylotype‐specific. Phylotypes A1 and B1 were largely unaffected by a doubling in pCO2; in contrast, the growth rate of A13 and the photosynthetic capacity of A2 both increased by ~ 60%. In no case was there an effect of ocean acidification (OA) upon respiration (dark‐ or light‐dependent) for any of the phylotypes examined. Our observations suggest that OA might preferentially select among free‐living populations of Symbiodinium, with implications for future symbioses that rely on algal acquisition from the environment (i.e., horizontal transmission). Furthermore, the carbon environment within the host could differentially affect the physiology of different Symbiodinium phylotypes. The range of responses we observed also highlights that the choice of species is an important consideration in OA research and that further investigation across phylogenetic diversity, for both the direction of effect and the underlying mechanism(s) involved, is warranted.


Aim/Purpose: Cyberbullying (CB) is an ongoing phenomenon that affects youth in negative ways. Using online news articles to provide information to schools can help with the development of comprehensive cyberbullying prevention campaigns, and in restoring faith in news reporting. The inclusion of online news also allows for increased awareness of cybersafety issues for youth.

Background: CB is an inherent problem of information delivery and security. Textual analysis provides input into prevention and training efforts to combat the issue.

Methodology: Text extraction and text analysis methods of term and concept extraction; text link analysis and sentiment analysis are performed on a body of news articles.

Contribution: News articles are determined to be a major source of information for comprehensive cyberbullying prevention campaigns.

Findings: Online news articles are relatively neutral in their sentiment; terms and topic extraction provide fertile ground for information presentation and context.

Recommendation for Researchers: Researchers should seek support for research projects that extract timely information from online news articles.

Future Research: Refinement of the terms and topics analytic model, as well as a system development approach for information extraction of online CB news.


This article explores what happens when Congress attempts to smooth out the "square corners" of the tax code with notions of equity, but does so with an inadequate understanding of, or appreciation for, the problems of tax administration. In the Internal Revenue Service Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998 (RRA 98), Congress revised the rules contained in IRC Section 6015 for spouses to obtain relief from joint and several liability reported in a prior jointly filed tax return. In a prior article - titled "Between a Rock and a Hard Place" and also posted on SSRN - I showed how Congress failed to give the Tax Court jurisdiction under 6015(e) to review IRS denials of section 6015(f) equitable relief in nondeficiency cases. This article takes a broader look at that same jurisdictional problem, to fully examine the full interplay of its substantive provisions with tax procedure. In RRA 98, Congress increased the scope of equitable relief from joint and several liability. But the procedures it provided taxpayers who seek that relief are a conceptual and practical mess. The ironic result: In trying to cure old inequities, Congress created new ones. Because of RRA 98, substantive outcomes depend on choice of process.That is not good tax administration. Part I of the article explains the history and theory of joint liability, because to understand the need for equity one needs to understand what corners of the law are too sharp and why. Part II explains how and why the concept of ''innocent spouse'' came into tax, and how that concept - taken from ancient divorce laws - has remained the bedrock idea underlying all forms of joint liability relief enacted since 1971. Part III looks at the mess made by Congress in RRA 98 when it tried to cure the problem of access to court review, but improperly conflated the tax determination process with the tax collection process, creating gaps and traps for taxpayers, no matter how wary they may be. Part III also offers some ideas on what the taxwriters should or could do to fix the mess.


If the bits of computers are someday scaled down to the size of individual atoms, quantum mechanical effects may profoundly change the nature of computation itself. The wave function of such a quantum computer could consist of a superposition of many computations carried out simultaneously; this kind of parallelism could be exploited to make some important computational problems, like the prime factoring of large integers, tractable. However, building such a quantum computer would place undreamed of demands on the experimental realization of highly quantum-coherent systems; present-day experimental capabilities in atomic physics and other fields permit only the most rudimentary implementation of quantum computation.


The anion transport protein of the human erythrocyte membrane, band 3, is reversibly methylated by an endogenous protein carboxyl methyltransferase. The physiological consequence of this modification was studied by measuring the rate ofphosphate transport by intact erythrocytes incubated under conditions where protein methylation reactions are inhibited. No change in phosphate transport was detected when cells were treated with either methionine-free media or cycloleucine, whereas cells incubated with adenosine and homocysteine thiolactone displayed a marginally slower rate of transport, which was not reversed by subsequent remethylation of the membrane proteins. These results suggest that erythrocyte protein carboxyl methylation does not directly regulate this activity of band 3.


Traditional large appliances absorb a large share of residential electricity consumption and represent important targets of energy policy strategies aimed at achieving energy security. Despite being characterized by rather mature technologies, this group of appliances still offers large potential in terms of efficiency gains due to their pervasive diffusion. In this paper we analyse the electricity consumption of a set of four traditional 'white goods' in a panel of ten EU countries observed over 21 years (1990-2010), with the aim of disentangling the amount of technical efficiency from the overall energy saving. The technical efficiency trend is modelled through a set of technology components representing both the invention and adoption process by the means of specific patents weighted by production and bilateral import flows, which allows to overcome the rigid Stochastic Frontier framework in modelling the effect of technical change. Our results show that the derived energy demand and inefficiency trends are both related to changes in the amount of available technology embodied in energy efficient appliances. The effect is significant both in its domestic and international components and suggests an active role of innovation and trade policies for achieving efficiency targets which directly impact the amount of electricity consumed by households.


Single image calibration is the problem of predicting the camera parameters from one image. This problem is of importance when dealing with images collected in uncontrolled conditions by non-calibrated cameras, such as crowd-sourced applications. In this work we propose a method to predict extrinsic (tilt and roll) and intrinsic (focal length and radial distortion) parameters from a single image. We propose a parameterization for radial distortion that is better suited for learning than directly predicting the distortion parameters. Moreover, predicting additional heterogeneous variables exacerbates the problem of loss balancing. We propose a new loss function based on point projections to avoid having to balance heterogeneous loss terms. Our method is, to our knowledge, the first to jointly estimate the tilt, roll, focal length, and radial distortion parameters from a single image. We thoroughly analyze the performance of the proposed method and the impact of the improvements and compare with previous approaches for single image radial distortion correction.


PURPOSE OF REVIEW
Near-miss investigations in high reliability organizations (HROs) aim to mitigate risk and improve system safety. Healthcare settings have a higher rate of near-misses and subsequent adverse events than most high-risk industries, but near-misses are not systematically reported or analyzed. In this review, we will describe the strategies for near-miss analysis that have facilitated a culture of safety and continuous quality improvement in HROs.

RECENT FINDINGS
Near-miss analysis is routine and systematic in HROs such as aviation. Strategies implemented in aviation include the Commercial Aviation Safety Team, which undertakes systematic analyses of near-misses, so that findings can be incorporated into Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). Other strategies resulting from incident analyses include Crew Resource Management (CRM) for enhanced communication, situational awareness training, adoption of checklists during operations, and built-in redundancy within systems.

SUMMARY
Health care organizations should consider near-misses as opportunities for quality improvement. The systematic reporting and analysis of near-misses, commonplace in HROs, can be adapted to health care settings to prevent adverse events and improve clinical outcomes.


In the second half of the twentieth century, Brazilian and Paraguayan 'national' land policies reshaped 'local' social relations in both countries, especially in the eastern region of Paraguay. Between the 1960s and 1970s, the Brazilian land policies implemented to attract internal migrants for the development the central-eastern region followed a pattern of failures that motivated peasants and small farmers to leave the region. In the meantime, Paraguay was introducing a series of land policies to attract Brazilian migrants to develop the eastern side of Paraguay through the development of agriculture. Although Paraguay would achieve its objectives, land policies' changes in the 1980s stimulated Brazilians to leave the country returning to Brazil. As a result of the migration processes led by land policies in both countries, Brazilian migrants returned to Brazil as self-defined Brasiguaios.