A simulation study was performed to compare two regression methods
for competing risks with censored data. The first method was the conventional
Cox's proportional hazard regression model (Cox model). The second method
was based on Cox model using a duplicated data technique of Lunn and McNeil
(or the modified Lunn-McNeil). Samples with various sizes and censoring
percentages were generated and fitted using both methods. This study was
conducted by comparing the inference of both methods, using Root Mean
Square Error (RMSE), the power tests, and the Schoenfeld residuals analysis.
The power tests used in this study were likelihood ratio test, Rao-score test, and
Wald statistics. The Schoenfeld residuals analysis was conducted to check the
proportionality of the model through its covariates. The estimated parameters
were computed for cause-specific hazards. Results showed the RMSE were generally smaller for the model of the modified Lunn-McNeil method than that
of the ordinary Cox method. The power tests of the likelihood ratio statistics
and Rao-score test were only powerful for the unstratified Cox model, so that, it
could be concluded that the model had more advantages than the modified
Lunn-McNeil one. However, results from the analysis of Schoenfeld residuals
indicated that the modified Lunn-McNeil was better than the ordinary Cox in
complying with the proportional hazards model assumption with respect to
certain covariates.


The international workshop "Golden Horn Urban Rehabilitation, Reinventing a Productive  Landscape" was hosted at Istanbul Kultur University (IKU), Turkey, during the dates of  the 4th to 11th July 2011. It counted with the bilateral collaboration of Istanbul Kultur University (IKU), Yildiz Technical University (YTU), Instituto Superior Manuel Teixeira Gomes (ISMAT), in Portugal and Studiomeb. The case study was located in the estuary area of Golden Horn, in Istanbul, and it was centred in the neighbourhoods of Balat, Fener and Haskoy, which are in an advanced process of urban and architectonic degradation. The paper presents our educative research methodology inside the program GreenEngines, developed during three years of continuous collaboration, and shows the  results of our international research cooperation in this specific case study. Our pedagogic research method uses the principles of landscape urbanism, landscape planning, and environmental planning. Our research aim, specifically for this workshop ws to educate students on the professional responsibility to create new sustainable planning alternatives for urban rehabilitation in deteriorated urban areas, and specifically, in the case study of Golden Horn in Istanbul. Our research questions were centred in how to preserve and protect the multicultural and multifunctional character of Golden Horn, evaluating its built and socio-cultural heritage, together with how to regenerate the physical urban tissue, reinventing a new productive landscape. Our research statement considered that to achieve a sustainable urban rehabilitation, it was necessary that the  planning proposals should adapt to the cultural landscape and the local environment, creating a multifunctional character with different actors involved in the same urban context.


Cell-state transition rules of elementary cellular automata (ECAs) are mapped onto the phase space of cognitive control versus schizotypy and CA behavior is interpreted in terms of creativity. To implement the mapping, a definition of creativity proposed by Kuszewski in [1] is quantified by drawing analogies between a degree of schizotypy and the generative diversity of ECA rules, and between cognitive control and robustness of ECA rules (expressed via the Derrida coefficient). It is found that null and fixed-point ECA rules lie in the autistic domain and chaotic rules are schizophrenic. There are no highly articulated creative ECA rules. It is found that two-cycle rules exhibiting wave-like patterns in the space-time evolution are closest to the creativity domains.


This article seeks to investigate the legal environment or framework within which private foreign investors can establish and operate their businesses in the Kingdom of Swaziland. Swaziland is a small country in the south-eastern part of Southern Africa bordered by the Republic of South Africa and the Peoples Republic of Mozambique. It is endowed with generous scenic beauty and weather and is essentially an agricultural country blessed with reasonable mineral resources such as coal, iron ore and gold. The principal agricultural commodities are sugar, maize, cotton, citrus fruits, pineapples, vegetables and rice. Its principal agricultural exports are sugar and wood pulp. It is well-known that Swaziland is economically very dependent on its neighbour to the south, the Republic of South Africa to which it is linked by the Customs Union and the Rand Monetary Union.


Context. Synthesis models predict the integrated properties of stel lar populations. Several problems exist in this field, mostl y related to the fact that integrated properties are distributed. To date, this a spect has been either ignored (as in standard synthesis models, which are inherently deterministic) or interpreted phenomenologically (as in Monte Carlo simulations, which describe distributed properties rather than explain them). Aims. This paper presents a method of population synthesis that accounts for the distributed nature of stellar properties. Methods. We approach population synthesis as a problem in probability theory, in which stellar luminosities are random variables extracted from the stellar luminosity distribution function (sLDF). Results. With standard distribution theory, we derive the population LDF (pLDF) for clusters of any size from the sLDF, obtaining the scale relations that link the sLDF to the pLDF. We recover the predictions of standard synthesis models, which are shown to compute the mean of the luminosity function. We provide diagnostic diagrams and a simplified recipe for testing the statistical richness of observed clusters, thereby assessing whether standard synthesis models can be safely used or a statistical treatment is mandatory. We also recover the predictions of Monte Carlo simulations, with the additional bonus of being able to interpret them in mathematical and physical terms. We give examples of problems that can be addressed through our probabilistic formalism: calibrating the SBF method, determining the luminosity function of globular clusters, comparing different isochrone sets, tracing the sLDF by means of resolved data, including fuzzy stellar properties in population synthesis, among others. Additionally, the algorithmic nature of our method makes it suitable for developing analysis tools for the Virtual Observatory. Conclusions. Though still under development, ours is a powerful approach to population synthesis. In an era of resolved observations and pipelined analyses of large surveys, this paper is offered as a signpost in the field of stellar populations.


ABSTRACT
 The presence of early pseudosuchians and avemetatarsalians in Anisian beds of Africa demonstrates that the archosaur radiation was well underway by the beginning of the Middle Triassic. The rapid radiation produced a variety of forms, but many of the unique, well-diagnosed Late Triassic clades (e.g., Aetosauria, Ornithosuchidae) lack diagnosable members from the Middle Triassic. Here, we introduce a new Middle Triassic archosaur, Nundasuchus songeaensis, gen. et sp. nov., with an unusual mix of apomorphic character states found within Pseudosuchia and just outside Archosauria. The holotype consists of partial skeleton, including representative postcranial elements and parts of the skull. We added Nundasuchus songeaensis, gen. et sp. nov., into the two most comprehensive early archosaur phylogenetic data sets available, and in both analyses the new taxon falls within Pseudosuchia. However, a number of plesiomorphic archosaurian character states (e.g., posterolaterally directed tuber of the calcaneum) optimize as local autapomorphies of the new taxon within Pseudosuchia in our analyses. Therefore, we tested alternative hypotheses of relationships for the new taxon by utilizing constraint trees. The analyses resulted in little change in the relationships and structure of other Triassic archosaur clades, but changed optimizations of certain character states and character support at the base of Pseudosuchia and Archosauria. Our analyses suggest that the complex evolution of character-state changes at the base of Archosauria is inhibiting our understanding of the relationships of early Pseudosuchia and, in turn, Archosauria.


Prediction of software defects works well within projects as long as there is a sufficient amount of data available to train any models. However, this is rarely the case for new software projects and for many companies. So far, only a few have studies focused on transferring prediction models from one project to another. In this paper, we study cross-project defect prediction models on a large scale. For 12 real-world applications, we ran 622 cross-project predictions. Our results indicate that cross-project prediction is a serious challenge, i.e., simply using models from projects in the same domain or with the same process does not lead to accurate predictions. To help software engineers choose models wisely, we identified factors that do influence the success of cross-project predictions. We also derived decision trees that can provide early estimates for precision, recall, and accuracy before a prediction is attempted.


We propose a semidefinite optimization (SDP) model for the class of minimax two-stage stochastic linear optimization problems with risk aversion. The distribution of second-stage random variables belongs to a set of multivariate distributions with known first and second moments. For the minimax stochastic problem with random objective, we provide a tight SDP formulation. The problem with random right-hand side is NP-hard in general. In a special case, the problem can be solved in polynomial time. Explicit constructions of the worst-case distributions are provided. Applications in a productiontransportation problem and a single facility minimax distance problem are provided to demonstrate our approach. In our experiments, the performance of minimax solutions is close to that of data-driven solutions under the multivariate normal distribution and better under extremal distributions. The minimax solutions thus guarantee to hedge against these worst possible distributions and provide a natural distribution to stress test stochastic optimization problems under distributional ambiguity.


The properties of hydrogen compared to conventional fuels such as gasoline and diesel are substantially different requiring adaptations to the design and layout of test cells for hydrogen fuelled engines and vehicles. A comparison of hydrogen fuel properties versus conventional fuels in this paper provides identification of requirements that need to be adapted to design a safe test cell. Design examples of actual test cells are provided to showcase the differences in overall layout and ventilation, safety features, fuel supply and metering, and emissions measurements. Details include requirements for ventilation patterns, the necessity for engine fume hoods as well as hydrogen specific intake and exhaust design. The unique properties of hydrogen, in particular the wide flammability limits and nonvisible flames also require additional safety features such as hydrogen sensors and flame cameras. A properly designed and implemented fuel supply system adds to the safety of the test cell by minimizing the amount of hydrogen that can be released. Apart from this the properties of hydrogen also require different fuel consumption measurement systems, pressure levels of the fuel supply system, additional ventilation lines, strategically placed safety solenoids combined with appropriate operational procedures. The emissions measurement for hydrogen application has to be expanded to include the amount of unburned hydrogen in the exhaust as a measurement of completeness of combustion. This measurement can also be used as a safety feature to avoid creation of ignitable hydrogen-air mixtures in the engine exhaust. The considerations provided in this paper lead to the conclusion that hydrogen IC engines can be safely tested, however, properly designed test cell and safety features have to be included to mitigate the additional hazards related to the change in fuel characteristics.


Evidence that all urban trips are not equal and that trip rates need to be adjusted to reflect the differential contribution of trips to traffic loads and congestion is presented. Adjustments are necessary when different residential density areas (urban rings around the city core) exist in a metropolitan area. Rings of different density are quite common in cities with a population of 100,000 or higher. Trip rates may need to be adjusted with factors ranging from -21% to +27% to account for the differential effect of densities, depending on the source of trip rates (i.e., data from low or high density locations) and the place of application (i.e., residential or employment development in a low or high density area). The adjustment and models presented enhance the ability for correctly assessing traffic impacts and congestion, and provide aide to management decisions relevant to trip generation, impact assessment and congestion management.


IZA DP No. 14049 JANUARY 2021 The Causal Impact of Depression on Cognitive Functioning: Evidence from Europe* Cognitive skills are important determinants of employment and productivity in older adults. Although cognitive decline is often linked to changes in mental health, the causal nature of the association between mental illness and cognitive performance is not established. In this paper, we analyse the effect of depressive symptoms on cognitive function. Based on longitudinal data for older adults of working age, we use an instrumental variable approach to show that worsening depressive symptoms lead to a decline in cognitive skills. The economic consequences of impaired cognition caused by depressive symptoms may be a large component of mental illness's social costs. JEL Classification: J24, I10


As a ruler of the church of Alexander and president of the Third Ecumenical Council of 431, Cyril was one of the most powerful men of the fifth century. Not only did he define the concept of christological orthodoxy for the next two centuries, but he is also often regarded as an unscrupulous cleric who was responsible for the murder of the female philosopher Hypatia and for the overthrow of the archbishop Nestorius. Cyril of Alexandria presents key selections of Cyril's writings in order to make his thought accessible to students. The writings are all freshly translated and an extended introduction outlines Cyril's life and times, his scholastic method, his christology, his ecclesiology, his eucharistic doctrine, his spirituality, and his influence on the Christian tradition.


Bus fullness, namely bus crowding level, is one of the most critical metrics used to quantify public transportation service quality and consumer satisfaction. Often it is simply represented by the head count within a bus vehicle that is measured using the prevailing automatic passenger counter (APC)., Little is known, however, about how the precise passenger count reflects the human perception of bus fullness. This study examines the linkage between APC data and crowdsourced fullness ratings data from riders in Pittsburgh, U.S.A., to understand how riders' perception of bus fullness is related to spatial, temporal, and demographic factors in addition to the passenger counts. We found that human perception of bus fullness, matched with passenger counts, can vary substantially by time of day, bus vehicle seat capacity, and passengers' income. Last but not least, we proposed a statistical model that estimates riders' perception of bus fullness based on APC data and bus route characteristics. This model can be used by transit agencies who possess APC data to assess service quality better, and ultimately to enhance the design and operation of transit systems.


This article addresses multiple paths of desire in Egypt. To date, research has mainly focused on the family as the realm of intimacy. To understand desire, it is important to take into account other contexts that contribute to shaping experience. Conversations about sex among men in coffee shops are contrasted with family discourses as a symbolic locus for alternative modes shaping intimacy in homosocial circles. The hierarchy of truth whereby confessions are supposed to give insight into subjects' core feelings are reassessed, allowing the sketching of a geography of competing intimacies that outline the coordinates of masculine desire.


The concept of theory of mind (ToM), a hot topic in cognitive psychology for the past twenty-five years, has gained increasing importance in the fields of linguistics and pragmatics. However, even though the relationship between ToM and verbal communication is now recognized, the extent, causality and full implications of this connection remain mostly to be explored. This book presents a comprehensive discussion of the interface between language, communication, and theory of mind, and puts forward an innovative proposal regarding the role of discourse connectives for this interface. The proposed analysis of connectives is tested from the perspective of their acquisition, using empirical methods such as corpus analysis and controlled experiments, thus placing the study of connectives within the emerging framework of experimental pragmatics.


Immunities have long been a subject of discussion. In the context of globalization, there have, on the one hand, been calls for the limitation or even the abolition of immunities, in particular based on the argument of a lack of responsibility for grave violations of human rights. Contrarily, opposed tendencies can be observed which raise ideas such as the extension of the scope of persons to be protected by immunities, resting upon the pluralization of actors in the globalized world. This article examines these two contradictory aspects of development of immunities in public international law and how they might interrelate with each other. It analyses how the simultaneous evolution and stagnation of immunities can be explained. For that purpose the contribution evaluates at first the current state of the legal development. Further, it takes a look at a certain stagnation of legal development and clarifies the structural parameters within public international law which have led to such a stagnation. In this context, it is critically dealt with the question, whether immunities meet the demands of a globalized world. Lastly, this article addresses the development regarding a denial of immunity in cases of grave human rights violations and asks how it could be more cautiously brought forward.


ABSTRACT Leisure preferences have been accounted for by a variety of variables, including gender, age and race; and by personality and other internal attributes. It could be hypothesized therefore that there would be a relationship between the different but associated leisure activities chosen by people. However to date, little attention has been paid in this area. This study uses a survey of residents in southern England (n = 397) to identify the preferences for visiting and revisiting a garden that is open to the public, (i.e. a visitor attraction), based on the respondent's interest in gardening. Logistic regression was used first to identify which factors best predict the likelihood that the respondents would report that they had a visited a garden in the year of the study. It was then implemented to identify whether they sometimes like to revisit a garden. Three predictor (independent) variables were assessed in each case. First, whether the respondent has access to a garden space; secondly, their level of enthusiasm for gardening as a hobby and thirdly, how enjoyable they thought a visit to a garden attraction would be. The results show that both models were statistically significant, (chi square = 43.460, p = 0.000 with df = 6 and chi square = 36.488, p = 0.000 with df = 6). In respect of visiting a garden, the respondents' enthusiasm for amateur gardening made a statistically significant contribution to the model. Respondents who quite liked gardening were slightly less likely to visit a garden than the enthusiastic gardeners. The strongest predictor of making a visit was perhaps unsurprisingly, those that thought a visit would be very enjoyable. This had an odds ratio of 2.01 indicating that these respondents were twice as likely to visit as those who thought a visit would be only quite enjoyable or quite or very unenjoyable. However, the result was not statistically significant, which suggests the presence of an omitted variable. The figure rose to six times more likely in respect of revisiting the same garden and this was statistically significant (p = 0.041). In light of these important results, further analysis was undertaken to establish the characteristics of the respondents based on the two key variables and why they might revisit. To conclude, an interest in gardening is not the most important factor in predicting garden visiting.


Small businesses are an important part of our national economy, accounting for as much as 40% of our total economic activity and providing society with important services and products. Small businesses face daunting economic, structural, and legal impediments when they attempt to acquire external capital. The absence of financial intermediation services means that they are almost always on their own to find investors. Their small capital needs mean that their relative offering costs are often sky high. Federal and state securities rules significantly exacerbate these economic and structural disadvantages by imposing onerous and unwarranted conditions on their search for external capital. While, initially, one may view these rules as a matter of unfairness to small entrepreneurs, more broadly, and perhaps more importantly, society is a loser when small businesses are denied the right to compete fairly for capital. Regulation A appears on its face to offer small businesses a way out of this dilemma. It provides an exemption from the registration requirements of the Securities Act of 1933 for small issuers who offer their securities publicly. The exemption is conditioned upon the issuer's disclosure to investors of prescribed investment information. Regulation A, however, is almost never used by small entrepreneurs, even though it is the only federal exemption generally available that allows a broad, efficient search for investors. The SEC and state securities regulators are to blame for the impotency of Regulation A. For their part, the SEC seems never to have understood small businesses, their capital needs, their importance to our economy, and the special circumstances they face when they attempt to access external capital. States, on their side, seem always to resist attempts to formulate exemptions that allow small issuers to search widely and efficiently for capital. The irony is that the Commission's current iteration of Regulation A provides a framework upon which to construct a sensible and appropriate exemption for public offerings by small issuers. The Commission has the power to transform Regulation A from its present fallow state into a useable tool that promotes efficient capital formation by small businesses and appropriately protects investors. In this article the author offers data demonstrating the non-use of Regulation A and makes the case for a revision of Regulation A. His data show the importance of small businesses to the national economy, small businesses' need for external capital and the underuse of Regulation A. He explains the economic, structural and legal impediments that small businesses face in their capital formation and the reasons why Regulation A is so underutilized today. The author concludes by expressing faith in the fundamental theory of Regulation A and explaining steps the Commission could take to take to make Regulation A an effective tool for small business capital formation, benefitting both small entrepreneurs and society.


Abstract Background: Consistent with osteopathic principles and practice, the nation's colleges of osteopathic medicine (COMs) have emphasized the significance of the musculoskeletal system to the practice of medicine. The authors hypothesized that graduating COM students would, therefore, demonstrate superior knowledge and competence in musculoskeletal medicine when compared with graduates of allopathic medical schools. Methods: The authors asked graduating COM students to complete a standardized and previously validated 25-question basic competency examination on musculoskeletal medicine in short-answer format. Originally developed and validated in the late 1990s, the examination was distributed to allopathic medical residents at the beginning of their residencies. The authors compare their results with those reported by Freedman and Bernstein for allopathic residents. Results: When the minimum passing level as determined by orthopedic program directors was applied to the results of these examinations, 70.4% of graduating COM students (n=54) and 82% of allopathic graduates (n=85) failed to demonstrate basic competency in musculoskeletal medicine. Similarly, the majority of both groups failed to attain the minimum passing level established by the directors of internal medicine programs (graduating COM students, 67%; allopathic graduates, 78%). Conclusion: In an examination of competence levels for musculoskeletal medicine, students about to graduate from a COM fared only marginally better than did their allopathic counterparts. To ensure that all graduating COM students have attained a level of basic competence in musculoskeletal medicine, the authors recommend further study as a prelude to evaluation of the didactic and clinical curriculum at all 22 COMs and their branch campuses.


Many freshwater ecosystems are sustained by a continuous supply of clean groundwater. For example, groundwater may provide late season baseflow to rivers or a sustained high water table in wetlands. These ecosystems, termed GDEs, often are affected by management activities that reduce, interrupt, or contaminate their groundwater supply, including groundwater pumping and waste disposal. Despite these issues, no methods exist to set limits to groundwater extraction or contamination to protect these ecosystems. To address this need, The Nature Conservancy and USDA Forest Service are developing methods for setting thresholds to groundwater change, termed Ecological Water Requirements. Here we discuss this method applied to three wetlands from which water is extracted to water livestock in the Fremont and Winema National Forests. We evaluated the Ecological Water Requirements for GDEs in two steps. First, we developed empirical relationships between the groundwater-driven hydroperiod, and two key ecological parameters: indicator plant distributions and peat accretion. We did this by collecting data on hydroperiod fluctuations, species distributions, and peat depths. We then used these quantitative relationships to determine water table thresholds beyond which these ecological parameters could be impaired. Second, we used MODFLOW to evaluate the potential dewatering effects of pumping on these wetlands. A 4-layer model was constructed (peat, muck, pumice, bedrock). The muck is simulated as a thin, leaky confining layer between the peat and pumice. Pumping was simulated in the pumice layer to evaluate effects to water table depth in the peat. This was compared to the threshold data obtained in the first step. We identified 14 indicator species and peat accretion rates which only occur where the depth to water table was less than 15cm, thus we established this as our threshold for the model. Hydraulic parameters were varied, but for each scenario, pumping at predicted rates of 0.009 L/sec for 75 days produced a maximum drawdown in the peat that did not exceed the 15cm drawdown threshold. These data are being used to inform grazing management on this national forest. We plan to refine these methods to help evaluate ecological water requirements more broadly in a variety of settings.


To date, the negotiations over chemicals in the Translatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) have not shown sufficient ambition. The talks have focused too much on the differences in the two 'systems', rather than on the actual levels of health and environmental protection for substances regulated by both the US and the EU. Given the accomplishments within the OECD and the UN Globally Harmonised System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS), the question is whether TTIP can be any more ambitious in the area of chemicals? We find that there is no detailed or systematic knowledge about how the two levels of protection in chemicals compare, although caricatures and stereotypes abound. This is partly due to an obsessive focus on a single US federal law, the Toxic Subtances Control Act (TSCA), whereas in practice US protection depends on many statutes and regulations, as well as on voluntary withdrawals (under pressure from the Environmental Protection Agency) and severe common law liability. This paper makes the economic case for firmly addressing the regulatory barriers, discusses the EU's proposals, finds that the European Parliament's Resolution on TTIP of July 2015 lacks a rationale (for chemicals), argues that both TSCA and REACH ought to be improved (based on 'better regulation'), discusses the link with a global regime, advocates significant improvement of market access where equivalence of health and environmental objectives is agreed and, finally, proposes to lower the costs for companies selling in both markets by allowing them to opt into the other party's more stringent rules, thereby avoiding duplication while racing-to-the-top.

The 'living agreement' on chemicals ought to be led by a new TTIP institution authorised to establish the level of health and environmental protection on both sides of the Atlantic for substances regulated on both sides. These findings will lay the foundation for a highly beneficial lowering of trading costs without in any way affecting the level of protection. Indeed, this is exactly what TTIP is, or should be, all about.This paper is the 10th in a series produced in the context of the "TTIP in the Balance" project, jointly organised by CEPS and the Center for Transatlantic Relations (CTR) in Washington, D.C. It is published simultaneously on the CEPS (www.ceps.eu) and CTR websites (http://transatlantic.sais-jhu.edu).


Introduction: Dynamic exercise evokes a rapid redeployment of cytotoxic T-cell subsets with high surface expression of β2 adrenergic receptors, presumably to enhance immunosurveillance during acute stress. As this response is affected by age and infection history, the main aim of this study was to examine latent CMV infection as a potential confounder to age-related differences in blood CD8+ T-cell responses to exercise. The second aim of this study was to examine the impact of acute exercise on the mobilization of CMV-specific T-cells in the peripheral blood compartment. Methods: Healthy young (n=16) and older (n=16) humans counterbalanced by CMV IgG serostatus (positive or negative) exercised for 30-minutes at ~80% peak cycling power. Isolated blood lymphocytes phenotypes were assessed by flow cytometry and Enzyme-linked immunospot (ELISPOT) analysis was used to determine the frequency and function of Tcells secreting IFN-γ in response to CMV antigens. Maximum likelihood linear mixed models (LMM) were used to determine main effects of exercise (pre, post and 1h post-exercise), age (young or old) and CMV status (positive or negative) on total numbers of blood lymphocytes and their subsets. Results: Those with CMV redeployed ~2 times more CD8+ T-cells and ~6-times more KLRG1+/CD28and CD45RA+/CCR7CD8+ subsets than non-infected exercisers. Seronegative older exercisers had an impaired redeployment of total CD8+ T-cells, CD45RA+/CCR7+ and (KLRG1-/CD28+) CD8+ subsets. Redeployed CD8+ T-cell numbers were similar between infected young and old. CMVpp65 specific CD8+ cells in HLA/A2* subjects increased ~2.7 fold after exercise, a response that was driven by the KLRG1+/CD28-/CD8+ subset. Stimulating PBMCs before and after exercise with CMVpp65 and CMV IE-1 antigens and overlapping peptide pools revealed a 2.1 and 4.4 fold increases in CMVpp65 and CMV IE-1 IFN-γ secreting cells respectively. The breadth of the T cell response was maintained after exercise with the magnitude of the response being amplified across the entire epitope repertoire. Conclusion: We conclude that latent CMV infection overrides age-related impairments in CD8+ T-cell redeployment with exercise. We also show for the first time that many T-cells redeployed with exercise are specific to CMVpp65 and CMV IE-1 antigens, have broad epitope specificity, and are mostly of a high-differentiated effector memory phenotype. We anticipate that these findings may have clinical implications, with acute exercise serving as a simple strategy to increase numbers of available antigen-specific cells in blood that can be harvested for expansion and adoptive T-cell transfer in HSCT recipients.


Parkinson's disease (PD) is a major movement disorder characterized by the loss of dopamine neurons and formation of Lewy bodies. Clinical and pathological evidence indicates that multiple brain regions are affected in PD in a spatiotemporal manner and are associated with a variety of motor and nonmotor symptoms, including disturbances in mood, executive function, and memory. The common PD-associated gene for leucine-rich repeat kinase, leucine-rich repeat kinase 2 (LRRK2), is highly expressed in brain regions that are involved with nonmotor functions, including the neocortex and hippocampus, but whether mutant LRRK2 contributes to neuronal dysfunction in these regions is unknown. Here, we use bacterial artificial chromosome transgenic mouse models of LRRK2 to explore potential nonmotor mechanisms of PD. Through electrophysiological analysis of the Schaffer collateral–CA1 synapse in dorsal hippocampus, we find that overexpression of LRRK2-G2019S increases basal synaptic efficiency through a postsynaptic mechanism, and disrupts long-term depression. Furthermore, these effects of the G2019S mutation are age dependent and can be normalized by acute inhibition of LRRK2 kinase activity. In contrast, overexpression of wild-type LRRK2 has no effect under the same conditions, suggesting a specific phenotype for the G2019S mutation. These results identify a pathogenic function of LRRK2 in the hippocampus that may contribute to nonmotor symptoms of PD. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Parkinson's disease (PD) is among the most common neurological diseases and is best known for its adverse effects on brain regions that control motor function, resulting in tremor, rigidity, and gait abnormalities. Less well appreciated are the psychiatric symptoms experienced by many PD patients, including depression and memory loss, which do not respond well to currently available treatments for PD. Here, we describe functional effects of a common PD-linked mutation of leucine-rich repeat kinase 2 in the mouse hippocampus, an area of the brain that is responsible for encoding and retaining memories. By providing a potential mechanism for some of the cognitive symptoms produced by this mutation, our findings may lead to novel approaches for the treatment of nonmotor symptoms of PD.


The significance of panorama painting in the nineteenth century is frequently cited in contemporary debates about visuality and the emergence of the modern spectator. Stephan Oettermann's The Panorama is the first major historical study to appear in English of the rich phenomenon of the panorama, one of the most influential forms of visual entertainment in the nineteenth century. In this richly illustrated book Oettermann gives readers a concrete sense of the structural and experiential reality of the panorama, and the many forms it took throughout Europe and North America--a crucial task given that very few of the original nineteenth-century panoramas survive. At the same time, he outlines the many ways in which these remarkable and often immense 360-degree images were part of a larger transformation of the status of the observer and of popular culture. Thus, the panorama is treated not only as a new kind of image but also as an architectural and informational component of the new urban spaces and media networks.


The perfect primer for learning Adobe Photoshop, whether you're new to it or updating your skillsCreate logos, edit images, and design without fear in Adobe Photoshop, once you learn the essentials. This clear, task-based book covers them all, from navigating the user interface to how to identify design elements, paint and draw in Photoshop, apply layer styles, correct and adjust color, and much more. Each chapter provides clear step-by-step instruction as well as illustrative, full-color images and examples. Before you know it, you'll have the skills to start a design career with Photoshop.What's more, if you're preparing for the Adobe Certified Associate (ACA) exam for Visual Communication using Photoshop, this thorough guide is the perfect preparation.Covers Photoshop essentials for beginners and assists ACA candidates preparing for the Adobe Certified Associate (ACA) for Visual Communication using Photoshop certification exam Explores how to identify design elements, paint and draw in Photoshop, apply layer styles, correct and adjust color, and more Covers the five basic areas required for the ACA Photoshop exam, including setting project requirements, identifying design elements when preparing elements, understanding Adobe Photoshop, manipulating images, and evaluating digital images Provides downloadable files that readers can use while going through the tutorials in the book


Abstract:Mammary analog secretory carcinoma (MASC) is a recently described tumor of the salivary glands named for its morphological and molecular similarity to secretory carcinoma of the breast. Many primary carcinomas arising from the adnexal glands also share similar morphology to those arising from the breast. Brandt et al first described primary cutaneous MASC in 2009 and since then only 2 other cases have been reported. Herein, we describe a long-standing mass on the arm of an otherwise healthy 40-year-old female. Histologic examination revealed a circumscribed but unencapsulated, nodular tumor composed of bland epithelial cells arranged in solid and microcystic growth patterns. The cells showed vacuolated cytoplasm and round to oval nuclei with vesicular chromatin. Intraluminal homogenous eosinophilic secretions were present. Mitotic figures were not identified. The tumor cells stained positive for CK8/18, CK7, and S100 but were negative for other markers performed, including estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor, HER2/neu, paired box 8 (PAX8), and thyroid transcription factor 1 (TTF1). As the patient clinically had no other masses or known carcinomas, a diagnosis of primary cutaneous MASC was rendered. The ETV6-NTRK3 fusion transcript was subsequently detected by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction amplification, further supporting the diagnosis. We present this case to review the histologic features of MASC and highlight the importance of recognizing this lesion not only as a possible cutaneous metastasis but also as a primary cutaneous tumor.


PURPOSE: This study aimed to verify the influence of hormonal fluctuations on chewing movement in women with disc displacement (DD). METHODS: Fourteen women with DD taking oral contraceptives (OC); 12 DD-free controls taking OC; 12 normally cycling women with DD; and 14 DD-free normally cycling women were included. The Research Diagnostic Criteria for Temporomandibular Disorders diagnosed DD, and subjects without pain were selected. Chewing movements were recorded using a kinesiograph. Dependent variables were: vertical, lateral, and anterior-posterior amplitudes (mm), opening and closing velocity (mm/s), which was evaluated in 4 phases of 3 menstrual cycles, identified by ovulation test. Data were submitted to Mauchly's sphericity test, Proc Mixed for repeated measures, and Tukey-Kramer test (P ≤ 0.05). RESULTS: Comparisons among menstrual cycle phases showed no differences in vertical (P = 0.25), lateral (P = 0.12), and anterior-posterior amplitudes (P = 0.61); as well as opening (P = 0.57) or closing velocity (P = 0.73). The OC use or presence of DD did not influence the variables (P > 0.05). CONCLUSION: Hormonal fluctuation did not influence chewing mandibular movement of women with DD.


IZA DP No. 11374 FEBRUARY 2018 Are Apprenticeships Business Cycle Proof?* Although there is evidence that apprenticeship training can ease the transition of youth into the labour market and thereby reduce youth unemployment, many policy makers fear that firms will cut their apprenticeship expenditures during economic crises, thus exacerbating the problem of youth unemployment. Using recent panel data of Swiss cantons and dynamic regression models, we examine the relationship between new apprenticeships and the business cycle. The empirical results suggest that economic shocks induce a rather small, pro-cyclical immediate response in the apprenticeship market. However, within a year after the shock, firms compensate for their immediate reaction, with the result that no permanent effect is observable. JEL Classification: E24, E32, I21, J18, J44


Using dynamic panel estimations, this paper identifies driving forces of venture capital activity for Western European countries. Driving forces might be the liquidity of stock markets, human capital endowment, and labour market rigidities. The paper shows that these factors do not affect expansion stage investments used as a broader definition of venture capital, while they positively affect early stage investments used as a narrow definition. Thus, the results suggest not only that liquid stock markets play an important role for the development of venture capital markets but also that they are not the only factor that drives venture capital activity.


More emphasis is falling on sonar systems to display the data
received from the underwater environment in a form which enables the
observer to classify the echo patterns as being due to a particular
target shape. In high resolution monostatic sonar systems, where the
resolution cell is smaller than the target dimensions, difficulties arise
because the echo patterns formed tend to be specular in nature and show only the acoustic highlights of the target. In this thesis, echo formation is examined in terms of the angular
distribution of reflected energy in the medium. The way in which
echoes are formed results in a less than optimum display in terms of the
number of samples of the target outline. An increase in the number of
resolution cells displaying the target outline and an improvement in
target shape portrayal can be obtained by using a multi static sonar system,
but it is shown that this improvement is dependent on a number of factors.
An experimental, high-resolution multistatic sonar system is described
which was used to verify and measure the improvement in target shape
portrayal. Selected echo patterns obtained with this equipment are shown
and the measured performance compared with the predicted performance. An empirical equation, which was derived from the measurements, relates the improvement in the displayed echo patterns to the number of bistatic receivers employed.


In this article, we introduce the ContERN special issue on ethnographies of the esoteric. While the study of esotericism has been dominated by historical-philological scholarship, recent years have seen an increase in anthropological approaches to contemporary esotericism. We argue that this development provides the field not only with new tools, but also fresh perspectives on long-standing theoretical challenges. What are the implications of situating esotericism in particular ethnographic fieldsites? How does anthropological theory reflect on deep-rooted assumptions in the field? We address these questions using examples from the articles in the present special issue as well as other recent ethnographies of esoteric subject matter.


Technological advances, coupled with recent federal legislation targeting young children who have developmental disabilities, will increasingly necessitate an expanded role of the family physician in the lives of these children and their families. Of particular importance is Public Law 99-457, the Education of the Handicapped Act Amendments of 1986, which recognizes the importance of the family unit in any intervention methodology that may be provided. This legislation also notes that the active involvement of the family's physician is desirable when designing services appropriate for children with developmental disabilities and their families. Providing support and optimizing positive family interactions are crucial to these children. Recommendations to enable the family physician to address more effectively the unique needs of this patient population include (1) an informal screening protocol, and (2) communication skills that include talking with both parents at the same time, using accurate, nonstigmatizing language when presenting a diagnosis, showing acceptance of and optimism regarding the child, encouraging parents to explain their child's problems to others, helping parents to learn about their children's unique needs, and helping parents to understand how their attitudes affect their child.


Wood is a complex material and the mechanical properties are influencedby a number of structural parameters. The objective of this study has been toinvestigate the relationship between the structure and the mechanical propertiesof hardwood. Two levels were of special interest, viz. the cellular structureand morphology of the wood, and the ultra-structure of the cell wall. In thenext step, it was of interest to examine how the mechanical properties ofhardwood change with spontaneous/induced changes in morphology and/orchemical composition beyond the natural variation found in nature. Together, this constituted the framework and basis for two larger projects,one on European aspen (Populus tremula) and hybrid aspen (Populus tremulax Populus tremuloides), and one on European oak (Quercus robur). Amethodology was developed where the concept of relative density and compositemechanics rules served as two useful tools to assess the properties ofthe cell wall. Tensile testing in the longitudinal direction was combined withchemical examination of the material. This approach made it possible to revealthe mechanical role of the lignin in the cell wall of transgenic aspen trees,and investigate the consequences of holocellulose degradation in archaeologicaloak from the Vasa ship. The study on transgenic aspen showed that a major reduction in lignin inPopulus leads to a small but significant reduction in the longitudinal stiffness.The longitudinal tensile strength was not reduced. The results are explainableby the fact that the load-bearing cellulose in the transgenic aspen retained itscrystallinity, aggregate size, microfibril angle, and absolute content per unitvolume. The results can contribute to the ongoing task of investigating andpinpointing the precise function of lignin in the cell wall of trees. The mechanical property study on Vasa oak showed that the longitudinaltensile strength is severely reduced in several regions of the ship, andthat the reduction correlates with reduced average molecular weight of theholocellulose. This could not have been foreseen without a thorough mechanicaland chemical investigation, since the Vasa wood (with exception fromthe bacterially degraded surface regions) is morphologically intact and witha micro-structure comparable to that of recent oak. The results can be usedin the ongoing task of mapping the condition of the Vasa wood.


Four small watersheds, Kamwamphula, Luelo, Kanyanga and Mphiri, near Emusa (Lundazi District) in Eastern Province, Zambia, were studied to document transitions in land use over time and to project the impacts of land use and topography on runoff, erosion and sediment delivery. Landuse was delineated from 2007 IKONOS image (one meter pixel), and Landsat imagery was used to depict the historic changes in landuse between the period of 1989 and 2007. The GWLF model was used to predict the impact of the landuses on the hydrology of the area. There had been an increase in clearing of forest area mainly due to the expansion of cropland area. The highest rate of clearing was predicted for the Kamwamphula watershed where the forest cover decreased from 95% to 71% over the 18 year period. The GWLF model was used to predict the impact of the landuse on the hydrology and sediment delivery. In comparison with the limited field data available from the four watersheds, the GWLF model gave poor prediction of streamflow, probably because the hydrology of the area is poorly understood and dambo function in the landscape is not well represented in the model. Highest runoff, erosion and sediment yields came from Luelo watershed which has steeper slopes and, less vegetative cover and poor permeability of soils. The GWLF gave poor prediction of streamflow, probably, because the hydrology of the area is poorly


Mobile OSes and applications form a large, complex and vulnerability-prone software stack. In such an environment, security techniques to strongly protect sensitive data in mobile devices are important and challenging. To address such challenges, we introduce the concept of the trusted data vault, a small trusted engine that securely manages the storage and usage of sensitive data in an untrusted mobile device. In this paper, we design and build Droid Vault - the first realization of a trusted data vault on the Android platform. Droid Vault establishes a secure channel between data owners and data users while allowing data owners to enforce strong control over the sensitive data with a minimal trusted computing base (TCB). We prototype Droid Vault via the novel use of hardware security features of ARM processors, i.e., Trust Zone. Our evaluation demonstrates its functionality for processing sensitive data and its practicality for adoption in the real world.


Purpose: Rehabilitation professionals do not appear to be sufficiently prepared to deal with the sexual issues of people with a physical disability, although they have recognized the value of discussing them during the rehabilitation process. This commentary argues that the sexuality of people with a disability should be evaluated from the two viewpoints of sexual function and sexual concern. With regard to people with a limb amputation, their sexual life has not attracted researchers' or clinicians' interest because their sexual function is usually preserved, is the same as that of able-bodied persons, and there is a perception that assistance is not required. Indeed, the number of published studies on the sexuality of this population is apparently fewer than the number of studies on the sexuality of persons with central nervous system impairment. Conclusion: Investigation of the body image of people with a limb amputation and recognition of their needs are considered to be necessary for further discussion of this theme. Discussion of sexuality with some realistic statistical figures should also have great value in assisting with the re-integration of people with a limb amputation.


NO
  SYMPATHY
  FOR
  THE
  DEVIL:
  THE
  SIGNIFICANCE
  OF
  DEMONS
  IN JOHN
  CHRYSOSTOM'S
  SOTERIOLOGY Samantha L. Miller, B.A., M.Div. Marquette University, 2016 This dissertation is a study of John Chrysostom's demonology as it relates to his theological anthropology and soteriology. Demons run rampant in Chrysostom's thought, though few scholars have taken note of this. Studies of Chrysostom often focus on his exegetical practices, his asceticism, or his social vision and morality. Indeed, many scholars dismiss Chrysostom as unsophisticated and therefore of little value in the landscape of fourth-century theology. In analyzing Chrysostom's demonology, we see that Chrysostom's thought is complex and worth further consideration. One cannot treat demons in Chrysostom's work without treating other theological topics as well. When Chrysostom discusses demons he does so for the sake of bringing his congregation to salvation. Drawing on Stoic categories for discussing "true" versus "apparent" harm, Chrysostom uses rhetoric about demons to highlight humanity's freedom and self-determination. Each person has a προαίρεσις, which is free and is the locus of moral responsibility, a faculty demons cannot compel. The προαίρεσις is what enables a person to be virtuous. Chrysostom then argues that because each person is able to be virtuous, God expects each person to be virtuous, and this virtue is a necessary aspect of salvation. Though God reconciles humanity to God's self in the incarnation, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and though Christ continues to help a person be virtuous, the responsibility for virtue, and thus salvation, lies with the human being. In short, Chrysostom's demonology and account of self-determination exert a mutual influence on one another, self-determination is necessary for virtue, and virtue is integral to salvation. Therefore, in order to have a fully developed account of Chrysostom's theological anthropology and soteriology, one must also understand Chrysostom's demonology. Chrysostom's soteriology is better understood when the role of demonology in his theology is taken into account because Chrysostom's engagements with demonology are an entrance to his soteriology and highlight the depth to which Chrysostom believes humans are responsible for their own salvation.


18-Membered macrocyclic complexes of Ni (II) of the type [Ni(H2Cz)] have been synthesized and characterized on the basis of spectral, magnetic and conductivity studies. The macrocyclic ligands H4Cz are tetrabasic having four imido hydrogen but behave in a dibasic manner. Out of eight nitrogens, four are imido and four are imino. Ligands utilize four imido nitrogens for square planar coordination forming four 7 : 6 : 7 : 6 chelate rings giving rise to a 18 membered macrocyclic framework. Nickel (II), complexes having red color are diamagnetic. Low molar conductivity values in the range 7-12 ohm-1 cm2 mol-1 suggest complexes to be non-electrolytic in nature. High dilute conditions have been employed in the synthesis of macrocyclic complexes in order to dispense with polymerization reaction.


1. We investigated the effect of stimulated human polymorphonuclear leucocytes (PMN9s) on both the antitrypsin and anti-elastase activity of bronchial antileucoprotease (ALP). 2. Incubation of ALP with stimulated human PMN9s resulted in a rapid loss of anti-elastase activity which paralleled that of the antitrypsin activity, suggesting that both inhibitor activities are represented by the same active site. 3. The myeloperoxidase-oxidizing system was found to be responsible for the inactivation of ALP. 4. The oxidized inhibitor was unable to form stable complexes with PMN elastase but was resistant to breakdown by proteolytic enzymes from stimulated PMN9s. 5. It was observed that stimulated cells are capable of releasing elastase which shows full activity in the presence of a large molar excess of ALP. 6. We conclude from this study that stimulated PMN's are able to inactivate ALP by which released elastase is able to express enzymatic activity in spite of the presence of this low-molecular-weight inhibitor. Thus, inactivation of ALP by triggered PMN9s may contribute to destructive processes in which elastase is thought to be a mediator.


This Article first discusses the United States tax treatment of foreigners generally and the pre-Foreign Investors Real Property Tax Act withholding and taxation scheme with respect to foreign investment in United States real estate. Then follows a discussion of the several ways in which foreign investors were, before the Act, able to avoid tax on the disposition of United States real estate and a critical evaluation of the Act's response to those avoidance methods. Finally, a discussion of the Act's enforcement provisions and a general discussion of withholding of tax on nonresidents is provided.


BACKGROUND
Prenatal alcohol exposure can affect neurodevelopment, but few studies have examined associations with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

METHODS
We assessed the association between maternal alcohol use and ASD in the Study to Explore Early Development, a multi-site case-control study of children born between September 2003 and August 2006 in the US Regression analyses included 684 children with research clinician-confirmed ASD, 869 children with non-ASD developmental delays or disorders (DDs), and 962 controls ascertained from the general population (POP). Maternal alcohol exposure during each month from 3 months prior to conception until delivery was assessed by self-report.

RESULTS
Mothers of POP children were more likely to report any prenatal alcohol use than mothers of children with ASD or DD. In trimester one, 21.2% of mothers of POP children reported alcohol use compared with 18.1% and 18.2% of mothers of children with ASD or DD, respectively (adjusted OR for ASD vs. POP 0.8, 95% confidence interval 0.6, 1.1). During preconception and the first month of pregnancy, one to two drinks on average per week was inversely associated with ASD risk.

CONCLUSIONS
These results do not support an adverse association between low-level alcohol exposure and ASD, although these findings were based on retrospective self-reported alcohol use. Unmeasured confounding or exposure misclassification may explain inverse associations with one to two drinks per week. Pregnant or potentially pregnant women should continue to follow recommendations to avoid alcohol use because of other known effects on infant health and neurodevelopment.


The concept of linear free-energy relationships, and more particularly the Taft equation, was extended to a multiphase system with several reactions and reaction centers: the epoxidation of vegetable oils and free fatty acids. The epoxidation of vegetable oils and free fatty acids by different percarboxylic acids produced in situ is an exothermic reaction system which can lead to a thermal runaway. The safety criterion time-to-maximum-rate under adiabatic conditions (TMRad), linked to the kinetics of the system, was determined with the advanced reactive system screening tool (ARSST). We have demonstrated that TMRad values for the epoxidation of vegetable oils and free fatty acids by using different carboxylic acids follow the Taft equation. The epoxidation reaction series by different carboxylic acids was found to be more sensitive to the polar effect than steric effect. It was demonstrated that, by knowing the carboxylic acid used for the epoxidation, it is possible to predict the values of TMRad.


In recent years, a number of researchers in geography and in urban studies have taken to the idea of the "right to the city." These scholars have drawn on the idea to frame debates on topics as wide ranging as urban social movements, the regulation of urban public space, to the relationship between cities and citizenship. Implicit in this literature is a conception of the city and of urban space in which political conflict and class struggle are dominating features. This dissertation seeks to add to that discussion by focusing on debates over transit policy in California's East Bay. In addition to contributing to scholarship on the right to the city, this dissertation also broadly encroaches upon work in transportation geography. Drawing on three months of fieldwork, this dissertation makes two arguments. First, it argues that debates over rights ought to matter for those interested in the geography of urban transportation, and second, it argues for seeing urban mass transit as central to securing a right to the city. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with transit activists and a focus group with transit dependent riders, I highlight the degree to which the democratic rights of many East Bay residents hinge upon transit access. For many of these residents, a right to the city means a right to transit. Across six chapters of the dissertation, I also focus more broadly on the relationship between transit policy and conflicts over rights -whether these conflicts take the form of labor disputes or civil rights lawsuits. These conflicts, I argue, have shaped the geography of transit in the region. While the dissertation highlights the importance of rights and the right to the city for understanding both the geography of urban transit, as well as transit's role in the public life of cities, it also highlights some of the challenges and contradictions associated with the idea of the right to the city. Toward the end of the dissertation I address these challenges and contradictions head-on by arguing for understanding the right to the city as a right against the "idiocy of urban life." RIGHTS IN TRANSIT: PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION AND THE "RIGHT TO THE CITY" IN CALIFORNIA'S EAST BAY


Erasure coding, Reed-Solomon coding in particular, is a key technique to deal with failures in scale-out storage systems. However, due to the algorithmic complexity, the performance overhead of erasure coding can become a significant bottleneck in storage systems attempting to meet service level agreements (SLAs). Previous work has mainly leveraged SIMD (single-instruction multiple-data) instruction extensions in general purpose processors to improve the processing throughput. In this work, we exploit state-of-art heterogeneous architectures, including GPUs, APUs, and FPGAs, to accelerate erasure coding. We leverage the OpenCL framework for our target heterogeneous architectures and propose code optimizations for each target architecture. Given their different hardware characteristics, we highlight the different optimization strategies for each of the target architectures. Using the throughput metric as the ratio of the input file size over the processing latency, we achieve 2.84 GB/s on a 28-core Xeon CPU, 3.90 GB/s on an NVIDIA K40m GPU, 0.56 GB/s on an AMD Carrizo APU, and 1.19 GB/s (5.35 GB/s if only considering the kernel execution latency) on an Altera Stratix V FPGA, when processing a 836.9MB zipped file with a 30×33 encoding matrix. In comparison, the single-thread code using the Intel's ISA-L library running on the Xeon CPU has the throughput of 0.13 GB/s.


• Various studies, summarized here, have established beyond doubt that immunization of humans by the oral route of administration not only is possible but has been successfully accomplished. Since attenuated strains of poliovirus were found to vary greatly in the extent of their residual neurotropism for the most sensitive lower motor neurons as well as in the homogeneity of their populations, the crucial problem was to find strains that were so highly attenuated and homogeneous that one would be justifed in using them in increasingly larger numbers of humans in those stepwise tests that must precede any trial of such a vaccine on a large scale. The finding of such strains after tests on the progeny of large numbers of individual virus particles is here described.


This project was commissioned to generate an improved understanding of the sensitivities of
seagrass habitats to pressures associated with human activities in the marine environment -
to provide an evidence base to facilitate and support management advice for Marine
Protected Areas; development of UK marine monitoring and assessment, and conservation
advice to offshore marine industries.
Seagrass bed habitats are identified as a Priority Marine Feature (PMF) under the Marine
(Scotland) Act 2010, they are also included on the OSPAR list of threatened and declining
species and habitats, and are a Habitat of Principle Importance (HPI) under the Natural
Environment and Rural Communities (NERC) Act 2006, in England and Wales.
The purpose of this project was to produce sensitivity assessments with supporting evidence
for the HPI, OSPAR and PMF seagrass/Zostera bed habitat definitions, clearly documenting
the evidence behind the assessments and any differences between assessments.
Nineteen pressures, falling in five categories - biological, hydrological, physical damage,
physical loss, and pollution and other chemical changes - were assessed in this report.
Assessments were based on the three British seagrasses Zostera marina, Z. noltei and
Ruppia maritima. Z. marina var. angustifolia was considered to be a subspecies of Z.
marina but it was specified where studies had considered it as a species in its own rights.
Where possible other components of the community were investigated but the basis of the
assessment focused on seagrass species.
To develop each sensitivity assessment, the resistance and resilience of the key elements
were assessed against the pressure benchmark using the available evidence. The
benchmarks were designed to provide a 'standard' level of pressure against which to assess
sensitivity. Overall, seagrass beds were highly sensitive to a number of human activities:
• penetration or disturbance of the substratum below the surface;
• habitat structure changes – removal of substratum;
• physical change to another sediment type;
• physical loss of habitat;
• siltation rate changes including and smothering; and
• changes in suspended solids.
High sensitivity was recorded for pressures which directly impacted the factors that limit
seagrass growth and health such as light availability. Physical pressures that caused
mechanical modification of the sediment, and hence damage to roots and leaves, also
resulted in high sensitivity.
Seagrass beds were assessed as 'not sensitive' to microbial pathogens or 'removal of target
species'. These assessments were based on the benchmarks used. Z. marina is known to
be sensitive to Labyrinthula zosterae but this was not included in the benchmark used.
Similarly, 'removal of target species' addresses only the biological effects of removal and not
the physical effects of the process used. For example, seagrass beds are probably not
sensitive to the removal of scallops found within the bed but are highly sensitive to the
effects of dredging for scallops, as assessed under the pressure penetration or disturbance
of the substratum below the surface'. This is also an example of a synergistic effect
Assessing the sensitivity of seagrass bed biotopes to pressures associated with marine activities
between pressures. Where possible, synergistic effects were highlighted but synergistic and
cumulative effects are outside the scope off this study.
The report found that no distinct differences in sensitivity exist between the HPI, PMF and
OSPAR definitions. Individual biotopes do however have different sensitivities to pressures.
These differences were determined by the species affected, the position of the habitat on the
shore and the sediment type. For instance evidence showed that beds growing in soft and
muddy sand were more vulnerable to physical damage than beds on harder, more compact
substratum. Temporal effects can also influence the sensitivity of seagrass beds. On a
seasonal time frame, physical damage to roots and leaves occurring in the reproductive
season (summer months) will have a greater impact than damage in winter. On a daily
basis, the tidal regime could accentuate or attenuate the effects of pressures depending on
high and low tide. A variety of factors must therefore be taken into account in order to
assess the sensitivity of a particular seagrass habitat at any location.
No clear difference in resilience was established across the three seagrass definitions
assessed in this report. The resilience of seagrass beds and the ability to recover from
human induced pressures is a combination of the environmental conditions of the site,
growth rates of the seagrass, the frequency and the intensity of the disturbance. This
highlights the importance of considering the species affected as well as the ecology of the
seagrass bed, the environmental conditions and the types and nature of activities giving rise
to the pressure and the effects of that pressure. For example, pressures that result in
sediment modification (e.g. pitting or erosion), sediment change or removal, prolong
recovery. Therefore, the resilience of each biotope and habitat definitions is discussed for
each pressure.
Using a clearly documented, evidence based approach to create sensitivity assessments
allows the assessment and any subsequent decision making or management plans to be
readily communicated, transparent and justifiable. The assessments can be replicated and
updated where new evidence becomes available ensuring the longevity of the sensitivity
assessment tool. The evidence review has reduced the uncertainty around assessments
previously undertaken in the MB0102 project (Tillin et al 2010) by assigning a single
sensitivity score to the pressures as opposed to a range.
Finally, as seagrass habitats may also contribute to ecosystem function and the delivery of
ecosystem services, understanding the sensitivity of these biotopes may also support
assessment and management in regard to these.
Whatever objective measures are applied to data to assess sensitivity, the final sensitivity
assessment is indicative. The evidence, the benchmarks, the confidence in the
assessments and the limitations of the process, require a sense-check by experienced
marine ecologists before the outcome is used in management decisions.


In schools bullying is increasingly being recognised by educators as the significant problem that it is. Whilst adult-adult, and adult-child violence has been recognised and legislated against in our society for a number of years, the issue of child-child violence has not been seriously addressed. In this article consideration will be given to research literature, which highlights how the bully identifies certain learners as victims. The article goes on to describe research conducted at two primary schools in South Africa. The research was carried out by means of discussions and interviews conducted with learners, observation, document analysis, and focus group interviews with educators.


In this paper, we propose a multi-step inertial Forward--Backward splitting algorithm for minimizing the sum of two non-necessarily convex functions, one of which is proper lower semi-continuous while the other is differentiable with a Lipschitz continuous gradient. We first prove global convergence of the scheme with the help of the Kurdyka-{\L}ojasiewicz property. Then, when the non-smooth part is also partly smooth relative to a smooth submanifold, we establish finite identification of the latter and provide sharp local linear convergence analysis. The proposed method is illustrated on a few problems arising from statistics and machine learning.


Energy efficiency is today a crucial topic in the built environment – for both designers and managers of buildings. This increased interest is driven by a combination of new regulations and directives within the EU and worldwide to combat global warming. All buildings now must now acquire and display an EPC (energy performance certificate), a rating similar to the A–G rating given to white goods. But in order to understand how to be more efficient in energy use, you need first to understand the mechanisms of both energy requirements and how energy is used in buildings. Energy Audits: a workbook for energy management in buildings tackles the fundamental principles of thermodynamics through day–to–day engineering concepts and helps students understand why energy losses occur and how they can be reduced. It provides the tools to measure process efficiency and sustainability in power and heating applications, helping engineers to recognize why energy losses occur and how they can be reduced utilizing familiar thermodynamic principles. The author describes the sources of energy available today; explains how energy is used in buildings – and how energy is lost – and how this can be controlled and reduced. Investments in energy efficiency are considered for a number of case studies conducted on real buildings The book explains the theory; illustrates it with case studies and worked examples; and then tests students' understanding with tutorial problems. This is an invaluable resource for students on engineering and building courses where energy management is now a core topic.


This Columbia Law Review Forum Essay is an invited response to Tim Wu's Article, "Will Artificial Intelligence Eat the Law?." The authors of both presented the ideas in their respective papers at a Columbia Law Review symposium in Spring 2019 on "Common Law for the Age of AI." The big tech firms, policymakers, and courts are poised to reform the ways in which they govern social media content. The proposed changes, as varied as they are, will one way or another allocate responsibility between the stakeholders in new ways. This Essay argues, among other things, that any such reforms should not treat social media applications as pristine speech platforms for earnest democratic debate. Rather, in recognition of the work of many scholars, including Wu's own impressive work, it asserts that reform should address social media companies as commercial enterprises whose priority is to maximize user attention and engagement for advertisers. It is for this reason, the Essay asserts, that policymakers should reject efforts to defer to the companies' own automated decision-making systems for moderating content. These technologies are just one asset in the political economy and industrial designs of social media. They have not yet displaced the vital role that human labor and human incentives play. It is for this reason that it is far too soon to write off untested but extant resources in law.


The purpose of this study was to identify ways by which entrepreneurial mobile banking growth could be accelerated in developing countries. An exploratory research method was adopted to identify the facilitators and obstacles to entrepreneurial mobile banking. The finding reveals some facilitators which include government policies and efforts of donor agencies, stiffer competition among banks, need for efficiency and lower cost, telecoms focus on customers retention. While some obstacles include conservative and vague regulation, security issues, underdeveloped infrastructures, lack of interoperability and lack of basic need for financial services. The main contribution of this study is the concise identification of the facilitators and obstacles to entrepreneurial mobile banking especially in developing countries. Suggestion for further study was made. The findings could be useful to policy-makers, donor agencies and other development partners in designing and directing their policies intervention


Hermitian moment sequences are generalizations of classical power moment sequences to bounded operators on a Hubert space. The main result is that every indeterminate Hermitian moment sequence on a complex Hubert space can be imbedded in a determinate Hermitian moment sequence on an enlarged Hubert space in the sense that the first sequence is a compression of the second. This implies the existence of determinate Hermitian moment sequences which, when compressed, are indeterminate and leads to the following questions: Which orthogonal projections on the Hubert space give rise to determinate compressions of a fixed, determinate sequence? What structure do these projections induce on the underlying Hubert space?


Abstract. Through changing soil thermal regimes, soil moisture and affecting weathering and erosion processes plants can have an important effect on the physical properties and structure of soils. Such physical soil changes can in turn lead to biological facilitation, such as vegetation‐banked terrace formation or differential seedling establishment. We studied the fine scale variability in soil temperature and moisture parameters, specifically focusing on frost cycle characteristics around cushions of the dominant, vascular plant species, Azorella selago, on sub‐Antarctic Marion Island. The frost season was characterised by numerous low intensity and very shallow frost cycles. Soils on eastern cushion sides were found to have lower mean and maximum temperatures in winterthan soils on western cushion sides. In addition, lower variability in temperature was found on eastern cushion sides in winterthan on western cushion sides, probably as a result of higher wind speeds on western cushion sides and/or eastern, lee‐side snow accumulation. Despite the mild frost climate, extensive frost heave occurred in the study area, indicating that needle ice forms at temperatures above −2°C. Our results demonstrate the effectiveness of frost pull as a heave mechanism under shallow frost conditions. The results highlight the importance of Azorella cushions in modifying site microclimates and of understanding the consequences of these modifications, such as potentially providing microhabitats. Such potential microhabitats are particularly important in light of current climate change trends on the island, as continued warming and drying will undoubtedly increase the need for thermal and moisture refugia.


Owing to the ever-expanding size of social and professional networks, it is becoming cumbersome for individuals to configure information disclosure settings. We used location sharing systems to unpack the nature of discrepancies between a person's disclosure settings and contextual choices. We conducted an experience sampling study (N = 35) to examine various factors contributing to such divergence. We found that immediate feedback about disclosures without any ability to control the disclosures evoked feelings of oversharing. Moreover, deviation from specified settings did not always signal privacy violation; it was just as likely that settings prevented information disclosure considered permissible in situ. We suggest making feedback more actionable or delaying it sufficiently to avoid a knee-jerk reaction. Our findings also make the case for proactive techniques for detecting potential mismatches and recommending adjustments to disclosure settings, as well as selective control when sharing location with socially distant recipients and visiting atypical locations.


This thesis provides a comprehensive study of the problems in single-phase grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) systems. The main objective is to provide an explicit formulation of the dynamic properties of the power-electronic-based PV inverter in the frequency domain. Such a model is used as the main tool to trace the origins of the observed problems that cannot be studied with the conventional time-domain analyses. The dynamic model also provides the tool for deterministic control-system design. Grid-connected PV inverters have been reported to reduce damping in the grid, excite harmonic resonances and cause harmonic distortion. These phenomena can lead to instability or production outages and are expected to increase in the future, because the installed capacity of the grid-connected PV energy is rapidly growing. A PV generator (PVG) itself is a peculiar source affecting the inverter dynamic behavior. The PVG is internally a current-source with limited output voltage and power. The nonlinear behavior yields distinguishable operating regions: the constant-current region at the voltages lower than the maximum-power-point (MPP) voltage and constant-voltage region at the voltages higher than the MPP voltage. Such a behavior is quite well known but not really understood to need special attention. Vast majority of the photovoltaic inverters originate from the voltage-source inverter (VSI) with a capacitor connected at the input terminal for power-decoupling purposes. It is convenient to assume that the inverter is supplied by a voltage source and perform the analyses based on the existing modeling and design teqhniques of the voltage-fed (VF) VSI. However, the input voltage of a PV inverter must be controlled for MPP-tracking purposes, which implies that the inverter has to be analyzed as a current-fed (CF) inverter. Such analysis reveals that the CF VSI has second-order dynamics compared to the first-order dynamics of the VF VSI. The control dynamics of the CF VSI is also shown to incorporate right-half-plane zero and pole introducing control-system-design constraints. This thesis presents the dynamic modeling procedure of PV inverter both at open and closed loop taking into account the type of the input source. The dynamic behavior of the PVG is modeled as an operating-point-dependent dynamic resistance, which is shown to shift the operating point dependent zero and pole in the inverter control dynamics between the right and left halves of the complex plane. It is also shown that the negative-incremental-resistance behavior of the inverter output impedance makes the inverter prone to instability and the grid to harmonic resonance problems, and that such a behavior can originate e.g. from the grid synchronization and the cascaded control scheme. It is important to recognize such a behavior in order to enable reliable largescale utilization of the PV energy. iii


Numerous models are employed for medication distribution and pharmacy services management in correctional facilities. Since 2003, the University of Rhode Island College of Pharmacy and the Rhode Island Department of Corrections (RIDOC) have collaborated on a pharmacy management program designed to better integrate medical care, improve medication utilization, and reduce pharmaceuticals costs. The program introduced staff education, waste-reduction strategies, treatment protocols, and a responsive formulary system. RIDOC pharmaceutical expenditures grew at a rate of approximately 1.5% Per Inmate Per Year from 2003 to 2009, considerably below the annual pharmaceutical inflation rate. Analyses of projected and actual drug spending indicate that RIDOC benefited from savings of almost $5 million during this period. This innovative approach to pharmacy management addressed many pharmaceutical care issues that had challenged RIDOC while providing educational opportunities for doctor of pharmacy students in this practice setting.


In times of the continuous transformation of urban structures in terms of growth and shrinkage, sprawl and the compact city, adaption and individuality, the only possibility for planners to cope with these circumstances while considering steadily changing parameters, is a strategic design approach. This means developing concepts based on variety, flexibility and stability at the same time: On the one hand, the intactness – or wholeness – referring to the existent context, on the other, the openness for future trends. Life cycles of cities and buildings are decreasing. Especially infrastructural systems which were generously created in the post-war period significantly shaping our landscapes are now shifted, transformed or revitalized. These spaces, together with the numerous industrial wastelands that are occurring, open up opportunities to become motors of city developments. It might be that the deficits in frequently criticized modern urban design practices are less related to the quality of individual buildings but rather in the neglect of gaps and the spaces in between them. As cities cannot be planned as a whole, but with subspaces being optimized partially independent from each other, the lack of coherence tends to create landscapes made of isolated fragments with an insular character, dominated by commercial districts, shopping malls, airports or museums. Strategic approaches for the post-industrial city pursue the re-appropriation of abandoned sites. With the means of innovative and unusual utilization concepts (temporary uses, promotion of public spaces, urban agriculture and others), formerly separated quarters can become part of a coherent spatial network – and therefore create a vibrant urban fabric appealing to its citizens.


During the last decade, two major technological changes have profoundly changed the way in which users consume and interact with on-line services and applications. The first of these has been the success of mobile computing, in particular that of smartphones, the primary end device used by many users for access to the Internet and various applications. The other change is the emergence of the so-called Internet-of-Things (IoT), denoting a technological transition in which everyday objects like household appliances that traditionally have been seen as stand-alone devices, are given network connectivity by introducing digital communication capabilities to those devices. The topic of this dissertation is related to a core challenge that the emergence of these technologies is introducing: how to effectively manage the security and privacy settings of users and devices in a user-friendly manner in an environment in which an ever-growing number of heterogeneous devices live and co-exist with each other?

In particular we study approaches for utilising profiling of contextual parameters and device communications
in order to make autonomous security decisions with the goal of striking a better balance between a system's security on one hand, and, its usability on the other. We introduce four distinct novel approaches utilising profiling for this end. First, we introduce ConXsense, a system demonstrating the use of user-specific longitudinal profiling of contextual information for modelling the usage context of mobile computing devices. Based on this ConXsense can probabilistically automate security policy decisions affecting security settings of the device.
Further we develop an approach utilising the similarity of contextual parameters observed with on-board sensors of co-located devices to construct proofs of presence that are resilient to context-guessing attacks by adversaries that seek to fool a device into believing the adversary is co-located with it, even though it is in reality not.
We then extend this approach to a context-based key evolution approach that allows IoT devices that are co-present in the same physical environment like the same room to use passively observed context measurements to iteratively authenticate their co-presence and thus gradually establish confidence in the other device being part of the same trust domain, e.g., the set of IoT devices in a user's home. We further analyse the relevant constraints that need to be taken into account to ensure security and usability of context-based authentication.
In the final part of this dissertation we extend the profiling approach to network communications of IoT devices and utilise it to realise the design of the IoTSentinel system for autonomous security policy adaptation in IoT device networks. We show that by monitoring the inherent network traffic of IoT devices during their initial set-up, we can automatically identify the type of device newly added to the network. The device-type information is then used by IoTSentinel to adapt traffic filtering rules automatically to provide isolation of devices that are potentially vulnerable to known attacks, thereby protecting the device itself and the rest of the network from threats arising from possible compromise of vulnerable devices.


The ichneumonid fauna of Vietnam has been studied since early 20 th century, but the records of this large insect group were published in the scattered papers. In this paper ichneumonid wasps from Vietnam are reviewed and a checklist of publishing species with local and world distribution is provided. Up to now, 185 ichneumonid species in 65 genera of 16 subfamilies are recorded from Vietnam. Of this number, no less than 56 species proved was described from Vietnam fauna only. In the checklist, the information of valid name, the first citation, holotype deposition and synonyms that used previously in Vietnam is provided. In addition, ten species are recorded for the first time in Vietnam, viz. Acerataspis clavata (Uchida, 1934); Charops brachypterus (Cameron , 1897) ; Chlorocryptus purpuratus (Smith , 1852) ; Chrionota townesi Uchida, 1957; Enicospilus hirayamai Uchida, 1955; Enicospilus melanocarpus Cameron , 1905 ; Lathrolestes roerichi Reschikov, 2011; Lytarmes maculipennis (Smith, 1858); Sachtlebenia sexmaculata Townes , 1963 and Stenichneumon appropinquans (Cameron, 1897). Additionally, there are 25 species listed with information about their hosts, being agricultural pests controlled to some degree by these parasitoids. This paper provides useful information for further studies on one of the largest family within Hymenoptera from Vietnam. Received 17 November 2016, accepted 5 December 2016, published online 6 December 2016


We theoretically study the dynamics of a multistripe laser array with an external cavity formed by either one or two off-axis feedback mirrors, which allow us to select a single lateral supermode with transversely modulated intensity distribution. We derive and analyze a reduced model of such an array based on a set of delay differential equations, taking into account transverse carrier grating in the semiconductor medium. With the help of the bifurcation analysis of the reduced model, we show the existence of single and multimode instabilities leading to periodic and irregular pulsations of the output intensity. In particular, we observe a multimode instability leading to a periodic regime with antiphase oscillating intensities of the two counter-propagating waves in the external cavity. This is in agreement with the result obtained earlier with the help of a 2+1 dimensional traveling wave model.


If you want to convince your organization to conduct a web performance upgrade, this concise book will strengthen your case. Drawing upon her many years of web performance research, author Tammy Everts uses cases studies and other data to explain how web page speed and availability affect a host of business metrics. Youll also learn how our human neurological need for quick, uncomplicated processes drives these metrics. Ideal for managers, this books case studies demonstrate how Walmart, Staples.com, Mozilla, and other organizations significantly improved conversion rates through simple upgrades. Find out why happy customers return, while frustrated users can send your metricsand your domaininto a tailspin. Youll explore: What happens neurologically when people encounter slow or interrupted processes How page speed affects metrics in retail and other industries, from media sites to SaaS providers Why internal applications are often slower than consumer apps, and how this hurts employee morale and productivity Common performance problems and the various technologies created to fight them How to pioneer new metrics, and create an organizational culture of performance


Various lines of research on language have converged on the premise that linguistic knowledge has as its basic unit pairings of form and meaning. The precise nature of the meanings involved, however, remains subject to the longstanding debate between proponents of arbitrary, abstract representations and those who argue for more detailed perceptuo-motor representations. We propose a model, Embodied Construction Grammar (ECG), which integrates these two positions by casting meanings as schematic representations embodied in human perceptual and motor systems. On this view, understanding everyday language entails running mental simulations of its perceptual and motor content. Linguistic meanings are parameterizations of aspects of such simulations; they thus serve as an interface between the relatively discrete properties of language and the detailed and encyclopedic knowledge needed for simulation. This paper assembles evidence from neural imaging and psycholinguistic experiments supporting this general approach to language understanding. It also introduces ECG as a model that fulfills the requisite constraints, and presents two kinds of support for the model. First, we describe two verbal matching studies that test predictions the model makes about the degree of motor detail available in lexical representations. Second, we demonstrate the viability and utility of ECG as a grammar formalism through its capacity to support computational models of language understanding and acquisition.


The interview was recorded at Washington, D.c., on July 24, 1990 . The Interviewer was James Sutterlin
.
W. Tapley Bennet joined the United States Foreign Service in 1941 and was part of the United States delegation to the United Nations Charter Conference in San Francisco. In 1951, he was appointed as Deputy Director to the Office of South American Affairs, and in 1957, he acted as Counsellor and Minister in United States Embassies in Rome, Italy; Vienna, Austria; and Athens, Greece. From 1965-1966, he was the United States Ambassador to the Dominican Republic, and in 1966, to Portugal. In 1972, he served concurrently as Ambassador to the United Nations Security Council and Deputy United States Representative to the United Nations.
This interview, conducted on 24 July 1990, during Mr. Bennett's retirement, focused on his experience as a young delegate to the United Nations Conference on International Organization in San Francisco in 1945. He gave particular insight into the controversy surrounding certain States' eligibility for Membership at the time, the United States relationships with Latin American countries and Nelson Rockefeller's early involvement with the Organization. Mr. Bennett also discussed Kurt Waldheim's election as United Nations Secretary-General.


Modern treatments of Rome have projected in highly emotive terms the perceived problems, or the aspirations, of the present: 'race-mixture' has been blamed for the collapse of the Roman empire; more recently, Rome and Roman society have been depicted as 'multicultural'. Moving beyond these and beyond more traditional, juridical approaches to Roman identity, Emma Dench focuses on ancient modes of thinking about selves and relationships with other peoples, including descent-myths, history, and ethnographies. She explores the relative importance of sometimes closely interconnected categories of blood descent, language, culture and clothes, and territoriality. Rome's creation of a distinctive imperial shape is understood in the context of the broader ancient Mediterranean world within which the Romans self-consciously situated themselves, and whose modes of thought they appropriated and transformed.

Contents
Introduction
1. Roman Ethnographies
2. Romulus' Asylum: The Character of the Roman Citizenship
3. The Idea of Italy
4. Flesh and Blood
5. Languages and Literatures
Epilogue: Closure?


This work proposes a communication digital signal processor (DSP) suitable for massive signal processing operations in orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) and code-division multiple-access (CDMA) communication systems. The OFDM-based IEEE 802.11a wireless LAN transceiver and CDMA-based WCDMA uplink receiver are simulated to evaluate the computation requirements of future communication systems. The architecture of the communication digital signal processor is established according to the computational complexity of these simulations. The proposed architecture supports basic butterfly operations, single/double-precision and real- and complex-valued multiplication-and-accumulation (MAC), squared error computation, and add-compare-select (ACS) operation. This butterfly/complex MAC architecture can greatly enhance the execution efficiency of operations often found in communication applications. The processor chip is fabricated using a 0.35-/spl mu/m n-well one-poly four-metal CMOS technology. The fabricated DSP chip reaches a speed of 1.1 G MAC/s when operating in the high-speed mode, and it achieves 4 M MAC/s/mW in the low-power mode.


We present an approach for analyzing market shares and products price elasticities based on large datasets containing aggregate sales data for many products, several markets and for relatively long time periods. We consider the recently proposed Bayesian approach of Jiang et al [Jiang, Renna, Machanda, Puneet and Peter Rossi, 2009. Journal of Econometrics 149 (2) 136-148] and we extend their method in four directions. First, we reduce the dimensionality of the covariance matrix of the random effects by using a factor structure. The dimension reduction can be substantial depending on the number of common factors and the number of products. Second, we parametrize the covariance matrix in terms of correlations and standard deviations, like Barnard et al. [Barnard, John, McCulloch, Robert and Xiao-Li Meng, 2000. Statistica Sinica 10 1281-1311] and we present a Metropolis sampling scheme based on this specification. Third, we allow for long term trends in preferences using time-varying common factors. Inference on these factors is obtained using a simulation smoother for state space time series. Finally, we consider an attractive combination of priors applied to each market and globally to all markets to speed up computation time. The main advantage of this prior specification is that it let us estimate the random coefficients based on all data available. We study both simulated data and a real dataset containing several markets each consisting of 30 to 60 products and our method proves to be promising with immediate practical applicability.