OBJECTIVES
A small number of patients with advanced pulmonary adenocarcinomas treated with tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) was subsequently considered eligible for surgery. Our goal was to report the clinical characteristics, pathological features and prognosis of these patients with the aim of exploring the feasibility of this strategy of care.

METHODS
We retrospectively reviewed the medical files of 19 patients in whom systemic treatment, including TKIs, resulted in a possible stabilization of the disease such that they were considered eligible for surgery (adjuvant surgery).

RESULTS
Lobectomy, pneumonectomy or segmentectomy was performed in 68.4%, 26.3% and 5.3% of cases, respectively. Limited fibrotic tissues were detected intraoperatively in 8 patients who received TKIs as the sole systemic treatment. The postoperative course in the hospital was uneventful in 13 (68.4%) cases; 3 (15.8%) patients suffered major complications. The post-pneumonectomy early morbidity rate was 60%. A pathological analysis of the tumours showed that the median rate of fibrosis was 32.5% (0-100); of viable neoplastic tissue, 25.0% (0-90); and of necrosis, 12.5% (0-80%). Four tumours (21.1%) exhibited no viable tumour cells. The fibrosis ratio was higher in patients older than 60 years (P = 0.01) and in those treated with erlotinib (P = 0.03). The 3- and 5-year overall survival and disease-free survival rates were 79.5%/39.8% and 44.4%/29.6%, respectively. Pneumonectomy and <50% fibrosis or >30% viable tumour cells in the pathological specimens were factors significantly associated with lower disease-free survival.

CONCLUSIONS
In a subset of highly selected patients, adjuvant lung surgery following treatment with TKI showed a large spectrum of histological changes in the pathological specimens and encouraging preliminary survival results. Pending further research, it may prove a relatively reliable and safe therapeutic choice, except when an extensive resection like a pneumonectomy is planned.


MW-mile and Postage-stamp methods is traditionally used by electric utilities to determine a fixed transmission cost among users of firm transmission service. MW-Mile method is charging the users by determining the actual paths the power follows through the network. However, this method is not sufficient to recover the total transmission system cost. To recover the total transmission system cost, the Postage Stamp Method is adopted. This method is simple but its main drawback is that the charges paid by each user do not reflect the actual use of the network but based on the average usage of the entire network. This paper proposes a new wheeling charges methodology using tracing-based postage stamp methods. The proposed method allocates transmission costs among the generators proportional to the total power delivered to the load through transmission lines. The proposed method incorporates with generalised generation distribution factors to trace the contribution of each generator to the line flow. One unique feature of the proposed method is the consideration of the local load on the power flow allocation. Two case studies of 3-bus and IEEE 14-bus systems are used to illustrate the proposed method. Results show that the proposed method provides fair and equitable wheeling charges to generators reflecting the actual usage of the transmission system.


Research on manual tracking with a kinesthetic-tactual (KT) display suggests that under certain conditions it can be an effective alternative or supplement to visual displays. In order to better understand how KT tracking compares with visual tracking, both a critical tracking and a stationary single-axis tracking task were conducted with and without velocity quickening. In the critical tracking tasks, the visual displays were superior; however, the quickened KT display was approximately equal to the unquickened visual display. In stationary tracking tasks, subjects adopted lag equalization with the quickened KT and visual displays, and mean-squared error scores were approximately equal. With the unquickened displays, subjects adopted lag-lead equalization, and the visual displays were superior.


BACKGROUND
Gentamicin and vancomycin are commonly used in neonatal units for the treatment of life-threatening infections. This study aimed to describe the dosage regimen and the approach to therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) for both antibiotics in units that participate in a UK neonatal network.

METHODS
Questionnaires were sent to all units across the Extended Neonatal Network, requesting details of each unit's dosing regimen and TDM practice.

RESULTS
A total of 43 (of 114) units replied to the gentamicin questionnaire and 29 to the vancomycin questionnaire. Ten different gentamicin dosing regimens were used, depending on gestational age and weight. Most units (79%) followed British National Formulary for Children dosing guidance regarding vancomycin, but there were nine variations in TDM practice.

CONCLUSIONS
There is significant variation in gentamicin and vancomycin dosing regimens and TDM guidance across a UK network of neonatal units. The development of standardized, evidence-based protocols should be prioritized.


Abstract A novel rhodium-catalyzed conjugate addition of indium reagents to electron deficient olefins is reported. The reaction takes place in THF/MeOH at 110 °C using arylindium dichlorides, a rhodium(I)-binap complex as catalyst, and α,β-unsaturated ketones and lactones in good yields (45–94%). The addition of MeOH is crucial for an efficient transformation and NMR studies seem to indicate that promotes the catalytic cycle leaving the indium organometallic unaltered. The use of chiral non-racemic ligands allows performing the reaction with moderate enantioselectivities.


The aim of this research is to identify differences in salt tolerance of melon genotypes and the possibility of using plant biomass values and degree of ion accumulation of leaves to determine salt tolerance. In addition, the increase in MDA amount of leaves on salt stress was evaluated. 36 different genotypes were identified according to different parameters in respect to salt tolerance and susceptibility to salinity, correlation coefficients among these characters were determined. It was observed that salt damage in melons is probably the result of toxic effects of Na + and Cl - ions and the genotypes having low amounts of these ions are more tolerant. Midyat, Besni andemame varieties were determinad as salt tolerant melon genotypes; Ananas and Yuva melon cultivars were most sensitive to salt stress.


This article examines the development over time of the English expression "filial piety" in order to document how, at least partly
 in response to pressure from an equivalence that is established with the Chinese term xiao (孝) in the seventeenth
 century, the term takes on new and increasingly negative connotations in English. As an important concept in Chinese philosophy,
 xiao occurs in many important early texts, including the Confucian Analects and, although
 the way the term is interpreted varies over time, remains central to many debates about Chinese culture right to this day. As the
 link between filial piety and xiao strengthens through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, "filial piety"
 thus unsurprisingly becomes identified as one of a small group of key terms that were increasingly thought to explain all
 differences between the British and the Chinese. This article examines how the term "filial piety" evolves from a
 natural and universal impulse due to its connection with Christianity, with China initially
 as a particularly good example of this universal from whom everyone can learn, through various increasingly negative shifts due to
 the perceived conflict between filial piety and romantic love, as well as its increasing association with the Chinese, who by the
 end of the nineteenth century were seen as held back by the extreme nature of their practices. Today, filial piety as a term is
 seen as mainly or entirely local and specific to China, and by extension, something potentially holding it back from
 modernity.


Abstract This article starts by discussing sensitive nuclear information and how malicious non-state actors could exploit this to facilitate acts of nuclear terror. Our analysis shows that there is a significant information security challenge in this area due to the diversity of sensitive information, the different communities within which it resides and the range of mechanisms by which it could be transferred. We then turn our attention to assessing different steps that could be taken to protect sensitive nuclear information. Here there are limits to the effectiveness of international instruments and national laws and consequently bottom-up initiatives designed to promote responsible self-governance should be developed and supported.


Current climate change is a major threat to biodiversity. Species unable to adapt or move will face local or global extinction and this is more likely to happen to species with narrow climatic and habitat requirements and limited dispersal abilities, such as amphibians and reptiles. Biodiversity losses are likely to be greatest in global biodiversity hotspots where climate change is fast, such as the Iberian Peninsula. Here we assess the impact of climate change on 37 endemic and nearly endemic herptiles of the Iberian Peninsula by predicting species distributions for three different times into the future (2020, 2050 and 2080) using an ensemble of bioclimatic models and different combinations of species dispersal ability, emission levels and global circulation models. Our results show that species with Atlantic affinities that occur mainly in the North‐western Iberian Peninsula have severely reduced future distributions. Up to 13 species may lose their entire potential distribution by 2080. Furthermore, our analysis indicates that the most critical period for the majority of these species will be the next decade. While there is considerable variability between the scenarios, we believe that our results provide a robust relative evaluation of climate change impacts among different species. Future evaluation of the vulnerability of individual species to climate change should account for their adaptive capacity to climate change, including factors such as physiological climate tolerance, geographical range size, local abundance, life cycle, behavioural and phenological adaptability, evolutionary potential and dispersal ability.


Death associated protein kinase (DAPk) is a multidomain protein kinase that plays a key
role in the promotion of programmed cell death. A number of different stimuli such as
TΝF-α, TGF-β, IFN-γ, ceramide, c-Myc oncogenic transformation and matrix detachment
are all known to activate DAPk, suggesting that DAPk lies at an important convergent point
for the different cell death signalling pathways. DAPk-induced cell death is not entirely
dependent on the presence of functional p53 or caspases and is highly conserved in C.
elegans, rodents and human.
The pro-apoptotic functions of DAPk are dependent on its kinase domain as well as the
death domain (DAPk-DD). The structure of the kinase domain has been solved, but no
experimental structural information is available for the DAPk-DD. The death domain
belongs to the death fold superfamily that also includes the death effector domain, the
caspase recruitment domain, and the Pyrin domain. These domains all share a common
architecture of a six α-helix bundle arranged in an antiparallel manner. The death domain
is a protein-protein interaction motif found in different signalling proteins involved in
apoptosis, inflammation and NF-kB (nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated
B cells) signalling. The role of the death domain is to promote the assembly of large
multimember protein complexes, such as the DISC and the apoptosome, required for signal
transduction purposes.
This project aimed to tackle the specific structural parameters of the DAPk-DD; an
important step in understanding the biological function of this enzyme. An efficient
protocol was developed for the production of milligram quantities of human DAPk-DD in a
stable and soluble form. Purification and buffer optimization provided the necessary sample
homogeneity and high concentration solubility required for downstream applications,
respectively. The multimeric state of DAPk-DD was assessed hydrodynamically, while
biophysical techniques such as NMR, CD spectroscopy and fluorimetry were used to
explore the 3D shape of DAPk-DD. Further analysis was performed on the in vitro
interaction of the DAPk-DD with a newly identified partner, extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK2). GST pull-down assays highlighted the necessity of an intact DAPk-DD for
interaction with ERK2, while ITC estimated the ratio and affinity of the complex. CD
spectroscopy was also performed on the complex to monitor structural changes upon
mutual binding.
Overall, the DAPk-DD proved to have an unusual structural behaviour not previously seen
in other members of the death domain superfamily that puts into question its classification
as a classic DD.


The ends of chromosomes in Saccharomyces cerevisiae initiate a repressive chromatin structure that spreads internally and inhibits the transcription of nearby genes, a phenomenon termed telomeric silencing. To investigate the molecular basis of this process, we carried out a genetic screen to identify genes whose overexpression disrupts telomeric silencing. We thus isolated 10 DOT genes (disruptor of telomeric silencing). Among these were genes encoding chromatin component Sir4p, DNA helicase Dna2p, ribosomal protein L32, and two proteins of unknown function, Asf1p and Ifh1p. The collection also included genes that had not previously been identified: DOT1, DOT4, DOT5, DOT6, and TLC1, which encodes the RNA template component of telomerase. With the exception of TLC1, all these genes, particularly DOT1 and DOT4, also reduced silencing at other repressed loci (HM loci and rDNA) when overexpressed. Moreover, deletion of the latter two genes weakened silencing as well, suggesting that DOT1 and DOT4 normally play important roles in gene repression. DOT1 deletion also affected telomere tract length. The function of Dot1p is not known. The sequence of Dot4p suggests that it is a ubiquitin-processing protease. Taken together, the DOT genes include both components and regulators of silent chromatin.


The debate on the European Enlargement to East and Central Europe and the negotiations with presently thirteen and possibly more countries later, raise a cultural problem at large, briefly summarized by two questions: what do we have in common? And what is the European identity? Practically it raises the problem of what language will we speak? The paper, written by an anthropologist, is based on extensive periods of observation of EU institutional life and several months of participation to the Commission working operations. It intends to clarify the linguistic situation of the EU, considered as a political entity, by making explicit the relations between three articulated layers that are: the realm of an official polity, the world of the institutions, and society at large. Within the general context of EU making, I distinguish the problematic of the official European languages policy, the use of languages that is made by European officials and their impact on policy making, and the delicate shifting from monolingualism to multilingualism in a social context. The EU destiny is to carry together two antagonistic perspectives such as Unity and Diversity, which constitute its motto. Diversity is at the core of the European identity and within the institutional process itself, bringing, in terms of language, interesting issues for improving communication, through translation, interpretation and personal attitudes. Progresses towards the forms of unity that represent the integration policies and the adoption of a single currency do not lead simply to a linguistic unification, nor to the adoption of English as a common vehicular language. European elite (usually trained in English) and people (located in their own multiple languages) do not live identical linguistic situations. What is at stake is the possibility for individuals to manage several languages for being really part of a European space, which does not limit itself to national and regional boundaries.


The purpose of this article is to present an understanding of knowledge and learning in organisations from pragmatist perspectives. Relying on the work of early pragmatists as well as contemporary pragmatists, we introduce a conceptualisation of knowledge as the outcome of inquiry. Knowledge, in this article, is presented as provisional, multi-perspective, both particular and general. Our point of departure here is that the chief value of knowledge is its usefulness in solving problems. Pragmatist views of knowledge are further explicated in our discussion of four pragmatist themes, which we have identified as particularly viable on the basis of Jane Addams' pragmatist view and the practice of democracy in organised life: 1) Knowledge as transactional in organisations, 2) Reciprocity and learning in organisations, 3) Experience-based knowledge and meaning-making in organisations, and 4) Sustainability as an ongoing, democratic process in organisations. In the pragmatist school of thought we draw upon, a predominant issue is always also the very purpose of knowledge, or what we refer to as 'usefulness'. Under discussion, we argue that a pragmatist understanding of knowledge and learning in organisations allows us to move beyond the polarisation of cognitive-possession — social-process and instead work from an alternative framework, with a focus on processes of learning and knowledge in organisations that aim at integrative, democratic problem solving.


He has been cited by "The New York Times Magazine" as "probably the most important economist in the world" and by Time as "the world's best-known economist." He has advised an extraordinary range of world leaders and international institutions on the full range of issues related to creating economic success and reducing the world's poverty and misery. Now, at last, he draws on his entire twenty-five-year body of experience to offer a thrilling and inspiring big-picture vision of the keys to economic success in the world today and the steps that are necessary to achieve prosperity for all. Marrying vivid eyewitness storytelling to his laserlike analysis, Jeffrey Sachs sets the stage by drawing a vivid conceptual map of the world economy and the different categories into which countries fall. Then, in a tour de force of elegance and compression, he explains why, over the past two hundred years, wealth has diverged across the planet in the manner that it has and why the poorest nations have been so markedly unable to escape the cruel vortex of poverty. The groundwork laid, he explains his methods for arriving, like a clinical internist, at a holistic diagnosis of a country's situation and the options it faces. Rather than deliver a worldview to readers from on high, Sachs leads them along the learning path he himself followed, telling the remarkable stories of his own work in Bolivia, Poland, Russia, India, China, and Africa as a way to bring readers to a broad-based understanding of the array of issues countries can face and the way the issues interrelate. He concludes by drawing on everything he has learned to offer an integrated set of solutions to the interwoven economic, political, environmental, and social problems that most frequently hold societies back. In the end, he leaves readers with an understanding, not of how daunting the world's problems are, but how solvable they are-and why making the effort is a matter both of moral obligation and strategic self-interest. A work of profound moral and intellectual vision that grows out of unprecedented real-world experience, "The End of Poverty" is a road map to a safer, more prosperous future for the world. From "probably the most important economist in the world" ("The New York Times Magazine"), legendary for his work around the globe on economies in crisis, a landmark exploration of the roots of economic prosperity and the path out of extreme poverty for the world's poorest citizens.


In this article I will establish the concept of a "symbolic system of representation" to make clear how it is possible that humans are not only using the language-based system of representation for cognitive contents. A system of representation should enable us to "think", i.e. to form and manipulate an idea of a state of affairs or of an event without having the appropriate intuition of them. We believe that we do this mostly in language. My thesis is that there are non-linguistic systems of representation with the same performance. We simultaneously use different systems of representation; the most prominent are language, gestures, feelings, and scenic images. Phenomenological analysis reveals that it is especially fruitful to investigate into the scenic mode of daydreaming as a central form of non-linguistic thinking. By close comparison of non-linguistic systems of representation and non-linguistic communication, their common ground in similarity semantics is revealed. This is the principal basis to begin and maintain intercultural understanding across the borders of national languages.


What do banks do (that markets cannot do)? In the United States in 1845, the answer would have been that banks made loans and issued mortgages, but their most important role was to provide a medium of exchange by issuing private money.(1) By the late 19th century, U.S. capital markets were more developed, but at the same time large banks resembled German universal banks.(2) Passage of the Glass-Steagall Act in 1934 changed that by restricting banks' activities.(3) In 1996 banks face competition from money market mutual funds for deposit business and from junk bonds, commercial paper, and medium-term notes for bank loans.(4) While smaller firms continue to rely heavily on banks, banks are now engaged in many new activities, such as interest rate and currency swaps.(5) Whatever it is that defines banks as unique institutions, the pattern of bank activities has changed over the last 150 years as banking has interacted with the development of security markets. The challenge is to explain the persistence of banking as security markets increasingly develop. Banks and Security Markets in the Organization of Capitalist Economies One problem in understanding what banks do is that the function of securities markets is not well understood. With James Dow, I address the issue of the connection between stock market price "efficiency" and economic efficiency.(6) In this work, we assume that firms are operated by managers who must be compensated in a way that induces them to find desirable investment projects. The managers may make an effort to produce information, but are not always successful in receiving information. When they are not successful, they may be induced by their compensation contracts to rely on inferences drawn from changes in their firms' stock market prices. In such an economy, two types of information must be produced and transmitted in order to achieve the most efficient allocation of resources. First, the stock market must provide forward-looking or prospective information when informed traders produce information about the firm's investment opportunities for managers to act on. Second, the stock market must provide backward-looking or retrospective information when stock prices reflect informed traders' production of information about the outcomes of investment decisions made in previous periods. Managerial compensation based on stock prices then can induce managerial effort. This model of the stock market seems to be what most economists have in mind when they speak of "market efficiency." Stock prices allocate resources by influencing investment decisions and by providing a way to monitor corporate managers. But, consider the same economy without the stock market but with banks instead. Banks design contracts to hire information-producing loan analysts who write prospective and retrospective reports about investment opportunities and managerial performance. Dow and I show that the banks can implement the same allocation as the efficient equilibrium of the stock market economy. Efficient security prices are neither necessary nor sufficient for economic efficiency. That the savings-investment process might be equally well organized around banks as around security markets suggests empirically investigating the role of banks in economies where securities markets are less important than in the United States, as in Germany. For much of recent German history the stock market has been small and illiquid. German banks, though, can own stock legally. The question is whether bank block shareholding is, in some sense, a substitute for a liquid stock market. Schmid and I examine the role of banks in Germany, and show that in the 1970s firm performance was better when a bank was a large shareholder. This is consistent with the proposition that when banks obtain a block of stock (via a family selling out, or because of financial distress), they have an incentive to improve firm performance by monitoring because, effectively, the block cannot be sold (since the stock market is traded so thinly). …


The present invention discloses a urea-based fertiliser composition that is capable of reducing the loss of ammonia from urea when applied on soil. Accordingly, the present invention provides a fertiliser composition suitable for use as a plant nutrient, the composition comprising urea and an organic acid or mixtures thereof. The organic acid comprises fulvic acid or a mixture of fulvic acid and humic acid extracted from palm oil mill effluent sludge, which is capable of controlling the dissolution and hydrolysis of urea, thereby reducing the loss of ammonia from the composition.


: This paper describes an integrated system for the design and production of sheet metal parts. We have identified some important features for the sheet metal bending process. These features are automatically generated as the design progresses. After the designs are complete, our auto- matic process planning system uses the features and generates new ones to aid the production of plans with near-minimum manufacturing costs. Finally, these plans are used to produce parts on an automatic bending system. Once a plan is generated, it can be used to manufacture the part, and to provide feedback to design and other factory systems. The application of features and the potential feature interaction problems are discussed. Several key manufacturing problems are also considered and the result of planning is used to resolve these problems. By solving these feature interaction problems and often practical manufacturing issues, we are able to plan and manufacture the majority of the parts we have tested under one hour after the flat patterns are prepared.


Cheques are old payment instruments widely used in various parts of the world. In the United Kingdom, they are governed by the Bills of Exchange Act (hereafter, the BEA or 'Act'), as supplemented by the Cheques Act. As a rule, statutes in common law countries, and hence, their laws of cheques, are modelled on the BEA, though local variations may exist. A statute modelled on the BEA is in force for example in Israel and South Africa. Both are not pure common law jurisdictions. In Canada, cheques are governed by the federal Bills of Exchange Act, modelled on its English predecessor, which is in force also in the civil law province of Quebec. In Australia, cheques were excluded from the coverage of the Bills of Exchange Act, and are currently governed by a specific Cheques Act.


The Model Penal Code reconceptualized proximate cause to see it as part of the offense culpability requirements rather than as, in the traditional view, a minimum requirement for the strength of the connection between the actor's conduct and the prohibited result. That conceptual error, rare in the well-thought-out Model Code, invites misinterpretation and misapplication of the proximate cause provision, and can produce improper liability results. The failure is all the more unfortunate because the Model Code drafters did have an important improvement to offer in dealing with the challenging issue of proximate cause. Their jettison of fixed detailed rules in favor of a useful general standard – "not too remote or accidental in its occurrence to have a [just] bearing on the actor's liability or on the gravity of his offense" – could have significantly simplified and improved proximate cause analysis, but their conceptual error created needless problems that helped lead most states to reject the Model Code provision.


We provide an overview of the extensive results on the Shannon capacity of single-user and multiuser multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) channels. Although enormous capacity gains have been predicted for such channels, these predictions are based on somewhat unrealistic assumptions about the underlying time-varying channel model and how well it can be tracked at the receiver, as well as at the transmitter. More realistic assumptions can dramatically impact the potential capacity gains of MIMO techniques. For time-varying MIMO channels there are multiple Shannon theoretic capacity definitions and, for each definition, different correlation models and channel information assumptions that we consider. We first provide a comprehensive summary of ergodic and capacity versus outage results for single-user MIMO channels. These results indicate that the capacity gain obtained from multiple antennas heavily depends on the available channel information at either the receiver or transmitter, the channel signal-to-noise ratio, and the correlation between the channel gains on each antenna element. We then focus attention on the capacity region of the multiple-access channels (MACs) and the largest known achievable rate region for the broadcast channel. In contrast to single-user MIMO channels, capacity results for these multiuser MIMO channels are quite difficult to obtain, even for constant channels. We summarize results for the MIMO broadcast and MAC for channels that are either constant or fading with perfect instantaneous knowledge of the antenna gains at both transmitter(s) and receiver(s). We show that the capacity region of the MIMO multiple access and the largest known achievable rate region (called the dirty-paper region) for the MIMO broadcast channel are intimately related via a duality transformation. This transformation facilitates finding the transmission strategies that achieve a point on the boundary of the MIMO MAC capacity region in terms of the transmission strategies of the MIMO broadcast dirty-paper region and vice-versa. Finally, we discuss capacity results for multicell MIMO channels with base station cooperation. The base stations then act as a spatially diverse antenna array and transmission strategies that exploit this structure exhibit significant capacity gains. This section also provides a brief discussion of system level issues associated with MIMO cellular. Open problems in this field abound and are discussed throughout the paper.


Caffeine in floral nectar enhances the memory of bees for the flowers' scent by altering response properties of neurons in the bee brain. [Also see Report by Wright et al.] Pollination systems are biological markets, where flower visitors choose between flower species on the basis of their quality, such as the sweetness and amount of nectar per flower. Plants in turn compete for pollinators and advertise their product through colorful visual displays and scents. A key challenge in floral advertising is that signals must be not only attractive but also memorable (1): The more distinct a flower signal, the more likely a pollinator is to remember it, increasing the probability that pollinators will visit more flowers of this species while ignoring competing flower species. On page 1202 of this issue, Wright et al. (2) report that some plant species appear to gain an unfair advantage in this competitive market by manipulating the memory of bees with psychoactive drugs.


We develop an approach for estimating models described via conditional moment restrictions, with a prototypical application being non-parametric instrumental variable regression. We introduce a min-max criterion function, under which the estimation problem can be thought of as solving a zero-sum game between a modeler who is optimizing over the hypothesis space of the target model and an adversary who identifies violating moments over a test function space. We analyze the statistical estimation rate of the resulting estimator for arbitrary hypothesis spaces, with respect to an appropriate analogue of the mean squared error metric, for ill-posed inverse problems. We show that when the minimax criterion is regularized with a second moment penalty on the test function and the test function space is sufficiently rich, then the estimation rate scales with the critical radius of the hypothesis and test function spaces, a quantity which typically gives tight fast rates. Our main result follows from a novel localized Rademacher analysis of statistical learning problems defined via minimax objectives. We provide applications of our main results for several hypothesis spaces used in practice such as: reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces, high dimensional sparse linear functions, spaces defined via shape constraints, ensemble estimators such as random forests, and neural networks. For each of these applications we provide computationally efficient optimization methods for solving the corresponding minimax problem (e.g. stochastic first-order heuristics for neural networks). In several applications, we show how our modified mean squared error rate, combined with conditions that bound the ill-posedness of the inverse problem, lead to mean squared error rates. We conclude with an extensive experimental analysis of the proposed methods.


In this project we propose a numerical algorithm for solving the atmospheric dispersion problem with point sources and deposition at the ground. The problem is modelled by the 3D advection-diffusion equation with delta distribution source terms, as well as variable advection speed and diffusion coefficients. We construct a finite volume scheme using a splitting approach in which the CLAWPACK software package is used as the advection solver and an implicit solver is proposed for the diffusion terms. Next, we apply the algorithm to an actual industrial scenario involving emissions of airborne zinc from a mining smelter using actual wind measurements, and then compare our results to another set of simulations obtained from an algorithm based on a Gaussian plume solver. Finally, we propose a new and efficient framework for solving the inverse source emission problem that utilizes the solution of the adjoint equations.


The interaction of electromagnetic waves with matter is at the foundation of the way we perceive and explore the world around us. In fact, when a field interacts with an object, signatures on the object's geometry and physical properties are recorded in the resulting scattered field and are transported away from the object, where they can eventually be detected and processed. An optical field can transport information through its spectral content, its polarization state, and its spatial distribution. Generally speaking, the field's spatial structure is typically subjected to changes under free-space propagation and any information therein encoded gets reshuffled by the propagation process. We must ascribe to this fundamental reason the fact that spectroscopy was known to the ancient civilizations already, and founded as modern science in the middle of seventeenth century, while to date we do not have an established scientific of field of 'spatial spectroscopy' yet. In this work we tackle this issue and we show how any field, whose evolution is dictated by Helmholtz equation, contains a universal and invariant spatial structure. When expressed in the framework of this spatial fabric, the spatial information content carried by any field reveals its invariant nature. This opens the way to novel paradigms in optical digital communications, inverse scattering, materials inspection, nanometrology and quantum optics.


This article explores the relationship between two major explanations of the formation of positive attitudes towards environmental policy measures. Ideological orientation and personal values have, in theory, significant overlaps in the sense that they collect general and cross-situational sentiments used to understand and evaluate a wide range of political issues. However, in the empirical literature, although they independently have been shown to have rather significant effects on pro-environmental policy attitudes, they are rarely tested together in order to explore whether they capture the same basic mechanisms. In this article, two data sets from Sweden are used to demonstrate both that ideological orientation and personal values independently affect pro-environmental policy support, as well as that these effects differ across different policy types.


This paper considers wireless sensor networks (WSNs) deployed to provide surveillance against intruders that wish to cross a given area. Due to limited resources, low manufacturing cost, and operation in harsh environments, nodes in such networks are subject to random failure in the field. Hence, there is a need to develop suitable reliability assessment mechanisms to quantify a WSN's ability to perform successfully. Here, we consider one such measure, called the breach path detection reliability (BPDREL), that applies to networks where any intruder crossing a line segment between some adjacent operating pairs of sensor nodes can be detected, and the network perimeter is made of a polygon of such line segments. Each breach path across the network is associated with a pair of entry-exit sides on the perimeter. Our measure takes into account intrusion events associated with any user-specified set of such entry-exit sides. Computing the exact BPDREL can be shown to be #P-hard. We extend existing results on the BPDREL by developing an approach for deriving lower bounds on the problem for arbitrary WSNs where the sink node is located on the network's perimeter. The resulting algorithm is used to analyze the impact of varying various network parameters on the overall network reliability.


Objectives An increasing part of the population is affected by disordered eating (DE) even though they do not meet the full eating disorder (ED) criteria. To improve treatment in the range of weight-related disorders, there is a need to improve our knowledge about DE and relevant correlates of weight problems such as underweight, overweight and obesity. However, studies investigating DE and weight problems in a wide range of ages in the general population have been lacking. This paper explores DE, weight problems, dieting and weight dissatisfaction among women in a general population sample. Design Cross-sectional study. Setting The third survey of the Nord-Trøndelag Health Study (HUNT3). Participants The population included 27 252 women, aged 19–99 years, with information on DE outcomes and covariates. Outcomes DE was assessed with an 8-item version of the Eating Attitude Test and the Eating Disorder Scale-5. Body mass index (BMI) was objectively measured. Data on dieting and weight dissatisfaction were collected from self-reported questionnaires and analysed across weight categories. Crude and adjusted logistic and multinomial logistic regression models were used. Results High rates of overweight (38%) and obesity (23%) were found. DE was associated with weight problems. In women aged <30 years, 11.8% (95% CI 10.3 to 13.1) reported DE, and 12% (95% CI 11.5 to 12.6) reported DE in women aged >30 years. In those of younger ages (19–29 years), lower weight predicted DE, while increasing weight predicted DE in older aged women (30–99 years). The majority of women were dissatisfied with their weight (58.8%), and 54.1% of the women reported dieting. Neither BMI status nor age was associated with dieting or weight dissatisfaction. Conclusions A high prevalence of DE was observed, and findings suggest that weight problems and DE are not distinct from one another. Dieting was associated with women's weight dissatisfaction, rather than with actual weight. This requires further investigations about directionality of effects.


There is an increasing interest in exploiting multiple images for scene understanding, with great progress in areas such as cosegmentation and video segmentation. Jointly analyzing the images in a large set offers the opportunity to exploit a greater source of information than when considering a single image on its own. However, this also yields challenges since, to effectively exploit all the available information, the resulting methods need to consider not just local connections, but efficiently analyze similarity between all pairs of pixels within and across all the images. In this paper, we propose to model an image set as a fully connected pairwise Conditional Random Field (CRF) defined over the image pixels, or superpixels, with Gaussian edge potentials. We show that this lets us co-label the images of a large set efficiently, thus yielding increased accuracy at no additional computational cost compared to sequential labeling of the images. Furthermore, we extend our framework to incorporate temporal dependence, thus effectively encompassing video segmentation as a special case of our approach, as well as to modeling label dependence over larger image regions. Our experimental evaluation demonstrates that our framework lets us handle over 10 000 images in a matter of seconds.


How did Americans apportion responsibility for the acts of September 11, and how might that response change in the aftermath of future terrorism? This article studies the nation's reaction through a sociological lens. Following high-profile crimes, the public often panics, targeting marginal sub-communities with anger and new regulations. This phenomenon is often termed 'moral panic.' After technological catastrophes, however, public blame is typically more diffuse, taking the form of 'risk society panics' that focus not only on individuals and sub-communities, but also socially powerful institutions such as corporations and the government. September 11 was a combination of crime and technological catastrophe - criminals killed thousands of people by subverting technology, taking advantage of the dangers inherent to air travel, high rise buildings, and the like. Public reaction reflected this ambiguity. This article studies rhetoric used after September 11 to understand why public anxiety unfolded as it did. Despite anger towards Muslims and people from the Middle East, and government policy disparately targeting these groups, public and institutional responses were mild compared to internment policies following Pearl Harbor. A new rhetoric has surfaced, however, linking terrorism, Islam and pedophilia. By connecting these concepts, moral entrepreneurs lay the groundwork for a very different response to new terrorism. In the aftermath of an incident similar to September 11, Muslims could be the object of a moral panic, targeted for radical regulation, such as internment. By framing Muslims as the equivalent of pedophiles, advocates may attempt to argue for such policies as the moral equivalent of sexual offender civil commitment. This article suggests that civil rights advocates develop counter-narratives to address any such developments.


This study examines the media discourse on the Gulf diplomatic crisis and its effect on one of the most marginalized populations in Qatar: Nepali migrant workers. Although the diplomatic crisis made news headlines across the Middle East, Nepal-based newspapers were the only ones to cover the vulnerable migrant worker population in some detail. In writing about this population, three prominent English-language publications in Nepal, The Kathmandu Post , Republica , and People's Review , employed emotional storytelling. Drawing on Wahl-Jorgensen's notion of the "strategic ritual of emotionality," this study specifically analyzes the use of emotion in the three publications' news coverage. The study finds that the publications engaged in the ritual of emotionality not by assigning that function to external news sources, as is common in Western newspapers, but mainly through their own journalists and opinion writers who narrated their subjective viewpoints and concerns. This unreserved embrace of emotions and subjectivity in newswriting illuminates a unique, cultural mode of producing journalism.


Using a unique sample of 5,022 workers in 94 large German workplaces, the authors explore whether and how women's access to higher level positions, firms' human resources practices, and workers' qualification levels are associated with gender differences in earnings. First, they find that having more women in management reduces the gender earnings gap for jobs with low qualifications, but not those with high qualifications. Second, they find that while men's compensation is positively affected by having a male supervisor, women with a female supervisor do not receive such an advantage. Finally, they find that human resources practices and job-level qualifications moderate the association between gendered power and gender earnings inequalities. Integrating women into managerial and supervisory roles does not automatically reduce gender inequalities; its impacts are contingent on organizational context.


The optical behaviour of both gold and silver nanoparticles has been studied in both experimental and theoretical aspects. In the theoretical part of our thesis, to contribute to a better understanding of particles of various shapes and configurations, the versatile Discrete Dipole Approximation (DDA) has been employed to simulate in depth the absorption spectra of single isolated oriented nanoparticles of different symmetry (nanocube, nanobar and nanoellipsoid). The effect of the plasmonic coupling and the size of spherical particles assemblies on their optical response have also been addressed. It was shown that the plasmonic coupling in the interacting particles in close proximity configuration disturbs the homogenous distribution of surface charges and results in splitting the plasmonic band into two bands. The excitations of two different bands (longitudinal and transverse bands) have been also observed in the absorption spectra of many fold symmetry particles. The diversity of the polarization factors along different symmetry axis was established as the main key for observing several bands. Thus the importance of particle shape and the different interesting possibilities offered by this single factor has been well demonstrated in the DDA calculations performed while our treatment of ensembles of nanospheres showed in detail the effect of interacting particles on the overall optical properties of actual samples.

In the experimental part of this thesis, a first part is devoted to the study of the influence of dielectric host material on the optical properties of gold nanoparticles. For this purpose, gold, -poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) and -gelatin nanocomposite materials have been prepared by an in-situ method. Two reduction methods (photochemical and chemical) were used to reduce the gold salt in the presence of the polymer matrix. Firstly, annealed and non annealed samples were prepared by different photochemical methods (UV-, thermal-, and MW-irradiation). Gold-poly(methyl methacrylate) nanocomposites were prepared by irradiating spin-coated films containing the polymer and the gold precursor dissolved in acetone. The reduction of gold ions resulted in the formation of gold that nucleated and grew within the polymer films. It was shown that, depending on the energy source, gold nanoparticles with different shapes could be formed. The nanocomposites prepared through the photochemical methods, showed a low sensitivity toward the environment. However, by annealing the samples at temperatures well above the glass transition temperature of the polymer, the response to dielectric environment appeared to be enhanced significantly. The increased sensitivity of the annealed sample (increase the surface particle density) was accounted for by the increased mobility of both polymer chains and gold nanoparticles in the rubbery state of the material and the presence of the monomer. The results showed that, by using adequate post-synthesis heat treatments, gold-polymer nanocomposites could be used as plasmonic sensing platforms.

Secondly, gold–gelatin bionanocomposite films were prepared by the reduction of gold ions by sodium borohydride in an aqueous solution. It was shown that both the solution and the films on glass substrates contained entrapped hydrogen micro- and nanobubbles with diameters in the range of 200 nm–3 μm. The composite films having micro- and nanobubble inclusions have been found to be very stable. The optical properties of gold nanoparticles in the presence of gelatin and hydrogen nanobubbles were measured and simulated by using the discrete dipole approximation (DDA) method. The calculated localized surface plasmon resonance band was found in agreement with the experimental band position only when the presence of hydrogen bubbles around the gold nanoparticles was taken into account. The different morphological features engendered by the presence of the bubbles in the film (gelatin receptacles for the nanoparticles, gelatin hemispheres raised by the bubbles under the surface, cavities on the surface of the film, etc) are potential candidates for many applications.


A 1-D thermo-fluid model for a superheater in coal-fired boilers was developed using the network approach encapsulated in the commercial software Flownex. This model brings to light the relationship between the boiler operations, the thermo-fluid processes and the metal temperatures, since it captures the fluid flow as well as the heat transfer. An understanding of this relationship is crucial at both the design and operational stages of a boiler. At the design stage, the model can be used to minimize the material cost while ensuring adequate performance. For an operational boiler, such a model can be combined with condition monitoring and finite element analysis techniques. In turn be used to improve predictive and preventative maintenance of the plant, to analyse the performance of the heat exchanger as well as doing root cause analyses in case of a failure. In order to qualify the model, three boiler operation anomalies were modelled using a tubesheet of superheater with a complex geometry and flow arrangement. For each of these anomalies; outer fouling, inner fouling and flow blockage, three cases were studied. The model successfully predicted that the performance of the heat exchanger drops if the outer fouling layer increases. It also showed that the tube metal temperatures increases if the inner fouling layer increases or the flow throttling increases due to the reduction in the amount of coolant (steam) flowing in the tubes.


Abstract The recent evolution of distributed systems has favoured the development of a new generation of mobile agents based applications. In fact, many agent systems have been created in the last few years, and there are currently various efforts to standardize them. However, some problems are still under research, including mechanisms for agent security, control structures, transactional support, and design of communication models. Previous research [1] has shown that better communication performance model can be achieved by mixing remote procedure calls with agent migration. In this article we propose an algorithm to provide the agent with a path with minimal communication cost for some special network topologies.


Background: Ehrlichiosis is a non contagious infectious disease, mainly transmitted by thick bites. In 1998, this infection was detected in dogs, for the first time, in Chile. Aim: To establish if there is human exposure to Ehrlichia sp in Chile. Material and methods: Blood samples from 17 dogs with ehrlichiosis and 19 humans who had contact with them were studied to determine human exposure to Ehrlichia equi and Ehrlichia chaffeensis in Chile. Samples were analyzed by indirect inmunofluorecence and by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Results: Six dogs had positive titers against both species of ehrlichia; 2 with titers of 1/256; 3 with titers over 1/512 to Ehrlichia equi and titers of 1/256, 1/128 and 1/64 to Ehrlichia chaffeensis respectively, and 1 with titers of 1/256 to Ehrlichia equi and titers of 1/128 to Ehrlichia chaffeensis. Two of the 19 humans, had positive titers against both antigens (1/128). PCR reactions were negative in both human and canine sera. Conclusions: These results confirm that human exposure to Ehrlichia sp. Epidemiological surveillance for human ehrlichiosis should be implemented in the country (Rev Med Chile 2003; 131: 67-70)


Masses of colonial workers are situating their free-for-all labor efforts in a global context due to dominant forms of organization based on a neoliberalist and corporate market economy. New social movements that show concern for democracy and human rights are challenging capitalist priorities of "efficiency" and exploitation. In some places, the representatives of popular movements are taking the reins of state power. Many of these movements are emerging to bridge national identities and boundaries in solidarity with transnational class, gender, and ethnic struggles. The ideology of market competition has become more entrenched in schools placing emphasis on the effects of whiteness from an historical Afro-Brazilian political experience; this article explores implications drawn upon the myriad of social struggles shaping students' lives and communities, which are based on principles of justice, ethics, access, and emancipation.


International placements are uncommon for Aotearoa New Zealand social work students compared with many other countries. In 2015 five students undertook a 10-week placement in Cambodia. This article explores the students' perspectives on the skills, knowledge and capabilities required for international placements. The findings from this study indicate that questions remain as to whether the associated challenges outweigh the advantages of international placement experiences. We recommend that working with tertiary institutions from countries with more established international placement programmes may be one way of addressing some of the challenges and advancing international placements for Aotearoa New Zealand students.


Vegetation played an important role in reducing carbon concentration of the environment. Instead of planting horizontally, we attempted to look at planting leguminous plant vertically as biological facade. In tropical climate as in Malaysia, public sensitivity in vertical planting is mostly for aesthetic purposes. This research is focused on selecting vertically grown plant from the point of carbon uptake. We investigated the physiological performance especially the rate of C sequestration on potted plants of four legume species, which are Pisum sativum, Vigna unguiculata sesquipedalis, Psophocarpus tetrogonobulus and Phaseolus vulgaris. The research is carried out in an urban area of Penang Island (5°21'20.39''N, 100°17'30.03''E). Data were collected during non-rainy season where the temperature was about 32.5°C to 37.5°C. Three potted plants represented each species of legume. Seedlings were grown in shed with fewer than 50% daylight for the first month, thereafter transferred to open sunlight after maturation. The potted plants received direct evening sunlight from 1 pm to 5 pm. The photosynthetic assimilation rates were taken when the plants were four months old. Vigna unguiculata sesquipedalis (long yard bean) has recorded the highest average photosynthetic assimilation rate of 13.275 µmole m−2 s−1.


After the Second World War, nationalism emerged as the principle expression of resistance to Western imperialism in a variety of regions from the Indian subcontinent to Africa, to parts of Latin America and the Pacific Rim. With the Bandung Conference and the formation of the Non-Aligned Movement, many of Europe's former colonies banded together to form a common bloc, aligned with neither the advanced capitalist "First World" nor with the socialist "Second World." In this historical context, the category of "Third World literature" emerged, a category that has itself spawned a whole industry of scholarly and critical studies, particularly in the metropolitan West, but increasingly in the homelands of the Third World itself. Setting himself against the growing tendency to homogenize "Third World" literature and cultures, Aijaz Ahmad has produced a spirited critique of the major theoretical statements on "colonial discourse" and "post-colonialism," dismantling many of the commonplaces and conceits that dominate contemporary cultural criticism. With lengthy considerations of, among others, Fredric Jameson, Edward Said, and the Subaltern Studies group, "In Theory" also contains brilliant analyses of the concept of Indian literature, of the genealogy of the term "Third World," and of the conditions under which so-called "colonial discourse theory" emerged in metropolitan intellectual circles. Erudite and lucid, Ahmad's remapping of the terrain of cultural theory is certain to provoke passionate response.


Recently,
the intended use and required performance of buildings are rapidly changing
with advances in scientific technology and globalization. Furthermore, given the
population growth in semi-developed and developing countries, economic growth, increasing
waste, and increasing amounts of energy consumption, the industry requires the
development of efficient methods to deconstruct old buildings by reducing waste
and saving as much energy as possible during periods of urban redevelopment and
maintenance. In general, either an ordinary breaker or a hydraulic breaker is
used to deconstruct reinforced concrete buildings. This deconstruction method
has the ability to shorten the construction period compared to the other
methods, but it is difficult to separate the debris that gets mixed when the
deconstruction is completed, as it is a rough construction method that uses
large equipment. This study develops a technology that can be used to selectively
heat, separate, and deconstruct the steel reinforcement inside reinforced
concrete, treating the reinforcement as a conductive resistor and applying
high-frequency induction heating to the reinforced concrete structure.
Specifically, this study verifies the temperature characteristics of deformed
bars inside reinforced concrete, the occurrence of cracks due to thermal
fracture of the deformed bars, and chemical and physical weakening of concrete
by thermal conduction on the surface of steel reinforcement using the
high-frequency induction heating technology. Furthermore, this study considers
the extent of concrete weakening in the heating range of appropriate energy and
carries out a technical review of the stages that would be actually applied.
This technology involves low noise and low pollution levels, and it increases
the collection rate of steel reinforcement inside separated reinforced concrete
members and the recycling rate of construction wastes; thus, its use is
expected to reduce the energy consumption by minimizing secondary processing.


At the Interagency Fire Center at Los Alamos National Laboratory, experts rely on the state-of-the-art Simtable to help them predict the unpredictable. With algorithms that include camera-based object-tracking and projection developed by the Laboratory, the emergency operations team can simulate a wildland fire spreading across any terrain. The table system, developed and marketed by Simtable, a Santa Fe, N.M., company, takes into account weather, vegetation and fuel conditions. The project also received funding from the LANS Venture Acceleration Fund to improve the user interface.


Ehab Farouk Badran A New Wavelet Space Time Coding Technique Designed for UWB MISO Systems A new MISO-STC scheme designed speci ̄cally for Ultra-Wideband (UWB) systems is introduced in this paper. The proposed scheme is based on multiplexing multiple symbols in the wavelet domain of the UWB pulses in addition to the spatial multiplexing offered by using multiple transmitting antennas. Rake receivers are used to collect the energy in the dense multipath channel components. The suggested technique is referred to as the wavelet space time coding scheme (WSTC). In WSTC four symbols are transmitted on the same UWB transmission pulse with the same bandwidth, symbol duration, and number of transmitting antennas of the conventional MISO-STC scheme. The used mother wavelet (MW) is ed to be highly correlated with transmitted pulse shape and such that the multiplexed signal has almost the same spectral characteristics as those of the original UWB pulse. The simulation results show that the proposed WSTC scheme has better performance than the conventional scheme in addition to increasing the data rate to four times that of the conventional STC scheme.


Measuring social impact is hard. If we want to achieve meaningful social impact, we need to acknowledge that dominant impact evaluation models are limited. The dominant models of evaluation prioritises quantifiable outcomes that poorly take into account longer term impact related to social value and transformative potential. There is often a disconnect between funders and communities because of the chain of intermediaries caught between the two constituents that are often tasked to serve different agendas. Impact evaluation was identified by practitioners in DESIAP events as a key theme and challenge in their work. This report is guided by this key question: How can impact evaluation be undertaken in a way that is centred on community-led, culturally grounded and iterative nature that typify most designing social innovation (DSI) projects? We invited 12 researchers and change-makers from Malaysia, Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, Indonesia and The Philippines, who are designing social innovation to share their experiences and identify challenges and opportunities related to evaluating the impact of their work. This gathering aimed to explore alternative social impact evaluations that are more suited to the dynamic and complex characteristics of community-led DSI projects. This report is a summary of the three days (19-21st December 2017), beginning with an intensive 2-day workshop that led to insights and themes that were shared with the wider public on the 21st of December 2017. The report considers: 1) How designing social innovation practices shape the form and purpose of impact evaluation 2) How evaluation is embedded in designing social innovation processes 3) Questions and propositions for understanding impact evaluation. Alternative and culturally grounded evaluative practices are present if we choose to recognise them. For funders and commissioners, acknowledging evaluation as a form of learning requires a change in mindset from one of monitoring to one of support. We identify existing evaluative practices in D&SI projects, which often goes unnoticed because they differ from dominant or common models of evaluation. Highlighting and surfacing these differences is an important step forward in diversifying existing approaches. Key to undertaking effective evaluation in D&SI is to build trust among commissioners, communities and partners. This can open up discussions about how and what kind of impact could be achieved together. Adopting a culturally grounded evaluative practice enables project teams to be true to the needs of the communities they serve. For funders and commissioners, acknowledging evaluation as a form of learning requires a change in mindset from one of monitoring to one of support. It requires trust in the organisations that they fund and to co-design evaluative practices that acknowledges the transformative potential. It involves expanding evaluation methods and approaches to include a broader spectrum of informal and qualitative evaluation approaches to complement traditional outcome-driven approaches. It is also important to build an eco-system of practitioners who have strong evaluative practices to support people who want to apply a more evaluative practice to their work.


The emergence of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been sharply increasing with more than eighty million confirmed cases worldwide (1). It has been contained in China through stringent nonpharmaceutical interventions (2). A combination of strict border control and quarantine measures have effectively prevented the spread of the virus from infected travelers, but the risk of resurgence caused by other routes of transmission (fomite transmission) has been identified in a number of localized outbreaks (3–7). Although the COVID-19 virus is highly unlikely to cause an epidemic through foodborne transmission, epidemiological investigation on the source of infection have found that all these outbreaks in different cities in China could be tracked to fomite transmission originating from workers at port cold storage, seafood processing facilities, and market sites related to imported cold-chain food (Table 1) (3–4). Furthermore, COVID-19 viral RNA has been detected on the surface of frozen food (salmon, white shrimp, lophiiformes, cod fillets, frozen hairtail, frozen beef, frozen pig elbow, frozen chicken wings, and frozen pork) and their packaging materials imported from countries with significant COVID-19 epidemics across 18 provincial level administrative divisions (PLADs) in China (Figure 1). Additionally, several COVID-19 outbreaks have occurred in meat and poultry processing facilities abroad. COVID-19 was diagnosed in 18.2% workers in some states of the USA (8). Those who work in these cold, high humidity, and congregate locations are at high risk for both the acquisition and transmission of respiratory infections. Thus, the food and food packaging materials are likely to become contaminated through droplets expelled from COVID-19 carriers by breathing, coughing, singing, sneezing, or even talking. Moreover, scientific studies have shown that COVID-19 virus remained highly stable under refrigeration (4 °C) and freezing conditions (−20 °C and −80 °C), on fish, chicken, and pork for 21 days (9). In the investigation of the COVID-19 outbreak in Qingdao, live COVID-19 virus was successfully isolated and cultured from samples taken from imported frozen seafood packaging (10). These findings indicated that COVID-19 virus could survive on cold-chain food and food packaging during long distance shipping and may cause human infection, in particular to high-risk people (such as dockworkers or stevedores). It was confirmed in these studies that COVID-19 outbreak could be caused by fomite transmission in the cold food chain, although the likelihood of this food-to-human transmission is considered lower when compared with other routes of transmission. Keeping all workers in the whole food supply chains healthy and safe is vital for their personal wellbeing, for their families, and for ensuring that consumers' needs are met. This is also important for maintaining consumer trust and confidence in securing safe and sustainable food supply. In this regard, Chinese authorities have developed a series of guidance documents to protect food workers from contracting COVID-19, to prevent cross-contamination of COVID-19 virus across the whole food chain to avoid possible exposure of the virus to consumers, and to strengthen food hygiene and sanitation practices.


Point localisation of subsea cables are necessary as a starting point in the search of a particular section or whole length of a cable and become a demanding and challenging task in an uncertain environment such as sea. The authors propose a novel method of using particle filters for estimating the position of a subsea cable in a highly uncertain environment. The method was tested on data collected from a buried cable in the Baltic sea, Denmark and shown to have close approximation to the true location of the subsea cable. The method can be used to localise a subsea cable in an off-shore noisy and uncertain environment and provides an inexpensive alternative to the use of a diver or a remotely operated platform.


In this study the cytotoxicity and expression profiles of apoptosis gene related in human cervical cancer (HeLa) cell lines in response to Newcastle disease virus (NDV) strains AF2240 and V4-UPM were studied. NDV is a strain of avian paramyxovirus. NDV has been classified into the order Mononegavirales, family Paramyxoviridae, subfamily Paramyxovirinae and genus Rubulavirus. NDV caused severe economic losses in the poultry industry worldwide. Several local strains of Newcastle disease virus were reported to induce cytolysis to the cancerous cell lines. Strain AF2240 is a heat resistant viscerotropic velogenic NDV and strain V4-UPM is a heat resistant lentogenic which has significant higher thermostabilities of infectivity and haemagglutination were reported cytolysis leukemic cells in vitro and has shown in vivo anti leukemic agents . In this study the cytotoxicity effects of strains of NDV AF2240 and V4-UPM towards HeLa cell were determined by using standard microtetrazolium assay (MTT). Cytotoxicity dose 50% (CD50) cells treated with different titre of NDV as haemagglutination units (HAU) as compared to the untreated cells was estimated at 72 hours post-infection. The CD50 values obtained were 0.95 HAU and 1.0 HAU for strains AF2240 and V4-UPM, respectively. No cytolytic effect was noted towards normal cells (3T3) was observed. Both strains were also observed to inhibit HeLa cell proliferation. Morphological observations also have been done under inverted light and fluorescence microscopes. Under the inverted light microscope, the HeLa cells treated with both strains showed apoptotic features such as cell shrinkage, cell blebbing and formation of apoptotic bodies. Morphological features of apoptosis were also observed by using the AO/PI staining method under the fluorescence microscope. The AO/PI staining demonstrated the occurrence of apoptosis which was characterised mainly by chromatin condensation, nuclear shrinkage and formation of apoptotic bodies. Evidently, both strains AF2240 and V4-UPM used in the study were found to induce cells towards apoptosis rather than necrosis. NDV strain AF2240 and strain V4-UPM was also caused genotoxic in HeLa cells after two hours treatment with CD10 and CD25 values by alkaline comet assay. Results showed that HeLa cells treated with NDV strains AF2240, V4-UPM and hydrogen peroxide gave different distribution of scores. The HeLa cells treated with hydrogen peroxide as a positive control gave more percentage at score 2, 3 and 4 for both cytotoxicity values compared to the HeLa cells treated with NDV for both strains. Observation in this study has proved the genotoxic potential of the NDV strains AF2240 and V4-UPM to induce DNA damage on HeLa cells as early as two hours following treatment at very low cytotoxicity dose (CD10 and CD25) values. Meanwhile, the cell cycle analyses of HeLa cells treated with local strains of NDV AF2240 or V4-UPM did not induce cell cycle arrest in any specific phase. Sub-G1 phase (apoptosis peak) was found in both treated cells with a very high percentage compared to untreated cells with a small percentage. The results indicate that, the percentages of apoptosis were significantly increased (p≤0.05) in the time-dependent manner in both NDV strains treated HeLa cells. The molecular mechanisms of apoptosis may depend on the NDV strain and cell type. Six apoptosis genes were selected in this study namely Casp8, TNF-α, Bcl2 and TRAIL which focused on extrinsic pathway of apoptosis, while the gene Bax was used as an indicator for intrinsic pathway triggered by cellular stress. Lastly Myc, oncogene was used as an indicator for cell growth. From this study, NDV strain AF2240 was identified as a highly induced death receptor pathway due to the upregulation of TNF gene and the downregulation of Bax gene. Whereas NDV strain V4-UPM triggered both pathways but through the extrinsic pathway due to the very high expression of the TNF gene. The TNF gene was highly expressed due to its location and function as a stimulator of the death receptor pathway. The Casp8 gene was activated and expressed in order to enter the execution-phase of cell death. The Bcl-2 gene was continuously observed because of its function as an apoptosis regulator. Surprisingly, no expression was detected by the TRAIL gene. NDV strain AF2240 was more effective than NDV strain V4-UPM as an apoptosis inducer. These gene expression results showed that the apoptosis occurred and lead to cell death.


Probabilistic assessment and life cycle management of engineering components and systems in a nuclear power plant is intended to ensure safe and efficient operation of energy generation over its entire life. The CANDU reactor core consists of 380480 pressure tubes, which are like miniature pressure vessels that contain natural uranium fuel. Pressure tubes operate under severe temperature and radiation conditions, which result in degradation with ageing. Presence of flaws in a pressure tube makes it vulnerable to delayed hydride cracking (DHC), which may lead to rupture or break-before-leak situation. Therefore, assessment of flaws in the pressure tubes is considered an integral part of a reactor core assessment program. The main objective of the thesis is to develop advanced probabilistic and mechanical stress field models for the assessment of flaws. The flaw assessment models used by the industries are based on deterministic upper/lower bound values for the variables and they ignore uncertainties associated with system parameters. In this thesis, explicit limit state equations are formulated and first order reliability method is employed for reliability computation, which is more efficient than simulation-based methods. A semi-probabilistic approach is adopted to develop an assessment model, which consists of a mechanics-based condition (or equation) involving partial factors that are calibrated to a specified reliability level. This approach is applied to develop models for DHC initiation and leak-before-break assessments. A novel feature of the proposed method is that it bridges the gap between a simple deterministic analysis and complex simulations, and it is amenable to practical applications. The nuclear power plant systems are not easily accessible for inspection and data collection due to exposure to high radiation. For this reason, small samples of pressure tubes are inspected at periodic intervals and small sample of data so collected are used as input to probabilistic analysis. The pressure tube flaw assessment is therefore confounded by large sampling uncertainties. Therefore, determination of adequate sample size is an important issue. In this thesis, a risk informed approach is proposed to define sample size requirement for flaw assessment. Notch-tip stress field is a key factor in any flaw assessment model. Traditionally, linear elastic fracture mechanics (LEFM) and its extension, serves the basis for determination of notch-tip stress field for elastic and elastic-perfectly-plastic material, respectively. However, the LEFM solution is based on small deformation theory and fixed crack geometry, which leads to singular stress and strain field at the cracktip. The thesis presents new models for notch and crack induced stress fields based on the deformed geometry. In contrast with the classical solution based on small iii deformation theory, the proposed model uses the Cauchy's stress definition and boundary conditions which are coupled with the deformed geometry. This formulation also incorporates the rotation near the crack-tip, which leads to blunting and displacement of the crack-tip. The solution obtained based on the final deformed configuration yields a non-singular stress field at the crack-tip and a non-linear variation of stress concentration factor for both elastic and elastic-perfectly-plastic material. The proposed stress field formulation approach is applied to formulate an analytical model for estimating the threshold stress intensity factor (KIH) for DHC initiation. The analytical approach provides a relationship between KIH and temperature that is consistent with experimental results.


The landmark case Brown v. Board of Education helped dismantle de jure segregation in the South and for a time the dream of creating racially integrated schools via mandatory busing became a reality. Now we find that segregation is making a come-back (Orfield, 2001). Currently, there are public schools where the student population is predominantly poor minority. It is imperative, therefore, that all citizens scrutinize closely the actions and decisions rendered by the Justices of today's United States Supreme Court because historically, the Court has either served to improve the quality of life afforded to people of color, or it has hampered the struggle of minorities to eradicate racial and ethnic disparities. Despite the Court's decision to support affirmative action, we need to remind the Court that its role is to help improve the quality of all people living in this country and that it cannot afford to forget the difficulties that minority groups have encountered in the past when cases of racial and ethnic disparities in education were first reviewed by the United States Supreme Court. If we allow today's Court to forget the educational and economic disparities that exist in our society, the Justices may deliver racially and ethnically insensitive decisions that some of their predecessors rendered in previous decades, notably the Taft Court. In short, history may repeat itself. Therefore, it is prudent that we examine earlier cases that first brought the issue of racial and ethnic disparities in education to light before the Court. Doing so may assist us as we seek to remain focused on the efforts to keep the struggle for racial and ethnic equality alive. Consequently, this article examines Gong Lum v. Rice and Keyes v. Denver School District No. 1, two cases in which the plaintiffs challenged school systems practicing racial and ethnic discrimination (275 U.S. 78, [1927]; 413 U.S. 189 [1973]).1 The goals of this article are to: (1) show that minority groups have encountered prejudice and discrimination in education; (2) to provide a comparative analysis of the decisions rendered by the Court in both cases; and (3) to describe the effects of later U.S. Supreme Court decisions on American education. Before a description and analysis of these two cases begins, however, a review of the landmark case Plessy v. Ferguson is warranted in order to provide the historical background underpinning the origins of the "separate but equal" doctrine which was used by the plaintiffs in both cases. Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) The landmark decision in which the U.S. Supreme Court recognized the legitimacy of racial segregation was Plessy v. Ferguson rendered in 1896 (163 U.S. 537, 1896). The task before the Court was to determine the legality of a Louisiana statute that mandated railway companies transporting commuters within the state to provide equal but separate accommodations for White and Black passengers and prohibited people of either race to sit in areas other than those designated to that race. In Plessy v. Ferguson the U.S. Supreme Court based its decision regarding the validity of segregation on two key issues. First, the Court held that since the practice of separating the races had been in long-standing usage, there was no need to question the status quo. Second, the Court held that racial separation was a "response to social conditions which the law could not dismantle and to which law must yield" (Hyneman, 1963, p. 9). By granting the state legislatures the power to allow separate facilities for Blacks and Whites in public transportation, the Court implied that this power could then be broadened to allow for separate but equal facilities for both Whites and Blacks regarding all matters of social interaction including education. After Plessy v. Ferguson became law, the Southern states were quick to seize this inferred power in order to preserve the statutes that already existed pertaining to education. …


Low-carbon technology development is crucial for country's economic and social transformation. It is often influenced by policy factors and multiple actors, both internal and external. This chapter explores the journey of low-carbon energy policymaking in four Asian countries: Based on critical analysis, three major conclusions are arrived in, about the dynamics of innovations in low-carbon energy policy making. First, a transition into a low-carbon energy economy involves distinguishable temporal and developmental phases, often characterized by hierarchy, aggregation, and space. In the initial period, technology policy choices are made to meet the growing concerns of energy security and access, later of reliability, and then of climate change. Past policies, technology-oriented top-down, are gradually being replaced or complemented by market-oriented policies. A second conclusion is that the ongoing low-carbon economic transition is enhanced by regional cooperation. Adoption of an action plan for regional energy cooperation created enabling environment for paradigm shifts in national energy policy making. Third, the flying geese model of economic integration points to a new way of regional cooperation to solve low-carbon energy policy dilemmas, with no formal involvement of policy institutions, but works according to market principles. To benefit as much as possible from that niche, developing countries need and create an environment more conducive to smooth the flow of low-carbon technology and services.


Approachability has become a standard tool in analyzing learning algorithms in the adversarial online learning setup. We develop a variant of approachability for games where there is ambiguity in the obtained reward: it belongs to a set rather than being a single vector. Using this variant we tackle the problem of approachability in games with partial monitoring and develop a simple and generally efficient strategy (i.e., with constant per-step complexity) for this setup. As an important example, we instantiate our general strategy to the case when external regret or internal regret is to be minimized under partial monitoring.


Large‐scale land models assume unidirectional land‐to‐river hydrological interactions, without considering feedbacks between channels and land. Using a tested, physically based model with explicit multiway interactions between overland, channel, wetland, and groundwater flows, we assessed how the representation and properties of channels influence simulated land surface hydrologic, biogeochemical, and ecosystem dynamics. A zone near the channels where various fluxes and states are significantly influenced by the channels, referred to as the fan of influence (FoI) of channels, has been identified. We elucidated two mechanisms inducing the model‐derived FoI: the base flow mechanism, in which incised, gaining streams lower the water table and induce more base flow, and the relatively more efficient conveyance of the channel network compared to overland flow. We systematically varied drainage density and grid resolution to quantify the size of the FoI, which is found to span a large fraction of the watershed (25–50%) for hydrologic variables including depth to water table and recharge, etc. The FoI is more pronounced with low‐resolution simulations but remains noticeable in hyperresolution (25 m) subbasin simulations. The FoI and the channel influence on basin‐average fluxes are also similar in simulations with alternative parameter sets. We found that high‐order, entrenched streams cause larger FoI. In addition, removing the simulated channels has disproportionally large influence on modeled wetland areas and inundation duration, which has implications for coupled biogeochemical or ecological modeling. Our results suggest that explicit channel representation provides important feedbacks to land surface dynamics which should be considered in meso or large‐scale simulations. Since grid refinement incurs prohibitive computational cost, subgrid channel parameterization has advantages in efficiency over grid‐based representations that do not distinguish between overland flow and channel flow.


Ocean acidification (OA) threatens the existence of coral reefs by slowing the rate of calcium carbonate (CaCO3) production of framework-building corals thus reducing the amount of CaCO3 the reef can produce to counteract natural dissolution. Some evidence exists to suggest that elevated levels of dissolved inorganic nutrients can reduce the impact of OA on coral calcification. Here, we investigated the potential for enhanced energetic status of juvenile corals, achieved via heterotrophic feeding, to modulate the negative impact of OA on calcification. Larvae of the common Atlantic golf ball coral, Favia fragum, were collected and reared for 3 weeks under ambient (421 μatm) or significantly elevated (1,311 μatm) CO2 conditions. The metamorphosed, zooxanthellate spat were either fed brine shrimp (i.e., received nutrition from photosynthesis plus heterotrophy) or not fed (i.e., primarily autotrophic). Regardless of CO2 condition, the skeletons of fed corals exhibited accelerated development of septal cycles and were larger than those of unfed corals. At each CO2 level, fed corals accreted more CaCO3 than unfed corals, and fed corals reared under 1,311 μatm CO2 accreted as much CaCO3 as unfed corals reared under ambient CO2. However, feeding did not alter the sensitivity of calcification to increased CO2; calcification/ was comparable for fed and unfed corals. Our results suggest that calcification rates of nutritionally replete juvenile corals will decline as OA intensifies over the course of this century. Critically, however, such corals could maintain higher rates of skeletal growth and CaCO3 production under OA than those in nutritionally limited environments.


The small group health insurance market is failing. Today, fewer than one-third of small firms now offer health insurance and the number of people covered by small group insurance continues to drop. These problems invite the obvious question: What should be done about the small group market? Past scholarship on the small group market has largely focused on documenting the market's problems, evaluating the effectiveness of prior reform efforts, and proposing regulatory changes to stabilize the market. This Article takes a different approach to the small group problem by asking a previously unasked question: Does the small group market deliver group insurance benefits? Group insurance, first established in the life insurance industry, came about because it offered insureds a better deal than individual coverage. Group insurance provided four core benefits: reduced adverse selection, lower administrative costs, greater access to insurance, and tax-subsidized premiums. This Article argues the small group market largely fails to deliver the core benefits of group coverage. For many, the small group market offers no better deal than the individual market. Given these findings, it is hard to justify further interventions to save the small group market. The decline and dissolution of the small group market would likely shift millions to the individual market, resulting in a substantially larger and more stable individual market.


From the foreword by Howard W. Johnson: "Philip Sporn's long and distinguished career has been at the interface of economics, engineering, and management. His accomplishments as an engineer, an engineering manager, and finally as an executive, have been marked by an innovative approach to problems and by an insight into the real needs of the corporation and, more broadly, the human environment... It is quite appropriate, then, that the lectures included in this volume should span the wide spectrum of interests from science and technology to financial management and public administration that was reflected by Mr. Sporn's experience in the power industry... The lectures move beyond the detailed history of a particular power project to the implication of engineering for a society characterized by rapid change and by a close interdependence of basic concepts, institutional structures, and ideas. His discussion of the OVEC power project demonstrates the need for a holistic approach to large-scale problem-solving. It shows that it is not enough to possess scientific and technical capability without the tools of economic analysis and without the depth of social perspective."


Direct millimeter-wave (MMW) holographic imaging, which provides both the amplitude and phase information by using the heterodyne mixing technique, is considered a powerful tool for personnel security surveillance. However, MWW imaging systems usually suffer from the problem of high cost or relatively long data acquisition periods for array or single-pixel systems. In this paper, compressive sensing (CS), which aims at sparse sampling, is extended to direct MMW holographic imaging for reducing the number of antenna units or the data acquisition time. First, following the scalar diffraction theory, an exact derivation of the direct MMW holographic reconstruction is presented. Then, CS reconstruction strategies for complex-valued MMW images are introduced based on the derived reconstruction formula. To pursue the applicability for near-field MMW imaging and more complicated imaging targets, three sparsity bases, including total variance, wavelet, and curvelet, are evaluated for the CS reconstruction of MMW images. We also discuss different sampling patterns for single-pixel, linear array and two-dimensional array MMW imaging systems. Both simulations and experiments demonstrate the feasibility of recovering MMW images from measurements at 1/2 or even 1/4 of the Nyquist rate.


In this paper, two satellite images of Tehran, the capital city of Iran, which were taken by TM and ETM + for years 1988 and 2010 are used as the base information layers to study the changes in urban patterns of this metropolis. The patterns of urban growth for the city of Tehran are extracted in a period of twelve years using cellular automata setting the logistic regression functions as transition functions. Furthermore, the weighting coefficients of parameters affecting the urban growth, i.e. distance from urban centers, distance from rural centers, distance from agricultural centers, and neighborhood effects were selected using PSO. In order to evaluate the results of the prediction, the percent correct match index is calculated. According to the results, by combining optimization techniques with cellular automata model, the urban growth patterns can be predicted with accuracy up to 75 %.


This paper presents a video-based camera tracker that combines marker-based and feature point-based cues in a particle filter framework. The framework relies on their complementary performance. Marker-based trackers can robustly recover camera position and orientation when a reference (marker) is available, but fail once the reference becomes unavailable. On the other hand, feature point tracking can still provide estimates given a limited number of feature points. However, these tend to drift and usually fail to recover when the reference reappears. Therefore, we propose a combination where the estimate of the filter is updated from the individual measurements of each cue. More precisely, the marker-based cue is selected when the marker is available whereas the feature point-based cue is selected otherwise. The feature points tracked are the corners of the marker. Evaluations on real cases show that the fusion of these two approaches outperforms the individual tracking results. Filtering techniques often suffer from the difficulty of modeling the motion with precision. A second related topic presented is an adaptation method for the particle filer. It achieves tolerance to fast motion manoeuvres.


With childhood obesity becoming a serious problem in the UK, schools are an important environment to influence food intake and to challenge food-related behaviour. The Food for Life Partnership is one project that has capitalised on the potential of schools to address the issue of childhood obesity and encourage children to have a healthy relationship with food. School dinners took on a very different meaning when Jamie Oliver launched his 'Feed Me Better' campaign in 2005. The Channel 4 TV series, brought to the public's attention (and consequently to the forefront of the political agenda) the worrying eating habits of children. Since the airing of the series efforts to address the problems highlighted have been stepped up, none with less ambition than the Food for Life Partnership (FFLP). The partnership is funded until December 2011 by the Big Lottery Fund. It encompasses four food focused charities who are committed to working together to transform food culture across a network of schools and communities in England. Led by the Soil Association, the UK's leading food charity, the scheme builds upon their Food for Life enterprise, founded in 2003, which was transformed after Jamie Oliver's influence on government policy. The partnership now also includes the Health Education Trust, Focus on Food Campaign and Garden Organic. All four organizations are focused on improving children's relationship with food in English schools. Food, health and education are intrinsically linked. Habits are developed from a young age and schools are captive environments which have the potential to shape the behaviour of every individual, regardless of social background. With current figures showing that one in four children aged between 2-10 years are overweight or obese and with The British Medical Association suggesting that by 2020 this will rise to one quarter of children being obese in the UK; the spotlight is now on schools to do something to reverse these worrying statistics. The FFLP has therefore been developed to ensure that schools are equipped to provide children with the healthiest possible start in life. The FFLP is a programme and award scheme to aid healthy and sustainable food choices. The award scheme has 3 levels (bronze, silver and gold) which schools can work towards to improve areas such as food quality and provenance, and food education. The scheme requires a school to have a food policy; an action plan; and a School Nutrition Action Group (SNAG), which is a steering group that includes representatives from the whole school community. Schools will then have access to help, advice and expertise and online resources. The FFLP aims to get children thinking positively about food, through teaching them how to cook; establishing farm links so that children understand where the food they eat comes from; and by encouraging children to grow their own food at school. Having a whole school approach means food education is covered across the entire curriculum. The Soil Association also works closely with school caterers and has established the Food for Life Catering Mark which ensures that school meals are fresh, wholesome and healthy, and form part of a balanced diet. The link between socioeconomic status and eating habits cannot be ignored and the project is also keen to ensure that children from deprived backgrounds are eating a nutritious and balanced diet. Of the children entitled to a free school meal in England, 20% choose not to have them. In FFLP schools, free school meal take-up has increased by 13 percentage points in two years in primary schools, and 20 percentage points in secondary schools.1 This is a particularly significant achievement since half of all FFLP schools are in areas with high levels of deprivation. FFLP is therefore closing the gap on social disadvantage through helping those who need it the most. So far the scheme has been a huge success with 3,800 schools currently enrolled on the programme. …


A comprehensive investigation of the effect of various tip sealing geometries is presented on the blade tip leakage flow and associated heat transfer. The linear cascade is made of four blades scaled up HPT turbine in a low speed wind tunnel facility with the two corner blades acting as guides. The tip section of a HPT first stage rotor blade is used to fabricate the 2-D blade. The wind tunnel accommodates an 116 turn in the flow through the blade cascade. The mainstream Reynolds number based on the axial chord length at cascade exit is 4.83 x 10. The center blade has a tip clearance gap of 1.5625% with respect to the blade span. Static pressure measurements are obtained on the blade surface, the tip surface, and the shroud. Several tip sealing techniques are investigated in this study. Crosswise trip strips are used to reduce leakage flow and associated heat transfer by placing the trip strips in different orientation. Cylindrical pin fins are investigated and compared to the trip strip geometries. A full and three partial squealers are investigated. The partial squealers are placed on the suction side, pressure side and midchord of the blade tip. Detailed heat transfer measurements are obtained using a steady state HSI-based liquid crystal technique. The upstream wake effect is simulated with a spoked wheel wake generator placed upstream of the cascade. A turbulence grid placed even farther upstream generates the required free-stream turbulence of 4.8%. The effect of periodic unsteady wake effect is investigated by varying the wake Strouhal number from 0.0 to 0.2, and to 0.4. Results show that the squealers and the trip strips placed against the leakage flow direction produce the lowest heat transfer on the tips compared to all the other cases. Results also show that the full squealer has a strongest effect on the overall reduction of tip heat transfer.