Studies spanning the second half of the 20th century have indicated that the more an university costs to attend, the greater return on investment in the form of eventual earnings. However, the current educational market suggests that these previous assumptions may no longer apply, and that cost of a university is no longer a significant indicator of how successful its graduates will be. With several notable shifts in this market in the last decade  including an increase in online educational programs, a rising student population incurring student loans, and the suggestion that all public universities charge no tuition, the necessity for empirical testing of the effects of cost on eventual success became apparent. While cost of a university did prove to be an influential factor in determining wages when examined on its own, it fell flat when other education based variables, such as average school expenditures per student and average SAT scores, were added into the equation. It became even more insignificant when other underlying demographic and socioeconomic factors such as race and average family income were taken into consideration. What a series of regressions conclusively shows is that cost is in fact, insignificant compared to a myriad of other relevant variables from several different influential categories. The positive implications of these findings are hopefully that students expecting to enter college within the next several years can avoid making a painful investment, assuming that their investment will pay off just because of the amount of money they have spent suggests a certain outcome. That investment can rather be made based on considerations of more important factors, such as what a university can offer a student in terms of resources, whether that be money or man hours, and how the success of an institution's graduates reflect its quality.


This paper presents an experimental study with theory to identify quantitatively the zero-potential-energy (ZP) motion in Cartesian impedance control of redundant manipulators, based on a new analytical methodology. This ZP mode of motion, analogous to the rigid-body mode in classic mechanical systems, is a result of the redundancy of the robot. When subject to an external perturbation under impedance control, a redundant robot will assume a new equilibrium configuration determined by the ZP motion, governed by the least-energy principle. Consequently, this creates a steady-state deviation from its initial configuration after a perturbation and reaches a new equilibrium. We determine such ZP motion(s) by utilizing a closed-form solution based on vibration theory. Experiments were conducted on a 7-DoF redundant Panda robot to determine the new equilibrium after a perturbation. The experimental results are compared with the theoretical prediction of the ZP motions to validate the theoretical results of the zero-potential-energy motions due to stiffness in impedance control. Furthermore, we demonstrated that the ZP motion due to redundancy can be eliminated by removing the redundancy through experimental validation by employing the null-space control, as expected.


Temperature profiles measured in permafrost in northernmost Alaska usually have anomalous curvature in the upper 100 meters or so. When analyzed by heat-conduction theory, the profiles indicate a variable but widespread secular warming of the permafrost surface, generally in the range of 2 to 4 Celsius degrees during the last few decades to a century. Although details of the climatic change cannot be resolved with existing data, there is little doubt of its general magnitude and timing; alternative explanations are limited by the fact that heat transfer in cold permafrost is exclusively by conduction. Since models of greenhouse warming predict climatic change will be greatest in the Arctic and might already be in progress, it is prudent to attempt to understand the rapidly changing thermal regime in this region.


This article explores the professional responsibility problems arising from the increasing tendency of lawyers' work to cross national frontiers. It first describes persisting variations in the rules governing professional practice from country to country and the underlying differences between professions that give rise to such variations. Examples are drawn primarily from France and Germany. It then explores the ways in which such differences might be resolved. Those problems may appear either in the form of disciplinary proceedings or malpractice suits and the conflicts of law rules as to the two categories of cases appear to differ significantly.


This research provides a methodology for assessing the effects of a development proposal within the context of the New Zealand regulatory structure. The integrated transport assessment (ITA) guidelines are based on the varying scopes of assessment (simple, moderate, broad and extensive). The possible content for each ITA assessment type and the matters to be discussed are described, as is the process for how the ITA is to be undertaken. The practice notes were developed from 2008 to 2010, and include information on how to undertake site trip generation surveys, how to estimate design trip generation rates for retail activities, some relevant case law and a discussion of the permitted baseline.


The re-shuffling of students due to the end of student busing in CharlotteMecklenburg provides a unique opportunity to investigate the relationship between changes in student attributes and changes in teacher quality that are not confounded with changes in school or neighborhood characteristics. Comparisons of OLS and IV results suggest that the spatial correlation between teachers' residences, students' residences and schools could lead to spurious correlation between student attributes and teacher characteristics. The re-shuffling of students led to teacher resorting so that schools that experienced a repatriation of black students experienced a decrease in various measures of teacher quality (including estimated value-added). I provide evidence that this was primarily due to a labor supply response.


Insulated concrete sandwich panels has been widely used because of their advantages of light weight and energy efficiency. More recently, research has been conducted to study their applications as roof/floor panels, where long term creep behavior is an important design concern. This paper presents a combined experimental and analytical study on the creep behavior of insulated concrete sandwich panels under bending. Four concrete panels were tested for creep loading. One was a conventional solid reinforced concrete slab and this was used as the benchmark panel. The other three sandwich panels had top and bottom concrete wythes with various thicknesses and a 3" insulation layer in the middle. The wythes were connected with FRP segmental shear connectors. There were also steel reinforcing bars in both the longitudinal and transverse direction. The tests were conducted with a static load of approximately 13.3 kN (3,000 lbs), which corresponded to the linear-elastic range of the panel's load-deflection curve. The duration of the test ranged from 150 days to 250 days for different panels. It can be concluded that one sandwich panel showed better long-term deflection results than the solid panel. Equations from American Concrete Institute (ACI) Building code and Finite Element (FE) method were used to analyse the panels. Good correlations can be observed between the FE and test results.


Abstract. Dynamic soil models are needed for estimating impact of weather and climate change on soil carbon stocks and fluxes. Here, we evaluate performance of Yasso07 and ROMULv models against forest soil carbon stock measurements. More specifically, we ask if litter quantity, litter quality and weather data are sufficient drivers for soil carbon stock estimation. We also test whether inclusion of soil water holding capacity improves reliability of modelled soil carbon stock estimates. Litter input of trees was estimated from stem volume maps provided by the National Forest Inventory, while understorey vegetation was estimated using new biomass models. The litter production rates of trees were based on earlier research, while for understorey biomass they were estimated from measured data. We applied Yasso07 and ROMULv models across Finland and ran those models into steady state; thereafter, measured soil carbon stocks were compared with model estimates. We found that the role of understorey litter input was underestimated when the Yasso07 model was parameterised, especially in northern Finland. We also found that the inclusion of soil water holding capacity in the ROMULv model improved predictions, especially in southern Finland. Our simulations and measurements show that models using only litter quality, litter quantity and weather data underestimate soil carbon stock in southern Finland, and this underestimation is due to omission of the impact of droughts to the decomposition of organic layers. Our results also imply that the ecosystem modelling community and greenhouse gas inventories should improve understorey litter estimation in the northern latitudes.


The Effects of Metacognitive Writing on Student Achievement in Advanced Placement Calculus by Lindsay M. O'Neal Chairperson of the Dissertation Committee: Dr. Andrew Lumpe, School of Education Grounded in metacognitive theory (Flavell, 1976) and historical foundations that reach back as far as the writings of Plato (1973), the last few decades have seen an increase in research regarding the impact of metacognitive practice on student learning, often through the use of reflective writing. Studies have focused on a range of aspects, from how to measure metacognition to the effect metacognitive practice has on the academic achievement of students in a variety of subject areas. Specifically with regard to mathematics, researchers have studied the impact of reflective strategies on primary, secondary, and university level students. The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of reflective writing practice on the achievement of Advanced Placement (AP) Calculus students in a comprehensive high school setting. This quasi-experimental study utilized a pretest-posttest control group design, with nonrandom assignment of students to the control and experimental groups. The independent variable was the use of reflective writing prompts, completed only by the experimental group. The non-calculator multiple choice portion of released AP Calculus AB examinations served as the dependent variable. Descriptive statistics were evaluated to determine if the data met the requirements for parametric analyses. Analysis of covariance was completed to analyze the data for statistically significant differences between the groups. In addition, theme extraction was carried out using Semantria® text analysis software to examine common themes within the reflective student writings as well as Sentiment values for those themes. Finally, Pearson's r correlation coefficient was calculated to determine any correlation between number of extracted themes and posttest score. The ANCOVA revealed a statistically significant difference between the groups, but with the control group maintaining a higher mean than that of the experimental group. Common themes in the reflective writing included a variety of calculus concepts addressed during the timeframe of the study. A statistically significant correlation was found between the number of extracted themes and student's score on the posttest.


In this meditation, Anya Bernstein and Alexei Yurchak discuss Yurchak's essay, "The canon and the mushroom: Lenin, sacredness, and Soviet collapse," which is published in the current issue. They elaborate on some points in the essay that are central for the understanding of the figure of "Lenin" and its role in Soviet history, take them in new directions, and link them to other topics that are relevant to anthropology. The themes discussed include sacredness and blasphemy; death, resurrection, and immortality; language, intentionality, and responsibility; voice, ventriloquism, and truth; and more.


In this paper, we describe a quantum dot (qdot) phase transfer protocol using ligand exchange and the amino acid histidine. The phase transfer from nonpolar solvents to aqueous buffers is homogeneous, and no appreciable precipitation occurs. The molecule histidine was chosen in order to first displace the organic encapsulation and second to provide a weakly chemisorbing intermediate at the qdot ionic interface. This allows the histidine to act as an intermediate shell upon which further direct ligand exchange can occur. Since this intermediate encapsulation is easily displaced by an assortment of different molecules while in aqueous buffers, we refer to this approach as modular. Characterization via FTIR and NMR revealed the extent of ligand exchange, and provides insights into the interfacial binding mechanism. The colloidal stability and photostability of the qdots was probed via UV-vis and steady state fluorescence, which revealed promising quantum yield stability of greater than 1 year. The qdots have hydrodynamic diameters of <12 nm and surface charges dependent upon ligand type and coverage. The modularity of this approach is shown by tailoring the qdot surface charge via sequential ligand exchange using mixed monolayers of carboxylic acid and poly(ethylene glycol)-terminated thiols.


OBJECTIVES
To determine whether trends in psychological distress exist in the United States and whether trends in healthcare expenditures and outpatient visits were associated with psychological distress.

STUDY DESIGN
Sequential cross-sectional study of nationally representative data.

METHODS
We examined data from the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) from 1997 to 2004 linked to 2 years of subsequent Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) data. Psychological distress was measured in the NHIS using the K6, a 6-item scale of the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale, which we classified as no/low, mild-moderate, or severe. We examined subsequent annualized total, outpatient, and office-based expenditures, and outpatient and office-based visits from MEPS.

RESULTS
Psychological distress remained stable from 1997 to 2004. There were upward trends in overall healthcare expenditures (P <.001) and outpatient expenditures (P <.001), but not outpatient visits. Overall healthcare expenditures, outpatient expenditures, and outpatient visits significantly increased as psychological distress increased from no/low to mild-moderate to severe. The interaction between psychological distress strata and year was not significant for expenditures or for visits.

CONCLUSIONS
The upward trend in total and outpatient healthcare expenditures in the United States appears unrelated to psychological distress, although healthcare expenditures are consistently higher among those with greater psychological distress. Future work will explore the impact of treatment on costs and stability of the nation's mental health over time.


As winter turns to spring across the red earth, acacia trees and slow green rivers of Botswana, all is not quite as it should be on Zebra Drive, home to Mma Ramotswe and her beloved husband Mr J. L. B. Matekoni. At the No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency there are the usual number of cases to be pursued, from persistent theft at Teenie Magama's printing works to the rather more serious case of three suspicious deaths at the Mochudi hospital, but there is discontent among the ranks. It is bad enough that Mr Matekoni's apprentice Charlie is off on another escapade and Mma Makutsi's impending marriage threatens her happy working relationship with Mma Ramotswe. And when - in trying to prove himself a worthy husband - Mr J. L. B. Matekoni himself decides to try a little detective work, disaster looms ...Tender, witty and wise, the latest instalment in the lives of Alexander McCall's Smith's extended Botswana family instructs us with familiar modesty in the importance of trust, love, not judging by appearances and what really makes a good husband.


Active galaxies have been in the forefront of astronomic research since their first discovery, at least 50 years ago . The putative supermassive black hole (SMBH) at their center characterizes their properties and regulates the evolution of these objects. I investigate the evolution of active galactic nuclei (AGN) in the context of a merger-driven evolution scheme. Under this assumption, galaxy mergers trigger activity in galaxies, both in the form of intense star-formation, as well as nuclear activity. This investigation uses the Caltech-Jodrell Bank flat-spectrum (CJF) sample, a statistically complete sample of compact, radio-loud AGN. I find evidence supporting the merger-driven evolution scheme of AGN, exhibiting the relevance of merger events in active galaxies. In particular, almost 30% of the CJF sources in the local Universe (z<0.4) show evidence of recent past, present, or possible future mergers. This is important in light of the unbiased selection effects of the CJF sample. In addition, I find a broken correlation between the near-infrared luminosity of the CJF sources and their total radio luminosity at 5 GHz. Low luminosity sources show an excess of near-infrared emission, compared to their high luminosity counterparts. A correlation between near-infrared colors and multiwavelength variability is also found. Finally, I trace the different stages of AGN evolution by selecting individual sources that fit the respective selection criteria, finding 14 promising candidates for binary black hole (BBH) systems in the CJF. One of the most prominent constituents of radio-loud active galaxies are their radio jets. The morphology, properties, and evolution of the CJF jet ridge lines are studied, in light of a recently revisited kinematic paradigm for BL Lac objects. Different measures for the width, the width evolution, the linear evolution, and the curvature of the jet ridge lines are developed and a statistical analysis of the whole sample on that basis is conducted. BL Lac objects are found to have substantially wider jets than quasars. They are also found to show larger changes in their widths, but significantly weaker linear evolution of their jet ridge lines. We find indications of active evolution of the jet length and linear evolution with time (as a function of redshift). An envelope is found confining a correlation between the total linear evolution of the CJF jet ridge lines and the radio luminosity of the corresponding sources. The above results are explained in terms of the combination of helical structure for AGN jets and projection effects. Coupled to the kinematics of the AGN jets is the emission of gamma-ray radiation. In light of the excellent quality of kinematic data available for the CJF, as well as the wealth of new gamma-ray information provided by the Fermi-LAT program, I investigate the gamma-ray properties of the CJF sample, in terms of their jet kinematics and properties. I find that gamma-ray detected sources show on average higher apparent velocities than their non-detected counterparts. I note however the existence of a low-velocity population of gamma-ray detected CJF sources, that put the argument of beaming as the source of gamma-ray photons under debate. I study a possible correlation between the gamma-ray detection of CJF sources, their luminosity, and their jet morphology. I find a correlation between the gamma-ray luminosity and the maximum apparent jet speed for the gamma-detected CJF sources. The correlation is stronger for variable sources and for those identified as BL Lacs. I find that gamma-detected sources show substantially wider jet ridge lines, with stronger evolution of their widths compared to non-detected sources. I find no significant difference between gamma-detected and non-detected sources concerning the linear evolution of their jet ridge lines. The absence of a strong correlation between gamma-ray properties of the CJF sources and their kinematics is interpreted in the context of a spine-sheath geometry of AGN jet, where, at the low observing frequency used for the CJF, only the slow outer sheath of the jet is uncovered. gamma-ray emission is assumed to originate in the ultra-relativistic spine of AGN jets.


This article explores Vygotsky's concept of the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) in the Malaysian context to support local reform of the Moral Education (ME) classroom. Small groups of students in three different types of school were involved in a participant action research (PAR) project. Such classrooms in Malaysia bring together students from various ethnicities aligned with Hindu, Confucian and Christian beliefs and understandings. Using the Malaysian multicultural ME classroom as a case study, we offer some examples of group conversations around moral dilemmas that illustrate ways that collaborative processes beyond the individual might expand an individual student's ZPD and the consensual as well as divergent views of each group as a whole. This suggests possibilities for an extension of the ZPD into a zone of collaborative development (ZCD).


From the author of The Satanic Verses and Midnight's Children, which was awarded the Best of the Booker Prize in 1993, comes an unflinchingly honest and fiercely funny account of a life turned upside-down. On Valentine's Day, 1989, Salman Rushdie received a telephone call from a BBC journalist that would change his life forever: Ayatollah Khomeini, a leading Muslim scholar, had issued him with a death sentence. This is his own account of how he was forced to live in hiding for over a decade; at once intimate and explosive, this is the personal tale behind the international story. How does a man live with the constant threat of murder? How does he continue to work when deprived of his freedom? How does he sustain friendships, or fall in and out of love? How does he fight back? For over a decade, Salman Rushdie dwelt in a world of secrecy and disguise, a world of security guards and armoured cars, of aliases and code names. In Joseph Anton, Rushdie tells the remarkable story of one of the crucial battles, in our time, for freedom of speech. It is shortlisted for the James Tait Black Biography Prize.


Wearable computing moves computation from the desktop to the user. We are forming a community of networked, wearable-computer users to explore, over a long period, the augmented realities that these systems can provide. By adapting its behavior to the user's changing environment, a body-worn computer can assist the user more intelligently, consistently, and continuously than a desktop system. A text-based augmented reality, the Remembrance Agent, is presented to illustrate this approach. Video cameras are used both to warp the visual input (mediated reality) and to sense the user's world for graphical overlay. With a camera, the computer could track the user's finger to act as the system's mouse; perform face recognition; and detect passive objects to overlay 2.5D and 3D graphics onto the real world. Additional apparatus such as audio systems, infrared beacons for sensing location, and biosensors for learning about the wearer's affect are described. With the use of input from these interface devices and sensors, a long-term goal of this project is to model the user's actions, anticipate his or her needs, and perform a seamless interaction between the virtual and physical environments.


This research examined the adequacy of cognitive-motivational theory (Cox & Klinger, 1988,1990; Klinger, 1995) for integrating cognitive and motivational predictors of alcohol consumption. It did so by evaluating_the role of motivational structure and attentional bias for alcohol-related stimuli in predicting drinking behaviour. The study used an abridged version of the Personal Concerns Inventory (PCI), Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), Shipley Institute of Living Scale (SILS), a self-report inventory of alcohol use, two versions of a computerised Stroop test, and a post-Stroop memory test and emotional valence ratings. In Experiments 1-3,128 university students and 50 inpatient alcohol abusers completed the instruments. Experiment 1 revealed that, after other variables had been controlled in a hierarchical multiple regression model, maladaptive motivation and alcohol attentional bias scores were significant predictors of students' alcohol consumption. Experiment 2 revealed that (a) drinking problems predicted students' Executive Cognitive Function (ECF), (b) students' ECF did not predict their motivational structure, and (c) students' attentional bias for alcohol-related stimuli was independent of their ECF. Experiment 3 revealed that (a) alcohol abusers had a poorer ECF than students, (b) alcohol abusers showed greater attentional bias for alcohol-related stimuli than did students, (c) alcohol abusers had poorer motivation than students, (d) motivational distinctions among different alcohol abusers could be identified, (e) alcohol abusers' ECF impairment predicted their degree of maladaptive motivation, and (f) alcohol abusers' attentional bias for alcohol related stimuli was independent of their ECF. Because there has been a gap between prior research on attentional bias for alcoholrelated stimuli and applications of the findings of this research in treatment, a new, computerised training programme called the Alcohol Attention Diversion Training Programme (AADTP) was developed in the current research to help alcohol abusers overcome their attentional bias for alcohol. In Experiment 4, nine detoxified alcohol abusers took part in an evaluation of the training. Results revealed that, after training with the AADTP, the trainees' attentional bias for alcohol-related stimuli, but not their bias for other concern-related stimuli, considerably decreased. Overall, the results of the research indicate that (a) motivational structure and alcohol attentional bias are important correlates of drinking behaviour among non-dependent and dependent drinkers, and (b) AADTP is an effective, alcohol-specific intervention to help alcohol abusers overcome their drinking difficulties.


Introduction Today, changes in organizational environments, their resultant innovations, and flexibility are emphasized, which necessarily calls for voluntary behavior from members of an organization. Accordingly, an organization should be capable of shifting its members' attitudes and behaviors which act for organizational development from egoistic behaviors. With regard to this issue, many researchers have paid attention to organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). Organizational citizenship behaviors come in a variety of forms such as loyalty, helping others, and organizational compliance (Podsakoff et al., 2000) and organizations benefit employees who are willing to contribute their efforts and abilities to the organizations even though that is not officially required of them. This contribution of organizational citizenship behavior to organizations has received much attention in the business area (Todd, 2003). The concept of organizational citizenship behavior appeared over two decades ago in the field of organizational behavior. Since then, there has been considerable research, primarily in the US, enabling diverse understanding and interpretations of this concept (e.g., Borman and Motowidlo, 1997; Bukhari et al., 2009; Joireman et al., 2006; Podsakoff et al., 2000). Recently, there has also been a growing interest in OCB in the fields of marketing and strategy. However, to the best of the researchers' knowledge, most studies on OCB have focused on finding factors which affect OCB, mainly organizational justice and characteristics of leaders (e.g., Asgari et al., 2008; Karriker and Williams, 2009). Despite the fact that characteristics of organizational structure can affect members' attitudes and behaviors (Schminke et al., 2000), little research has focused on the relationship between the factors of organizational level and OCB. In particular, studies using a comprehensive approach to examine OCB, including the effect of organizational procedural features, organizational structural features, and leadership are scarce. To overcome the limitations of previous studies and to improve the value of practical research on OCB, this study aimed to analyze and investigate OCB and its outcome using a comprehensive approach. The main purpose of the study was to investigate employees' perceptions on organizational justice (procedural justice), leaders' behaviors (transformational leadership), and organizational structure (complexity) and its effects on OCB. Indeed, this study investigates the effects of OCB on employees' job satisfaction. Theoretical Background and Hypotheses Organizational Citizenship Behavior and its Antecedents Organizational citizenship behavior is employees' extra efforts which are not officially required by the organization (Organ, 1988) and discretionary acts by employees (Kohan and Mazmanian, 2003). The two major components of OCB are compliance, which indicates employees' intention to follow the organizational rules, and altruism, which means employees' voluntary behaviors to help others and to work (Organ and Ryan, 1995; Williams and Anderson, 1991). Studies on OCB can be divided into those on finding antecedents which could have an impact on OCB and the resulting factors which are caused by the effects of OCB. In the initial stage, OCB studies had a focus on examining the effects of its antecedents until research efforts began to gradually identify the results of OCB related with the tangible performance of an organization (Podsakoff et al., 1997; Podsakoff and MacKenzie, 1994). To date, several factors such as job satisfaction, justice, and support or trust from the organization and leaders were suggested by many researchers for increasing employees' OCB (e.g., Ackfeldt and Coote, 2000; Bateman and Organ, 1983; Farh et al., 1990; Moorman, 1991; Neihoff and Moorman, 1993; Organ and Lingl, 1995; Puffer, 1987; Smith et al., 1983; Van Dyne et al. …


Jeff Magee and Jeff Kramer John Wiley and Sons, New York, NY, 1999, 374 pp. ISBN 0471987107, $64.99 The book is an introductory text to the ideas, concepts, and topics of concurrency. The text focuses on understanding concepts and techniques, and problems of concurrency, not on the implementation or language. The author's overall goal is that by a combination of learning and doing using Java should make the process of acquiring the skills relating to concurrency interesting, enjoyable, and challenging. The Java language is thus used only for illustration and programming experience of the reader. The book is intended for a computer science student or software developer. A background in programming is expected, as well as some familiarity with the essential concepts of object-oriented programming. Knowledge of the Java programming language and operating systems concepts is beneficial but not required. After reading the text, a reader can expect to have a broad understanding of the concepts of concurrency, the problems that arise, methods to emphasis desirable properties in a concurrent system, and ways to avoid the undesirable ones. The text provides a systematic treatment of concepts, as means to rigorously specify and model concurrent systems, with Java examples to animate and illustrate the concepts discussed. The book is organized into twelve chapters, with three appendices. The first eight chapters provide a concise and comprehensive foundation of concurrency, with the remaining four chapters focusing on more advanced concepts. The latter four chapters are somewhat supplemental and can be read at the discretion of the reader. The content of the text is self-contained, with no reliance upon external references. The authors provide a concluding set of notes and further topics which reference external works, but these are not used in the chapter contents. The introduction provides the foundation for the book, and an idea of what will follow in the rest of the text. The basics of modeling and Java are covered. Authors follow with the concepts of processes, threads and with the idea of concurrency. The emphasis is on using Java, and on the notation used to define a concurrent process or thread. The discussion continues covering interleaving and asynchronous concurrency. Various details about composition of parallel processes and finite state processing modeling are presented. The programming of concurrent execution using Java is then examined via the concept of multiple threads. Here, sharing objects among Java threads is also discussed. The concept of conditional synchronization is covered next, and is used to construct a monitor. The methods of the base object in Java is used, and a waiting queue associated with a Java object is discussed and implemented. This discussion is followed by introduction of deadlock. Authors show the conditions necessary for a deadlock to occur and present an analysis of a concurrent system establishing that such a system is deadlock-free. The classic Dining Philosopher's problem is used to illustrate the distinction between finding deadlocks in models and in programs. The presentation continues with the safety property (that asserts that nothing bad happens), and the liveliness property (that asserts that nothing good happens). Here, authors use the material on model-based design to consolidate many of the concepts previously discussed. No one modeling method or design methodology is emphasized. Then creation and elimination of threads in a running program is covered next. The dynamic starting and stopping of Java threads is presented. The discussion moves then to messaging passing. Asynchronous and synchronous messaging is presented with Java programming examples. The concept of a rendezvous, allowing for interaction in a messaging system, is also presented. Based on the concepts developed so far filter-pipeline, supervisor-worker, and announcer-listener concurrent architectures are examined. Java programs demonstrating how the elements of each model interact at runtime are developed. The presentation completes with modeling and implementing of timed systems. Time is signaled by the passage of successive time ticks. The authors then elaborate on a system that is event-based rather than thread-based. Java programs are used to illustrate in implementation the concepts discussed. The three appendices provide a reference, specification, and listing of semantics for the finite-state modeling algebra used by the authors throughout the book. The text is ideal for teaching in a classroom environment, or for a motivated reader to use for self-paced learning. Its organization follows a logical train of discussion and thought, with each chapter building successively on the other, with the more difficult concepts and topics withheld until later. This gradual approach makes the material flow smoothly and cohesively from the beginning to the end. The book is intended as a textbook, so does organize the material and discussion as one, but does not become too dry or bland to stifle the reader's interest in the material. The examples are inter-mixed with the discussion to highlight and emphasize essential points the authors make in each chapter. The text illustrates concepts well under discussion, and does not become a long-winded recital of theory. The topics examined are fundamental to concurrency, and are well illustrated and discussed, but no one topic is examined extensively. The code examples are well written concerning the programming style, indentation and comments. A CD is provided, containing the codes from the book. In addition supplementary material consisting of presentation slides and an errata is provided on the author's WWW site, as well as on the CD. The book is up to date both on the topics of concurrency, and with the Java applets, code, and programs used to illustrate them. Later, as the Java language evolves, the examples may need to be updated, but for the time being the text well represents that state of the Java language. William F. Gilreath, Micron Technology, Inc., Boise Idaho


Poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA)/hydroxyapatite (HA) porous composites were prepared via thermoplastic molding foaming technology by using water/ethanol as co-blowing agent, and the effects of HA content on cell structure and various properties including tribological properties, fatigue properties as well as biocompatibility of the porous composites were investigated to evaluate their suitability as the potential material for cartilage repair. The results showed that with the increase of HA content, porous composite with a denser cell structure was achieved. The addition of HA improved the friction properties of the porous composites, making both sliding friction coefficient and rotational friction coefficient decreased. The lowest value of rotational friction coefficient was 0.025, so close to that of human bone. Most importantly, the porous composites presented excellent fatigue properties and possessed good cytocompatibility, so were suitable for bone tissue restoration in theory.


This volume is the first to bring together analysis of contemporary female religious leadership in ideologically-diverse Muslim communities in the Middle East, Asia, Africa, Europe, and North America, with chapters discussing the emergence, consolidation, and impact of female Islamic authority.


Due to the globalization today the competition in the market has in- creased and it requires flexibility and produce according to customer demand. In order to reduce the cost of wages industrial companies are now considering moving the manufacturing to low-cost countries. To keep up with the competition in the market without moving the manu- facturing abroad, Lean Automation was developed. The concept of Lean Automation is to reduce the perceived complexity with automa- tion and make automation available for new users and in new applica- tions.Haldex Brake Products are situated in Sweden and want to maintain the manufacturing of the automatic brake adjusters in the country. It is a product well-known and highly exposed to the competition in the mar- ket. Due to this situation Haldex are collaborating with Malardalen University to develop a robotic cell based on the concept of Lean Au- tomation. It will be installed on their assembly line in 2012.The goal with this master thesis is to create a development process for automation, which can enable the company to be more competitive in the market and this by using their own knowledge to develop automat- ed solutions for higher efficiency in the production line. In addition to the development process for automation, programming of the Lean Au- tomation robotic cell is to be conducted.The conducted work in the master thesis was the programming of the robotic cell and the development process for automation. The pro- gramming was made Lean by reducing waste of time when working with the programmed code. This by a clear structure in the program- ming which makes it easy to handle. A development process for auto- mation was made and used for developing a robotic cell for the assem- bly line. The robotic cell was then tested at Haldex, an important stage before implementing the cell on the assembly line. Testing the robotic cell will give important information about how the equipment actually runs and failures can be observed and adjusted. Testing of the robotic cell will continue after the end of this master thesis.


The advent of E-commerce opens an opportunity for fostering an environment that promotes the globa/ isation of markets throughout the world, especially those in developing countries /ike Indonesia. The importance of trust as a key facilitator of E-commerce is increasingly being recognized in academic and practitioner communities. However, empirical research in this area has been overwhelmed by contradictory conceptions of the trust construct, while inadequate attention is paid to the influence of trust constructs on Ecommerce development in different cultural environments and settings. It is, therefore, the aim of this paper to address the gap by providing an exploratory study on the influence of trust to Ecommerce development in Indonesia. A series of paired sample t-tests were carried out to determine whether there was any significant difference between levels of confidence (or any significant difference in the expected problems) between Indonesian and non-Indonesian websites.


ABSTRACT This study evaluated the effect of increasing centrifugal force and reducing centrifugation time and volume in Percoll protocols on ram sperm parameters. Commercial semen of Santa Inês rams were used and five treatments were performed: traditional Percoll and mini-Percoll (MP) techniques (I- 5000 x g, 5min; II- 2500 x g, 5min; III- 1250 x g, 5min; IV- 700 x g, 10min). At post-thawing (PT) and post-selection protocols (0h), samples were assessed for spermatozoa recovery rate, motility, plasma membrane (PM) integrity, sperm capacitation and morphology and incubated at 37 C for 1, 2 and 3h. The sperm recovery rate averaged 9.1±1.4%, and most motility parameters were similar (P> 0.05) among protocols. VCL (µm/s) was higher (P< 0.05) after MP-II, III and IV (66.1±4.5) than traditional Percoll (46.3±4.9). Capacitation status and PM integrity were similar (P> 0.05) among treatments. For the first time, we have demonstrated the reduction of the gradient volume and centrifugation time associated with an increase on centrifugation force at Percoll can be successfully used for frozen-thawed ram sperm selection. MP may be used instead of traditional Percoll, decreasing costs and semen handling time.


When calibration weighting is be used to adjust for unit nonresponse in a sample survey, the response/nonresponse mechanism is often assumed to be a function of a set of covariates, which we call "model variables." These model variables usually also serve as the benchmark variables in the calibration equation. In principle, however, the model variables do not have to coincide with the benchmark variables. Since the model-variable values need only be known for the respondents, this allows the treatment of what is usually considered nonignorable nonresponse in the prediction approach to survey sampling. One can invoke either a quasi-randomization or prediction approach to justify calibration weighting as a means for adjusting for nonresponse. Both frameworks rely on unverifiable model assumptions, and both require large samples to produce nearly unbiased estimators even when those assumptions hold. We will explore these issues theoretically using a joint framework and with an empirical study.


"Monitoring rural household income is important for governments, donors, nongovernmental organizations, researchers, and others involved with development strategies, because increasing rural household income is a primary objective for achieving many development goals, including reducing poverty, hunger, and food and nutrition insecurity. However, accurate assessment of rural household income is time consuming and costly. Using an expenditure-based income measure, data on actual household expenditures per capita obtained from various national surveys for 28 Sub-Saharan African countries, this study used proxy indicators to estimate regression models and then predict and analyze changes in household income per capita between 1985 and 2006. Over the 20-year period, the study predicted annual average real household monthly income per capita at $78 in 1993 international dollars. South Africa was ahead of the group of countries at $225, followed by Cote d'Ivoire and Lesotho at $117 and $91, respectively. Predictions for Nigeria and Zambia were the worst at $28 and $39, respectively. Looking at changes in income over time, Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Uganda, Senegal, Mauritania, and Ghana (in declining order) experienced consistent positive growth. In contrast, Zambia, Kenya, and Lesotho showed declining trends, averaging –2.7 percent, –2.0 percent, and –1.3 percent per year, respectively, over the 20-year period. The latter results were not surprising given the low and sometimes negative growth rates in real GDP per capita and real agricultural value added per worker over the same period for those countries. The predicted trends were also consistent with observed trends in poverty and hunger, suggesting that the methodology is a useful and least-cost approach for monitoring household incomes to support evaluation of public investment programs." from Author's Abstract


Today's market for mobile apps goes beyond the iPhone to include BlackBerry, Nokia, Windows Phone, and smartphones powered by Android, webOS, and other platforms. If you're an experienced web developer, this book shows you how to build a standard app core that you can extend to work with specific devices. You'll learn the particulars and pitfalls of building mobile apps with HTML, CSS, and other standard web tools. You'll also explore platform variations, finicky mobile browsers, Ajax design patterns for mobile, and much more. Before you know it, you'll be able to create mashups using Web 2.0 APIs in apps for the App Store, App World, Ovi Store, Android Market, and other online retailers. Learn how to use your existing web skills to move into mobile development Discover key differences in mobile app design and navigation, including touch devices Use HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and Ajax to create effective user interfaces in the mobile environment Learn about technologies such as HTML5, XHTML MP, and WebKit extensions Understand variations of platforms such as Symbian, BlackBerry, webOS, Bada, Android, and iOS for iPhone and iPad Bypass the browser to create offline apps and widgets using web technologies (edited by author) Seven Myths of the Mobile Web by Maximiliano Firtman As the Web has moved onto mobile devices, developers have told themselves a lot of stories about what this means for their work. While some of those stories are true, others are misleading, confusing, or even dangerous. Its not the mobile web; its just the Web! Ive heard this quote many times in the last few years, and its true. Its really the same Web. Think about your life. You dont have another email account just for your mobile. (OK, I know some guys that do, but I believe thats not typical!) You read about the last NBA game on your favorite site, like ESPN; you dont have a desktop news source and a different mobile news source. You really dont want another social network for your mobile; you want to use the same Facebook or Twitter account as the one you used on your desktop. It was painful enough creating your friends list on your desktop, youve already ignored many peopleyou dont want to have to do all that work again on your mobile. For all of these purposes, the mobile web uses the same network protocols as the whole Internet: HTTP, HTTPS, POP3, Wireless LAN, and even TCP/IP. OK, you can say that GSM, CDMA, and UMTS are not protocols used in the desktop web environment, but they are communication protocols operating at lower layers. From our point of view, from a web application approach, we are using the same protocols. So, yesits the same Web. However, when developing for the mobile web we are targeting very, very different devices. The most obvious difference is the screen size, and yes, that will be our first problem. But there are many other not-so-obvious differences. One issue is that the contexts in which we use our mobile devices are often extremely different from where and how we use our comfortable desktops or even our laptops and netbooks. Dont get me wrong--this doesnt mean that, as developers, we need to create two, three, or dozens of versions duplicating our work. In this book, we are going to analyze all the techniques available for this new world. Our objective will be to make only one product, and well analyze the best way to do it. You dont need to do anything special about your desktop website. Almost every smartphone on the market today--for example, the iPhone and Android-based devices--can read and display full desktop websites. Yes, this is true. Users want the same experience on the mobile web as they have on their desktops. Yes, this is also true. Some statistics even indicate that users tend to choose web versions over mobile versions when using a smartphone. However, is this because we really love zooming in and out, scrolling and crawling for the information we want, or is it because the mobile versions are really awful and dont offer the right user experience? Ive seen a lot of mobile sites consisting of nothing but a logo and a couple of text links. My smartphone wants more! One website should work for all devices (desktop, mobile, TV, etc.). As we will see, there are techniques that allow us to create only one file but still provide different experiences on a variety of devices, including desktops, mobiles, TVs, and game consoles. This vision is called One Web. This is to an extent possible today, but the vision wont fully be realized for years to come. Today, there are a lot of mobile devices with very low connection speeds and limited resources--non--smartphonesthat, in theory, can read and parse any file, but will not provide the best user experience and will have compatibility and performance problems if we deliver the same document as for desktop. Therefore, One Web remains a goal for the future. A little additional work is still required to provide the right user experience for each mobile device, but there are techniques that can be applied to reduce the work required and avoid code and data duplication. Mobile web is really easy; Just create a WML file. Im really surprised how many mobile websites are still developed using a technology deprecated many years ago: WML (Wireless Markup Language). Even in emerging markets, there are almost no WML-only web-capable devices on the market today. The worst part of this story is that these developers think that this is the markup language for the mobile web. Wrong! WML development was called mobile web (or WAP) development a couple of years ago, when the first attempt at building a mobile web was made. There are still a small proportion of WML-only devices available in some markets, but WML is definitely not the mobile web today. Just create an HTML file with a width of 240 Pixels, and you have a mobile website. This is the other fast-food way to think about the mobile web. Today, there are more than 3,000 mobile devices on the market, with almost 30 different browsers (actually, more than 300 different browsers if we separate them by version number). Creating one HTML file as your mobile website will be a very unsuccessful project. In addition, doing so contributes to the belief that mobile web browsing is not useful. Native mobile applications will kill the mobile web. Every solution has advantages and disadvantages. The mobile web has much to offer native applications, as Chapter 12 of this book will demonstrate. The mobile web (and the new concept of mobile widgets) offers us a great multi-device application platform, including local applications that dont require an always-connected Web with URLs and browsers. People are not using their mobile browsers. How many Internet connections are there in the world? 1,802,330,457 (26% of the worlds population) at the beginning of 2010 (http://www.internetworldstats.com) How many people have mobile devices? 4,600,000,000 (68% of the population) at the beginning of 2010 (U.N. Telecommunications Agency, http://www.itu.int) So, one of the reasons why people are not using their mobile browsers may be because of us, the web producers. We are not offering them what they need. There are other factors, but lets talk about what we can do from our point of view. Opera Mini is a mobile browser for low- and mid-range devices. It is free and it has had more than 50 million downloads to date. This tells us that 50 million users wanted to have a better mobile web experience, so they went out and got Opera Mini. Do all the 4 billion plus worldwide mobile device users know about Opera Mini? Perhaps not, so its difficult to know how many would be interested in trying this different mobile web experience. However, 50 million downloads for only one browser that the user had to install actively is a big number for me. When Opera Mini appeared in Apple Inc.s App Store, from which users can download and install applications for the iPhone, iPod, and iPad, 1 million users downloaded the browser on the first day. This is quite impressive. Today, less than 4% of total web browsing is done from mobile devices. This percentage is increasing month by month. Mobile browsing may never become as popular as desktop browsing, but it will increase a lot in the following years. In addition, user browsing on mobile devices will likely have a higher conversion rate. How many tabs do you usually have open at once in Internet Explorer or Firefox on your desktop or laptop? On a mobile device, when you browse you are more specific and more likely to act on what you find.


The information paradox first surfaced in the early 1970s when Stephen Hawking of Cambridge University suggested that black holes are not totally black. Hawking showed that particle-antiparticle pairs generated at the event horizon—the outer periphery of a black hole—would be separated. One particle would fall into the black hole while the other would escape, making the black hole a radiating body. Characteristics of the emission and absorption of usual substance by a black hole can be described by information models. Estimation of the volume of information in black holes is necessary for generation of restrictions for their formation, development and interconversion. Information is an integral part of the Universe. By its physical essence information is heterogeneity of matter and energy. Therefore information is inseparably connected with matter and energy. An information approach along with a physical one allows to obtain new, sometimes more general data in relation to data obtained on the ground of physical rules only. The author's works, testify about the practicality of information laws usage simultaneously with physical rules for cognition of the Universe. The results presented in this paper show the effectiveness of informational approach for studying the black holes. The article discusses the following questions: The volume of information in the black hole; Information model of a black hole; Characteristics of the emission and absorption of usual substance by a black hole describes the information model of a black hole; The information paradox; A simple explanation of the information paradox by the information model of a black hole.


Comment and Summary
By the usual methods, a diagnosis of yellow fever in man early during the course of the illness is impossible, since these are based on the isolation and identification of the specific virus or on the demonstration that specific antibodies appear as a result of the infection. Davis (2) as early as 1931, however, showed that the complement-fixing antigen appears with regularity in the blood of monkeys succumbing to infection with yellow fever virus, and Hughes (11) in 1933 made a similar observation with regard to the precipitinogen. Both authors suggested that the occurrence of the antigens they were dealing with might afford a means for arriving at a positive diagnosis of yellow fever in the acute phase of the disease. No further work appears to have been done on this subject, however, and because of the practical considerations involved a reinvestigation of the matter was considered worthwhile.
The complement-fixation test was chosen in preference to the precipitin test since in our experience it proved to be the more reliable, and the presence of the complement-fixing antigen could be readily demonstrated in sera apparently devoid of the precipitinogen.
Eighteen monkeys (Macaca mulatta) and 31 marmosets (Callithrix jacchus) were employed in the present investigation. These animals were inoculated with the classic Asibi strain of yellow fever virus or with the O.C., A.C.-Bol., or Volcanes jungle strains of the virus, and their sera were tested for the presence of complement-fixing antigen on one or more occasions after inoculation of the virus. The complement-fixing antigen was present in the blood of all those animals which died or were sacrificed when moribund, but was not detected in the blood of those which survived infection and subsequently developed complement-fixing as well as neutralizing antibodies.
The lack of correlation between the virus content and the antigen content of a serum indicates that complement-fixing antigenicity must be referred not to the virus per se but to some substance resulting from the reaction provoked in the host's tissues by the virus. A specific febrile response following inoculation of virus indicates only that the reaction to the parasite is of sufficient magnitude to evoke the appearance of the antigen. The absence of a postinfection temperature rise does not necessarily imply the converse, however, since the antigen has been detected both in monkeys and in marmosets which succumbed to infection without showing a febrile reaction.
At least two obvious explanations exist for the failure to demonstrate antigen in the blood of those few animals which survived infection; either (a) the serum specimens tested were not taken at the appropriate intervals, or (b) the antigen was present in concentrations too small to be detected by the technique used. Experiments now in progress indicate that the latter explanation is probably the correct one, and it would seem, therefore, that the antigen appears in demonstrable amounts chiefly (and perhaps solely) in the blood of those animals in which the disease may be expected to terminate fatally.
In 10 of 37 animals a post-mortem diagnosis of yellow fever virus infection could not be made by histologic examination of the liver, although it was made during life by examination of the serum for complement-fixing antigen. This suggests that the serologic test may therefore constitute a more accurate diagnostic method than does microscopic examination of the liver, although a broader experience is necessary before any unqualified statement is possible as to the greater accuracy of one method over the other.
Opportunity to examine human yellow fever sera has not been available, but if the antigen occurs in the blood of man also it should be possible to use the complement-fixation test for the early diagnosis of the disease in this host, provided that the method is applicable to all degrees of infection, and is not limited to severe or fatal cases.


Abstract. A dermal bone from the late Famennian of Ketleri in Latvia, identified as a probable tetrapod postorbital by Oleg Lebedev and stored in the Museum fur Naturkunde Berlin, is described in detail. Its tetrapod status is confirmed based on the dermal sculpture consisting of polygonal pits and radially aligned ridges and furrows. The sculpture resembles that of Devonian tetrapods but is nevertheless not as regular as in most post-Devonian forms. The bone can be designated as a postorbital because of its concave anterior margin, the lateral line that shows no bifurcation, and the ossification centre that is located in the dorsal portion of the bone. The lateral line (i.e., the postorbital branch of the infraorbital line) forms an open, deep sulcus in the ventral portion of the postorbital but is enclosed within the bone in the dorsal portion and opens through pores to the surface. This morphology of the postorbital branch is unique among basal tetrapods. The bone might belong to the tetrapod Ventastega curonica Ahlberg et al., 1994 that is known from the same strata at Ketleri, however, since the postorbital is unknown in this taxon, this cannot be stated with certainty. doi: 10.1002/mmng.201000002


Due to recent advancements in technology, consumer digital cameras are becoming cheaper and easier to use. These consumer digital cameras, with Bayer color filter arrays (CFAs), allow for simultaneous capture of the red, green and blue (RGB) channels. To achieve higher spectral resolution, multispectral imaging systems use methods such as filter wheels and tunable filters to capture data in a sequential manner. However, in order to capture transient phenomena, one would need to capture spectral information of a 2D scene in a simultaneous manner. Therefore, there has been an on-going trend towards creating a simultaneous multispectral imaging system that uses a conventional consumer digital camera with a Bayer CFA. Such a system allows for a effective imaging of transient or dynamic phenomena with a low-cost and compact system. Currently, the main method to accomplish this is known as Wiener estimation which uses statistical assumptions of the relationship between the incoming spectra and the RGB measurements. However, these assumptions limit the ability to accurately predict the incoming spectra. Therefore, we leverage a comprehensive framework based on numerical demultiplexing of sensor measurements via spectral characterization of the image sensor CFA and non-linear random forest modeling. To create this numerical demultiplexing system we create a forward model from the spectral sensitivity of the imaging system, which is accomplished with a monochrometer. This forward model is then used to create a mapping of 10,000 randomly generated spectra to their corresponding RGB values. This mapping acts as our training set for our non-linear inverse model which utilizes the random forest modeling framework. Having constructed the numerical demultiplexer, we test the performance against the state-of-theart Wiener estimation for both quantitative and qualitative experiments. In the first set of experiments, we performed a quantitative performance assessment of the proposed framework within a controlled simulation environment. The second set of experiments, validated the observations made from the first set of controlled simulation experiments within a realworld setting. More specifically, we used an icon with different colors as well as a scene of different color flowers to perform quantitative analysis. In these experiments, we show that the proposed numerical demultiplexer outperforms the state-of-the art and is a more robust and reliable way to infer higher spectra from RGB measurements. Having validated the numerical demultiplexer, we use it for two applications which are photoplethysmogrpahic imaging and multispectral microscopy. For photoplethysmogrpahic imaging we found that decomposing the RGB camera measurements into narrow-band spectral information can noticeably improve the prediction of heart rate estimation. In addition, we used the numerical demultiplexer for both a bright-field multispectral microscope as well as a darkfield fluorescence multispectral microscope, which illustrates its potential as a low-cost, portable, point-of-care system.


A measurement of the top quark mass (M-t) in the dileptonic t (t) over bar decay channel is performed using data from proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 8 TeV. The data was recorded by the CMS experiment at the LHC and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 19.7 +/- 0.5 fb(-1). Events are selected with two oppositely charged leptons (l = e, mu) and two jets identified as originating from b quarks. The analysis is based on three kinematic observables whose distributions are sensitive to the value of Mt. An invariant mass observable, M-bl, and a ``stransverse mass'' observable, M-T2, are employed in a simultaneous fit to determine the value of M-t and an overall jet energy scale factor (JSF). A complementary approach is used to construct an invariant mass observable, M-blv, that is combined with M-T2 to measure M-t. The shapes of the observables, along with their evolutions in M-t and JSF, are modeled by a nonparametric Gaussian process regression technique. The sensitivity of the observables to the value of M-t is investigated using a Fisher information density method. The top quark mass is measured to be 172.22 +/- 0.18(stat)(-0.93)(+0.89) (syst) GeV.


In order to solve complex problems an agent must be able to reason over a sufficiently long horizon. Temporal abstraction, commonly modeled through options, offers the ability to reason at many timescales, but the horizon length is still determined by the discount factor of the underlying Markov Decision Process. We propose a modification to the options framework that naturally scales the agent's horizon with option length. We show that the proposed option-step discount controls a bias-variance trade-off, with larger discounts (counter-intuitively) leading to less estimation variance.


Submitted 23 Jul 2016; Accepted 10 Aug 2016; Published 21 Sep 2016 Urtica dioica is a perennial plant used as herbal medicine due to its many pharmacological and clinical effects. Because of its antioxidant activity, it is widely used in traditional diabetes treatment but is also known as antimicrobial, anti inflammatory or anti prostate cancer agent. Extensive studies have been conducted on different parts of this plant and their biological effects. Here we reviewed the effect of different parts of this plant including leave, seed, root and aerial part extracted with various methods in treatment of diseases. Various beneficial effects were reported on animal models without apparent side effects, which led us to consider it as an emerald to be more deeply discovered in the kingdom of health.


The State of North Carolina resumed executions post-Furman on March 16, 1984, at 2:00 a.m., with the execution by electrocution of James Hutchins, a severely mentally ill many who had shot and killed three law enforcement agents. Over the next 25 years, North Carolina executed 42 men and one woman. This article provides a brief overview of the more significant events that have shaped the face of the death penalty in this new era - events which the author views as coming in four waves - three that have ebbed and one that is yet to hit. The first wave was the crime wave of the 1980's and early 90's. This wave generated much energy, creating a second wave, one of strong public support for the death penalty; this wave, in turn, contributed to a third wave of increased death sentences. These waves have now subsided. Today, there is a de facto moratorium on executions in North Carolina. When and if the moratorium is lifted, Adcock predicts that North Carolina's newly elected Governor, Beverly Perdue, will likely find herself facing the "fourth wave" - a wave of execution dates not seen by any previous governor of this state or, perhaps, of any state. And this wave will involve a unique backdrop: a "sea change" in both the public support for the death penalty in North Carolina and in the reliability of the death penalty system, which has increased dramatically due to recent reforms. This article, ultimately, is about the Governor's role at the time of a pending execution. Based on the history of executions in this state and on the changed milieu, this article argues that clemency must be done differently post-moratorium and offers the Governor some ideas for doing justice in the face of the coming wave of executions in today's new landscape.


Multiclass semantic image segmentation is widely used in a variety of computer vision tasks, such as object segmentation and complex scene understanding. As it decomposes an image into semantically relevant regions, it can be applied in segmentation of face images. In this paper, an algorithm based on multiclass semantic segmentation of faces is proposed using conditional random fields. In the proposed model, each node corresponds to a superpixel, while the neighboring superpixels are connected to nodes through edges. Unlike previous approaches, which rely on three or four classes, the label set is extended here to six classes, i.e. hair, eyes, nose, mouth, skin, and background. The proposed framework is evaluated on standard face databases FASSEG, FIGARO, and LFW. Experimental results reveal that the performance of the proposed model is comparable with state-of-the-art techniques on these standard databases.


Author(s): Seager, Joni; Bowser, Gillian; Dutta, Anwesha | Abstract: The ranger workforce is currently characterized by an extreme gender skew. Exact data—or even reliable estimates—are scarce, but the general understanding is that only 3–11% of the global ranger workforce is female, with considerable local variation (Belecky et al. 2019). Although consideration of the gender context for a workforce often starts with numbers, achieving greater gender balance requires a much more comprehensive understanding of the problems and a wide-net approach to solutions. Bringing women into the ranger workforce is an important human rights and equality goal in itself. Further, there is evidence that women bring skill sets and strengths to the ranger workforce that are different from those of men. Bringing gender equality into the workforce can improve conservation, relationships with communities, park management, and wildlife management. The Chitwan Declaration (World Ranger Congress 2019) commits to broad gender-related goals: gender-equal opportunities in hiring, pay, and promotion in the ranger workforce, as well as appropriate measures to provide safety and support for female rangers. This paper, based in part on interviews with men and women in the current ranger workforce, analyzes the state of the gender imbalance in the ranger workforce, provides a contextual assessment, and advances recommendations for moving towards these Chitwan goals.


Educational practitioners in the higher education institutions of the UK have increasingly promoted the use of wikis. The technology enhanced learning experience of the UK was transferred to a local higher educational agency in Malaysia through a collaborative research project called WiLearn. By examining a student cohort enrolled in Chinese language studies, WiLearn explores the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) and the Zone of Distal Development (ZDD) with regard to the use of wikis in peer reviewed group coursework. With the goal of informing higher education researchers and practitioners, the problematic use of wikis was discussed according to the following three dimensions: (a) the process of group work; (b) social presence; and (c) the outcome of group work. The findings reveal that more critical reflection is evident when retrieving peers' comments through WiLearn, but less critical discourse is evident among the participants. The difference between the ZPD and the ZDD lies not in the functional use of wikis but in the degree of openness and social presence of the students from Chinese language studies. A pedagogical change in critical peer review and discourse regarding the use of wikis is suggested. This paper concludes with constructive and disruptive lessons that were learned through a series of insights that provide a greater understanding of the challenges and opportunities with regard to learning and teaching with wikis for Chinese language studies.


Proteins are synthesized and folded and assembled in the cytosol, endoplasmic reticulum (ER), and mitochondria. For the cytosol and ER, pathways associated with excess unfolded or misfolded proteins have been characterized and are called the heat shock response and the ER unfolded protein response (UPRer). Haynes et al. applied a genome-wide RNAi screen to identify four genes involved in the mitochondrial UPR (UPRmt) in Caenorhabditis elegans. Three of the genes were characterized in detail: dve-1, which encodes a homolog of the Drosophila homeobox transcription factor defective proventriculus and mammalian SatB2; ubl-5, which encodes a ubiquitin-like protein; and clpp-1, which encodes a protein homologous to the bacterial protease ClpP. (The fourth encoded guanosine triphosphatase homologous to mammalian Rheb.) Reduction in the expression of any of these genes compromised the expression of the chaperone Hsp60 in response to mitochondrial unfolded protein stress without interfering with UPRer and caused perturbed mitochondrial morphology, consistent with persistent UPRmt. DVE-1 showed a nuclear localization and redistributed to nuclear puncta in response to conditions of mitochondrial unfolded protein stress. In worms deficient in, but not completely lacking, DVE-1 (the latter was lethal), mitochondrial mass was decreased (as detected by MitoTracker staining and ligand blot assay). In an affinity purification assay, a tagged form of DVE-1 and a tagged form of UBL-5 were found to form a complex when the worms were subjected to conditions causing mitochondrial unfolded protein stress. A similar interaction was observed for the mammalian homologs. RNAi experiments suggested that CLPP-1 acted upstream of UBL-5 (the expression of which is stimulated in response to conditions of mitochondrial unfolded protein stress) and of DVE-1 in the UPRmt. CLPP-1 was localized to the matrix of the mitochondria, where it appeared to be part of a large multisubunit complex. When CLPP-1 activity was decreased by RNAi, increased expression of the ubl-5 and hsp60 genes in response to conditions that cause mitochondrial unfolded protein stress was compromised, and the redistribution of DVE-1 to nuclear puncta was also blocked. Protease inhibitors also prevented the stimulation of ubl-5 expression in response to mitochondrial unfolded protein stress, suggesting that the protease activity of CLPP-1 is important for its function in the UPRmt. C. M. Haynes, K. Petrova, C. Benedetti, Y. Yang, D. Ron, ClpP mediates activation of a mitochondrial unfolded protein response in C. elegans. Dev. Cell 13, 467-480 (2007). [PubMed]


The anaerobic batch digestion of cattail with two substrate concentrations of 10 g and 30 g Volatile Solids (VS)/l was investigated in this study. The hydrolysis of cattail was not significantly affected by the substrate concentrations, and it was able to be described by a first-order kinetic model with hydrolysis constants of 0.298 d−1 and 0.294 d−1, respectively. The main aqueous products from cattail degradation were Volatile Fatty Acids (VFA), in which acetate, propionate and butyrate were dominant. The molar ratio of acetate to propionate (3.3) at 10 g VS/l was larger than that (2.3) at 30 g VS/l, when the acidogenesis phase was at the stationary period. The lag period of the methanogenic phase at 10 g VS/l was shorter than that at 30 g VS/l. A modified Gompertz equation could be adopted to describe the kinetics of products formation.


The New World Economy presents business organizations with some special challenges that they have never met before, when they manage their activities in the global supply chain network. Business managers find that traditional managerial approaches, techniques and principles are no longer effective in dealing with these challenges. This dissertation is a study of how to solve new problems emerging in the global supply chain network. Three main issues identified in the global supply chain network are: production loading problems for global manufacturing, logistics problems for global road transport and container loading problems for global air transport. These problems involve a higher level of uncertainty and risk. Three types of dual-response strategies have been developed to hedge the uncertainty and short lead time in the above three problems. These strategies are: a dual-response production loading strategy for global manufacturing, a dual-response logistics strategy for global road transport and a dual-response container loading strategy for global air transport. In order to implement these strategies, the two-stage stochastic recourse programming models have been formulated. The computational results show that the two-stage stochastic recourse models have an advantage in comparison to the corresponding deterministic models for the three issues. However, the two-stage stochastic recourse models lack the ability of handling risk, which is particularly important in today's highly-competitive environment. We thus develop a robust optimization framework for dealing with uncertainty and risk. The robust optimization framework consists of a robust optimization model with solution robustness, a robust optimisation model with model robustness and a robust optimization model with trade-off between solution robustness and model robustness. Each type of the robust optimization models represents a different measure of performance in terms of risk and cost. A series of experiments demonstrate that the robust optimization models can create a global supply chain planning system with more flexibility, reliability, agility, responsiveness and lower risk.


Typical solutions for Web services composition problem develop a single intermediary which mediates or choreographs computation and communication among the existing services to realize a target/goal service. However, such a centralized choreography mechanism can involve communication/computation overhead that can be reduced through its decentralized realization. With this as motivation, we study the problem of synthesizing a decentralized choreography strategy that will have an optimum overhead for service composition by developing a set of site-specific choreographers working concurrently to implement a desired goal service. Each communication/computation is quantified by a cost. We develop an algorithm that takes as input the existing services, the goal service, the costs and produces as an output a set of site-specific choreographers that optimally realize the goal service using the existing services. The contribution lies in the formulation of the optimal decentralized choreographer synthesis problem as well as its solution and extends our earlier work in two ways: decentralization of solution and its optimality.


Background, objectives and setting

Despite global activity over the past 15 years to improve patient safety, the measurement of adverse events (AEs) remains challenging.

Objectives

We aimed to obtain definitive longitudinal data on harm across NHS Wales and to compare the performance of the Global Trigger Tool (GTT) with the two-stage retrospective review process, using our findings to consolidate an approach to the ongoing surveillance of harm in Wales.

Data sources

Eleven of the 13 major Welsh NHS hospitals.

Review methods

The two-stage retrospective review methodology was used to quantify harm across NHS Wales. In total, 4536 inpatient episodes were screened for AEs by research nurses. Records that were highly suggestive of AEs were further assessed by physicians. NHS-led teams undertook GTT reviews on the same case notes.

Results

At least one AE was determined in 10.3% of episodes of care [95% confidence interval (CI) 9.4% to 11.2%] and 51.5% were preventable (95% CI 46.9% to 56.1%). The percentage of patients identified with AEs using the GTT methodology was lower, at 9.0% (95% CI 8.82% to 9.18%). Differences in AEs were evident across study sites. Methods were developed to profile the risk of AEs in individual organisations by producing signatures of harm for each NHS site. Analysis indicated that neither the GTT nor the two-stage process was a candidate tool for routine surveillance, and a hybrid one-stage tool (Harm2), based on phase 1 findings, was developed for ongoing AE monitoring. Using the Harm2 tool, AEs were identified in 371 out of 3352 randomly selected discharge reviews (11.3%, 95% CI 10.2% to 12.4%), and 59.6% (95% CI 55.3 to 63.9) of these were preventable. In a cohort of randomly selected deceased patient reviews, at least one AE was determined in 315 out of 1018 admissions (30.1%, 95% CI 28.1% to 33.8%), and 61.7% (95% CI 57.5% to 65.9%) of these were preventable. Factors associated with AEs in the randomly selected discharge reviews included having peripheral vascular disease [odds ratio (OR) 2.52], hemiplegia (OR 2.27) or dementia (OR 2.27). No association with chronic disease was identified in the deceased episodes of care.

Limitations

The dependence on our health service partners in identifying notes to be reviewed, along with the small sample examined each month, limits the generalisability of these findings and rates were not standardised for hospital and size and level of services provided. We cannot rule out the possibility that the rates we report may be underestimated.

Conclusion

The extent of harm detected across NHS Wales using both the two-stage retrospective review process and the new Harm2 tool conforms to the findings in the literature, but this is the first longitudinal study using these methods. With training and using a structured review process, non-physician reviewers can undertake case note review efficiently and effectively, and the rates of AEs and of the preventability and the breakdown of problems in care conform to those reported in studies in which physicians undertake these classifications. Whether the patient died or was discharged alive significantly influences the rate and composition of AEs. The Harm2 tool performed with moderate reliability in the determination of AEs.

Future work

Future large-scale studies should attempt to specify types of AEs, such as hospital-acquired infections and surgical complications, to enable the surveillance of the specific types of harm as well as the overall level of AEs. In the longer term, we need to automate harm surveillance and set measures of harm alongside measures of the beneficial effects of health care.

Funding

The National Institute for Health Research Health Services and Delivery Research programme.


This research analyses the impact of oil and gas exploration in the UK and Nigeria on the environment and settlements from the sustainability perspective, using a case study of an oil producing community (Uzere) in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. This region is affected by oil and gas exploration activities, in terms of socio-economic, environmental and economic impacts. This state of affairs raises issues of environmental justice among the stakeholders. The research had two case study areas and included a total of 13 focus group, 86 questionnaires and 7 interviews. Analysis of this data showed that the oil and gas exploration activities in Nigeria are different from that in the UK. The empirical evidence equally suggests that the lack of technological advancement, management, legislation and corruption are strongly related to incidence of environmental impact during oil and gas exploration. The research further discusses the need to strive towards a balance between environmental sustainability and economic growth. Highlighting the fact and fiction of sustainable development and sustainability in the Niger delta and Nigerian, how Sustainable environment and growth can only be achieved through the integration of policies that connect the environment, the economy and the society.
The novelty or contribution to knowledge of the research, developed a framework based on qualitative and quantitative findings. The resulting framework highlighted or proposed ways the Nigerian government can achieve its sustainable energy obligations based on the findings and the review of relevant literature, as well findings from methodology adopted. The proposed framework can be applied both theoretical and practical, this will not only protect the environment and people from the impacts of oil and gas exploration, but will also protect Nigeria crude oil resource saving lives and livelihoods over the coming years. Furthermore the research analyses a number of strategic initiatives, which can be adopted in Nigeria, taking lesson from the UK to achieve the balance between environmental sustainability and growth through the integration of policies, management, technology that connect the environment, society and economy.


Dapivirine, a nonnucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor, is in development as a microbicide for the protection of women against HIV infection. A randomized, double-blind, phase 1 trial was conducted in 36 healthy HIV-negative women to compare the pharmacokinetics of 2 dapivirine vaginal gel formulations (0.05% each) and their safety with the hydroxyethyl cellulose-based universal placebo gel. Gel was self-administered once daily for a total of 11 days. Blood and vaginal fluid samples were collected sequentially over 24 days for pharmacokinetic analysis. Safety was evaluated by pelvic examination, colposcopy, adverse events, and clinical laboratory assessments. Adverse event profiles were similar for the 3 gels. Most events were mild and not related to study gel. Headache and vaginal hemorrhage (any vaginal bleeding) were most common. Plasma concentrations of dapivirine did not exceed 1.1 ng/mL. Steady-state conditions were reached within approximately 10 days. Dapivirine concentrations in vaginal fluids were slightly higher for Gel 4789, but Cmax values on days 1 and 14 were not significantly different. Terminal half-life was 72-73 hours in plasma and 15-17 hours in vaginal fluids. Both formulations of dapivirine gel were safe and well tolerated. Dapivirine was delivered to the lower genital tract at concentrations at least 5 logs greater than in vitro inhibitory concentrations.


Robert Phillips is a prominent figure in what has been called America's neglected "transition generation"-poets born in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Spinach Days is his sixth full-length collection, following his critically acclaimed Breakdown Lane (Johns Hopkins, 1994), named a Notable Book of the Year by the New York Times. In content and in its various use of forms, Spinach Days is Phillips' most innovative book yet. There are long narratives and short lyrics, villanelles and somonkas, haiku and found poems, free verse and eclogues, on subjects ranging from St. Francis to the Holocaust, from Jung's concept of the anima to a particular bit of American folklore on the gangster John Dillinger. Throughout, the poet's memory is the cohesive force, mixing events of childhood with adulthood, rural life with big-city life, love with loss, and humorous events with tragic ones. Phillips reveals himself to be a master of closure, and he writes as one who delights in the liveliness of language and wordplay.


This illustrated book traces the history of an unlikely force in the shaping of Western civilization: the use of psychedelic mushrooms, namely by a secret society called the cult of Mithras. Nero was the first emperor to be initiated by the group's "magical dinners," and most of his successors embraced the ritual as a source of spiritual transcendence. The cult was officially banned after the Conversion, but aspects of their rituals were assimilated or co-opted by Christianity, and the brotherhoods persist today as secret societies such as the Freemasons. This is a fascinating exploration of a powerful force kept behind the scenes for thousands of years.


The problem of recognition in nonparametric environments under imperfect supervision is not amenable to solution through classical statistical approaches based on identification of finite mixtures, which require an a priori knowledge of the probabilistic descriptions of the classes. Accordingly, the problem is viewed in this study as one of optimal linear/nonlinear partitioning of the imperfectly labeled training sample set. This optimal partitioning is accomplished by defining an appropriate optimality criterion, which takes into account the imperfectness of supervision, and solving the resultant optimization problem through the Improved Flexible Polyhedron Method (IFPM). Possible alternatives to compensate for the inherent bias in this criterion towards equipopulation clusters are developed and evaluated using an illustrative example. Details of the methodology involved in implementing the approach are presented. Results of simulation experiments, which confirm the validity and effectiveness of this new technique in accomplishing optimal, linear/nonlinear discriminant learning in imperfectly supervised, nonparametric environments, are included.


The paper presents a study on analysis of citations made in the introduction section of articles that report empirical research. The attempt is to proceed with the validation that pertinence of citations in scientific articles is a core problem in citation analytics. Citations made in the introduction sections of research articles published in Nature weekly journal were studied. The entire research articles published from Volume 523 to 527 were studied. The result showed that the mean pertinence for the entire study is about 32%. Overall, about 68% of citations made in the introduction sections may not be applicable in the computation of effective impact of publications. It forms one of the first attempts to use empirical methods to determine pertinence of citations in scientific publications. Here in, the rationale for the study is identified


The effects of IL-1 on vascular endothelium result in a complex set of alterations which are potentially disruptive of vessel wall and underlying tissue integrity. The present study was aimed at investigating possible regulation of such potentially destructive responses elicited by IL-1 on endothelial cells. Culture supernatants of IL-1-treated human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HEC) were depleted of retroviral p15E-related Ag with immobilized anti-p15E mAb. The monocyte chemotactic and polarizing activity of supernatants of IL-1-treated HEC (presumably related to colony-stimulating factors being released by HEC) was markedly augmented by absorption on immobilized anti-p15E antibodies. Irrelevant IgG had no effect and anti-p15E antibodies did not affect the chemotactic activity of supernatants from unstimulated HEC. The material eluted from Sepharose-bound anti-p15E antibodies was devoid of chemotactic and polarizing activity and suppressed the polarization and migration of monocytes in response to chemoattractants. The alpha and beta molecular species of IL-1 were equally effective in inducing the production of p15E-related inhibitor. The production of a p15E-related inhibitor of chemotaxis induced by IL-1 in HEC may represent a negative signal in the regulation of the potentially destructive responses to pro-inflammatory cytokines.


This paper investigates the relationship between nominal interest rates and prices using nearly two centuries of data from ten industrial countries. Both a positive relationship between interest rates and price levels (that is, a positive Gibson effect) and a negative relationship between interest rates and subsequent price changes (that is, a negative Fama-Fisher effect) prevailed until World War I. We propose a simple explanation wherein this doubly paradoxical juxtaposition of effects arises when money is supplied inelastically and prices are flexible. This double paradox disappeared after World War II when economies became mostly characterized by elastic money and sticky prices. During that period, a positive Fama-Fisher effect emerged while the Gibson effect largely dissipated.


There are various potential sources of systematic error in tunable-diode-laser absorption measurements. In this paper, we discuss two such sources that are associated with multimode lasing. The first is caused by secondary modes which are passed by a monochromator and are absorbed by lines not intentionally being studied. In the second source of error, different spatial modes may appear in different arms of a double-beam system. Both types of errors can give rise to rather dramatic systematic errors in frequency and concentration calibrations.


Although apes understand others' goals and perceptions, little is known about their understanding of others' emotional expressions. We conducted three studies following the general paradigm of Repacholi and colleagues (1997, 1998). In Study 1, a human reacted emotionally to the hidden contents of two boxes, after which the ape was allowed to choose one of the boxes. Apes distinguished between two of the expressed emotions (happiness and disgust) by choosing appropriately. In Studies 2 and 3, a human reacted either positively or negatively to the hidden contents of two containers; then the ape saw him eating something. When given a choice, apes correctly chose the container to which the human had reacted negatively, based on the inference that the human had just eaten the food to which he had reacted positively - and so the other container still had food left in it. These findings suggest that great apes understand both the directedness and the valence of some human emotional expressions, and can use this understanding to infer desires.


A radical exhibition of popular art opened at the Whitechapel Art Gallery in the spring of 1951. Its curator, the artist, designer, writer and campaigner, Barbara Jones, described the exhibits as, ' things that people make or are manufactured to their taste.' For Jones, the exhibition presented an opportunity to represent through objects, many of the ideas she also explored through her effusive writing style and audacious drawings. At the same time, she sought to provoke established ideas about museum and gallery culture, and the value attached to particular kinds of objects. Curating Popular Art is curated by Moriarty with the art director and founder of the Museum of British Folklore, Simon Costin. A collaboration between an academic and a designer, it looks afresh at Jones' innovative project, considering particularly her curatorial strategy and the connections she established across images, objects and text. Relating curatorial activity to writing and drawing projects, and understanding all these as mechanisms of arrangement, is a new approach to Jones' work and offers a radical model of inter-textual curatorial analysis.


The alkali-silica reaction (ASR) is a durability issue of concrete. The amorphous silica of aggregates reacts with the alkalies present in the cement paste pore solution to form a hydrophilic gel which swells in the presence of moisture. Many mass concrete structures are affected and understanding of the reaction and its development is crucial, notably for dam owners and managers. Although some parameters affecting the reaction are well understood, such as temperature, others which depend on the concrete mix design, such as aggregate sizes and particle size distribution (PSD) and external parameters such as the applied load have an effect on the development of the reaction which is not as well understood. To advance the understanding of ASR an experimental programme was put into place to explore some of these factors. In parallel, a modelling platform was designed and implemented to allow the simulation of the reaction at the material microstructure level. The expansion of affected mortars and concretes had been linked to the damage state of the aggregates by Ben Haha. We could model this effect and reproduce the effect of changing the aggregate sizes. Simple kinetics were implemented in the model with two factors were required to account for changes in the cure conditions and sample sizes. The expansion due to the reaction has been reported to be anisotropic in the literature with respect to the direction of casting. We could demonstrate this effect in two independent set of experiments. The overall shape of the expansion curve was found to be related to the fracture of the aggregates and the interactions between them rather than changes in the rate of the chemical reaction. The effect of restraining stress was found to more complex than previously reported in the literature, as it notably affects the direction of propagation of microcracks in the aggregates and paste. This leads to an acceleration of the damage and expansion for loads above about 5MPa threshold.


In recent years researchers have investigated the use of Internet applications for language and cultural learning. While this new technology seems to have provided an educational breakthrough, relatively little linguistic research has been conducted particularly in relation to second language acquisition. Therefore the efficacy of the Internet applications not just for cultural studies or the expansion of knowledge, but also for second/foreign language acquisition remains uncertain. This study explores communicative interactions between native speakers (NSs) and non-native speakers (NNSs) of Japanese. Internet Relay Chat (IRC) was chosen as the setting for this study, because of the resemblance of chat line interactions to verbal exchanges. The linguistic focus in this study was specifically on one form of corrective feedback, namely implicit negative feedback (NF), which provides information to language learners about what is unacceptable in target language (e.g. Long, 1996). It has been claimed that NF plays an important facilitative role in language development. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate whether NSs provide NF to their NNS interlocutors in interactions during chat line conversations, and whether the NNS's used this feedback in their subsequent production. The participants were NNSs and NSs of Japanese, formed into 12 gender-matched dyads. Each pair had free on-line "conversation" in three separate sessions. The results show that the proportion of NSs' NF to the number of NNSs' non-target-like turns was . lower than that found in the previous studies based on face to face verbal interactions. Even so NF was provided, and it was used – however it remains unclear as to whether or not on-line interactions elicit sufficient NF for acquisition to occur.


Understanding the black-box prediction for neural networks is challenging. To achieve this, early studies have designed influence function (IF) to measure the effect of removing a single training point on neural networks. However, the classic implicit Hessian-vector product (IHVP) method for calculating IF is fragile, and theoretical analysis of IF in the context of neural networks is still lacking. To this end, we utilize the neural tangent kernel (NTK) theory to calculate IF for the neural network trained with regularized mean-square loss, and prove that the approximation error can be arbitrarily small when the width is sufficiently large for two-layer ReLU networks. We analyze the error bound for the classic IHVP method in the over-parameterized regime to understand when and why it fails or not. In detail, our theoretical analysis reveals that (1) the accuracy of IHVP depends on the regularization term, and is pretty low under weak regularization; (2) the accuracy of IHVP has a significant correlation with the probability density of corresponding training points. We further borrow the theory from NTK to understand the IFs better, including quantifying the complexity for influential samples and depicting the variation of IFs during the training dynamics. Numerical experiments on real-world data confirm our theoretical results and demonstrate our findings.