The dynamics of thin polymer films display many differences from the bulk dynamics. Different modes of motions in polymers are affected by confinement in different ways. The enhancement in the dynamics of some modes of motion can cause anomalies in the glass transition temperature (Tg) of thin films, while other modes of motion such as diffusion can be substantially slowed down due to the confinement effects. In this thesis, different modes of dynamics are probed using different techniques. The interface healing of two identical polymer surfaces is used as a probe of segmental motion in the direction normal to the plane of the films and it is shown that this mode of motion is slowed down at temperatures above bulk glass transition, while the glass transition itself is decreased indicating that the type of motion responsible for the glass transition is enhanced. The glass transition measurements at different cooling rates indicate that this enhancement only happens at temperatures close to or below bulk glass transition temperature and it is not expected to be detected at higher temperatures where the system is in the melt state. It is shown that the sample preparation technique is not a factor in observing this enhanced dynamics, while the existence of the free surface can be important in observed reductions in the glass transition temperature. The dynamics near the free surface is further studied using a novel nanodeformation technique, and it is shown that the dynamics near the free surface is in fact enhanced compared to the bulk dynamics and this enhancement is increased as the temperature is decreased further below Tg. It is also shown that this mode of relaxation is much different from the bulk modes of relaxations, and a direct relationship between this enhanced motion and Tg reduction in thin films can be established. The results presented in this thesis can lead to a possible universal picture that can resolve the behavior of different modes of motions in thin polymer films.


In this paper, we propose an index that helps preserve the semantic interpretability of linguistic fuzzy models while a tun- ing of the membership functions (MFs) is performed. The proposed index is the aggregation of three metrics that preserve the original meanings of the MFs as much as possible while a tuning of their def- inition parameters is performed. Additionally, rule-selection mech- anisms can be used to reduce the model complexity, which involves another important interpretability aspect. To this end, we propose a postprocessing multiobjective evolutionary algorithm that per- forms rule selection and tuning of fuzzy-rule-based systems with three objectives: accuracy, semantic interpretability maximization, and complexity minimization. We tested our approach on nine real- world regression datasets. In order to analyze the interaction be- tween the fuzzy-rule-selection approach and the tuning approach, these are also individually proved in a multiobjective framework and compared with their respective single-objective counterparts. We compared the different approaches by applying nonparametric statistical tests for pairwise and multiple comparisons, taking into consideration three representative points from the obtained Pareto fronts in the case of the multiobjective-based approaches. Results confirm the effectiveness of our approach, and a wide range of so- lutions is obtained, which are not only more interpretable but are also more accurate.


Projects are risky undertakings, and modern approaches to managing projects recognise the central need to manage the risk as an integral part of the project management discipline. Managing Risk in Projects places risk management in its proper context in the world of project management and beyond, and emphasises the central concepts that are essential in order to understand why and how risk management should be implemented on all projects of all types and sizes, in all industries and in all countries. The generic approach detailed by David Hillson is consistent with current international best practice and guidelines (including 'A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge' (PMBoK) and the 'Project Risk Management Practice Standard' from PMI, the 'APM Body of Knowledge' and 'Project Risk Analysis & Management (PRAM) Guide' from APM, 'Management of Risk: Guidance for Practitioners' from OGC, and the forthcoming risk standard from ISO) but David also introduces key developments in the risk management field, ensuring readers are aware of recent thinking, focusing on their relevance to practical application. Throughout, the goal is to offer a concise description of current best practice in project risk management whilst introducing the latest relevant developments, to enable project managers, project sponsors and others responsible for managing risk in projects to do just that - effectively. Series Editor: Professor Darren Dalcher.


In this research, an econometric model has been constructed and estimated to study the relationship between precipitation, irrigated ratio and crop yield. The model was based on the weather and yield data in the southwest part of the State of Georgia. The econometric model includes three sets of explanatory variables: principal components of temperature and precipitation, precipitation distribution index (PDI) and de-trended irrigated ratio. The estimated results showed that detrended irrigated ratio is significant in almost all of the models. PDI also helps improve the goodness-of-fit of the model. However, PDI is not highly correlated to detrended irrigated ratio as expected. An explanation for this could be that Georgia irrigated ratio is still low and farmers' response to weather change is slow.


Transitioning towards a plant-based diet is considered both ethical and environmentally friendly from a Western perspective of high per capita consumption of flesh foods. However, in contemporary India, beef-eating has emerged as a political act of subversion in the context of its current ban by the Indian state which is transforming unapologetically into a theocracy under the aegis of Hindu fundamentalist groups. To understand the contemporary discourse on beef-eating, it is important to locate it in the discourse prevalent during the Independence movement, when there was an attempt to unify the Hindus to forge a nationalist identity, and to bring the 'outcaste' 'untouchables' – who were a sub-group acknowledged to consume beef – within the Hindu fold of 'caste purity'. Data from an ethnographic study of over fifteen months in a village in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, demonstrate the place of flesh foods, including beef, in the everyday lives of people, and question the concept of a 'normative' Indian diet. The paper argues that contrary to the notion that vegetarianism is morally superior, in the context of Hinduism, where vegetarianism is a marker of upper caste identity, the food hierarchy is a function of the caste structure. Hence, the protests, particularly from the former 'untouchable' caste groups, reclaiming the right to eat transgressive foods as a marker of their identity, poses a serious challenge to upper caste hegemony. The violence which 'vegetarian' India has unleashed on such transgressions has laid open the structural violence embodied in the caste system and questions its claim to moral superiority.


When watching a movie, viewers are likely to find a cut from one shot to another more jarring if the two shots differed by only a small margin compared to two very different shots. According to Walter Murch, the small change may not be sufficient to compel viewers to re-evaluate the scene, but sufficient to indicate that something has changed. One interpretation is that the failure to detect a global context change, and the detection of a local change produce discomfiture. In the current study, we conducted two experiments that examined how abrupt scene transitions affected eye fixation patterns. Pairs of natural scene images were presented such that the first scene was shown for several seconds before a blank screen appeared for 15 ms during a fixation, followed by the second scene. In a subset of trials, the first scene was re-presented after the blank screen. In Experiment 1, we observed a shift of the eyes towards the scene center in the first saccade following the transition. This shift was greater when the scene changed, but was present to a smaller degree when the scene remained the same, suggesting rapid identification of global context changes before the first saccade. In Experiment 2, we varied the magnitude of scene changes by presenting pairs of scenes that overlapped to different degrees horizontally. At very small levels of scene change (1%), there were no changes in the shift of the eyes to the center, indicating a failure in detecting a global context change. At larger levels of scene change (>10%), the shift to the center increased significantly. Our results suggest that the detection of a global context change may be required to trigger a re-evaluation of the scene, and explains the discomfort when local changes are not accompanied by global context changes. Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2015.


This Special Issue explores the biopolitics of precarity and the self. In so doing, its aim is to critically examine the changing landscape of technologies of the self and techniques of domination in late capitalism. It brings Foucault's work on biopolitics into conversation with recent feminist, Marxist, postcolonial, disability and queer scholarship on precarity. In a feminist tradition of thinking through relationality and ethics, this Special Issue engages with those moments when technologies of regulation, surveillance and normalization do not quite work. 'The Biopolitics of Precarity and the Self' analyzes recent debates on precarity and precariousness in relation to migration and labour, health and illness, and the formation of the self and collectivities. It identifies temporality and care of both the self and others as key dimensions of precarity and explores how biopolitical structures of neoliberal capitalism institutionalize precarity that exacerbates existing global and local inequalities. We therefore raise questions around what it means to live, endure, survive and make life and labour possible without doing harm to the self or others. In this sense, this Special Issue brings to the fore the temporalities, politics and ethics of what is not always recognized in biomedical practices, labour migrations, media representations, labour of the self and everyday agency.


In January 2009 South Africa's International Trade Administration Commission published draft amendments to the Countervailing (Anti-Subsidy) Regulations. After a brief overview of countervailing in South Africa this article considers the most important proposals and evaluates them, inter alia, against the World Trade Organisation's Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures to determine whether the amendments will improve consistency with South Africa's international obligations and increase transparency and fairness in countervailing investigations. The analysis shows that some of the proposed amendments, such as the inclusion of interested party hearings, amendments to the final investigation procedures and the determination of the export price in reviews will increase transparency in investigations. On the other hand the proposals to amend the definition of the domestic industry, to target only foreign producers and not necessarily exporters and to limit reviews to subsidy programmes included in the original investigation, will decrease the effectiveness of the instrument. By targeting only foreign producers and not exporters, the Regulations cannot be applied to any export subsidies paid directly to exporters who are not producers. Limiting the scope of review to subsidies that were countervailed in the original investigation, means that new or amended subsidies will not be countervailed. In addition, interested parties' rights to review are severely curtailed through proposed amendments to interim and judicial reviews, thus making the process less transparent. Viewed holistically, the amendments will detract from the current Countervailing Regulations.


Abstract: Internet-based digital piracy has recently become a widespread occurrence. Despite this growth, few studies have attempted to apply criminological theory to the crime. This study tests the explanatory power of two criminological theories, general deterrence and differential association, on Internet piracy of music, software and movies. Data used in this study were collected from 541 undergraduate college students from a mid-Atlantic university. Separate models were estimated for willingness to and involvement in digital piracy. The results show that variables derived from differential association theory, such as peer activity and parental support, as well as several control variables including gender, connection speed, income, and place of residence, are predictive of digital piracy. Distinctions between willingness and actual involvement are discussed. Implications for future research and potentially more effective prevention strategies are also addressed. Keywords: differential association; social learning; deterrence; digital piracy; cybercrime In recent years, copyright violations in the form of digital piracy have increased dramatically. This has been especially true since peer-to-peer (P2P) programs became popularized in 1999. One study found that the United States, despite having a relatively low and stable rate of piracy, experienced a loss of over $6.8 billion in 2005 from software piracy alone (Business Software Alliance 2006). Music piracy is also quite prevalent with more than 27 billion media files transferred each year through P2P programs (House of Representatives 2004). Studies of changing piracy rates indicate several benefits from decreasing the prevalence of piracy. For example, a decrease by ten points in the piracy rate of the United States could add over 100,000 new jobs and increase tax revenue by $21 billion (IDC 2005). Despite the widespread occurrence and great financial impact of digital piracy, however, very few empirical studies have systematically assessed factors related to digital piracy. The primary purpose of this study is to test the explanatory power of two criminological theories, general deterrence and differential association, on digital piracy of music, software and movies. This study theoretically and methodologically advances research on digital piracy in several related areas. First, while measures of general deterrence and differential association theories have been previously examined in a handful of studies (e.g., Higgins and Makin 2004a; Skinner and Fream 1997), prior research has been limited in the types of piracy assessed. Online music piracy, for example, has only rarely been included in tests of criminological theories (e.g., Hinduja 2006). It is thus unclear whether findings from previous research can be applied to all variations of piracy or only the specific type investigated. Second, only a small number of control variables have been considered in previous research. This study takes into account the effects of ten relevant variables, several of which, such as income and place of residence, have not been included in prior research of digital piracy. Finally, prior studies have used involvement in piracy and willingness to pirate interchangeably. This study conceptually distinguishes the former from the latter and empirically tests both under separate models to produce comparable results, thus enhancing our understanding of factors that lead to digital piracy and offering valuable implications for policy makers and practitioners. THEORIES OF AND RESEARCH ON DIGITAL PIRACY In the broadest of terms, digital piracy is the act of duplicating digital files without the permission of the copyright holder. More specifically, piracy is typically considered any act of reproducing a copyrighted work in violation of U.S. copyright law (Copyright Act of 1976). Digital piracy, by extension, is a specific variant of this broad category involving computers as a means to commit the act and generally includes music, software, and movie infringements, though other forms exist such as reproductions of books. …


We study the diffraction of electromagnetic waves from subwavelength metallic circular apertures in the microwave spectrum. The theoretical and experimental demonstration of the near- and far-field electromagnetic distributions for subwavelength circular annular apertures and circular annular apertures surrounded by concentric periodic grooves are reported here. The metallic samples had a subwavelength hole with a diameter of 8 mm and had concentric grooves with a periodicity of 16 mm. We present the angular transmission distributions from circular annular apertures, and circular annular apertures surrounded by concentric periodic grooves. At the surface-mode resonance frequency the transmitted electromagnetic waves from the subwavelength circular annular aperture surrounded by concentric periodic grooves have a strong angular confinement with an angular divergence of ±3°. This represents a fourfold reduction when compared with the angular divergence of the beam transmitted from the subwavelength circular aperture.


A.T. Shank & Son have a bad day at the parlour when a falling boulder flattens their hearse. Emotional and literal pitfalls lie in wait for the odd couple as they make their way cross country with just a coffin for company. This short animated caper puts the fun back into funeral as their journey and relationship unravel on an epic scale.


In this paper, the authors present a double-pass triple-band doped fiber amplifier including an embedded dispersion-compensating fiber. The amplifier employs only silica-based erbium-doped fibers to achieve signal amplification over S-, C-, and L-bands. Experimental characterization is carried out in terms gain and noise figure over the coarse-wavelength-division-multiplexing (CWDM) wavelength grid. By providing optical gain to seven CWDM channels spectrally located between 1490 and 1610 nm, the amplifier can extend the reach of a CWDM optical bus well beyond the 100-km limit


This paper discusses the concept of "executive leadership" and presents a framework for organizing thought and research on these combined concepts. It concludes with a discussion of the Destructive Executive Leader. Executiveship and leadership are concepts in their own right. Executiveship refers to the managerial elements in running an organization, while leadership refers to charting its strategic direction. CEOs and other top team members need to do both, yet there are obvious tensions between these two foci. The paper addresses issues involving different combinations of executiveship and leadership elements, from a situation of virtuosity (individuals who are high in both areas and can bring forth appropriate skills as needed) to individuals deficient in each. When the virtuoso runs an organization, it is well managed and well led; when the deficient executive leader runs an organization, it is poorly managed and poorly led. The destructive executive leader puts the organization and its staff in peril. Seven areas provide perspective on how we may understand individuals in executive leadership positions: characteristics (personal features such as personality, etc.); crucibles (signature events that shape and imprint the executive leader); collaborations (key allies and mentors); competencies ( knowledge, skills, and ability to execute); conditions (organization culture and structure); context (elements outside the organization that it can affect or affect it) and change (how swiftly in the environment evolving.) Singly and severally, these elements allow us to understand both the executive leader and the literature about executive leadership.


As many businesses are discovering, customer behavior doesn't always make sense. That really shouldn't be surprising. As recent studies have shown, people tend to base their decisions on more subconscious, emotional desires than on rational, practical choices. What's more, customers aren't able to tell you accurately why they do what they do.

 Combining recent research findings with real-world examples from his consulting practice on customer experience, William J. Cusick examines how the subconscious part of the brain drives the decisions and behavior of every customer on a daily basis and introduces the concept of "the irrational customer." All Customers Are Irrational shows why businesses must change their approach to attracting and retaining customers, and proposes ways they can alter their strategies on everything from customer research, product design and website development to call center management, employee recruitment, and retail store layouts, by focusing on what customers are actually doing instead of what they're saying. Honest, direct and insightful, All Customers Are Irrational will help businesses tap into the impulses and motivations that both attract and retain consumers for the long haul.


Perhaps no scientific development has shaped the course of modern history as much as the harnessing of nuclear energy. Yet the twentieth century might have turned out differently had greater influence over this technology been exercised by Great Britain, whose scientists were at the forefront of research into nuclear weapons at the beginning of World War II. As award-winning biographer and science writer Graham Farmelo describes in Churchill's Bomb, the British set out to investigate the possibility of building nuclear weapons before their American colleagues. But when scientists in Britain first discovered a way to build an atomic bomb, Prime Minister Winston Churchill did not make the most of his country's lead and was slow to realize the Bomb's strategic implications. This was odd--he prided himself on recognizing the military potential of new science and, in the 1920s and 1930s, had repeatedly pointed out that nuclear weapons would likely be developed soon. In developing the Bomb, however, he marginalized some of his country's most brilliant scientists, choosing to rely mainly on the counsel of his friend Frederick Lindemann, an Oxford physicist with often wayward judgment. Churchill also failed to capitalize on Franklin Roosevelt's generous offer to work jointly on the Bomb, and ultimately ceded Britain's initiative to the Americans, whose successful development and deployment of the Bomb placed the United States in a position of supreme power at the dawn of the nuclear age. After the war, President Truman and his administration refused to acknowledge a secret cooperation agreement forged by Churchill and Roosevelt and froze Britain out of nuclear development, leaving Britain to make its own way. Dismayed, Churchill worked to restore the relationship. Churchill came to be terrified by the possibility of thermonuclear war, and emerged as a pioneer of detente in the early stages of the Cold War. Contrasting Churchill's often inattentive leadership with Franklin Roosevelt's decisiveness, Churchill's Bomb reveals the secret history of the weapon that transformed modern geopolitics.


This book examines diverse aspects of the phenomenally successful film Mamma Mia, owned on DVD by an estimated one in four British households as well as enjoying significant box-office status in Sweden, Finland, Japan, Australia, America, Germany, France and Greece, and the subject of a sing-along subculture. Its popularity has been accounted for in terms of global economic recession, fitting into ideas of the musical functioning as escapism since the classical Hollywood period. However, despite Mamma Mia's outstanding international success amongst filmgoers, reviewers have critiqued what they perceive as its "cumulative weight of terribleness" and warned that those who loved the film would have to "prove their intelligence". Such sentiments reflect an established polarisation of films as either 'high' or 'low' brow entertainment, and their audiences as either critically engaged or an uneducated mass of consumers, sentiments often couched in gendered terms reinforcing the idea that films addressed to a male audience have more cultural capital than those addressed to women. The essays in this edited collection look at Mamma Mia! in terms of its commercial success, its critical denigration, and how issues of class, gender and popular culture are articulated in the film and within debates about it.


We introduce a plasmonic oligomer that supports two quasi-dark modes. A double plasmon-induced transparency spectrum arises from the Fano interference between a bright mode and two quasi-dark modes. A coupling Lorentzian oscillator model is employed to explain the resulting line shape. It is found that the modulation depths and frequency of two Fano resonances can be tuned effectively by displacement of each component of the oligomer. The oligomer can be used as a sensitive plasmon ruler based on both frequency shift and radiance sensing. Furthermore, an artificial magnetic quadrupole is also introduced by one of the quasi-dark modes. We expect that the oligomer will be valuable for the design of plasmonic circuits and multiwavelength surface-enhanced Raman scattering.


The state of the art in productivity measurement and analysis shows a gap between simple methods having little relevance in practice and sophisticated mathematical theory which is unwieldy for strategic and tactical planning purposes, -particularly at company level. An extension is made in this thesis to the method of productivity measurement and analysis based on the concept of added value, appropriate to those companies in which the materials, bought-in parts and services change substantially and a number of plants and inter-related units are involved in providing components for final assembly. Reviews and comparisons of productivity measurement dealing with alternative indices and their problems have been made and appropriate solutions put forward to productivity analysis in general and the added value method in particular. Based on this concept and method, three kinds of computerised models two of them deterministic, called sensitivity analysis and deterministic appraisal, and the third one, stochastic, called risk simulation, have been developed to cope with the planning of productivity and productivity growth with reference to the changes in their component variables, ranging from a single value 'to• a class interval of values of a productivity distribution. The models are designed to be flexible and can be adjusted according to the available computer capacity expected accuracy and 'presentation of the output. The stochastic model is based on the assumption of statistical independence between individual variables and the existence of normality in their probability distributions. The component variables have been forecasted using polynomials of degree four. This model is tested by comparisons of its behaviour with that of mathematical model using real historical data from British Leyland, and the results were satisfactory within acceptable levels of accuracy. Modifications to the model and its statistical treatment have been made as required. The results of applying these measurements and planning models to the British motor vehicle manufacturing companies are presented and discussed.


Spain is a country with a large hydrogeologic potential. As in other southern European countries the water resources, besides urban supply, are used mainly for irrigation and much of the groundwater abstraction is concentrated in a number of intensively exploited aquifers. Groundwater was declared a public domain resource in Spain in 1985, but the real implementation of such a declaration has encountered many difficulties in practice. Because groundwater was a private property before the 1985 Water Act, it was not considered a task for water management agencies and water authorities in Spain. As with aIl the European Union Member States, Spain is nowadays fuIly involved in the process of implementing the principies of the European Water Framework Directive (WFD) (European Commission, 2000). Such a process constitutes a unique opportunity to improve groundwater protection and knowledge, and
achieve effective management of this resource. However, to adapt the WFD principies to the hydro-climatic and socio-economic context of a south European Mediterranean country is not an easy task. The current papel' provides an overview of the hydrogeologic context and groundwater management practices in Spain. The main groundwater "facts and figures" of Spain are introduced first, mainly concerning the hydrogeologic knowledge and groundwater use in the country, with a section on specific technical measures. A summary of the groundwater management context is described afterwards, introducing the institutional and legal framework as weIl as sorne basic concepts related to groundwater management, and also a section on groundwater cost issues. Next, a section of discussion about the ongoing process of the WFD implementation
in Spain is offered. This paper finishes with a general summary and some conclusions.


The GRC on Rock Deformation highlights the latest research in brittle and ductile rock mechanics from experimental, field and theoretical perspectives. The conference promotes a multi-disciplinary forum for assessing our understanding of rock strength and related physical properties in the Earth. The theme for the 2008 conference is 'Real-time Rheology'. Using ever-improving geophysical techniques, our ability to constrain the rheological behavior during earthquakes and post-seismic creep has improved significantly. Such data are used to investigate the frictional behavior of faults, processes responsible for strain localization, the viscosity of the lower crust, and viscous coupling between the crust and mantle. Seismological data also provide information on the rheology of the lower crust and mantle through analysis of seismic attenuation and anisotropy. Geologists are improving our understanding of rheology by combining novel analyses of microstructures in naturally deformed rocks with petrologic data. This conference will bring together experts and students in these research areas with experimentalists and theoreticians studying the same processes. We will discuss and assess where agreement exists on rheological constraints derived at different length/time scales using different techniques - and where new insight is required. To encompass the elements of these topics, speakers and discussion leaders with backgrounds inmore » geodesy, experimental rock deformation, structural geology, earthquake seismology, geodynamics, glaciology, materials science, and mineral physics will be invited to the conference. Thematic sessions will be organized on the dynamics of earthquake rupture, the rheology of the lower crust and coupling with the upper mantle, the measurement and interpretation of seismic attenuation and anisotropy, the dynamics of ice sheets and the coupling of reactive porous flow and brittle deformation for understanding geothermal and chemical properties of the shallow crust that are important for developing ideas in CO2 sequestration, geothermal and petrochemical research and the mechanics of shallow faults.« less


Abstract : Force structure is fundamental to creating an effective fighting force. Force structure reductions are negotiated and fought over at the very highest levels of government. However, the reductions are implemented at the operational wing level. The number of assigned aircraft per squadron seems to be an inconsequential factor in the macro view of the overall effectiveness of the Air Force. However, in the micro view the number of aircraft assigned per squadron significantly impacts a unit's capability. This study examines how two F-15C Air Combat Command wings implemented force reductions. In 1993, as part of the overall DOD budget decline the Air Force reduced F-15C squadrons from 24 primary assigned aircraft (PAA) to 18 PAA. This reduction created stress on the F-15C squadrons as they dealt with an increasing operations tempo with reduced manning. Subsequently as part of the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) F- 15C squadrons will be reinstated to 24 PAA. Although each squadron will return to 24 PAA, the Air Force to comply with the QDR reduced the 33d Fighter from three squadrons to two. Reducing the wing from 54 to 48 F-15Cs. This paper analyzes the consequences of the force structure changes capturing the impact of reductions on personnel. Drawing the lessons learned during the post drawdown, I offer an alternative F-15C structure that decreases non-essential pilot additional duties, reduces OPTEMPO and increases pilot manning to more effectively develop fighter pilots. These changes will reduce future stress as the F-15C s drawdown and transition to the F-22.


Research undertaken by Meat and Livestock Australia recommends the future progression of red meat products to ideally follow 5 pillars of consumer interest, (i) integrity and tractability (ii) eating quality (iii) human nutritional value (iv) ethical and sustainable production systems and (v) value and efficiency. This paper describes the approach taken by the Australian lamb industry with respect to increasing lean meat yield of the carcase while simultaneously improving eating quality and the nutritive value of lamb to humans. The key proposition is that genetics and meat science research is undet1aken simultaneously within a large synchronised project, as this will deliver the most efficient and powerful results. The outcomes are to underpin genetic and nongenetic (i.e. production systems) progress, which are then linked to clear delivery mechanisms. In the case for Australia the delivery systems revolve around the Sheep Genetics and Meat Standards Australia programs, which underpin industry mechanisms for progress on genetics and eating quality. The final project was launched as the Cooperative Research Centre for Sheep Industry Innovation in 2007 whereby a large breeding program called the Information Nucleus was established. This utilises approximately I 00 new sires mated per year to 5000 ewes over 8 diverse production sites. Each year, initially for 5 years, 2000 slaughter lambs will undergo detailed measurement of lean meat yield, eating quality (eg taste tests, intramuscular fat, shear force) and human health attributes (Fe, Zn, fatty acid profile). The early results show considerable scope for managing the complex interactions between yield, eating quality and human health attributes through genetic means combined with the appropriate production knowledge to deliver the genetic outcomes.


ABSTRACT: This article examines the contribution of the young adult series Pretty Little Liars to contemporary understandings of the teenage girl. Over the course of eighteen novels, protagonists Hanna, Emily, Spencer, and Aria struggle to escape the mysterious "A," who sees their every move, manipulates them into embarrassing situations, and publicly airs their secrets. I argue that the series productively utilizes the paranoid form to interrogate particular forms of cultural condescension towards adolescent girls. The narrative of A's prosecutions illustrates how young women are perceived as rightful subjects of surveillance and how they continue to be shamed for sexual expression and bodily non-conformity. Pretty Little Liars also plays with gendered language, complicating the pop-culture trope of the "mean girl," often used to pathologize girls' anger, by detaching the character A from gender altogether. The series further circulates the problematic word "bitch," and in so doing replicates the slippery postfeminist terrain in which words reclaimed as empowering can also be used against girls to cut and wound. Analysis of the teenage girl's tenuous place in Pretty Little Liars is contextualized both within the postfeminist moment and within the contemporary young adult market, which financially relies on adolescent female readers but too often disdains their tastes.


We investigate linkages between stakeholders in resource management that occur at different spatial and institutional levels and identify the winners and losers in such interactions. So-called cross- scale interactions emerge because of the benefits to individual stakeholder groups in undertaking them or the high costs of not undertaking them. Hence there are uneven gains from cross-scale interactions that are themselves an integral part of social-ecological system governance. The political economy framework outlined here suggests that the determinants of the emergence of cross-scale interactions are the exercise of relative power between stakeholders and their costs of accessing and creating linkages. Cross-scale interactions by powerful stakeholders have the potential to undermine trust in resource management arrangements. If government regulators, for example, mobilize information and resources from cross-level interactions to reinforce their authority, this often disempowers other stakeholders such as resource users. Offsetting such impacts, some cross-scale interactions can be empowering for local level user groups in creating social and political capital. These issues are illustrated with observations on resource management in a marine protected area in Tobago in the Caribbean. The case study demonstrates that the structure of the cross-scale interplay, in terms of relative winners and losers, determines its contribution to the resilience of social-ecological systems.


The western Idaho shear zone (WISZ) is a Late Cretaceous, mid-crustal exposure of intense shear localized in the Cordillera of western North America. This shear zone is characterized by transpressional fabrics, i.e., downdip stretching lineations and vertical foliations. Folded and boudinaged late-stage dikes indicate a dextral sense of shear. The vorticity-normal section is identified by examining the three-dimensional shape preferred orientation of feldspar populations and the intragranular lattice rotation in quartz grains in deformed quartzites. The short axes of the shape preferred orientation ellipsoid gather on a plane perpendicular to the vorticity vector. In western Idaho this plane dips gently to the west, suggesting a vertical vorticity vector. Similarly, sample-scale crystallographic vorticity axis analysis of quartzite tectonites provides an independent assessment of vorticity and also indicates a subvertical vorticity vector. Constraints on the magnitude of vorticity are provided by field fabrics and porphyroclasts with strain shadows. Together these data indicate that the McCall segment of the WISZ displays dextral transpression with a vertical vorticity vector and an angle of oblique convergence ≥60°. North and south of McCall, movement is coeval on the Owyhee segment of the WISZ and the Ahsahka shear zone. Together, the kinematics of these shear zones are consistent with northeast-southwest–directed convergence. Plate motion in this orientation acting on a curved plate boundary could have produced pure shear–dominated transpression in the Owyhee (α = 40°) and McCall (α = 60°) segments of the WISZ, while causing reverse-sense shearing (α = 90°) in the Ahsahka shear zone.


We present the Auto Mapping Core (AMC), a new framework that supports fast construction and tuning of schema matching approaches for specific domains such as ontology alignment, model matching or database-schema matching. Distinctive features of our framework are new visualisation techniques for modelling matching processes, stepwise tuning of parameters, intermediate result analysis and performance-oriented rewrites. Furthermore, existing matchers can be plugged into the framework to comparatively evaluate them in a common environment. This allows deeper analysis of behaviour and shortcomings in existing complex matching systems.


As in Austerity Britain, an astonishing array of vivid, intimate and unselfconscious voices drive this narrative. The keen-eyed Nella Last shops assiduously at Barrow Market as austerity and rationing gradually give way to relative abundance; housewife Judy Haines, relishing the detail of suburban life, brings up her children in Chingford; and, the self-absorbed civil servant Henry St John perfects the art of grumbling. These and many other voices give a rich, unsentimental picture of everyday life in the 1950s. We also encounter well-known figures on the way, such as Doris Lessing (joining and later leaving the Communist Party), John Arlott (sticking up on Any Questions? for the rights of homosexuals) and Tiger's Roy of the Rovers (making his goal-scoring debut for Melchester). All this is part of a colourful, unfolding tapestry, in which the great national events - the Tories returning to power, the death of George VI, the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth, the Suez Crisis - jostle alongside everything that gave Britain in the 1950s its distinctive flavour: Butlin's holiday camps, Kenwood food mixers, "Hancock's Half-Hour", Ekco television sets, Davy Crockett, skiffle and teddy boys. Deeply researched, David Kynaston's "Family Britain" offers an unrivalled take on a largely cohesive, ordered, still very hierarchical society gratefully starting to move away from the painful hardships of the 1940s towards domestic ease and affluence.


This paper introduces ARENA (Automatic RElease Notes generAtor), an approach for the automatic generation of release notes. ARENA extracts changes from the source code, summarizes them, and integrates them with information from versioning systems and issue trackers. It was designed based on the manual analysis of 1,000 existing release notes. To evaluate the quality of the ARENA release notes, we performed three empirical studies involving a total of 53 participants (45 professional developers and 8 students). The results indicate that the ARENA release notes are very good approximations of those produced by developers and often include important information that is missing in the manually produced release notes.


Design of an Autonomous Vehicle System Fritz Gerald Momplaisir With advances in electronics, mobile vehicles are becoming more and more sophisticated. The potential applications of AGVs are numerous an range from a material handling system for the factory floor to an intelligent wheel chair for the handicapped. The design of these vehicles, however, remains a difficult task. Even when the machine is given precise information about its environment, the fact that it is never free of noise further complicate the situation. One of the goals of an AGV project is to design a robust system that will operate efficiently in the presence of different sources of noise. The scientific of mobile robotics is still evolving, there is no set method to design such a system. In this thesis, we will provide the guidelines and in some cases the necessary information to design an autonomous vehicle. We will concentrate on the practical side of designing. This includes the various techniques utilized in developing an autonomous vehicle at New Jersey Institute of Technologies' Center for Manufacturing Systems. DESIGN OF AN AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE SYSTEM by Fritz Gerald Momplaisir A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of New Jersey Institute of Technology in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Manufacturing Systems Engineering Manufacturing Engineeering Division January 1994


Ontology of Production presents three essays by the influential Japanese philosopher Nishida Kitarō (1870–1945), translated for the first time into English by William Haver. While previous translations of his writings have framed Nishida within Asian or Oriental philosophical traditions, Haver's introduction and approach to the texts rightly situate the work within Nishida's own commitment to Western philosophy. In particular, Haver focuses on Nishida's sustained and rigorous engagement with Marx's conception of production.

Agreeing with Marx that ontology is production and production is ontology, Nishida in these three essays—"Expressive Activity" (1925), "The Standpoint of Active Intuition" (1935), and "Human Being" (1938)—addresses sense and reason, language and thought, intuition and appropriation, ultimately arguing that in this concept of production, ideality and materiality are neither mutually exclusive nor oppositional but, rather, coimmanent. Nishida's forceful articulation of the radical nature of Marx's theory of production is, Haver contends, particularly timely in today's speculation-driven global economy. Nishida's reading of Marx, which points to the inseparability of immaterial intellectual labor and material manual labor, provokes a reconsideration of Marxism's utility for making sense of—and resisting—the logic of contemporary capitalism.


Previous research indicates that social norms interventions provide a promising avenue to encourage behaviour change. This study examined the efficacy of a social norms intervention, with the inclusion of personalised individual feedback, to encourage pro-environmental behaviour change. A qualitative approach was used to gain an in-depth understanding of how people respond to social norms feedback and personalised individual feedback on environmental behaviours.

Central to this research was an innovative Facebook app called iGreen, which was designed specifically by the author and a number of colleagues to provide a seven-week social norms intervention. This app comprised environmentally themed games, a quiz on aspects of everyday domestic behaviours that impact on the environment, and the ability to provide feedback on respondents' previous quiz answers. Respondents were randomly allocated to either a no feedback group, a personalised individual feedback group, or a group in which feedback also included the average quiz answer of other iGreen users (social norms feedback group). A sample of fifty-one people who used iGreen completed all quizzes, forty-four of these respondents completed a post-intervention questionnaire, and thirty respondents were interviewed. Drawing on elements of a discourse analysis approach to analyse the interviews enabled an in-depth understanding of why a social norms intervention might, or might not encourage pro-environmental behaviour and how people respond to personalised individual feedback and social norms feedback.

The major finding in this research is that the quiz encouraged behaviour change because the questions increased the salience of injunctive norms and personal norms. This supports the focus theory of normative conduct and norm activation theory, which both state that increasing the salience of norms influences behaviour. Another finding is that environmental behaviour change can be constrained due to people associating some behaviours with the stigmatisation of environmental activists. Lastly, respondents in all three intervention groups claimed to have changed some behaviour and there were no apparent differences between the groups. This suggests that increased salience (in this case induced by answering repeated quiz questions) encouraged behaviour change. This raises the question of whether increased salience, rather than feedback, may account for some of the behaviour change found in previous social norms research.

This research identifies key elements of an intervention that can increase its potential to encourage pro-environmental behaviour which has potential practical application in the design of innovative social norms interventions. The main contribution of this research is the discovery that making people's everyday behaviours more salient can encourage pro-environmental behaviour. A digital quiz is a simple, cost-effective and engaging method for increasing salience and encouraging behaviour change, and this should be explored in future research.


Background: Treatment for most children with cancer includes the use of a central venous catheter (CVC). CVCs provide reliable venous access for delivery of chemotherapy and supportive care. This advantage is mitigated by an increased risk of bloodstream infections (BSIs). Despite the ubiquitous use of CVCs, few prospective studies have been conducted to address infection prevention strategies in pediatric oncology patients. Design: Prospective, crossover pilot study of a CVC team intervention versus standard care. Setting: Two inpatient oncology units in a metropolitan children's hospital. Patients: A total of 41 patients/135 admissions for the experimental unit (EU) and 41/129 admissions for the control unit (CU). Methods: Patients received a CVC blood draw bundle procedure by a CVC registered nurse (RN) team member (experimental intervention: EU) for 6 months and by the assigned bedside RN (standard care: CU) for 6 months. Feasibility of implementing a CVC RN team; a significant difference in CVC-related BSIs between the team intervention versus standard care and risk factors associated in the development of CVC-related BSIs were determined. Results: There were 7 CVC-related BSIs/1238 catheter days in the EU group (5.7/1000 catheter days) versus 3 CVC-related BSIs/1419 catheter days in the CU group (2.1/1000 catheter days; P = .97). Selected risk factors were not significantly associated with the development of a CVC-related BSI. Conclusions: A CVC team in the care of pediatric oncology patients is feasible; however, a larger cohort will be required to adequately determine the effectiveness of the team reducing CVC-related BSIs.


Abstract. Peatlands accumulated large carbon (C) stocks as peat in historical times. Currently however, many peatlands are on the verge of becoming sources with their C sequestration function becoming sensitive to environmental changes such as increases in temperature, decreasing water table and enhanced nitrogen deposition. Long term changes in vegetation composition are both, a consequence and indicator of future changes in C sequestration. Spatial continuous accurate assessment of the vegetation composition is a current challenge in keeping a close watch on peatland vegetation changes. In this study we quantified the fractional cover of three major plant functional types (PFTs; Sphagnum mosses, graminoids, and ericoid shrubs) in peatlands, using field spectroscopy reflectance measurements (400–2400 nm) on 25 plots differing in PFT cover. The data was validated using point intercept methodology on the same plots. Our results showed that the detection of open Sphagnum versus Sphagnumcovered by vascular plants (shrubs and graminoids) is feasible with an R2 of 0.81. On the other hand, the partitioning of the vascular plant fraction into shrubs and graminoids revealed lower correlations of R2 of 0.54 and 0.57, respectively. This study was based on a dataset where the reflectance of all main PFTs and their pure components within the peatland was measured at local spatial scales. Spectrally measured species or plant community abundances can further be used to bridge scaling gaps up to canopy scale, ultimately allowing upscaling of the C balance of peatlands to the ecosystem level.


Endoscopic spine surgery is receiving intense interest as minimally invasive techniques, robotics and biologics are the latest focus in spine care that is embraced by a myriad of providers, all touting their area of expertise as the answer to treating painful conditions of the spine. All stakeholders agree that if non-surgical methods of treatment are effective, the natural adaptation of painful degenerative conditions will eventually be mitigated or resolved with some modification of work or activities of daily living that avoids aggravating the clinical condition or delays a rapid advancement to a painful condition.
Each stakeholder in the treatment spectrum is touting, and marketing their areas of expertise, but few stakeholders work together in a truly multidisciplinary and cooperative agenda. Procedural or surgical interventions are easiest to market and to measure its efficacy and cost effectiveness. The cumulative cost of spinal care is, however, becoming less affordable as spinal care does not follow the economics of a free market since increased consumption and availability does not result in decreased cost as an economic model.
There is a need for cooperation and a focus on the diagnosis and treatment of common painful conditions of an aging spine, starting with common back pain that affects tens of millions of patients. Back pain is one of the most costly and debilitating conditions universally affecting work productivity.
In the United States and in industrialized countries, new procedures for back pain tend to "follow the money" aided by industry. In Asian and OUS countries, there is more acceptance of traditional non-surgical treatment from thousands of years of medical treatment history. New and non-traditional treatments based on evolving science, are being made readily available in the information highway by Open Access Journals where researchers can publish their Level V evidenced based concepts for interested parties and other scientists.
Anthony T. Yeung's work focuses on the surgical treatment of the pain generator in the lumbar spine. Patient selection is aided by using diagnostic and therapeutic injections, to identify the likelihood of surgical success when the pain source is targeted. This article focuses on the details of Yeung's 27 years' experience on identifying and treating the pain generators in the lumbar spine by an endoscope and combined with an endoscopic system that he has trademarked the Yeung Endoscopic Spine System (YESSTM).


BACKGROUND
Smoke-free laws aim at protecting against second-hand smoke and at contributing to change smoking behaviors. Impact evaluation studies can help understand to what extent they reach their goals. Simple before and after designs are often used but cannot isolate the effect of the policy of interest.

METHODS
The short-term impact of the French smoking ban (2007-08) on smoking behavior outcomes was evaluated among smokers with data from the ITC project. We first conducted a before and after design on the French sample. Second, we added the UK (excluding Scotland) as a control group and finally used external pre-policy data from national surveys to control for bias arising from pre-policy trends.

RESULTS
After one year post-implementation, the smoking ban led to a decrease in seeing people smoking in bars, restaurants and workplaces [estimated risk ratios (RR) of 8.81 IC95% (5.34-14.71), 2.02 (1.79-2.31) and 1.24 (1.16-1.33), respectively], as well as an increase in support for the smoke-free policy, but only in bars and restaurants [RR of 1.35 (1.15-1.61) and 1.25 (1.16-1.35)], respectively. No impact was found on smoking behaviors and on having a strict no smoking policy at home. The simple before and after design systematically overestimated the smoking ban's impact [e.g. RR of 29.9 (20.06-44.56) for observed smoking in bar, compared to 13.21 (7.78-22.42) with the control group, and 8.81 (5.34-14.71) with the correction from external data].

CONCLUSION
When data are lacking to conduct quasi-experimental designs for impact evaluation, the use of external data could help understand and correct pre-policy trends.


As metadata providers increase in number and diversity, and additional contexts for metadata use are identified, issues of trust, provenance and identity gain in relevance. Use of a Public-Key Infrastructure (PKI) is discussed for digital signature of metadata records, providing evidence of the identity of the signer and the authenticity of the information within the record. Two methods are suggested; firstly, the W3C XML-Signature, and secondly, identification of a minimal set of metadata elements that enable signature verification across various character sets and formats, using the OpenPGP standard. Possible strategies for handling annotation within this infrastructure are suggested. Finally, some use cases are briefly discussed.


Resource preservation and increased waste recycling are important for sustainability in Europe. Thus, it is essential to achieve environmentally safe and sound management of quarry waste (QW) at European and national level. Rock materials recycling practice has therefore been studied in Norway and Italy. At present, recycling levels vary and systematic recovery is not common in European countries. Furthermore, QW is often landfilled owing to unclear legislation and a general lack of technical data. It was found that 80 – 90% and 30 – 80% of the quarrying volumes end up as QW in Norway and Italy, respectively. Furthermore, the fine fraction constitutes around 40% of the total production of dimension stone and natural aggregate in Norway. However, continuing project initiatives over the past 5 – 10 years have shown that QW can be used to produce aggregate. In addition, positive economic and environmental effects are likely to be achieved by systematic recycling of QW planned by industries and public authorities. However, no significant incentives for recycling or systematic approaches for local aggregate exploitation exist in Italy and Norway. These need to be developed and implemented to change current practice in a major way.


Refractive indices and extinction coefficients of lithium fluoride in thin film coated at room temperature are deduced from reflectance curves from 100 to 120 nm. These refractive indices are smaller but approximately follow the same dispersion law as crystalline LiF indices. The extinction coefficients are of the order of 0.1, i.e., 105 times higher than those of crystalline LiF. The absorption by the low-energy tail of an exciton band has been represented by the Urbach rule. These complex refractive indices have been used to optimize the first-order efficiency of LiF-coated Al gratings of the NASA FUSE (Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer) space mission.


The hemicube estimates of form factors are based on a finite set of sample directions. We obtain several optimal arrangements of sample directions, which minimize the variance of these estimates. They are based on changing the size or shape of the pixels or the shape of the hemicube, or using non-uniform pixel grids. The best reduces the variance by 43%. The variance calculation is based on the assumption that the errors in the estimate are caused by the projections of single polygon edges, and that the positions and orientations of these edges are random. This replaces the infinite dimensional space of possible environments by the two dimensional space of great circles on the unit sphere, making the numerical variance minimization possible. >


Ronald Reagan may have been the most prolific correspondent of any American president since Thomas Jefferson. The total number of letters written over his lifetime probably exceeds 10,000. Their breadth is equally astonishing -- with friends and family, with politicians, children, and other private citizens, Reagan was as dazzling a communicator in letters as he was in person. Collectively, his letters reveal his character and thinking like no other source. He made candid, considerate, and tough statements that he rarely made in a public speech or open forum. He enjoyed responding to citizens, and comforting or giving advice or encouragement to friends. Now, the most astonishing of his writings, culled in Reagan: A Portrait in Letters, finally and fully reveal the true Ronald Reagan. Many of Reagan's handwritten letters are among the most thoughtful, charming, and moving documents he produced. Long letters to his daughter Patti, applauding her honesty, and son Ron Jr., urging him to be the best student he can be, reveal Reagan as a caring parent. Long-running correspondence with old friends, carried on for many decades, reveals the importance of his hometown and college networks. Heartfelt advice on love and marriage, fond memories of famous friends from Hollywood, and rare letters about his early career allow Reagan to tell his own full biography as never before. Running correspondence with young African-American student Ruddy Hines reveals a little-known presidential pen pal. The editors also reveal that another long-running pen-pal relationship, with fan club leader Lorraine Wagner, was initially ghostwritten by his mother, until Reagan began to write to Wagner himself someyears later. Reagan's letters are a political and historical treasure trove. Revealed here for the first time is a running correspondence with Richard Nixon, begun in 1959 and continuing until shortly before Nixon's death. Letters to key supporters reveal that Reagan was thinking of the presidency from the mid-1960s; that missile defense was of interest to him as early as the 1970s; and that few details of his campaigns or policies escaped his notice. Dozens of letters to constituents reveal Reagan to have been most comfortable and natural with pen in hand, a man who reached out to friend and foe alike throughout his life. Reagan: A Life in Letters is as important as it is astonishing and moving.


A11 The purpose of this study is to present the methodology and process of informing a breast and cervical cancer prevention curriculum through participatory engagement of women from underserved communities. The Kin KeeperSM Cancer Prevention Curriculum Guide and Workbook© were developed to cross train community health workers (CHWs) from public health programs other than cancer to deliver a breast and cervical cancer prevention education intervention for Black, Latina and Arab women. Data collection included a review of existing educational materials, a 10-minute telephone survey of 146 women enrolled in a county-wide Breast and Cervical Cancer Control program (BCCCP) and a pair of pre- and post-training cancer literacy assessments of 31 CHWs recruited from existing public health programs in a Midwestern state. Both quantitative and qualitative analytic tools were used to analyze the data. BCCCP enrollees sampled consisted of 51% Black women, 46% White and 3% Arab or Latina women. The mean age of the women was 51 years and most women (42%) earned annual incomes below $10,000. Thirty-one percent of the women indicated attaining a high school diploma as their highest level of education while 36% said they had some college level education. Eleven percent (16 women) reported having been or currently being treated for a cancer with the majority (15 out of 16) indicating breast or cervical cancer as the type of cancer in question.
 >Content analysis of the qualitative responses made by BCCCP enrollees was performed. When asked what they thought was important for a family-based breast and cervical cancer education program their qualitative responses were categorized into four major themes. For breast cancer education: "everyone is at risk" "empowerment education" "screening" and "life style risks". For cervical cancer education: "screening," "symptoms," "Pap procedures," and "empowerment". With this information and the review from existing educational materials we developed the 8-module curriculum and 6-unit workbook to cross train 31 CHWs on the basics of breast and cervical cancer as well as how to implement the Kin KeeperSM model. The CHWs consisted of 52% Black, 26% Arab and 22% Latina women with an average age of 42 years. Seventy seven percent of these women were recruited from a diabetes cardiovascular public health program while 23% were recruited from a maternal support services program.
 >To validate the finding that our methodology helped correctly informed the curriculum, paired t-tests were performed to analyze the differences between pre- and post-training mean scores attained by the CHWs using our breast and cervical cancer literacy assessments. Results show that the curriculum design was well-informed. On average, CHWs significantly increased their test scores by 7% and 14% in the breast and cervical cancer literacy, respectively (p=0.001 and p With practical input from BCCCP enrollees who mirror our targeted population, we successfully developed a curriculum and workbook to cross train CHW and expanded its utility by translating it into Spanish and Arabic, while building capacity.


It is difficult to ignore the impact that Web 2.0 and the
subsequent social software revolution has had on society
in general, and young people in particular. Information
is exchanged and interpreted extremely quickly and in
ways that were not imagined 10 years ago. Universities
are struggling to keep up with this new technology, with
outdated intranet systems and limited research into its
application within the higher education sector.
The aim of this paper is to firstly develop a greater
understanding of the use of social software by students
in product design education and the impact of blogs,
wiki's, Facebook groups, Flickr images, Myspace pages,
RSS feeds, Tweets and YouTube video posts on their
learning processes.
The research for the project involved a number of discrete
methods over a four year period, initially involving a review
of the technological platforms and the e-learning software
available to product design academic staff and students
and the effect this has had thus far on teaching practices.
Product design academic staff were then asked to rank
existing platforms against a number of criteria. This was
followed by the examination of case studies of successful
applications of social software within the writer's institution
with a view to establishing if these technologies could
be better integrated into higher education and current
pedagogic practices in order to provide an enhanced
learning experience for the student product designer.
The first phase of the research culminated in a literature
review to establish the state of play in the wider academic
community and beyond.
This preliminary research fed into action research which
consisted of the formulation and design of a blog
and information website for the institutions product
design programmes. Semi-structured interviews were
then conducted to establish the views and opinions
of the blog from key stakeholders including university
marketing directors, academics and the student
cohort. Questionnaires followed so that qualitative and
quantitative data could be analysed.
The paper concludes with a description of the perceived
validity and possible future developments for the blog and
social software as a whole in the product design higher
education sector.


Using an uncoated fiber tip as a light source and a multilayer Langmuir–Blodgett film of 2-docosylamino-5-nitropyridine as a sample, we obtain near-field images at the fundamental-harmonic (FH) and second-harmonic (SH) wavelengths for different polarizations and wavelengths of the pump light. The spatial resolution of ∼100 nm is achieved in near-field SH images that are not correlated with either the topographical or the FH images. It is directly demonstrated that SH generation is most concentrated inside submicrometer-sized (300–500 nm) crystallike domains, which are oriented differently but predominantly in the dipping direction and whose SH efficiency is maximum for pump wavelengths in the range of 770–800 nm.


BACKGROUND
It is generally believed that parental rejection of children leads to child maladaptation. However, the specific effects of perceived parental acceptance-rejection on diverse domains of child adjustment and development have been incompletely documented, and whether these effects hold across diverse populations and for mothers and fathers are still open questions.

METHODS
This study assessed children's perceptions of mother and father acceptance-rejection in 1,247 families from China, Colombia, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, the Philippines, Sweden, Thailand, and the United States as antecedent predictors of later internalizing and externalizing behavior problems, school performance, prosocial behavior, and social competence.

RESULTS
Higher perceived parental rejection predicted increases in internalizing and externalizing behavior problems and decreases in school performance and prosocial behavior across 3 years controlling for within-wave relations, stability across waves, and parental age, education, and social desirability bias. Patterns of relations were similar across mothers and fathers and, with a few exceptions, all nine countries.

CONCLUSIONS
Children's perceptions of maternal and paternal acceptance-rejection have small but nearly universal effects on multiple aspects of their adjustment and development regardless of the family's country of origin.


I present a study of ownership of firms under government rent seeking. Using its control of regulated inputs, a government agency extracts rents from a manager who undertakes an investment. Such a government rent seeking activity leads to a typical hold-up problem. Government ownership is shown to serve as a second best commitment mechanism through which the government agency will restrain itself from the rent seeking activity and even offer the manager support and favor such as tax breaks and subsidies. This mechanism works at a cost as government ownership compromises ex post managerial incentives and creates distortion in resource allocation. Nevertheless, government ownership may Pareto dominate private ownership under certain conditions. These conditions correspond to a host of stylized empirical observations concerning local government-owned firms (township-village enterprises) during China's transition to a market economy.


The ventilation design criteria for both road and rail tunnel is based on the design fire defined by the standards and the general knowledge about smoke propagation. The problem of such an approach is that it considers only the impact on the safety ventilation of the smoke propagation and dispersion inside the tunnel excluding other possible accident. However some other situations, such as toxic gas release, are possible and even if the aim is not to design the ventilation on other dangerous phenomena with a lower occurrence frequency, it must be ensure that the ventilation system does not increase the consequences of the accident. Mainly, the problem of toxic gas dispersion is pointed out in this paper. Because of the large variety of dangerous materials that can transit in tunnel, the probability of an accident that impacts a toxic transport cannot be neglected. In the worst case scenario, such as a massive release of high toxic gases, the ventilation is useless because of the toxic quantity that induces a large number of deaths inside the tunnel. However, when the toxic release is lower and ventilation can be used, having in mind that toxic gas is generally heavy gas or a cold gas, the behaviour will of course be different than the one of smoke and the ventilation system may not be adapted for such a situation. This case has scarcely been studied yet. In this study, both experimental approach and numerical tools were used to improve the global understanding of dense gas dispersion in underground infrastructure such as road tunnels. The experimental work was achieved in the INERIS fire gallery which represents a 50 m long 1/3 rd scale tunnel using Argon. It was achieved for different leaks conditions in order to appreciate the dense gas natural behaviour. This work has also enabled the comparison between experimental work and CFD calculation with FDS code for the particular application of dense gas dispersion. . The work was extended to some other configurations and geometry in order to simulate real scale situation with different kind of gases : a highly toxic dense gas such as Chlorine, a light gas stored as a liquid at a very low temperature such as Ammonia, and a gas which remains liquid at ambient temperature and pressure and is drained into an evaporating pool such as Acrolein. This work will consider the natural behaviour of the gases and the influence of longitudinal ventilation both inside and outside of the tunnel.


Primary bone sarcoma of the pelvis is one of the more challenging pathologies treated by orthopedic oncologists. In particular, their anatomic complexity contributes to delays in diagnosis and high rates of positive margins with associated high rates of local recurrence, all contributing to poor outcomes in this patient population. Computer-assisted surgery in the form of navigation and patient-specific instrumentation has shown promise in other fields of orthopedics. Intuitively, in an effort to improve tumor resections and improve oncologic outcomes, surgeons have been working to apply these advances to orthopedic oncology. Early studies have demonstrated benefits from guided pelvic resections, with studies demonstrating improved resection accuracy, fewer positive margins and decreased rates of local recurrence. Although these techniques are promising and will likely become an essential tool for orthopedic oncologist, surgeons must understand the limitations and costs associated with each technology before blind adoption.


Bipolar devices based on GaN and SiC have gained tremendous popularity as an alternative to Si based devices, primarily due to the ability to sustain high temperature and high voltage operations that can be attributed to their high breakdown field and saturation velocity. Any bipolar device based on wide bandgap technology requires high performing ohmic contacts that have low specific contact resistivity and exhibit linear I-V behavior, as opposed to Schottky characteristics. A range of high work function metals like Ni, Au, Pd, Pt, Al can be used to realize these contacts. Further, annealing under specific conditions is required to ensure extremely high doping in the near surface layer. In this research, the Ni/Au stack for p-type contacts, and the Ti/Al/Ti/Au layer for n-type contacts have been specifically investigated over a range of annealing time periods and temperatures. Control wafers with GaN:Mg (p-type) or GaN:Si and GaN/AlGaN (n-type) formed the basis of this study. The Transmission Line Model (TLM) technique was used to conduct measurements, and obtain the specific contact resistance. Specific contact resistances as low as 9.44*10-3 Ω-cm 2 for n-type, and 5.73*10-3 Ω-cm 2 for p-type were achieved. These shall form the basis for ultimate fabrication of an InGaN/GaN HBT with a high current gain, breakdown voltage (V BR) and current density (J). The quality of resulting contact is seen to depend on the initial doping/bulk resistance, determination of a unique time-temperature window, and careful process control. A further investigation is conducted into non-linear behavior exhibited by p-type contacts for low separation.


As a number of developing countries move towards more liberalized financial systems, the question of how interest rates respond to foreign influences and domestic policies is one that policymakers in these countries have started to face. Most existing studies of interest rates typically treat only the extreme cases of either a fully open economy, where some form of interest rate arbitrage holds, or a completely closed economy, in which interest rates are determined solely by domestic monetary factors. Developing countries, however, generally fall somewhere between these two extremes, so that the standard models of interest rate determination would not seem to be relevant to their case.The purpose of this paper is to outline a theoretical framework that can serve as a starting point for analyzing interest rate determination in those developing countries that are in the process of removing controls on the financial sector and restrictions on capital flows. The approach suggested here combines elements of the closed-economy and open-economy models, and thus is able to incorporate the influences of foreign interest rates, expected changes in exchange rates, and monetary developments on domestic interest rates. An interesting feature of the resulting model is that the approximate degree of financial openness, defined as the extent to which domestic interest rates are linked to foreign interest rates, can in fact be as certained from the data of the particular country. To illustrate the empirical validity of the proposed model it was applied to two countries -- Colombia and Singapore. These two countries are quite different in terms of levels of financial development and degrees of openness, and thus provide a useful first test of the general nature of the model. The model is able to represent both these cases quite adequately. The estimates indicate that in Colombia both foreign and domestic factors are important, while domestic interest rates in Singapore are fully determined by foreign interest rates and variations in the exchange rate. This is precisely what would have been expected, given the characteristics of the respective financial systems in the two countries.


The Reason Sixty is the most concise philosophical work by the second-century Indian Buddhist philosopher Nagarjuna. It is one of that master's works most often cited by Centrist (Madhyamaka) commentators, and it is included in the Sixfold Canon of Reason (rigs tshogs drug) which forms the textual basis for Centrist studies in the Tibetan philosophical curriculum. Standing midway between his other masterpieces on philosophy and religion, in the Reason Sixty Nagarjuna describes the central thrust of his therapeutic philosophy of language - the elimination of cognitive bias and affective resistances to the gradual cultivation of nondualistic wisdom and compassion. The seventh-century Centrist master Chandrakirti, concerned with applying his language therapeutic method to define the social epistemology of Centrism, likewise links the critical hermeneutic-pedagogy and the practical therapeutic-anthropology of his other works in his acclaimed Reason Sixty Commentary. Includes detailed introductory essays, annotated translations, critical Tibetan editions, trilingual glossary, intellectual-historical and biographical tables, bibliography, and index. Published by American Institute of Buddhist Studies (AIBS)


In 1983, Li Ang, a Taiwanese writer, adapted a case about the killing of a husband, committed by Zhan Zhou Shi in Shanghai in 1945, into the novel The Butcher's Wife (1983). The case is also recorded in The Hearsay in Shanghai (1955) written by Chen Ding-Shan. The Butcher's Wife depicts a woman who, due to her traumatized childhood and psychological condition caused by her husband and neighbours, kills her husband, a butcher, and dismembers the body the way he does pigs. Li Ang's novel tries to offer a legal explanation to exonerate the butcher's wife, Lin Shi, through a plea of insanity. In this article, I will compare the case of Zhan Zhou Shi both in the media and in The Hearsay in Shanghai with The Butcher's Wife to illustrate Li Ang's reinterpretation of the case and explain how Li Ang goes beyond the insanity pleas that strengthens a stereotypical image of insane female offenders.


Purpose: Due to the upgrade of technology, it has swapped the methods of controlling human beings in companies. In this context, finding the elements influencing the success of the HRIS in ABC manufacturing (Pvt) Ltd was the current research motive.
Research methodology: The study design was deductive and quantitative. Moreover, primary data with Scale questionnaire was utilized for data gathering. 30 executives were selected in ABC manufacturing (Pvt) Ltd have directly dealt with the HRI System. Further, data analysis did through regression analysis.
Results: The results confirmed that the success of HRIS was significantly impacted by the internal environmental elements and the external environmental elements. Also, found that internal environmental factors have the highest influence on the success of HRIS compared with the rest.
Limitations: The respondents chosen for the study were 30 in one single company. Instead, the researcher selected two determinants only.
Contribution: The researcher is motivated through this study because electronic, personal applications are now highly concern in local companies. The research findings can apply to organizations in third-world profiles to boost their HRI systems' efficacy.
Keywords: Human Resource Information System (HRIS), Internal environmental elements, External environmental elements


Abstract. This article examines the acoustic characteristics of Korean fricatives (lax /s/ and tense /s*/) in three vowel contexts (/a/, /i/, and /u/) in the speech of AE learners of Korean. AE learners fall into two groups based on their proficiency. Acoustically, Korean /s*/ is more similar to English /s/ than the latter is to Korean /s/. In terms of A/F duration ratio, the more similar sound (Korean /s*/) was easier for AE advanced learners of Korean to produce, while in terms of amplitude difference AE learners did not distinguish the Korean fricatives at all regardless of their proficiency level. In terms of the mean A/F duration ratio, the Korean /s*/ was authentically produced by AE advanced learners, but AE advanced and beginning learners of Korean inaccurately produced Korean /s/ was L2 advanced learners and L1 speakers used different strategies in the production of Korean fricatives. AE KSL advanced learners showed primacy of duration over amplitude, while AE KSL beginning learners showed no significant acoustic cue effects in differentiating the Korean fricatives /s/ and /s*/ in production. As in the speech production of Korean fricatives /s/ and /s*/ by AE learners of Korean, factors other than years spent learning L2 should be considered to explain the acquisition of L2 sounds.


A technique known as ion mobility spectrometry (IMS), which has been under development for about thirty years, has been shown to be capable of detecting hydrazines at low concentrations but with interference from ammonia. Ammonia is usually present in hydrazine environments, as a breakdown product or a by-product of the human metabolism. This project was undertaken to investigate mechanical and chemical parameters for improved detection of these hydrazines in the presence of ammonia, and for the detection of nitrogen dioxide, by IMS. The subject areas investigated were compatibility of detector cell construction materials with the analytes, detector temperature, comparison of membrane versus direct inlet systems under their optimum conditions, pneumatics configurations for the spectrometer, and the investigation into the effects of different ion molecule chemistry regimes for the improvement of selectivity, sensitivity, and response and recovery times. The optimum spectrometer operating conditions, for the detection of hydrazine, methylhydrazine, and 1,1-dimethylhydrazine in the presence of ammonia, and for the detection of nitrogen dioxide, were incorporated into a hand portable instrument (linked to a computer) capable of near real-time detection. Ammonia is still an interferent in the ion mobility spectrometry detection of the parent hydrazine. The use of ketones as dopant chemicals has been shown to be effective in the ion mobility spectrometric determination of the hydrazines. However, the mobility of the ion-molecule clusters formed from these hydrazines are in the reverse order to that expected. In order to gain insight to the ion-molecule chemistry of the hydrazines/ketones systems molecular modelling and IMS coupled with tandem mass spectrometry studies were undertaken to investigate ion cluster formations of the hydrazines with an homologous series of symmetrical ketones. A fluorinated ketone was also studied by IMS-MS-MS to determine the effect of electron withdrawing groups upon ion cluster formation. The ion-molecule clusters formed were shown to be concentration dependent, with gas phase reaction recorded between the dopants and analytes at low ketone concentration.


The study explored the potential of rugby as a developmental experience, not only in terms of the motor skills that lead to competence in rugby, but also in terms of learning more about the life-skill of goal setting. A 10 session pre-season programme entitled "More than Rugby" was designed and implemented in order to determine whether combining skill instruction with activities specifically designed to increase an understanding of goal setting had an impact on either the development of rugby competence or understanding about goal setting and perceptions of its use. A repeated measures experimental design was followed, with two groups of high school rugby players from similar sporting backgrounds involved: An experimental group who received pre-season rugby training as well as an intervention programme dealing with goal setting, and a control group who received only the pre-season rugby training, but no special goal setting activities. Both groups were pre tested and post tested on their rugby competence (through an individual rugby skill test circuit) and their understanding of goal setting The self reported use of goal setting perceptions, the relationship between goals and performance and the effects of goals on players was measured by means of a questionnaire (adapted GSI). The results revealed a significant improvement in the quality of rugby skills of the experimental group, but no significant improvement was found in the quality of the rugby skills of the control group. Both groups showed improvement in the speed at which rugby skills were performed, but in neither case was the improvement significant. The understanding of goal setting and the knowledge of setting goals did not improve significantly for either group. It can be concluded that the inclusion of life skills content and activities, such as goal setting in rugby development programmes will not detract from skill development outcomes. Although it can be noted that the greater improvement in skill levels was achieved by the group who received goal setting, more research is recommended to explain the positive link between life skills development and sport skills development.


BACKGROUND: Good practice guidelines highlight the importance of making people with epilepsy aware of the risk of premature mortality in epilepsy particularly due to Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy (SUDEP). The SUDEP and Seizure Safety Checklist ("Checklist") is a structured risk communication tool used in UK clinics. It is not known if sharing structured information on risk factors allows individuals to reduce SUDEP and premature mortality risks. AIM: To ascertain if the introduction of the Checklist in epilepsy clinics lead to individual risk reduction. METHOD: The Checklist was administered to 130 consecutive people with epilepsy attending an epilepsy specialised neurology clinic and 129 attending an Intellectual Disability epilepsy clinic within a 4 month period. At baseline, no attendees at the neurology clinic had received formal risk advice while all attending the ID clinic had on multiple occasions for six years. A year later the Checklist was re-administered to each group and scores were compared with baseline and between groups. RESULTS: Of 12 risk factors considered there was an overall reduction in mean risk score for the general population (p=0.0049) but not for the ID population (p=0.322). Sub analysis of 25% at most risk of both populations showed both sets had a significant reduction in risk scores (p<0.001). CONCLUSION: Structured discussion results in behavioural change which reduces individual risk factors. This impact seems higher in those who are at higher risk currently. It is important clinicians share risk information with individuals as a matter of public health and health promotion.


Experiential and inclusive sustainability leadership practices in learning garden programs can lead to increased community food security. This recent study shows that Oregon Food Bank's Seed to Supper program increases food literacy, builds social capital, and creates opportunities for fostering inclusive leadership in learning garden communities. Through a mixed-methods community-based research process, the study found that learner empowerment through food literacy and sustainability leadership increased access to locally-grown foods for food insecure populations. The leadership model discussed in this paper uses the concept of the web of inclusion (Helgesen, 1990) as a framework for discussing the intricate social networks within the Seed to Supper program.


Abstract This paper, part of a continuing study of means for the stabilization of magnetohydrodynamic interchange modes in axisymmetric mirror-based plasma confinement systems, represents a preliminary look at a technique that would employ a train of plasma pressure pulses produced by electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH) to accomplish the stabilization. The use of sequentially pulsed ECRH rather than continuous-wave ECRH facilitates the localization of the heated-electron plasma pulses in regions of the magnetic field with positive field-line curvature, e.g., in the "expander" region of the mirror magnetic field, outside the outermost mirror. The technique proposed relies on the time-averaged effect of plasma pressure pulses generated in regions of positive field-line curvature to overcome the destabilizing effect of plasma pressure in regions of negative field-line curvature within the confinement region. The plasma pulses, when produced in regions of the confining field having a negative gradient, create transient ambipolar electric potentials, an effect studied in 1964 in the PLEIADE experiment in France. These electric fields preserve the localization of the hot-electron plasma pulse for times determined by ion inertia. It may be possible to use this aspect of pulsed ECRH not only to stabilize the plasma but also to plug mirror losses in a manner similar to that employed in the tandem mirror.


This paper is concerned with the development of a flexible and cost saving production system. In the present study, the mobile platform of a delta parallel robot is extended with an underactuated mechanism with three passive rotational degrees. In doing so, the manipulability of the system is increased without the need for additional motors. The passive joints are actuated by means of inertia moments, which result from the acceleration of the mobile platform. After stating what motivated the concept, different well-known underactuated mechanisms are presented. This is followed by a brief description of the developed underactuated wrist mechanism, which features torque-free connections between the axes with respect to the vacuum supply and the encoder coupling. A possible classification of the process design is then presented along with a schematic example of a pick-and-place task. The classification includes single and continuous processes. The latter is further split into an online and offline control strategy. The article closes with the identification of future developments.


Strong arguments have been made for early intervention for child problems, stating that early is more effective than later, as the brain is more malleable, and costs are lower. However, there is scant evidence from trials to support this hypothesis, which we therefore tested in two well-powered, state-of-the-art meta-analyses with complementary strengths: (a) Individual participant data (IPD) meta-analysis of European trials of Incredible Years parenting intervention (k = 13, n = 1696; age = 2-11); (b) Larger, trial-level robust variance estimation meta-analysis of a wider range of parenting programs (k = 156, n = 13,378, Mage  = 2-10) for reducing disruptive behavior. Both analyses found no evidence that intervention earlier in childhood was more effective; programs targeted at a narrower age range were no more effective than general ones.


We present an extension of the multi-purpose Monte-Carlo event generator Sherpa for processes in deeply inelastic lepton-nucleon scattering. Hadronic final states in this kinematical setting are characterised by the presence of multiple kinematical scales, which were up to now accounted for only by specific resummations in individual kinematical regions. An extension of a known method for merging truncated parton showers with higher-order tree-level matrix elements allows to obtain predictions which are reliable in all kinematical limits.


Lisa Dallape Matson Re-Presentation of Dante Gabriel Rossetti: Portrayals in Fiction, Drama, Music, and Film Cambria Press, 2010 225 pages; $104.99 In 1848, three excited students gathered in London and - from a Gower Street home - founded an avant-garde society that, among other things, denounced contemporary art, asserting that current painters, embracing Renaissance principles, imitated the flourishes of a sixteenth-century Italian artist Raffaello Sanzio, known simply as Raphael. With youthful exuberance, these young men suggested that future art should revert to a classical style, capturing the simplicity of the medieval world. Disparaging the materialism of Britain's industrial revolution and its deleterious effects, these Englishmen - with a twenty-year-old gadfly, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, as their spokesman - organized the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, a movement laden with lofty goals and pie-in-the-sky ideals.. Years later, Dante Gabriel Rossetti (his Neapolitan political-refugee father adored the Supreme Poet) emerged as a leading figure in English cultural life. In 1850, his early poems and paintings - published in The Germ - drew rebuke from Charles Dickens, but by 1853, with the appearance of "Sister Helen," his reputation soared. An ill-fated 1860 marriage ended tragically after two years when his wife, Elizabeth, died, an apparent suicide. In 1869, he exhumed the body to retrieve some unpublished poems left in her coffin as a romantic gesture. By the time of his death, 1882, Rossetti stood as a pivotal figure in English poetry and art prompting James M. Whistler's noted epitaph, "He was a King." Other tributes equally honored his name: John Ruskin and Walter Pater collectively call him an artistic force while posthumous memorials were erected, commemorative poetry was published, and a bust - depicting Rossetti holding two books - was placed prominently in Chelsea. Ezra Pound, an ardent admirer, called him "my mother and father," while William Butler Yeats, also smitten, kept pre-Raphael pictures in his room. Well into the twentieth century, books, television series, movies, and even plays appeared, examining many aspects of Rossetti's life. In the past ten years, an archive has been created, a complete nine-volume series published, a museum exhibit opened, fictional books written - and, with a nod to the popular television program, Upstairs, Downstairs - a six episode BBC-2 series aired. Last, as a contemporary piece de resistance, a Seattle neopsychedelic band, The Green Pajamas, used his poetry as lyrics. Clearly, as a dominant literary and artistic entity, Dante Gabriel Rossetti's reputation shows no sign of slowing down. But why wouldn't it? As a nineteenth-century voice crying in the wilderness, Rossetti's stature increases with each generation as modern audiences discover his poetry and paintings. …


The authors present a multidisciplinary project called PROPYME, which is a team effort of the University of Vigo (Spain) and the FEUGA autonomous government foundation (Galicia, North West of Spain), both supported by several industrial enterprises from the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) market. The main purpose of PROPYME project was to accomplish an innovative technology-transfer task from university industrial researchers, to Small and Medium Enterprises (SME), for enhancing their productivity by the automation of their industrial and management processes. This involves a SME ́s effort not only by a financial point of view, but adaptation, knowledge acquisition and organizational changes. Moreover, embedding ICT ́s involves adapting Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) tools to integrate vertically process and systems, owned by the SME itself, facing to decision challenges based on economic value, knowledge and communication concepts. The PROPYME first phase is a portal Web with a demonstration multimedia tool, text, graphics, animations, audio and video, that shows fifteen industrial processes based on diverse technologies frequently used for industrial enterprises.


Background: A new herbal drug, Setarud (IMOD™) that has been shown to have beneficial immune effects was tested to determine its acute and chronic toxicity in animals and to establish its intravenous form maximum tolerated dose (MTD) in an open-labeled phase I clinical trial. Methods: BALB/c and C57BL/6 mice and Wistar rats were monitored for general state and biochemical markers for chronic test. At the end of chronic test, animals examined macroscopically and histologically. HIV-infected asymptomatic male patients with CD4 counts more than 200, were enrolled in the trial. Baseline dose was calculated from the 10% lethal dose (LD 10 ) established in laboratory animal studies. Dose escalation was performed in four cohorts of 3 patients receiving IMOD™ intravenously at a cohort-specific dose of 2, 4, 6.7, and 10 ml daily for 4 weeks. Patients were clinically examined at days of 1, 2, 3 and then weekly; and the safety was assessed on the basis of reports of adverse events, laboratory-test data and toxicity signs. Results: LD 50 values in acute toxicity test were 42-66 and 50-56 ml/kg in i.m. and i.p. injections, respectively. Total scores of embryotoxicity during pregnancy were significantly lower in the Setarud group (p < 0.05). Pre-implantational deaths in the Setarud group were significantly higher, but post-implantational deaths level was lower than those in the control group. Inhibition of ossification in the skeletons of the fetuses and incidence of still birth were significantly higher while body weight of new-born rats of treatment group in the first month of their lifes were lower than those of the control group. In all four cohorts, there were no major side effects or dose-limiting toxicity, except for a mild sweating and weight loss in two patients from the first group that was reversed without discontinuation of the treatment. No clinically relevant trends in laboratory test results or ECG changes were noted. No adverse effect due to IMOD™ was observed at one month of follow-up. Maximum tolerated dose of IMOD™ was 10 ml a day. Conclusion: Results of this study has identified a safe dose of IMOD™ that can be used in future clinical trials.