The goal of this highly usable and innovative casebook is to provide a basic introduction to commercial law, both for those students who plan to take only one course in the field as well as for students who intend to become commercial specialists. The new edition is completely revised and updated. Approximately one-third of the cases are new, and all citations refer to the latest draft of the UCC. The book now focuses on the law of the sale of goods under the UCC. Other commercial law topics are explored as they are raised by the cases, including fundamental notions regarding secured transactions, bankruptcy, consumer protection, negotiable instruments, and letters of credit. Helpful explanations and challenging questions are inserted into the case opinions to help students focus on the issues at the moment they arise in the text. Both students and professors have indicated that this method greatly facilitates the teaching and learning of the material.


Reports sap production costs for small (500 to 1,000 taps), medium (1,000 to 5,000), and large (5,000 to 15,000) maple syrup operations that use plastic tubing with vacuum pumping. The average annual operating cost per tap ranged from $4.64 for a 500-tap sugarbush operation to $1.84 for a sugarbush with 10,000 taps. The weighted average was $2.87 per tap or $11.48 per gallon (assumes four taps required to produce a gallon of syrup). The average annual investment cost for a plastic tubing system ranged from $7.90 for a 500-tap operation to $6.03 for a 10,000-tap system. The average labor time per tap was 4.74 minutes in 1998 compared to 9.60 minutes in 1975. The break-even (zero profit) size for a sugarbush operation was 900, 1,500, and 3,800 taps for a 3.0, 2.5, and 2.0? Brix sap, respectively.


The thyroid hormone receptor ?1 (TR?) is a nuclear receptor for the thyroid hormone, and acts to either activate or repress transcription of thyroid hormone-responsive genes. While TR? carries out its function as a transctiption factor in the nucleus, TR? actually shuttles rapidly between the nucleus and cytoplasm. An important aspect of this shuttling activity, and to its role as a nuclear transcription factor, is the process by which TR? is imported into the nucleus. Previous research has shown that in mammalian cells, TR?�s nuclear import follows a signal-mediated pathway that is temperature and energydependent, and can be mediated in vitro by importins ?1 and ?. This thesis research investigated which importins are able to mediate nuclear import of TR? in HeLa (human) cells in vivo. RNA interference (RNAi) was used to knock down the expression of individual importins in the cells, after which the subcellular localization of TR? was examined for any changes. RNAi knockdown was validated using reverse transcriptase real-time PCR (RT-qPCR). Total RNA was purified from RNAi-treated cells, and was shown to be of high quality through UV spectrophotometry and electrophoresis. This RNA was then reverse-transcribed into cDNA and analyzed by qPCR. RT-qPCR was used to evaluate eight importins (Imps ?, ?1, ?2, ?3, ?4, ?5, ?6, and Ipo 7) for knockdown of their corresponding mRNA levels following transfection with importin-specific RNAi. The data show that RNAi knockdown was validated, with seven out of the eight importins showing knockdown at levels of 70% or higher. RNAi import assays were used to directly evaluate the role of seven individual importins (Imps ?, ?1, ?2, ?3, ?4, ?5 and Ipo 7) in mediating TR?�s nuclear import. The qPCR results confirmed that importin-specific short hairpin RNA (shRNA) molecules effectively reduced the level of those importins in the cell. Following RNAi treatment, cells were examined by fluorescence microscopy to evaluate the subcellular localization of TR?. A shift from the normal, primarily nuclear localization of TR? to a more whole-cell distribution was seen as evidence of the RNAi-targeted importin mediating TR? import. Knockdown of Ipo 7 resulted in the most significant cytoplasmic shift of TR?, suggesting that TR?�s nuclear import is mediated primarily by Ipo 7. Knockdown of Imp ? caused the second most significant shift in TR? distribution, indicating that Imp ? also plays a substantial role in TR?�s nuclear import. The importin ? isoforms varied in the extent to which they were able to mediate TR? import, with the data indicating that Imp ?1 is the main adaptor importin acting with Imp ? to import TR? into the nucleus. Imp ?3 also appears to play a lesser role in TR?�s import. Taken together, the data presented in this thesis research suggest that TR? utilizes multiple import pathways, with import facilitated primarily by Ipo 7 and Imp ?/Imp ?1, and potentially Imp?/Imp ?3 to a lesser extent.


In the wake of the foreclosure crisis, what programs can help low-income families become homeowners in a sustainable way? Shared equity programs offer one model, successfully balancing both affordability and asset building goals. In this article, researchers from the Urban Institute evaluate the effectiveness of 7 shared equity homeownership programs from across the country. They find that without exception, the programs provide long-term affordable homeownership, opportunities for low-income families to build equity, and sustainable tenure. This study suggests that shared equity programs could be cost effective way of supporting homeownership going forward.


When one sensory input, hearing, is blocked altogether or reduced to some degree, a greater load of communications is placed on vision. Not surprisingly, the deaf and hearingimpaired have long relied on two visual substitutes for speech: lip reading and sign language. To make these skills easier to learn, two contestants in the Johns Hopkins University Search for Applications of Personal Computing to Aid the Handicapped have devised ways of simulating lip positions and hand signs on a display. In both cases the main intent of the software packages is to train not only the deaf and hearing-impaired, but also those who want to communicate with them.


Tanzania's success in nation formation and ethnic conflict prevention is a striking refutation of the prevalence of state failure across post-colonial Africa. However, the Tanzanian case has heretofore never been examined in comparative perspective. This article reviews the existing set of literature claiming to explain Tanzanian exceptionalism – focusing, in particular, on ethnic diversity, nation-building and ethnic conflict management policies, and the Swahili language – and finds it lacking. Instead, the author argues that Tanzania's low and equitable endowments of labour and capital have greatly aided her subsequent political stability and nation formation. In particular, he shows that such endowments have prevented the rise of large-scale inter-regional inequalities which have driven state failure elsewhere in Africa. He also examines the counterfactual case of Zanzibar, which adds further support to its argument. The article concludes that processes of demographic change and economic development have played much more a role in ethnic conflict prevention in Tanzania than has been previously recognised.


Key policies on teacher development emphasise the necessity of a teaching force that is competent to apply learner-centred practices. Barriers to learning, like poverty, present huge classroom challenges and have implications for in-service programmes intended to develop learner-centred practices. This study endeavoured to determine factors that influenced the effective implementation of in-service programmes to assist teachers with learner-centred teaching in the Blue Waters area of the Western Cape. It was anticipated that identifying these factors would assist teachers in poverty-stricken schools in an area like Blue Waters to effectively deal with poverty-related challenges of individual learners. A qualitative case study approach was applied with convenience and purposive sampling. Semi-structured interviews and a document study were used as tools to collect data. The participants of this study consisted of one principal, one social worker, and one district officer from the Western Cape Education Department (WCED). Qualitative data was analysed through thematic analysis. The competencies of teachers, Department of Education (DoE) and Department of Basic Education (DBE) policy intentions, socio-economic issues, and the types of in-service development programmes were revealed as factors inhibiting the In-Service Development Programmes at schools. This study recommended that the application of this strategy needed the holistic development of teaching skills at schools in Blue Waters. Keywords: barriers to learning; in-service programmes; learner-centred strategies


On the first Sunday in December 1941, an armada of Japanese warplanes appeared suddenly over Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and devastated the U.S. Pacific Fleet. Six months later, in a sea fight north of the tiny atoll of Midway, four Japanese aircraft carriers were sent into the abyss, a blow that destroyed the offensive power of their fleet. Pacific Crucible tells the epic tale of these first searing months of the Pacific war, when the U.S. Navy shook off the worst defeat in American military history and seized the strategic initiative. This dramatic narrative, relying predominantly on eyewitness accounts and primary sources, is laced with riveting details of heroism and sacrifice on the stricken ships and planes of both navies. At the war's outset, Japan's pilots and planes enjoyed a clear-cut superiority to their American counterparts, but there was a price to be paid. Japanese pilots endured a lengthy and grueling training in which they were disciplined with baseball bats, often suffering broken bones; and the production line of the Zero- Japan's superbly maneuverable fighter plane-ended not at a highway or railhead but at a rice paddy, through which the planes were then hauled on ox carts. Combat losses, of either pilots or planes, could not be replaced in time to match the fully mobilized American war machine. Pacific Crucible also spotlights recent scholarship that revises our understanding of the conflict, including the Japanese decision to provoke a war that few in their highest circles thought they could win. Those doubters included the flamboyantly brilliant Admiral Isokoru Yamamoto, architect of the raid on Pearl and the Midway offensive. Once again, Ian W. Toll proves himself to be a simply magnificent writer. The result here is a page-turning history that does justice to the breadth and depth of a tremendous subject.


List of statues and regulations. List of cases. Where to find legal cases online. Medical Ethics Committee. Acknowledgements. Preface to the third edition. Introduction: Bridging the gap between theory and practice: the BMA s approach to medical ethics. 1: The doctor-patient relationship. 2: Consent, choice and refusal: adults with capacity. 3: Treating adults who lack capacity. 4: Children and young people. 5: Confidentiality. 6: Health records. 7: Contraception, abortion, and birth. 8: Assisted reproduction. 9: Genetics. 10: Caring for patients at the end of life. 11: Euthanasia and physician assisted suicide. 12: Responsibilities after a patient s death. 13: Prescribing and administering medication. Chapter 14: Research and innovative treatment. 15: Emergency situations. 16: Doctors with dual obligations. 17: Providing treatment and care in detention settings. 18: Education and training. 19: Teamwork, referral, delegation and shared care. 20: Public health dimensions of medical practice. 21: Reducing risk, clinical error, and poor performance. AppendixA: Hippocratic Oath. Appendix B: Declaration of Geneva. Appendix C: Declaration of a new doctor, as devised by Imperial College School of Medicine graduating year of 2001. Index.


Biobanks exist in many forms, sizes, designs and structures. They provide important benefits to humanity. Yet, they also raise serious concerns and complications, especially in the areas of privacy, autonomy and personal data protection. Because these concerns often implicate the rights of individual donors, biobank users, relevant family members and other individual third parties, a logical topic to explore is whether a violation of the rights of these individuals could rise to the level of a human right violation.

Commissioned for a book on the legal, ethical and scientific challenges in international biobanking, this chapter provides a brief survey on three distinct sets of human rights issues, all related to biobanks. The first set concerns the human rights involved in the collection, processing, use or storage of the biological materials collected by biobanks. The second set pertains to the human rights issues implicated by the development of scientific productions utilizing the collected materials. The third set relates to the human rights obligations of three types of biobanks: public biobanks, private biobanks and biobanks formed out of public-private partnerships.


Intermittent-sprint performance is reduced in hot environments and the impairment occurs without significant difference in metabolic responses to exercise. Reductions in cerebral blood flow and voluntary activation occur with hyperthermia and neuromuscular impairment has been posited to explain decreased performance in the heat. Heat acclimation is used to minimise heat mediated performance impairment, yet traditional protocols may limit adaptation. The purpose of this thesis was to examine the efficacy of a novel progressive heat acclimation model for games players performing intermittent-sprint exercise in the heat and to examine if this method can ameliorate neuromuscular fatigue following exercise of this type.


The proximal region of chromosome 15 is one of the genomic hotspots for copy number variants (CNVs). Among the rearrangements observed in this region, CNVs from the interval between the common breakpoints 1 and 2 (BP1 and BP2) have been reported cosegregating with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Although evidence supporting an association between BP1‐BP2 CNVs and autism accumulates, the magnitude of the effect of BP1‐BP2 CNVs remains elusive, posing a great challenge to recurrence‐risk counseling. To gain further insight into their pathogenicity for ASD, we estimated the penetrance of the BP1‐BP2 CNVs for ASD as well as their effects on ASD‐related phenotypes in a well‐characterized ASD sample (n = 2525 families). Transmission disequilibrium test revealed significant preferential transmission only for the duplicated chromosome in probands (20T:9NT). The penetrance of the BP1‐BP2 CNVs for ASD was low, conferring additional risks of 0.3% (deletion) and 0.8% (duplication). Stepwise regression analyses suggest a greater effect of the CNVs on ASD‐related phenotype in males and when maternally inherited. Taken together, the results are consistent with BP1‐BP2 CNVs as risk factors for autism. However, their effect is modest, more akin to that seen for common variants. To be consistent with the current American College of Medical Genetics guidelines for interpretation of postnatal CNV, the BP1‐BP2 deletion and duplication CNVs would probably best be classified as variants of uncertain significance (VOUS): they appear to have an impact on risk, but one so modest that these CNVs do not merit pathogenic status. Autism Res 2014, 7: 355–362. © 2014 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


Many applications in several domains such as telecommunications, network security, large-scale sensor networks, require online processing of continuous data flows. They produce very high loads that requires aggregating the processing capacity of many nodes. Current Stream Processing Engines do not scale with the input load due to single-node bottlenecks. Additionally, they are based on static configurations that lead to either under or overprovisioning. In this paper, we present StreamCloud, a scalable and elastic stream processing engine for processing large data stream volumes. StreamCloud uses a novel parallelization technique that splits queries into subqueries that are allocated to independent sets of nodes in a way that minimizes the distribution overhead. Its elastic protocols exhibit low intrusiveness, enabling effective adjustment of resources to the incoming load. Elasticity is combined with dynamic load balancing to minimize the computational resources used. The paper presents the system design, implementation, and a thorough evaluation of the scalability and elasticity of the fully implemented system.


Modern critiques of international human rights law force us to confront at least two conceptual puzzles in the area of the claims of culture and religion. The first concerns the two concepts, often run together, of the secular (or secularism) and freedom, and the question of how rights - e.g. the right to freedom of conscience and religion - mediate between these purportedly universal or objective positions and the imagined subjective claims of particular religious or cultural norms. The second concerns the question of what we mean by "human equality" and how this idea relates to deeply-situated issues of collective identity and culture. Such claims raise complex and difficult conflicts between equality norms on the one hand, and religious and cultural freedom norms on the other. It is argued that a value pluralist approach to such questions opens the possibility of less dogmatic and binary accounts of reason and religion in viewing both as human institutions and social practices requiring modes of justification and accountability. This requires the constant search for forms of accommodation, mutual understanding, and overlapping consensus between actual religious communities and the normative claims of rights discourse understood in value pluralist and philosophically hermeneutic terms. In order for this to occur, however, the primary obstacle is the inability of Western rights theorists to see their culture as one amongst others.


The outbreak of further hostilities between Chad and Libya in August 1987 was occasioned by a dispute concerning sovereignty over the so-called Aouzou Strip in northern Chad. The extent of Libyan involvement in Chad is motivated to a large degree by this territorial claim. This dispute must be distinguished from Libya's wider ambitions for Arab unity or its involvement in Chad's civil war, although it would appear true to say that Libya was thereby seeking to consolidate its hold on the Aouzou Strip. Documentary evidence exists to support the contention that a genuine territorial claim exists. In addition, it is interesting to note that, while Libya appeared to have resigned itself to the victory of President Habre's forces in the civil war and the defeat and expulsion of its forces from the rest of Chad in the early part of 1987, the capture of Aouzou by Habre's forces in August 1987 resulted in an ongoing military response brought to a tentative conclusion in September 1987 by the OAU. Colonel Gadafi has been reported as saying that, if Chad ceded the Aouzou Strip, he would regard the war as over and would never again interfere in Chad's internal affairs. Moreover, Colonel Gadafi's support for the rival factions in Chad has wavered according to their position on the question of the Aouzou Strip. The purpose of this short article is to analyse Libya's territorial claim to the disputed territory.


This paper reports on a study which highlighted goal orientation as an approachable individual difference (ID) variable which may further our understanding of foreign/second language learning experience. The study sought to (i) gauge the extent of goal orientation in foreign language learners' profile and (ii) examine how goal orientation affects their perception of task difficulty and motivation. Analysis of the findings revealed two distinct goal orientation levels which reflected two significantly different response types to task difficulty. Where one goal group responded positively to unfamiliar and cognitively demanding tasks, the other goal group did not. In light of these results, this paper calls for the necessity to revisit the reductionist research format that confines task variation to design and sequencing factors.


Background: Domestic violence against females is a serious public health concern in every community and culture. However, its actual extent is difficult to measure and may be much higher than reported. Long standing domestic violence not only affects the women physically but also has the long term impact on mental health. Domestic violence has the intergenerational cycle. As the rural women are more susceptible to domestic violence, present study would estimate the prevalence, associated vulnerability factors, and immediate reaction of women to domestic violence. Method: A community based cross-sectional study was planned in Sawangi Village of Wardha district. All the currently married women in 15-40 yrs were interviewed for domestic violence by male intimate partner in last 30 days. Data was then analyses by descriptive statistics. Result: One or other form of domestic violence was experienced by 68.12 % of study participants. More than two third were from nuclear family and Hindus by religion. Emotional violence was seen in 98 % of victims. Slapping was noted in all the victims of physical violence and nearly three fourth of them had sustained injuries. Alcohol was considered to be most common reason for domestic violence. Most of the victims had the feeling of revenge and powerlessness while 67 % of them resisted the act. Conclusion: The prevalence of domestic violence by spouse in last 30 days was very high in study population and it has greatly affected their mental health.


Reconstructed Raman images of the distribution of polystyrene and polyethylene were obtained by line-imaging, with the use of univariate and multivariate processing of the spectral data. Multiple sets of microscopic Raman spectral line-images were acquired with line-focused illumination, a motorized translation stage to move the sample perpendicular to the illumination line, and a holographic imaging spectrograph equipped with a 2D detector. The line-imaged raw spectral data were processed with the use of both a simple univariate method (single-band integration) and a more sophisticated multivariate method (principal component analysis with eigenvector rotation) to generate two-dimensional Raman images representing spatial distribution of the polymers. In the spectral range employed (900–1700 cm−1), suitable bands could be found for univariate processing of the polystyrene and polyethylene images. The principal component analysis method gave equivalent separation of the images, but only if the entire spectral window was employed to generate the eigenvectors.


This article analyses the relation of cybernetic technologies to global class composition in the light of the 2011 revolts and their aftermath. Almost from their inception, computers and networks were weapons wielded by advanced capital not only against external enemies but also against its industrial working class. From the 1970s on, computerized automation, digital supply chains and electronic financialization served as instruments in the decomposition of the Fordist mass worker of the global North-West. In the same process, however, they constructed the technical basis for a new world-scale mobilization of labours, wages and unwaged—that of a global proletariat. It was stacked, segmented and segregated across planetary wage zones, but commonly characterized by subjection to extremes of plutocratic power, precarity, migrancy, ecological disaster and networked connection. The financial crash of 2008- paradoxically caused by the very success of capital's cybernetic offensive in creating a low-wage high-tech economy--in 2011 generated a new cycle of struggles signaling a political recomposition of new proletarian segments and re-proletarianized members of intermediate 'middle class' strata.  These uprisings featured widespread re-appropriations of social media and mobile networks. The detournement of capital's technologies is however, a more contradictory process than is recognized by either enthusiasts for or detractors of so-called 'Facebook revolutions'; it brought both strengths and weaknesses to the 2011 uprisings. As repercussions of the crisis continue to roil the word economy, new movements of proletarian recomposition combining both rejections and adoptions of the digital, can be expected in contexts characterized by intensifying automation, omnipresent surveillance and incipient cyber-wars.


Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a fast growing global problem. AD is a form of dementia characterised by the progressive loss of cognitive abilities. Pathologically, the disease is defined by two neuropathological hallmarks: neurofibrillary tangles and amyloid-β plaques. Plaques appear to be toxic to brain tissue and are surrounded by activated microglia and astrocytes, dystrophic neurites and neurons under oxidative stress.
When plaques first develop, they are generally small, but in advanced AD, plaques can be much larger. How small plaques may develop into large plaques is still unclear. A number of studies have shown that small plaques grow uniformly over time to give rise to larger plaques. However, this study investigates an alternative hypothesis: that clusters of multiple small plaques merge over time to form large plaques. This hypothesis was inspired by a study that showed that plaques do not deposit in random locations within the brain parenchyma, but rather form in clusters and that these plaque clusters get bigger over time. The aim was to investigate the clustering of plaques in vivo, and follow these clusters over time to see whether they merge together to form a single, larger plaque.
This study employed a 2-stage staining technique to follow individual plaques in APPPS1 transgenic mice over time. The fluorescent, amyloid-binding dye Methoxy-X04 was injected into the mice at Day 0 of the experiment. Methoxy-X04 crosses the blood brain barrier and binds stably to plaques for several months and thus labelled the original plaque population. Following 1 day, 1 month or 4 month incubation periods, acute in vivo plaque imaging was performed or the mice sacrificed for post mortem analysis. Antibodies against amyloid-β labelled the state of the plaques at these later time points. Hence this procedure enabled comparison of individual plaque status at different time points and the identification of new plaques that had developed over the incubation time.
Detailed analysis of the new and pre-existing plaques revealed two key results. Firstly, that new plaques are more likely to form very close (< 40 µm) to a pre-existing plaque than at further distances. New plaques depositing very close to other plaques formed clusters of plaques in the tissue. Secondly, that clusters of close plaques can fuse over time to form a single large plaque. These two key results provide compelling evidence for a clustering hypothesis of large plaque formation and growth.
Together, these data provide in vivo support for the clustering hypothesis by which clusters of small plaques merge together to form single plaques over time. This work expands our understanding of how plaques form and develop in AD and could inform the understanding of plaque clearance strategies to combat AD pathological changes in the brains of patients.


We have investigated the structural, vibrational, and electronic properties of the amorphous phase of InSb and In3SbTe2 compounds of interest for applications in phase change non-volatile memories. Models of the amorphous phase have been generated by quenching from the melt by molecular dynamics simulations based on density functional theory. In particular, we have studied the dependence of the structural properties on the choice of the exchange-correlation functional. It turns out that the use of the Becke-Lee-Yang-Parr functional provides models with a much larger fraction of In atoms in a tetrahedral bonding geometry with respect to previous results obtained with the most commonly used Perdew-Becke-Ernzerhof functional. This outcome is at odd with the properties of Ge2Sb2Te5 phase change compound for which the two exchange-correlation functionals yield very similar results on the structure of the amorphous phase.


Recently, with the advent of programmatic and practical machine learning tools, programmers have been able to successfully integrate applications for the web and the mobile with artificial intelligence capabilities. This trend has largely been possible because of major organizations and software companies releasing their machine learning frameworks to the public– such as Tensorflow (Google), MXnet (Amazon) and PyTorch (Facebook). Python has been the de facto choice as the programming language for these frameworks because of it's versatility and ease-ofuse. In a similar vein, Elixir is the functional programming language equivalent of Python and Ruby, in that it combines the versatility and ease-of-use that Python and Ruby boast of, with functional programming paradigms and the Erlang VM's fault tolerance and robustness. However, despite these obvious advantages, Elixir, similar to other functional programming languages, does not provide developers with a machine learning toolset which is essential for equipping applications with deep learning and statistical inference features. To bridge this gap, we present Tensorflex, an open source framework that allows users to leverage pre-trained Tensorflow models (written in Python, C or C++) for Inference (generating predictions) in Elixir. Moreover, Tensorflex was written as part of a Google Summer of Code (2018) project by Anshuman Chhabra, and José Valim was the mentor for the same.


A common assumption in machine vision is that the training and test samples are drawn from the same distribution. However, there are many problems when this assumption is grossly violated, as in bio-medical applications where different acquisitions can generate drastic variations in the appearance of the data due to changing experimental conditions. This problem is accentuated with 3D data, for which annotation is very time-consuming, limiting the amount of data that can be labeled in new acquisitions for training. In this paper we present a multitask learning algorithm for domain adaptation based on boosting. Unlike previous approaches that learn task-specific decision boundaries, our method learns a single decision boundary in a shared feature space, common to all tasks. We use the boosting-trick to learn a non-linear mapping of the observations in each task, with no need for specific a-priori knowledge of its global analytical form. This yields a more parameter-free domain adaptation approach that successfully leverages learning on new tasks where labeled data is scarce. We evaluate our approach on two challenging bio-medical datasets and achieve a significant improvement over the state of the art.


Metazoan genes are embedded in a rich milieu of regulatory information that often includes multiple enhancers possessing overlapping activities. In this study, we employ quantitative live imaging methods to assess the function of pairs of primary and shadow enhancers in the regulation of key patterning genes-knirps, hunchback, and snail-in developing Drosophila embryos. The knirps enhancers exhibit additive, sometimes even super-additive activities, consistent with classical gene fusion studies. In contrast, the hunchback enhancers function sub-additively in anterior regions containing saturating levels of the Bicoid activator, but function additively in regions where there are diminishing levels of the Bicoid gradient. Strikingly sub-additive behavior is also observed for snail, whereby removal of the proximal enhancer causes a significant increase in gene expression. Quantitative modeling of enhancer–promoter interactions suggests that weakly active enhancers function additively while strong enhancers behave sub-additively due to competition with the target promoter. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.07956.001


Double walled polymer with a Core of mixture of nanoparticle of carboxymethyl cellulose sodium salt and a model drug olsalazine [3,3 ́-azobis(6-hydroxy benzoic acid)] as an azo derivatives of 5-aminosalicylic acid and an external coat of cross-linked copolymers of N-vinyl-2-pyrrolidinone and methacrylic acid with various amounts of cross-linking agents. Cubane-1,4-dicarboxylic acid linked to two HEMA group is the cross-linking agent. The core nanocomposite was prepared by freeze drying method and then used as nuclei for subsequent sell copolymerization. The structure of core was characterized with scanning electron microscopy. The double walled hydrogels were characterized by differential scanning calorimetry and FT-IR. Equilibrium swelling studies were carried out in enzyme-free simulated gastric and intestinal fluids. The drug-release profiles indicated that the amount of drug released depend on the degree of swelling. The swelling was modulated by the amount of crosslinking in shell layer. Based on the great difference in hydrolysis rates at pH 1 and 7.4, these pH-sensitive hydrogels appear to be good candidates for colon-specific drug delivery.


Empirical research on gender pay gaps has traditionally focused on the role of gender-specific factors, particularly gender differences in qualifications and differences in the treatment of otherwise equally qualified male and female workers (i.e., labor market discrimination). This paper explores the determinants of the gender pay gap and argues for the importance of an additional factor, wage structure, the array of prices set for labor market skills and the rewards received for employment in favored sectors. Drawing on joint work with Lawrence Kahn, I illustrate the impact of wage structure by presenting empirical results analyzing its effect on international differences in the gender gap and trends over time in the gender differential in the U.S.


Nurses work with a wide range of people and it is essential that they are able to understand questions such as: Who are service users and what might their needs and perspectives be? Who else is involved in nursing? How do professionals learn and work together? This book will help students understand the policy context that makes these questions important, prepare them for working in a team and working in an environment where roles are evolving. The book will outline assessment requirements and include advice to students on gathering evidence for assessment of practice.


We consider the problem of low-complexity channel estimation and timing in digital ultra-wideband receivers. We extend some of our recent results on sampling of certain classes of parametric non-bandlimited signals and develop a frequency domain framework that yields high-resolution estimates of all relevant channel parameters by sampling a received signal below the traditional nyquist rate. In particular, we show that the minimum required sampling rate in an UWB receiver is determined by the so-called innovation rate, which corresponds to the number of degrees of freedom of the received UWB signal. Our framework allows for faster acquisition compared to current digital solutions and potentially reduces power consumption and complexity of digital UWB receivers significantly. It is particularly suitable in applications such as ranging or positioning and can also be used for identification of more realistic UWB channel models, where different propagation paths undergo different frequency-selective mitigation.


Baldamus Efficiency and Effort (1961) Hb: 0-415-26436-7 Crichton Interdependence and Uncertainty (1966) Hb: 0-415-26437-5 Emery and Thorsrud Form and Content in Industrial Democracy (1969) Hb: 0-415-26438-3 Fensham and Hooper The Dynamics of a Changing Technology (1964) Hb: 0-415-26439-1 Higgin and Jessop Communications in the Building Industry (1965) Hb: 0-415-26440-5 Hofstede The Game of Budget Control (1968) Hb: 0-415-26441-3 Jaques The Changing Culture of a Factory (1951) Hb: 0-415-26442-1 Jaques Measurement of Responsibility (1956) Hb: 0-415-26443-X Rapoport Mid-Career Development (1970) Hb: 0-415-26444-8 Rice The Enterprise and its Environment (1963) Hb: 0-415-26445-6 Rogers Managers: Personality and Performance (1963) Hb: 0-415-26446-4 Sofer and Hutton New Ways in Management Training (1958) Hb: 0-415-26447-2 Van der Hass The Enterprise in Transition (1967) Hb: 0-415-26448-0


Wireless communication technologies have come along way, improving with every generational leap. As communications evolve so do the system architectures, models and paradigms. Improvements have been seen in the jump from 2G to 3G networks in terms of security. Yet these issues persist and will continue to plague mobile communications into the leap towards 4G networks if not addressed.
4G will be based on the transmission of Internet packets only, using an architecture known as mobile IP. This will feature many advantages, however security is still a fundamental issue to be resolved. One particular security issue involves the route optimisation technique, which deals with binding updates.
This allows the corresponding node to by-pass the home agent router to communicate directly with the mobile node. There are a variety of security vulnerabilities with binding updates, which include the interception of data packets, which would allow an attacker to eavesdrop on its contents, breaching the users confidentiality, or to modify transmitted packets for the attackers own malicious purposes. Other possible vulnerabilities with mobile IP include address spoofing, redirection and denial of service
attacks. For many of these attacks, all the attacker needs to know is the IPv6 addresses of the mobile's home agent and the corresponding node.
There are a variety of security solutions to prevent these attacks from occurring. Two of the main solutions are cryptography and authentication. Cryptography allows the transmitted data to be scrambled in an undecipherable way resulting in any intercepted packets being illegible to the attacker. Only the party possessing the relevant key will be able to decrypt the message. Authentication is the
process of verifying the identity of the user or device one is in communication with. Different authentication architectures exist however many of them rely on a central server to verify the users, resulting in a possible single point of attack. Decentralised authentication mechanisms would be more appropriate for the nature of mobile IP and several protocols are discussed. However they all posses'
flaws, whether they be overly resource intensive or give away vital address data, which can be used to mount an attack. As a result location privacy is investigated in a possible attempt at hiding this sensitive data. Finally, a security solution is proposed to address the security vulnerabilities found in binding updates and attempts to overcome the weaknesses of the examined security solutions.
The security protocol proposed in this research involves three new security techniques. The first is a combined solution using Cryptographically Generated Addresses and Return Routability, which are already established solutions, and then introduces a new authentication procedure, to create the Distributed Authentication Protocol to aid with privacy, integrity and authentication. The second is an enhancement to Return Routability called Dual Identity Return Routability, which provides location
verification authentication for multiple identities on the same device. The third security technique is called Mobile Home Agents, which provides device and user authentication while introducing location privacy and optimised communication routing. All three security techniques can be used together or individually and each needs to be passed before the binding update is accepted.
Cryptographically Generated Addresses asserts the users ownership of the IPv6 address by generating the interface identifier by computing a cryptographic one-way hash function from the users' public key and auxiliary parameters. The binding between the public key and the address can be verified by recomputing the hash value and by comparing the hash with the interface identifier. This method proves ownership of the address, however it does not prove the address is reachable.
After establishing address ownership, Return Routability would then send two security tokens to the mobile node, one directly and one via the home agent. The mobile node would then combine them together to create an encryption key called the binding key allowing the binding update to be sent securely to the correspondent node. This technique provides a validation to the mobile nodes' location and proves its ownership of the home agent.
Return Routability provides a test to verify that the node is reachable. It does not verify that the IPv6 address is owned by the user. This method is combined with Cryptographically Generated Addresses to provide best of both worlds.
The third aspect of the first security solution introduces a decentralised authentication mechanism. The correspondent requests the authentication data from both the mobile node and home agent. The mobile sends the data in plain text, which could be encrypted with the binding key and the home agent sends a hash of the data. The correspondent then converts the data so both are hashes and compares them. If
they are the same, authentication is successful. This provides device and user authentication which when combined with Cryptographically Generated Addresses and Return Routability create a robust security solution called the Distributed Authentication Protocol.
The second new technique was designed to provide an enhancement to a current security solution. Dual Identity Return Routability builds on the concept of Return Routability by providing two Mobile IPv6 addresses on a mobile device, giving the user two separate identities. After establishing address ownership with Cryptographically Generated Addresses, Dual Identity Return Routability would then send security data to both identities, each on a separate network and each having heir own home agents,
and the mobile node would then combine them together to create the binding key allowing the binding update to be sent securely to the correspondent node. This technique provides protection against address spoofing as an attacker needs two separate ip addresses, which are linked together. Spoofing only a single address will not pass this security solution.
One drawback of the security techniques described, however, is that none of them provide location privacy to hide the users IP address from attackers. An attacker cannot mount a direct attack if the user is invisible.
The third new security solution designed is Mobile Home Agents. These are software agents, which provide location privacy to the mobile node by acting as a proxy between it and the network. The Mobile Home Agent resides on the point of attachment and migrates to a new point of attachment at
the same time as the mobile node. This provides reduced latency communication and a secure environment for the mobile node.
These solutions can be used separately or combined together to form a super security solution, which is demonstrated in this thesis and attempts to provide proof of address ownership, reachability, user and device authentication, location privacy and reduction in communication latency. All these security features are design to protect against one the most devastating attacks in Mobile IPv6, the false binding update, which can allow an attacker to impersonate and deny service to the mobile node by redirecting all data packets to itself.
The solutions are all simulated with different scenarios and network configurations and with a variety of attacks, which attempt to send a false binding update to the correspondent node. The results were then collected and analysed to provide conclusive proof that the proposed solutions are effective and robust in protecting against the false binding updates creating a safe and secure network for all.


This paper uses the Luxembourg Income Study to examine the tradeoff between government redistribution of income and efficiency in the labor markets over time and across countries. Poverty rates using factor incomes are similar and stable for 9 developed countries over 15 years; but after government fiscal policies, disposable income poverty rates vary considerably. Simple regressions of government redistribution efforts and labor force participation rates show a small effect of redistribution on labor force participation – every time fiscal policy helps to bring 1 percent of the pre-fisc poor above the poverty line, labor force participation rates decline by .2 percentage point. Multiple regression models that control for other determinants of labor force participation give similar results.


An increasing amount of mobile analytics is performed on data that is procured in a real-time fashion to make real-time decisions. Such tasks include simple reporting on streams to sophisticated model building. However, the practicality of these analyses are impeded in several domains because they are faced with a fundamental trade-off between data collection latency and analysis accuracy. In this paper, we first study this trade-off in the context of a specific domain, Cellular Radio Access Networks (RAN). We find that the trade-off can be resolved using two broad, general techniques: intelligent data grouping and task formulations that leverage domain characteristics. Based on this, we present CellScope, a system that applies a domain specific formulation and application of Multi-task Learning (MTL) to RAN performance analysis. It uses three techniques: feature engineering to transform raw data into effective features, a PCA inspired similarity metric to group data from geographically nearby base stations sharing performance commonalities, and a hybrid online-offline model for efficient model updates. Our evaluation shows that CellScope's accuracy improvements over direct application of ML range from 2.5× to 4.4× while reducing the model update overhead by up to 4.8×. We have also used CellScope to analyze an LTE network of over 2 million subscribers, where it reduced troubleshooting efforts by several magnitudes. We then apply the underlying techniques in CellScope to another domain specific problem, mobile phone energy bug diagnosis, and show that the techniques are general.


Studies indicate that there are many cases in which a contributory factor in accidents is the failure of other road users to see motorcycles. TRRL and ICE have investigated this problem and made assessments of means of enhancing the conspicuity of motorcyclists. Early experimental work of various forms showed that either the use of a large dipped headlamp or a pair of specially-designed running lamps considerably enhances conspicuity in daylight. This report describes field trials to assess a wide range of lighting arrangements to determine whether there are simple and cheap options which are effective. A small number of options, previously found to be effective, was examined using a newly-developed technique which was representative of field conditions. The results of earlier work were confirmed in that the use of a large, powerful headlamp, pairs of running lamps or fluorescent clothing were found to improve the conspicuity of a motorcyclist. An important finding was that of the effect of environmental features on the benefits obtained from the use of such measures and a strong recommendation is made that a study be made of accidents to determine the potential role of conspicuity aids. (Author/TRRL)


Aquifers are one of the largest available freshwater resources. In this paper, total dissolved solids (TDS) of the groundwater aquifer in Tabriz plain is estimated by groundwater physicochemical parameters including Na, HCO3, Ca, Mg, and SO4 in the eastern region of Urmia Lake. For this purpose, four soft computing approaches, namely, multilayer perceptron (MLP), adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS), support vector machine (SVM), and gene expression programming (GEP) were used to predict TDS for a period of 10 years (2002–2012). Data were collected from the East Azerbaijan Regional Water Organization, which totaled 1,742 samples. In the application, of the whole data set, 70% (1,220 samples) was used for training and 30% (522 samples) for testing. In the following, the correlation coefficient (R), root mean square error (RMSE), and mean absolute error (MAE) statistics were used for evaluating the accuracy of the models. According to the results, MLP, ANFIS, SVM, and GEP models could be employed successfully in estimating TDS alterations. A comparison was made between these soft computing approaches that corroborated the superiority of the GEP model over MLP, SVM, and ANFIS models with RMSE = 58.93, R = 0.998, and MAE = 5.21.


Lava flows are a common hazard at basaltic to intermediate volcanoes in general and have posed a significant threat to La Reunion Island specifically over the past centuries. In sustained flow units, the efficiency of lava transport away from the vent is dominated by cooling. For basaltic to intermediate lavas it is the ability of the lava to solidify during cooling which exerts a first-order control on the extent of flow. As a consequence, understanding the sub-liquidus rheology of lavas has become a key focus in lava flow research in the past decade. To date, a systematic understanding of lava rheology during emplacement conditions has been largely hampered by a lack of experimental data. Here we present new data on the rheological evolution of a crystalizing high Mg basalt from Piton de la Fournaise. Sub-liquidus experiments were performed at constant cooling rates of 0.5 to 5 K/min, to mimic conditions similar to those experienced by lava during flow on the surface and magma during dike and sill emplacement. The data show that the effective viscosity of the crystallizing suspension increases until reaching a specific sub-liquidus temperature, the so-called "rheological cut-off temperature" (T cutoff ), at which the lava effectively solidifies. This departure to high viscosity is a consequence of rapid crystallization and is found to be primarily controlled by the imposed cooling-rate. Based on our experimental data, we adapt the failure forecasting method (FFM), which is commonly used to describe the self-accelerating nature of seismic signals to forecast material failure, to predict the rheological cut-off temperature (T cutoff ). The data presented serve to expand the modest existing experimental database on non-equilibrium rheology of lavas as a step towards understanding the underlying process dynamics.


We provide new evidence concerning two opposing views of episodic associations: The independent associations hypothesis (IAH) posits that associations are unidirectional and separately modifiable links (A→B and A←B); the associative symmetry hypothesis (ASH), to the contrary, considers the association to be a holistic conjunction of A and B representations. While existing literature focuses on tests that compare the equality and correlation of forward and backward associations and favors ASH over IAH, we provide the first direct evidence of IAH by showing that forward and backward associations are separately modifiable for semantically related pairs. In two experiments, participants studied 30 semantically unrelated and 30 semantically related pairs intermixed in a single list, and then performed a series of up to eight cued-recall test cycles. All pairs were tested in each cycle, and the testing direction (A-? or B-?) alternated between cycles. Consistent with prior research, unrelated pairs exhibited associative symmetry – accuracy and response times improved gradually on each test, suggesting that testing in both directions strengthened the same association. In contrast, semantically related pairs exhibited a stair-like pattern, where performance did not change from odd to even tests when the test direction changed; it only improved between tests of the same direction. We conclude that episodic associations can have either a holistic representation (ASH) or separate directional representations (IAH), depending on the semantic relatedness of their constituent items.


One of the most important issues in modern society is how society modifies the way in which its members develop relationships and foster cooperation in the face of new communication technologies. I explore theoretical and empirical parameters of this process and their implications for encouraging trust and cooperation in negotiations. I begin with an argument for the role of trust and cooperation as part of the foundation of digital commerce by expanding the reach of the social contract theory (ISCT) of Donaldson and Dunfee (1994; 1999). I argue that a digital community is a community in the ISCT sense, and that the basic framework of ISCT can apply to the digital business world. I then analyze the roles of trust and cooperation within this framework, explaining their moral relevance for e-commerce. I follow this discussion with two empirical papers to begin to uncover the nature of digital norms. In "Negotiating with the Millennial Generation" I use a series of behavioral studies and online chat analyses to show that people build trusting relationships online, often resulting in more cooperation than when they talk face to face. I then look at what type of texting creates stronger relationships, showing that longer texting conversations that go beyond small talk generated greater trust and rapport. I also use a behavioral study involving a smartphone application to discuss how over time people learn to use new forms of communication to build trusting relationships through digital media. In the third paper "Why the F*** Don't They TRUST" I develop the notion that particular behaviors can affect online trust development. Using analyses of online texts and additional behavioral studies I show how normdefying online incivility decreases trust while norm-abiding use of capital letters does not. I show that encouraging people to abide by civility norms develops more trusting and cooperative online environments. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Legal Studies & Business Ethics First Advisor Diana C. Robertson


The interactions of resorcin[4]arenes 1 with alkyl ammonium cations bearing a 1,4-diazabicyclo[2.2.2]octane (DABCO) scaffold (32+, 42+ and 52+) were analyzed in the solid state by X-ray crystallography, in solution by 1H NMR spectroscopy, and in the gas phase by ESI-TOF mass spectrometry. The results are complemented with AM1 calculations and compared to previous reports on complexation studies of resorcinarenes with quaternary alkyl ammonium cations. The NMR titration results indicate that there are hardly any differences in the binding of the quaternary tetramethyl ammonium cation 2+ and the diquaternary N,N'-dimethyl DABCO dication 42+. The large N,N'-dibenzyl DABCO dication 52+ has two potential sites for inclusion, that is, the aryl groups and the central cationic part, and the complexation and interactions of both sites with 1 were verified in the NMR studies as well as in the solid state structures.


Published in Vienna in 1936, "The Authoritarian State" by Eric Voegelin has remained virtually unknown to the public until now. Sales of the German edition were halted following the Nazi invasion of Austria in 1938, and the entire printing was later destroyed by wartime bombing. In this volume, Voegelin offers a critical examination of the most prominent European theories of state and constitutional law of the period while providing a political and historical analysis of the Austrian situation. He discusses the dismissal of Parliament in 1933, the civil war, the murder of Federal Chancellor Dollfuss, the adoption of the "Authoritarian Constitution" of 1934, and the predicament of being sandwiched between Hitler and Mussolini.A radical critique of Hans Kelsen's pure theory of law lies at the heart of this work, marking Voegelin's definitive departure from Neo-Kantian epistemology. For the first time, Voegelin elaborates on the important distinction between theoretical concepts and political symbols as a basis for explaining the nontheoretical and speculative character of ideologies, both left and right. He shows that "total" and "authoritarian" are symbols of ideological self-interpretation that have no theoretical value, a distinction basic to his later work in "The New Science of Politics."Available for the first time in English, "The Authoritarian State" is a valuable addition to the Voegelin canon and to the field of intellectual history in general.


Successive governments have promised to reduce business red tape, whilst doing nothing about it. In fact, with regard to the tax system, ever-greater numbers of taxes and ever-greater complexity have increased burdens on businesses by turning firms into unpaid tax collectors.Research into the costs of regulation is notoriously difficult. However, this study brings together the best work on the burden of tax compliance and administration and adds important new insights. In particular, this monograph shows the severely regressive nature of the costs of complying with the UK tax system - small firms suffer far more than large firms from the imposition of government bureaucracy related to tax collection.The costs of complying with the tax system are higher in the UK than in many other countries. The authors show that this should not be the case, and propose ways of reducing the burden of tax bureaucracy. These include radical reforms, not just to the administration of the tax system, but also to the nature of the system itself.


The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of preferential trade agreements and the monetary union on bilateral trade between UEMOA member countries. With the use of a dynamic gravity model, it was possible to realize that membership in a common monetary zone and the implementation of common economic reforms had a significant effect on bilateral trade within the zone, although more in terms of diverting imports and exports than in terms of creating trade. Furthermore, economic policy distortions that foster informal transborder trade had a negative effect on trade within the region.


The livestock industry uses information on meat prices at different stages in the marketing system to make production decisions. When grocery stores began using electronic scanners to capture prices paid for meat, it was assumed that the livestock industry could capitalize on having these point-of-sale data available as a measure of the value of its products. This report compares scanner price data with publicly available data collected by the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Of the two data types, scanner data provide more information about retail meat markets, including a wider variety of meat-cut prices, multiple measures of an average price, the volume of sales, and the relative importance of discounted prices. The scanner data sample, however, is not statistically drawn, and complicated processing requirements delay its release, which makes scanner data less useful than BLS data for analyzing current market conditions.


The sub-pixel motion estimation (SME), together with the interpolation of reference frames, is a computationally extensive part of the H.264 encoder that increases the memory requirement 16-times for each reference frame. Due to the huge computational complexity and memory requirement of the H.264 SME, its hardware architecture design is an important issue especially in high resolution or low power applications. To solve the above difficulties, we propose several optimization techniques in both algorithm and architecture levels. In the algorithm level, we propose a parabolic based algorithm for SME with quarter-pixel accuracy which reduces the computational budget by 94.35% and the memory access requirement by 98.5% in comparison to the standard interpolate and search method. In addition, a fast version of the proposed algorithm is presented that reduces the computational budget 46.28% further while maintaining the video quality. In the architecture level, we propose a novel bit-serial architecture for our algorithm. Due to advantages of the bit-serial architecture, it has a low gate count, high speed operation frequency, low density interconnection, and a reduced number of I/O pins. Also, several optimization techniques including the sum of absolute differences truncation, source sharing exploiting and power saving techniques are applied to the proposed architecture which reduce power consumption and area. Our design can save between 57.71–90.01% of area cost and improves the macroblock (MB) processing speed between 1.7–8.44 times when compared to previous designs. Implementation results show that our design can support real time HD1080 format with 20.3 k gate counts at the operation frequency of 144.9 MHz.


In this paper, we introduce a physics-driven regularization method for training of deep neural networks (DNNs) for use in engineering design and analysis problems. In particular, we focus on prediction of a physical system, for which in addition to training data, partial or complete information on a set of governing laws is also available. These laws often appear in the form of differential equations, derived from first principles, empirically-validated laws, or domain expertise, and are usually neglected in data-driven prediction of engineering systems. We propose a training approach that utilizes the known governing laws and regularizes data-driven DNN models by penalizing divergence from those laws. The first two numerical examples are synthetic examples, where we show that in constructing a DNN model that best fits the measurements from a physical system, the use of our proposed regularization results in DNNs that are more interpretable with smaller generalization errors, compared to other common regularization methods. The last two examples concern metamodeling for a random Burgers' system and for aerodynamic analysis of passenger vehicles, where we demonstrate that the proposed regularization provides superior generalization accuracy compared to other common alternatives.


Abstract In tropical ecosystems, ants represent a substantial portion of the animal biomass and contribute to various ecosystem services, including pest regulation and pollination. Dominant ant species are known to determine the structure of ant communities by interfering in the foraging of other ant species. Using bait and pitfall trapping experiments, we performed a pattern analysis at a fine spatial scale of an ant community in a very simplified and homogeneous agroecosystem, that is, a single‐crop banana field in Martinique (French West Indies). We found that the community structure was driven by three dominant species (Solenopsis geminata, Nylanderia guatemalensis, and Monomorium ebeninum) and two subdominant species (Pheidole fallax and Brachymyrmex patagonicus). Our results showed that dominant and subdominant species generally maintained numerical dominance at baits across time, although S. geminata, M. ebeninum, and B. patagonicus displayed better abilities to maintain dominance than P. fallax and N. guatemalensis. Almost all interspecific correlations between species abundances, except those between B. patagonicus and N. guatemalensis, were symmetrically negative, suggesting that interference competition prevails in this ground‐dwelling ant community. However, we observed variations in the diurnal and nocturnal foraging activity and in the daily occurrence at baits, which may mitigate the effect of interference competition through the induction of spatial and temporal niche partitioning. This may explain the coexistence of dominant, subdominant, and subordinate species in this very simplified agroecosystem, limited in habitat structure and diversity.


ABSTRACT Green infrastructure (GI) has become a panacea for cities working to enhance sustainability and resilience. While the rationale for GI primarily focuses on its multifunctionality (e.g. delivering multiple ecosystem services to local communities), uncertainties remain around how, for whom, and to what extent GI delivers these services. Additionally, many scholars increasingly recognize potential disservices of GI, including gentrification associated with new GI developments. Building on a novel dataset of 119 planning documents from 19 U.S. cities, we utilize insights from literature on justice in urban planning to examine the justice implications of criteria used in the siting of GI projects. We analyze the GI siting criteria described in city plans and how they explicitly or implicitly engage environmental justice. We find that justice is rarely explicitly discussed, yet the dominant technical siting criteria that focus on stormwater and economic considerations have justice implications. We conclude with recommendations for centering justice in GI spatial planning.


Renewable Portfolio Standards ("RPS") are stated to have a plethora of benefits: job creation, renewable energy growth, reduced carbon emissions, and a reduction in retail electricity prices. Often when a policy has multiple agendas, the policy fails to meet any of the objectives. Twentynine states have implemented an RPS, but state policies vary with regard to the sources considered eligible, out-of-state generation, credit trading, and the process of ensuring compliance. The various policy facets affect the growth of renewable energy within the state and affect the additional stated benefits of job creation and reduced emissions. This paper examines Illinois's RPS as a case study for analyzing the many goals and impacts of other RPSs. We use Illinois's market for electricity as a case study for several reasons. First, the RPS in Illinois focuses on encouraging wind generation by requiring seventy-five percent of the standard be generated from wind. This aspect allows us to focus on the growth of the wind industry. Next, the electricity market in Illinois allows customers to choose their electricity supplier. We can analyze restructuring and its impact on the renewable sector. Finally, Illinois is surrounded by states whose renewable industry may benefit from Illinois's mandate. We will also examine the impact of Illinois's standard on the renewable electricity generation in the surrounding states.


A significant amount of solid wastes produced every year from construction and demolition activities, and had caused significant pollution to the environment and risen public concern. Therefore, the minimization of construction wastes has become a critical issue in construction industry Concrete is the most commonly used construction material in the world, and after water is the second most consumed product on the planet. The huge popularity of concrete also carries environmental costs, the most harmful of which is the high energy consumption and CO2 release during the production. This paper investigates the amount of energy used and CO2 emission generated during the production of concrete. Furthermore to estimate the total impact of both indicators based on concrete wasted generated on site. Data were obtained through questionnaire survey and interview within the building construction projects in U.T.M. These impact assessment were followed the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology. The results show that the production of the raw material and the transports of the concrete are the main contributor to the total environmental load . The highest impact value was generated during the production of cement at upstream level .the amount of energy used and CO2 emission by cement production was about 70 percent of the total embodied energy and 95% of the carbon dioxide emissions of concrete production and Within the transportation operations, the transportation of concrete is the largest contributor equal to 25% to 28% the production of concrete and on the other hand 12% to 14% for CO2 emission.


We have known for years that the difference between those who become successful in life and those who struggle is their degree of emotional intelligence (EI), or "people skills." Now, The Other Kind of Smart shows readers how they can increase their emotional intelligence and overcome the barriers that are preventing them from realizing their true potential. Emotional intelligence coach Harvey Deutschendorf has shown thousands of people how to relate emotional intelligence to everyday situations. Here, he uses the proven techniques of storytelling, combined with quotes and exercises, to show readers how to apply the principles of EI on the job. Filled with real-life scenarios and solutions, the book offers tools that will bring results in as little as five minutes a day and shows how to develop stress tolerance, cultivate empathy, increase flexibility with co-workers, boost assertiveness, and resolve problems successfully. Complete with an EI quiz that will help readers measure their own level of emotional intelligence, this invaluable guide will enable everyone to improve their relationships and increase their effectiveness at work in a practical, accessible way.


Summary
As cities around the world rapidly expand, there is an urgent need to implement the best development form to minimize the negative impacts of urbanization on native biodiversity. Two divergent forms for the expansion of cities are land-sharing and land-sparing developments. To date, their relative benefits for biodiversity conservation are poorly understood.
We quantified the relative conservation benefits of land-sharing and land-sparing developments for butterflies and ground beetles in Tokyo, Japan. For each insect species, we determined which approach resulted in a larger total population size.
At a higher level of urbanization (higher number of buildings in a landscape), land sparing rather than land sharing resulted in a higher total population size for the majority species of both taxa. However, at a lower level of urbanization, butterflies and ground beetles showed different responses to city development forms. Ground beetles had their highest total population sizes under land sparing, whereas for butterflies, especially open-land and matrix-dwelling species, larger populations were achieved under land sharing.
The negative impacts of urbanization on biodiversity differ greatly between land-sharing and land-sparing development forms. We also revealed that the relative conservation benefits of land sharing and land sparing depend on the level of urbanization.
Synthesis and applications. In areas that will be heavily urbanized in the future, city planners and policymakers should adopt approaches that follow a land-sparing strategy and that keep large blocks of greenspace free from development. At lower levels of urbanization, on the other hand, as land sharing was suggested to be the better strategy for many butterfly species, a hybrid development form could be adopted that integrates areas of land sharing and land sparing, which might have the additional benefit of enhancing the delivery of some ecosystem services by bringing nature and people closer together in some areas.


The first start-to-finish guide to patching Linux systems in production environments For Red Hat, Fedora, SUSE, Debian, and other leading distributions Comprehensive coverage of apt, yum, Red Hat Network, YaST Online Update, Zenworks Linux Management, and other tools High-efficiency techniques that minimize impacts on networks, users, and administratorsThe Start-to-Finish Patch Management Guide for Every Linux® EnvironmentTo keep your Linux systems secure, reliable, and productive, you must stay current with patches and updates. But, until now, it has been difficult to find usable, trustworthy guidance on managing patches in Linux production environments. Linux Patch Management fills that gap, offering Linux professionals start-to-finish solutions, strategies, and examples for every environment, from single computers to enterprise-class networks.Michael Jang presents patching solutions for Red Hat, Fedora, SUSE, Debian, and other distributions. He systematically covers both distribution-specific tools and widely used community tools, such as apt and yum. This book's streamlined patch management techniques minimize impacts on users, networks, and administrators, and address applications as well as the underlying OS. Whatever your role in managing Linux systems, Linux Patch Management will reduce your costs, enhance the availability of your systems, and dramatically improve your personal efficiency. Consolidating patches on a Red Hat network, including cached updates, as well as patching systems based on RHEL rebuild distributions Working with SUSE's update systems, including YaST Online Update and Zenworks Linux Management Making the most of apt commands and the GUI-based Synaptic Package Manager Configuring apt for RPM distributions such as Fedora and SUSE Linux Creating repositories that can manage gigabytes of patches on diverse Linux systems Updating networks of Linux computers without overloading WAN or Internet connections Configuring yum clients, including coverage of emerging GUI tools such as Yum ExtenderBruce Perens' Open Source Series is a definitive series of Linux and open source books by the world's leading Linux professionals. Bruce Perens is the primary author of The Open Source Definition, the formative document of the open source movement, and the former Debian GNU/Linux Project Leader.Series Editor Bruce Perens is an open source evangelist, developer, and consultant whose software is a major component of most commercial embedded Linux offerings. He founded or cofounded Linux Standard Base, Open Source Initiative, and Software in the Public Interest. As Debian GNU/Linux Project Leader, he was instrumental in getting the system on two U.S. space shuttle flights.© Copyright Pearson Education. All rights reserved.


63 New and Updated Patterns for Driving and Sustaining Change The hard part of change is enlisting the support of other people. Whether a top manager interested in improving your organizations results or a lone developer promoting a better way of working, this book will give you tools and ideas to help accomplish your goal. George Dinwiddie, independent coach and consultant, iDIA Computing, LLC Keep the patterns in this book and Fearless Change handy. These patterns transformed me from an ineffective voice in the wilderness to a valued collaborator. Lisa Crispin, co-author (with Janet Gregory) of Agile Testing and More Agile Testing In their classic work, Fearless Change, Mary Lynn Manns and Linda Rising interviewed successful leaders of change, identified 48 patterns for implementing change in teams of all sizes, and demonstrated how to use these techniques effectively. Now, in More Fearless Change the authors reflect on all theyve learned about their original patterns in the past decade, and introduce 15 powerful, new techniquesall extensively validated by change leaders worldwide. Manns and Rising teach strategies that appeal to each individuals logic (head), feelings (heart), and desire to contribute (hands)the best way to motivate real change and sustain it for the long haul. Learn how to Focus on the best things you can achieve with limited resources Strategize to build flexible plans and go after low-hanging fruit Get help from the right people in the right ways Establish emotional connections that inspire motivation and imagination Create an elevator pitch that keeps everyone focused on what truly matters Build bridges, work with skeptics, soften resistance, and open minds Uncover easier paths towards change, and build on what already works Sustain momentum, provide time for reflection, and celebrate small successes More Fearless Change reflects a profound understanding of how real change happens: not instantaneously in response to top-down plans and demands, but iteratively, through small steps that teach from experience. Best of all, as thousands of change agents have already discovered, its patterns are easy to useand they work.


The waveform of an action potential can be physiologically modified while it travels along the axon. Modulation of the action potential waveform that enhances synaptic transmission has been reported in central neurons after repetitive stimulation or depolarization of the presynaptic neuron. Sasaki et al. used optically targeted axons to observe that modulation of synaptic transmission in cortical neurons does not exclusively depend on release processes but is also achieved by regulation of presynaptic action potential width. Activation of periaxonal astrocytes broadened action potentials and enhanced synaptic transmission. T. Sasaki, N. Matsuki, Y. Ikegaya, Action-potential modulation during axonal conduction. Science 331, 599–601 (2011). [Abstract] [Full Text]


Over the past decade, there has been a great deal of interest in the integration of nanotechnology and carbohydrates. The advances in glyconanotechnology have allowed the creation of different bioactive glyconanostructures for different types of medical applications, especially for drug delivery and release systems. Therefore, the use of more efficient biocompatible nanocarriers with high loading capacity, low overall toxicity and receptor-mediated endocytosis specificity is still in focus for the enhancement of the therapeutic effect. Conjugation of sugar derivatives onto gold nanoparticles presents unique properties that include a wide array of assembling models and size-related electronic, magnetic and optical properties. Here, pH-responsive drug-conjugated glycopolymer-coated gold nanoparticles were prepared by functionalization of gold nanoparticles with thiol-terminated glycopolymers and then subsequent conjugation of doxorubicin (DOX). Among the four different glycopolymers, their drug release, physicochemical characterization (spectroscopy, particle size and surface charge) and in vitro bioapplications with four different cell lines were compared. As a result, pH-sensitive drug delivery via sugar-coated AuNPs was performed thanks to hydrazone linkages between glycopolymers and DOX. Comparative viability tests also demonstrated the efficiency of glycopolymer–DOX conjugates by fluorescence cell imaging. The obtained results reveal that AuNP homoglycopolymer DOX conjugates (P4D) have significant potential, especially in human neuroblastoma cells in comparison to cervical cancer cells and lung cancer cells.


A palinspastic reconstruction of a 100 km long traverse through Archaean rocks of the East Pilbara, Western Australia, includes new observations of the deformation preceding the now visible greenstone belt pattern. The restoration is time-calibrated with all available U–Pb datings. Between incompletely preserved basin sequences, two superposed Palaeoarchaean volcano-sedimentary basins (the Coongan and Salgash Basins) are separated by an eastwards time-transgressive interface tentatively interpreted as an onlap surface. For over 140 Ma, the basin margin architecture was structurally controlled by superposed extensional growth fault arrays (D1) with associated dyke swarms in a curved pattern spatially not related to that of the actual distribution of granite domes and greenstone belts. The basins are interpreted to have formed by collapse after arching above hotspots due to phase transitions by mini-subduction of slabs of cooled water-saturated basalt towards the base of an originally c. 45 km mafic crust. At c. 3.31 Ga, the extension was replaced by plate-driven regional NW–SE compression (D2) inferred from NW-over-SE shear and ramp-and-flat thrusts, partly reversing offsets of the D1 extension. The recognition of widespread D2 pre-doming compression is important because it triggered the c. 3.18 Ga start of formation of the dome-and-keel pattern (D3) visible today, which culminated at c. 2.9 Ga. Supplementary material: Eight figures, numbered 'Supplementary material fig. a–h', and a GPS list of observation sites are available at: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.3808243


The article poses a kind of metaethical proposal; it suggests a certain way of dealing with moral issues and applying academic ethics to practice. The three relatively simple rules of moral behaviour, namely: Notice others around you! Be open to criticism! Act in a communicative way! have been discussed in relation to situations typical for academic environment. The author presents the problem in the form of an analytic model defined by him as an operational system of ethics. It enables, among other things, to expose the moral importance of the microscale of social experience, which is significant for the functioning of complex organisations such as modern universities. In the author's view, the complexity of social life in today's world should be accompanied by a relatively simple and practically useful ethical thought, which could be helpful in everyday activities of a particular individual.


We study sequences of functions of the form Fp → {0, 1} for varying n, and define a notion of convergence based on the induced distributions from restricting the functions to a random affine subspace. Using a decomposition theorem and a recently proven equi-distribution theorem from higher order Fourier analysis, we prove that the limits of such convergent sequences can be represented by certain measurable functions. We also show that every such limit object arises as the limit of some sequence of functions. These results are in the spirit of similar results which have been developed for limits of graph sequences. A more general, albeit substantially more sophisticated, limit object was recently constructed by Szegedy in [Balázs Szegedy. Gowers norms, regularization and limits of functions on abelian groups. 2010. Full version at arXiv:1010.6211].


The Space Exploration Initiative (SEI) proposes large space programs such as a human mission to Mars and the establishment of a lunar base. These programs will require massive logistical support from Earth, both for in-space assembly/construction and for subsequent mission operations and resupply. The various types of launch vehicles and the collection of launch facilities, recovery areas and refurbishment depots necessary for SEI missions pose major technical and funding challenges. In this paper, we have developed a quantitative tool for envisioning, evaluating and optimizing the ground and launch operations in order to meet SEI objectives. A Simulation of Logistics model (SIMLOG) has been developed to determine which facilities and operations limit the maximum launch rate. This model produced the maximum achievable launch rate for each individual vehicle. The maximum launch rates are then input data for the Launch Vehicle Selection Model (LVSM), a linear integer programming model, which selects the optimal number of each launch vehicle from a number of existing and proposed vehicles in order to minimize the overall multi-year launching cost of the SEI program. The simulation indicated that the SEI Low Earth Orbit (LEO) requirement of 2.1 million pounds can be met with a mixed fleet consisting of current vehicles, a Shuttle C and the proposed Heavy Lift Launch Vehicle (HLLV). Another result, however, was that the human delivery capability was inadequate using the current Shuttle launch rates. Using SIMLOG and LVSM, a first-order estimation of the cost can be made for these augmented facilities which determines which launch facility investments should be made before the SEI missions are undertaken.


Summary Computational metabolic models typically encode for graphs of species, reactions, and enzymes. Comparing genome-scale models through topological analysis of multipartite graphs is challenging. However, in many practical cases it is not necessary to compare the full networks. The GEMtractor is a web-based tool to trim models encoded in SBML. It can be used to extract subnetworks, for example focusing on reaction- and enzyme-centric views into the model. Availability and Implementation The GEMtractor is licensed under the terms of GPLv3 and developed at github.com/binfalse/GEMtractor – a public version is available at sbi.uni-rostock.de/gemtractor. Contact firstname.lastname@example.com and firstname.lastname@example.com


It is commonly assumed that the perception of achromatic colors in center-surround configurations is governed by Wallach's ratio principle. Within the received view, assuming that perceived achromatic colors form a continuum from black to white, this principle states that the color of the center depends on the center to surround ratio of physical intensities, but not on their absolute values. On the basis of a generalized Fechnerian representation the paper explores the theoretical consequences of various psychophysical invariances: Wallach's ratio principle and illumination invariance as well as generalizations that may be conceived as near-misses to these conditions. It is shown that these invariances constrain the possible form of the psychophysical functions. Reanalyzing classical data in the light of these theoretical results reveals that only predictions derived from the near-miss to Wallach's ratio principle and from illumination invariance can account for key features. The implications of these findings are discussed.


Describing NDSU as "a place of impact," President Joseph A. Chapman outlined bold initiatives for the future during his 10th annual State of the University Address. Chapman said NDSU began a transitional journey 10 years ago as each program developed its own next level of excellence. He said NDSU is preparing students for and assisting business with the global marketplace, noting that the land-grant ideal mandates preparation for society's changes.
During this extraordinary decade, he said NDSU's growth has meant an additional $1 billion to the state's economy. He praised the faculty, staff, students, alumni and friends of the university for their efforts during the process.
"We are part of a tradition of high quality education, cutting edge research and meaningful service to the people of North Dakota, the nation and the world," he said. "Everyone one of you is an important contributor to the past, present and future of NDSU. You are making a difference. You are making NDSU a place of impact." He said NDSU has used five themes in its transformation: "It's About People," "Students are Paramount," "Programs," "Leveraging Support" and "Stature." Now, he said three qualitative principles will be added: "Inclusive," "Responsive" and "Excellent."


Title of Dissertation: PUTTING CHILDREN IN CONTEXT Luisa Meroni, Doctor of Philosophy, 2005 Dissertation directed by: Professor Stephen Crain Department of Linguistics Studies of adult sentence processing have established that the referential context in which sentences are presented plays an immediate role in their interpretation, such that features of the referential context mitigate, and even eliminate, so-called 'garden-path' effects. The finding that the context ordinarily obviates garden path effects is compelling evidence for the Referential Theory, advanced originally by Crain and Steedman, (1985) and extended in Altmann and Steedman (1988). Recent work by Trueswell, Sekerina, Hill and Logrip (1999) suggests, however, that children may not be as sensitive as adults to contextual factors in resolving structural ambiguities. This conclusion is not anticipated by the Referential Theory and it also runs counter to the Continuity Assumption, which supposes that children and adults access the same cognitive mechanisms in processing language. The purpose of this work was to reexamine the observations that have led researchers to conclude that children, unlike adults, may lack sensitivity to features of the referential context in comprehension and ambiguity resolution. A series of experiments has been conducted to evaluate this conclusion. The findings show that the performance systems of children and adult differ minimally. Children are sensitive to the same features of the referential context as adults are, and they make use of the context to resolve structural ambiguities in sentence interpretation. In addition, the present study provides evidence in favor of children's pragmatic and semantic knowledge. PUTTING CHILDREN IN CONTEXT Experimental Studies on Children's Interpretation of Definite Noun Phrases


Using a mixed-methods study of contract seed-corn farmers in southwest Michigan, we examine the effect of interlocking macro and micro social forces on climate change behavior and apply the theoretical frames of treadmills of production and informational influence. We find that competitive agricultural contracts in the seed-corn industry impose significant structural barriers to adopting climate change mitigation behaviors. Seed-corn contracts constrain adoption of those behaviors through competitive rankings based solely on net commodity production and by limiting farmers' access to information to make judicious management decisions. At the micro level, our findings suggest that informational influence—that is, where farmers turn for trusted information—also affects climate change mitigation behaviors, and that these informational networks are embedded within structural constraints. Our findings suggest that agricultural contracts serve as a significant structural constraint on the adoption of mitigation practices and that climate scholarship and policy must address both macro and micro dimensions simultaneously to encourage adoption of climate change mitigation.


Many current program analyses require highly precise pointer
information about small, tar- geted parts of a given program. This
motivates the need for demand-driven pointer analyses that compute
information only where required. Pointer analyses generally compute
points-to sets of program variables or answer boolean alias
queries. However, many client analyses require richer pointer
information. For example, taint and typestate analyses often need to
know the set of all aliases of a given variable under a certain
calling context. With most current pointer analyses, clients must
compute such information through repeated points-to or alias queries, increasing complexity and computation time for them.

This paper presents Boomerang, a demand-driven, flow-, field-, and
context-sensitive pointer analysis for Java programs. Boomerang
computes rich results that include both the possible allocation sites of a given pointer (points-to information) and all pointers that can point to those allocation sites (alias information). For increased precision and scalability, clients can query Boomerang with respect to particular calling contexts of interest.

Our experiments show that Boomerang is more precise than existing
demand-driven pointer analyses. Additionally, using Boomerang, the
taint analysis FlowDroid issues up to 29.4x fewer pointer queries
compared to using other pointer analyses that return simpler pointer
infor- mation. Furthermore, the search space of Boomerang can be
significantly reduced by requesting calling contexts from the client
analysis.


We present a new scheme for a laser cooled Raman optical fiber amplifier. The heat generated in the process of Raman amplification (RA) is compensated for with laser cooling provided by anti-Stokes fluorescence of ytterbium ions doped in the core of the fiber. The device is pumped with two pump sources. One of the pump sources provides RA of the signal and does not interact with the ytterbium ions in the core; a second pump cools the fiber through anti-Stokes fluorescence of the Yb3+ ions. The proper arrangement of Yb3+ distribution can provide athermal performance of the device.


There is growing interest in the tissue-protective effects of some cytokines, including
erythropoietin (EPO) and the IL-6 family cytokine leukaemia inhibitory factor (LIF);
both have receptors, and exert their effects, on cells other than their primary targets.
In the nervous system, these cytokines could aid in the treatment of demyelinating
diseases, such as multiple sclerosis, by protecting myelin from damage and
supporting remyelination after damage has occurred. Previous work has shown that
EPO increases myelination in oligodendrocytes, the cells responsible for myelin
deposition in the central nervous system. I aimed to determine if LIF shares the
promyelinating effects of EPO and understand more about the mechanisms
mediating tissue-protective cytokine-induced myelination.
A model of rat oligodendrocyte precursor cells was used and their myelinating
capacity was measured as represented by myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein
(Mog) expression. Initially I studied EPO and LIF's effects on these cells before
defining the molecular mechanisms causing their effects using microarray gene
expression analysis.
EPO increased myelination by eight-fold, a level that was sustained at concentrations
up to and including 400ng/ml. After treatment with LIF at 0.2ng/ml Mog expression
was increased by two-fold, but concentrations above 2ng/ml caused a reduced
expression of Mog. Interestingly, when LIF and EPO were added simultaneously
there was a significant reduction in EPO-induced Mog expression suggesting that
LIF induced an inhibitory feedback that was responsible for blocking not only its
own, but also EPO's effect. The inhibitory feedback was replicated when LIF was
replaced by ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF) and oncostatin M (OSM),
glycoprotein 130 (GP130) cytokines that use the same receptor as LIF.
The signalling mechanisms that may have caused the inhibition of EPO-induced
Mog were then investigated. Socs3, a known inhibitory feedback of LIF and other
IL-6 cytokines, negatively correlated with Mog expression, as the higher
concentration of LIF and the simultaneous EPO and LIF treatment induced the
greatest Socs3 expression.
Gene expression microarray analysis was performed to elucidate further mechanisms
that may cause the inhibition of EPO-induced Mog. A variety of candidate genes
were identified and their expression validated by qPCR. The roles of Tlr2/Myd88
and lipocalin 2 were investigated further and Tlr2 activation showed a functional
effect on Mog expression.
The results showed that LIF and other GP130 cytokines inhibited EPO's positive
effect on myelination and clarified some of the mechanisms that resulted in
inhibition. The implications of my work could be an increase in efficacy of EPO
treatment, as the work has elucidated mechanisms that could inhibit EPO's promyelinating
effect. Increased efficacy of EPO would impact new therapies and
therapeutic approaches using tissue protective cytokines in regenerative medicine.