Graphene nanoplatelet (GNP)-polyetherimide (PEI) papers, in which GNP loadings were controlled up to nearly 100 wt%, were prepared by filtration and hot-press. The impact of GNP content on electrical conductivity, damping behavior and mechanical properties was investigated. While tensile tests showed that there were generally some decreases in tensile strength and strain at break, dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) has shown that compared with either the pristine GNP paper or the neat PEI film, the storage modulus increased 7 to 20 times and the capacity to dissipate damping energy in terms of loss modulus was substantially improved by up to 30 times. The tan δ value gained more than 5 times, indicating that a higher fraction of loaded energy was converted to heat. Comparative studies showed that the PEI with relatively smaller molecular weight and large GNPs exhibited better damping effects. These results may suggest a new potential application of GNP or graphene reinforced polymer-based nanocomposite specifically applicable in energy- absorption upon dynamic loading. Besides, all GNP-PEI papers in this study exhibited very good electrical conductivity.


Understanding how people classify physical geographic features is necessary for identifying cross-cultural geographic concepts necessary for successful communication of landscape knowledge. Identifying cross-cultural geographic concepts will require development of the field of ethnogeography, which employs ethnographic methods to analyze geographic knowledge. This chapter analyzes physical geographic knowledge in the Maninka language of southwestern Mali, and compares Maninka knowledge to that of other culturalgroups. The results suggest that broad physical geographic concepts may be shared pan-environmentally, but that most physical geographic knowledge is contained in culturally specific classifications within a broad cross-cultural framework. Academic geographers should expect only broad correspondence between their categories of physical geographic variation and those of people who classify biophysical features according to local knowledge systems.


Word spellings are often a common linguistic issue among Arabic-speaking learners of English, and English vowels are one of the most difficult to resolve. Therefore, the study presented vowel instruction as an intervention to address this issue by determining its effect on the spelling performance on monosyllables and bi-syllables. Vowel instruction sessions were then offered to 15 university freshman students for two months. Instructional strategies consisted of teaching vowel pronunciation, vowel letter-to-sound relationships, vowel spelling patterns, word-breaking, and providing various spelling opportunities. To measure overall spelling performance, pre-test and post-test on vowel spellings were conducted which revealed a significant increase in the mean scores. This suggests that vowel instruction was facilitative in the improved spelling performance on monosyllabic and bi-syllabic words, with more misspellings in the latter than in the former. The strategies used were generally perceived as beneficial, and it is recommended that including them in language lessons could improve vowel spelling skill and minimize English vowel confusions. Moreover, constant exposure of learners to many English words and more spelling activities are still necessary for better English vowel recognition and whole word spelling.


Despite significant work on literacy as a situated practice (Brandt; Street; Gee), in the African American community (Banks; Richardson; Young) and in the LGBT community (Alexander; Alexander and Rhodes), only recently have scholars looked at literacy at the intersection of Black  and  LGBT people. A notable example is Eric Pritchard's discussion of "literacy normativity" and the multilayered ways in which Black queer literacies function(Darnell). In this multimedia article, the social space I focus on is Washington, DC, Black Gay Pride 2013, where I discussed shade and shade narratives with seven men and one transgender woman. A main finding of this research was that participants typically relied on narrative to illustrate how shade was thrown; in fact, narrative is a necessary component of catching shade. These narratives provide situated examples of throwing shade while foregrounding the subjectivities or backstories that give throwing shade traction. In this way, throwing shade as a part of a larger "fierce literacy" talks back to literacy normativity and  speaks to Black queer people's relationships with one another, with language, and with the larger culture.


Access to affordable credit played a central role in the Civil Rights Movement. But today, racial and ethnic minorities oversubscribe to high-cost lending products like payday loans and underuse more affordable credit options that traditional banks offer. These trends remain even when controlling for demographic variables like income, credit score, and education. While research verifies that these disparities exist, little work explains why. This Essay argues that advertising entrenches these racial inequities. Two empirical studies we conducted of advertising by banks and payday lenders suggest that payday lenders steer African Americans and Latinos to their products while banks market to whites. For instance, though African Americans make up only 23% of payday lending customers, 35% of the "model" customers featured in advertising on these lenders' websites depict African Americans. Meanwhile, almost 30% of mainstream bank websites featured no African American models. Almost 75% featured no Latino models. Only 3% did not feature a white model. Even after the outcry over racial injustice in 2020, banks did not appreciably increase the representation of people of color on their websites. This needs to change. We argue that lenders themselves are the first and simplest source for racial justice in advertising credit. Both payday lenders and banks can easily ensure that their advertising reflects the communities they serve. Congress and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau also have a role to play. Amendments we propose to the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, the Community Reinvestment Act, and the regulations that implement them call for advertising that welcomes people of color to affordable credit sources.


In this chapter, we present an overview of some multipoint iterative methods for solving nonlinear systems obtained by using different techniques such as composition of known methods, weight function procedure, and pseudo-composition, etc. The dynamical study of these iterative schemes provides us valuable information about their stability and reliability. A numerical test on a specific problem coming from chemistry is performed to compare the described methods with classical ones and to confirm the theoretical results.


This paper proposes a new type of Gas Turbine Cycle-supercritical CO2 Brayton/organic Rankine cycle (GT-SCO2/ORC) cogeneration system, in which the exhaust gas from gas-fired plants generates electricity through GT and then the remaining heat is absorbed by the supercritical CO2 (SCO2) Brayton cycle and ORC. CO2 contained in the exhaust gas is absorbed by monoethanolamine (MEA) and liquefied via liquified natural gas (LNG). Introducing thermodynamic efficiencies, thermoeconomic analysis to evaluate the system performance and total system cost is used as the evaluation parameter. The results show that the energy efficiency and exergy efficiency of the system are 56.47% and 45.46%, respectively, and the total cost of the product is 2798.38 $/h. Moreover, with the increase in air compressor (AC) or gas turbine isentropic efficiency, GT inlet temperature, and air preheater (AP) outlet temperature, the thermodynamic efficiencies have upward trends, which proves these four parameters optimize the thermodynamic performance. The total system cost can reach a minimum value with the increase in AC pressure ratio, GT isentropic efficiency, and AC isentropic efficiency, indicating that these three parameters can optimize the economic performance of the cycle. The hot water income increases significantly with the increase in the GT inlet temperature, but it is not cost-effective in terms of the total cost.


Background— The diagnosis of infective endocarditis (IE) in prosthetic valves and intracardiac devices is challenging because both the modified Duke criteria (DC) and echocardiography have limitations in this population. The added value of 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG) positron emission tomography (PET)/computed tomography (CT) and 18F-FDG PET/CT angiography (PET/CTA) was evaluated in this complex scenario at a referral center with a multidisciplinary IE unit. Methods and Results— Ninety-two patients admitted to our hospital with suspected prosthetic valve or cardiac device IE between November 2012 and November 2014 were prospectively included. All patients underwent echocardiography and PET/CT, and 76 had cardiac CTA. PET/CT and echocardiography findings were evaluated and compared, with concordant results in 54% of cases (&kgr;=0.23). Initial diagnoses with DC at admission, PET/CT, and DC+PET/CT were compared with the final diagnostic consensus reached by the IE Unit. DC+PET/CT enabled reclassification of 90% of cases initially classified as possible IE with DC and provided a conclusive diagnosis (definite/rejected) in 95% of cases. Sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values were 52%, 94.7%, 92.9%, and 59.7% for DC; 87%, 92.1%, 93.6%, and 84.3% for PET/CT; and 90.7%, 89.5%, 92%, and 87.9% for DC+PET/CT. Use of PET/CTA yielded even better diagnostic performance values than PET/nonenhanced CT (91%, 90.6%, 92.8%, and 88.3% versus 86.4%, 87.5%, 90.2%, and 82.9%) and substantially reduced the rate of doubtful cases from 20% to 8% (P<0.001). DC+PET/CTA reclassified an additional 20% of cases classified as possible IE with DC+PET/nonenhanced CT. In addition, PET/CTA enabled detection of a significantly larger number of anatomic lesions associated with active endocarditis than PET/nonenhanced CT (P=0.006) or echocardiography (P<0.001). Conclusions— 18F-FDG PET/CT improves the diagnostic accuracy of the modified DC in patients with suspected IE and prosthetic valves or cardiac devices. PET/CTA yielded the highest diagnostic performance and provided additional diagnostic benefits.


To be effective, and something more than a collection of individuals with weapons, a military unit must be commanded. Commanders are responsible for achieving the unit's objective, a function that requires them to ensure that subordinates will do as they are told. With this power comes responsibility. In some circumstances commanders can be penalized for the misconduct of subordinates. In the classical model of military justice, commanders played (and in some countries, such as the United States, still play) a powerful role. 'Military command and military discipline' considers the powers exercised by commanders in these commander-centric systems—in particular the disposition, or charging, power—and looks at efforts to reform these systems.


Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle, led a remarkable-and controversial-life, writing poetry and prose and philosophizing on the natural world at a time when women were denied any means of a formal education. Lisa T. Sarasohn acutely examines the brilliant work of this untrained mind and explores the unorthodox development of her natural philosophy. Cavendish wrote copiously on such wide-ranging topics as gender, power, manners, scientific method, and animal rationality. The first woman to publish her own natural philosophy, Cavendish was not afraid to challenge the new science and even ridiculed the mission of the Royal Society. Her philosophy reflected popular culture and engaged with the most radical philosophies of her age. To understand Cavendish's scientific thought, Sarasohn explains, is to understand the reception of new knowledge through both insider and outsider perspectives in early modern England. In close readings of Cavendish's writings-poetry, treatises, stories, plays, romances, and letters-Sarasohn explores the fantastic and gendered elements of her natural philosophy. Cavendish saw knowledge as a continuum between reason and fancy, and her work integrated imaginative speculation and physical science. Because she was denied the university education available to her male counterparts, she embraced an epistemology that favored contemplation and intuition over logic and empiricism. The Natural Philosophy of Margaret Cavendish serves as a guide to the unusual and complex philosophy of one of the seventeenth century's most intriguing minds. It not only celebrates Cavendish as a true figure of the scientific age but also contributes to a broader understanding of the contested nature of the scientific revolution.


Paraphrase generation has been widely used in various downstream tasks. Most tasks benefit mainly from high quality paraphrases, namely those that are semantically similar to, yet linguistically diverse from, the original sentence. Generating high-quality paraphrases is challenging as it becomes increasingly hard to preserve meaning as linguistic diversity increases. Recent works achieve nice results by controlling specific aspects of the paraphrase, such as its syntactic tree. However, they do not allow to directly control the quality of the generated paraphrase, and suffer from low flexibility and scalability. Here we propose QCPG, a quality-guided controlled paraphrase generation model, that allows directly controlling the quality dimensions. Furthermore, we suggest a method that given a sentence, identifies points in the quality control space that are expected to yield optimal generated paraphrases. We show that our method is able to generate paraphrases which maintain the original meaning while achieving higher diversity than the uncontrolled baseline. The models, the code, and the data can be found in https://github.com/IBM/quality-controlled-paraphrase-generation.


Little is known about the location of bank risk, i.e., which investors in which countries hold bank-issued securities like bonds and stocks. In this paper, we analyze the (re-)distribution of bank risk across asset classes (short- and long-term debt, equity), across investor types and across geographic locations. We also differentiate bank holdings according to riskiness based on credit ratings and yield spreads. We use the Securities Holdings Statistics database for the euro area which contains information on securities holdings at the ISIN level. Our main findings are as follows. First, bank risk is held disproportionately by other banks. Second, households are disproportionally exposed to riskier bank securities. Third, about 30% of bank securities are held outside the euro area, with these percentages larger (smaller) for short term debt and equities (long term debt). Geographically, large issuers of bank risk such as France and Germany, also hold most of the bank risk, with the exception of the Netherlands, which, despite being a top 5 issuer, holds almost no bank securities. Fourth, the holding bank risk is highly concentrated domestically, with the concentration more extreme for countries such as Greece, Italy and Portugal, which hold more than 70% of their bank's securities domestically. The domestic concentration of bank risk is (much) more severe than the domestic concentration of non-bank corporate securities and sovereign debt. Fifth, re-allocation is overall statistically significant but economically more important for bonds than for equities. Finally, we exploit the inclusion of some banks on the list of other systemically important institutions (O-SII) – which makes them subject to more stringent supervisory and regulatory requirements – as a shock to the riskiness of securities issued by those banks. Following the inclusion on the OSII list, bank stock (bond) prices decrease (increase) relative to stock (bond) prices of banks not included on the list. In terms of holdings, other banks increase their holdings of equity and decrease their holdings of bonds issued by the OSII-designated banks. Households and insurances likewise increase holdings of equity issued by the OSII-designated banks. By contrast, investment funds and financial vehicle corporations decrease holdings of equity issued by the OSII-designated banks.


We consider a learning algorithm generated by a regularization scheme with a concave regularizer for the purpose of achieving sparsity and good learning rates in a least squares regression setting. The regularization is induced for linear combinations of empirical features, constructed in the literatures of kernel principal component analysis and kernel projection machines, based on kernels and samples. In addition to the separability of the involved optimization problem caused by the empirical features, we carry out sparsity and error analysis, giving bounds in the norm of the reproducing kernel Hilbert space, based on a priori conditions which do not require assumptions on sparsity in terms of any basis or system. In particular, we show that as the concave exponent q of the concave regularizer increases to 1, the learning ability of the algorithm improves. Some numerical simulations for both artificial and real MHC-peptide binding data involving the lq regularizer and the SCAD penalty are presented to demonstrate the sparsity and error analysis.


Innovate under constraint: a study of the trajectory of innovation projects We study project teams, and aim at finding what drive their capacity to develop radical innovation in conditions of extremely tight resources and time. We combine real-world data from big companies (case studies) with data collected from quasi-experiment designs. Improve our understanding of how project teams develop radical innovations under time and resources pressure Innovation is crucial to both national and firm-level competitiveness. Prior research shows that any innovation team faces contradictory forces: "centrifugal" forces (those that drive the team to constantly search for new ideas and knowledge, at the risk of drifting and losing touch with the constraints and goals of the project) and "centripetal" forces (those that create cohesion and shared vision within the team, at the risk of fall short in terms of generating new ideas). The objective of the KINETIC project is to identify the leadership and organizational arrangements that facilitate such a balance and thereby permit radical innovation under time constraint. Combining the observation of "real-world" projects in companies (case studies, qualitative) with the analysis of projects in a controlled environment (quasi-experiment design, quantitative) • In-depth case studies of innovation projects in 2 big consumer-goods companies and 2 medium-size consulting companies. Qualitative analysis. Particular attention is paid to the « trajectories » of these projects (changes in objectives, team recompositions, identification of new sources of information, etc.) • Quasi-experiment design emulating real new product development projects with about 800 students located in 4 universities. Quantitative analysis (in particular social network analysis). We analyze more particularly interpersonal relationships (communication, trust, share cognition, conflicts, etc.), how they evolve over time and how they impact performance.


Linville Gorge Wilderness (LGW) is a Class I area in the southern Appalachian Mountains, western North Carolina. Over the last 150 years, LGW has been subject to several wildfires, varying in intensity and extent (Newell and Peet 1995). In November 2000, a wildfire burned 4000 ha in the wilderness; the fire ranged in severity across the northern portion of the wilderness from low severity in coves to high severity along ridges and bluffs (Reilly and others 2006). In May 2007, the Pinnacle wildfire burned ca. 2000 ha in the southern portion of the wilderness. A large portion of the Pinnacle fire overlapped the area previously burned in 2000, resulting in much of the central section of LGW being burned twice in less than 7 years. In addition, dolomitic lime was aerially applied at a rate of 1120 kg ha-1 on the most severely burned area. We hypothesized that liming the most severely burned area would accelerate the restoration of acidic, nutrient depleted soils by adding basic cations, balancing soil pH, reducing soil and soil solution Al, and subsequently increase ecosystem productivity. We sampled vegetation (composition, biomass, and foliar nutrients) and soil nutrients in five treatment areas in LGW over a 2-year period following the most recent wildfire. The treatment areas were: severely burned twice (2000 and 2007) plus dolomitic lime application (2xSBL); moderately burned twice plus lime (2xMBL); severely burned twice, no lime (2xSB); moderately burned once (2000), no lime (1xMB); and an unburned and unlimed reference area (REF). All wildfire burned sites experienced overstory mortality (>300 stems ha-1). There were no live overstory trees on 2xSBL, and 2xSB had a larger number of dead trees than all other sites. The large number of dead pines on all sites, including the reference, was due in large part to a southern pine beetle (Dendroctonus frontalis Zimm.) outbreak in 1999-2001. The three areas impacted by the recent wildfire had little to no live pine in the overstory. Overstory biomass was lower on the severely burned areas (2xSBL and 2xSB) than the other treatments, with no significant change between 2008 and 2009 (Fig. 1). By 2009, understory density was higher on 2xSBL than the other treatments (Fig. 2a), with higher numbers of tree species (Fig. 2b). We found no differences in shrub density among burned treatments, and only 2xSB had higher shrub density than REF (Fig. 2c). As expected, ericaceous (heath) species sprouted after fire, and their density increased between 2008 and 2009 for all recently burned treatments. We found no differences in foliar nitrogen (N) concentration among treatments for either evergreen or deciduous species (Table 1). Evergreen foliar calcium (Ca) was greater on 2xMBL and REF than the severely burned sites (2xSBL and 2xSB); whereas deciduous foliar Ca and phosphorus (P) were greater on 2xMBL than 2xSBL, 1xMB and REF (Table 1). With few exceptions, we found significant date, treatment, date x treatment interaction effects for soil exchangeable cations for both shallow (0-10 cm


[1] We carry out long-period surface wave centroid moment tensor (CMT) inversions using various global tomographic models and two different forward modeling techniques for 32 large earthquakes previously studied using interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) data. Since InSAR methods provide an alternative and independent way of locating and characterizing shallow continental earthquakes, comparisons of our source parameters with those from InSAR are a novel way to assess limitations in the InSAR models as well as the effects of inaccurate wave propagation formulations and/or 3-D Earth structure on earthquake source determinations. We show that comparing InSAR results with our seismic solutions is valuable to identify inaccuracies in the earthquake slip distribution retrieved using InSAR. Moreover, we find that using more accurate formulations, together with the best fitting Earth models, substantially reduces biases and differences between moment magnitude and fault strike determined using InSAR and seismic data. As expected for long-period surface wave source inversions for shallow earthquakes, the fault dip and rake angles are difficult to constrain, but we show that when using the best fitting Earth models, differences to InSAR estimates are reduced. Moreover, spurious deviations from a pure double-couple earthquake mechanism are on average smaller for the best fitting Earth models and the more accurate formulation of wave propagation. There are large differences between InSAR epicentral locations and those obtained in this study and, on average, no clear improvements to the Global CMT locations are achieved. This suggests that higher-resolution Earth models are necessary to further refine long-period CMT epicentral locations.


ABSTRACT Targets of the tandem Gcn4 acidic activation domains in transcription preinitiation complexes were identified by site-specific cross-linking. The individual Gcn4 activation domains cross-link to three common targets, Gal11/Med15, Taf12, and Tra1, which are subunits of four conserved coactivator complexes, Mediator, SAGA, TFIID, and NuA4. The Gcn4 N-terminal activation domain also cross-links to the Mediator subunit Sin4/Med16. The contribution of the two Gcn4 activation domains to transcription was gene specific and varied from synergistic to less than additive. Gcn4-dependent genes had a requirement for Gal11 ranging from 10-fold dependence to complete Gal11 independence, while the Gcn4-Taf12 interaction did not significantly contribute to the expression of any gene studied. Complementary methods identified three conserved Gal11 activator-binding domains that bind each Gcn4 activation domain with micromolar affinity. These Gal11 activator-binding domains contribute additively to transcription activation and Mediator recruitment at Gcn4- and Gal11-dependent genes. Although we found that the conserved Gal11 KIX domain contributes to Gal11 function, we found no evidence of specific Gcn4-KIX interaction and conclude that the Gal11 KIX domain does not function by specific interaction with Gcn4. Our combined results show gene-specific coactivator requirements, a surprising redundancy in activator-target interactions, and an activator-coactivator interaction mediated by multiple low-affinity protein-protein interactions.


Optical Deflectometric Tomography (ODT) provides an accurate characterization of transparent materials whose complex surfaces present a real challenge for manufacture and control. In ODT, the refractive index map (RIM) of a transparent object is reconstructed by measuring light deflection under multiple orientations. We show that this imaging modality can be made "compressive", i.e., a correct RIM reconstruction is achievable with far less observations than required by traditional Filtered Back Projection (FBP) methods. Assuming a cartoon-shape RIM model, this reconstruction is driven by minimizing the map Total-Variation under a fidelity constraint with the available observations. Moreover, two other realistic assumptions are added to improve the stability of our approach: the map positivity and a frontier condition. Numerically, our method relies on an accurate ODT sensing model and on a primal-dual minimization scheme, including easily the sensing operator and the proposed RIM constraints. We conclude this paper by demonstrating the power of our method on synthetic and experimental data under various compressive scenarios. In particular, the compressiveness of the stabilized ODT problem is demonstrated by observing a typical gain of 20 dB compared to FBP at only 5% of 360 incident light angles for moderately noisy sensing.


The main objective of this research is to reduce the chain length of Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) to track maneuvering vehicles that undergoes overlapping situation. Overlapping situation will cause to the lost of observable vehicle information whereas maneuvering situation will give varying vehicle outlook which increases the tracking difficulties. MCMC is capable of tracking objects under
various conditions by estimating the position of the target object with the sampling of probability distributions. The computations of MCMC are highly depending on the
sampling process where the tracking error will be escalated if the sampling is not computed accurately. As a result, conventional MCMC with fixed chain length is facing difficulties to determine the appropriate length to accurately track the target vehicle undergoing various situations. Thus, convergence diagnostic algorithm is
embedded into MCMC to quantitatively and qualitatively determine the steady state of MCMC samples. In addition, introduction of genetic operators to the adapted MCMC has further reduced the chain length by improving the convergence speed of the MCMC. Evaluation and assessment of the MCMC tracking algorithm have been carried out under multiple overlapping and maneuvering situations. Implementation results have shown that the qualitative and quantitative convergence diagnostic algorithm had successfully reduced the MCMC computational time by 58.24% and 67.14% respectively compare to fixed chain length MCMC. Subsequently, the implementation of genetic operator has further reduced the computational time of the qualitative and quantitative adaptive MCMC at 36.16% and 13.57% respectively. Thus, the reduction of variances between the MCMC samples by the genetic operator has successfully improved the convergence speed of MCMC which reduced
the computational time for tracking the target vehicle accurately under overlapping and maneuvering situations.


This study investigates the ethical awareness of computer use among undergraduate computer science students at two public Malaysian universities. One hundred and fifty-nine students were asked to evaluate the code of ethics pertaining to computer ethics. A comparison of undergraduate computer science students between two public universities was done to determine the level of ethical awareness of computer use. Independent Samples t-tests for differences were performed across four distinct groups: university, gender, age, and duration of computer use. The results of the tests conducted indicate that the ethical awareness of computer use of the students differ most significantly on the basis of the university itself. There were minimal differences across gender, age and duration of computer use. This suggests that computer ethics awareness training is needed for university users. The results are discussed and the implications for studies in an educational context are outlined.


Purpose

Young people's involvement should lead to research, and ultimately services, that better reflect young people's priorities and concerns. Young people with a history of treatment for alcohol and/or drug problems were actively involved in the youth social behaviour and network therapy study. The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of that involvement on the study and what was learnt about involving young people in drug and alcohol research.

Design/methodology/approach

The initial plan was to form a young people's advisory group (YPAG), but when this proved problematic the study explored alternative approaches in collaboration with researchers and young people. Input from 17 young people informed all key elements of the study.

Findings

Involvement of young people needs to be dynamic and flexible, with sensitivity to their personal experiences. Engagement with services was crucial both in recruiting young people and supporting their ongoing engagement. This research identified a need to critically reflect on the extent to which rhetorics of participation and involvement give rise to effective and meaningful involvement for young service users. It also highlights the need for researchers to be more flexible in response to young people's personal circumstances, particularly when those young people are "less frequently heard".

Research limitations/implications

This research highlights the need for researchers to be more flexible in response to young people's personal circumstances, particularly when those young people are "less frequently heard". It highlights the danger of young people in drug and alcohol research being unintentionally disaffected from involvement through conventional approaches and instead suggests ways in which young people could be involved in influencing if and how they participate in research.

Practical implications

There is an apparent contradiction between dominant discourses and cultures of health services research (including patient and public involvement) that often do not sit easily with ideas of co-production and young people-centred involvement. This paper provides an alternative approach to involvement of young people that can help to enable more meaningful and effective involvement.

Originality/value

The flexible and young people-centred model for involvement which emerged from this work provides a template for a different approach. This may be particularly useful for those who find current practice, such as YPAG, inaccessible.


In this paper we propose a new framework for super-resolving facial images under arbitrary pose. While example-based super-resolution methods have demonstrated impressive results for face super-resolution under given pose and imaging conditions, they have limitations dealing with different poses and illuminations. Due to these limitations their application to face super-resolution in generalized situations is either impractical or sub-optimal. The proposed framework utilizes a 3D morphable face model in order to address the problem of face super-resolution under arbitrary pose. This framework does not assume any pre-defined pose for the subject thus it can be readily applied to any pose. The main contribution of this work is defining a framework in which a 3D morphable model can be used in conjunction with any of the example-based super-resolution methods. Experimental results prove the potential power of this method in face superresolution and its application to face recognition.


We consider the joint cost allocation problem that arises when several lots or resources are available to serve different products or divisions. We provide a two-phase model, wherein the first phase the optimal set of lots to be acquired is chosen and given the optimal set, and the products using each acquired lot is also determined. In the second phase, a stable full cost allocation method is developed that will not induce the divisions to form coalitions to reduce the allocated joint costs. Utilizing the optimal dual solution of the lot selection phase, we provide a joint cost allocation mechanism based on the concept of propensity to contribute and show that this allocation is also stable. If in the first phase there is a dual gap, then we show that there is no cost allocation in the core. A numerical illustration is provided.


A new self-replicating cellular automata (CA) model is proposed as a latest effort toward the realization of an artificial evolutionary system on CA where structural complexity of self-replicators can increase in some cases. I utilize the idea of 'shape encoding' proposed by Morita and Imai (Morita & Imai 1996b) and make the state-transition rules of the model allow organisms to transmit genetic information to others when colliding against each other. Simulations with random initial configuration demonstrate that it is possible that the average length of organisms and the average frequency of brancing per organism both increase, with decreasing self-replication fidelity, and saturate at some constant level. The saturation is caused in part by the fixation of place and shape of organisms onto particular sites. This implies the necessity of introducing some fluidity of site arrangements into the model for further development of evolutionary models using CA-like artificial media.


This interdisciplinary text examines the sports-Christianity interface from Protestant and Catholic perspectives. In addition to a "systematic review of literature," field-pioneering contributors such as Michael Novak, Shirl Hoffman, Joseph Price and Robert Higgs address a wide range of topics from the sporting world, including biblical athletic metaphors, disability, evangelism, professionalism and celebrity, humility and pride, genetic enhancement technologies, stereotypes, sport as art and British and American historical analyses of sport and Christianity. Insightful chapters from Scott Kretchmar, one of the world's leading philosophers of sport, and Father Kevin Lixey, the head of the Vatican's 'Church and Sport' office (2004-), add further depth and breadth to this book, making it accessible and interesting to academic and practitioner audiences alike. Within the context of this relatively new and rapidly expanding area of inquiry, this collection provides a unique and important addition to the current literature for both undergraduate and postgraduate students, and serves as a point of reference for scholars of theology and religious studies, psychology, health studies, ethics and sports studies. The book may also be of interest to physical educators and sports coaches who wish to adopt a more "holistic" and ethical approach to their work. As modern sport is often intertwined with commercial and political agendas, this book offers an important corrective to the "win-at-all-costs" culture of modern sport, which cannot be fully understood through secular ethical inquiry.


In this article, highly experienced advertising academics and advertising research consultants John R. Rossiter and Larry Percy present and discuss what they believe to be the seven most important methodological guidelines that need to be implemented to improve the practice of advertising research. Their focus is on methodology, defined as first choosing a suitable theoretical framework to guide the research study and then identifying the advertising responses that need to be studied. Measurement of those responses is covered elsewhere in this special issue in the article by Bergkvist and Langner. Most of the frameworks are derived from the authors' own published work, although other frameworks are noted where appropriate.


Optical methods and proteomics investigations are becoming promising approaches for early detection of many diseases, which remain clinically silent for long periods. We have used efficient High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) separation combined with highly sensitive laser induced fluorescence detection of proteins present in clinical samples for diagnostic applications in cervical cancer. The protein profile and the fluorescence of individual proteins were simultaneously recorded using our HPLC-LIF system. Protein profiles (Chromatogram) of serum from normal male and female volunteers with and without tobacco habits, and malignant serum samples were studied. Protein profiles were also recorded for lysates of exfoliated cells collected from Pap smear of normal and cancer patients. The protein profile patterns were subjected to Principal component Analysis. Discrimination of normal and malignant samples were achieved with very high sensitivity and specificity.


Although economic and social relationships can involve deception (Gneezy 2005), such relationships are often governed by informal contracts that require trust (Berg et al. 1995). While important advances have been made concerning deception in economics, the research has focused little on written forms of communication. Are there certain systematic cues that signal written communications as dishonest? Are those signals accurately detected and used by message receivers? We fill this gap by studying messages written in a novel three-person trust game (we call it the "Mistress Game†). We find that: (i) messages that use encompassing terms, or a greater number of words, are significantly more likely to be viewed as promises; and (ii) promises that mention money are significantly more likely to be trusted. Notwithstanding the latter finding, we find senders who mention money within their promises to be significantly less likely to keep their word than those who do not. Length: 36


Two configurational temperature expressions are investigated from the point of view of their utility as a diagnostic tool for Monte Carlo (MC) simulations. The MC calculations were performed for systems of spherically symmetric particles in the bulk and in a channel. Different density and system size conditions are considered. It is shown that the configurational temperature based on the ratio of two averages of the force functions can serve as a suitable method for calculating the temperature for the MC simulation. This configurational temperature can signal the presence of random number correlations and can serve as a cross-check formula in MC studies of strongly confined systems.


The paper compares two different ways (2D and 3D) of modelling of two-phase squirrel-cage induction machine using the finite element method (FEM). It focuses mainly on differences between starting characteristics given from both types of the model. It also discusses influence of skew rotor slots on harmonic content in air gap flux density and summarizes some issues of both approaches.


The pre-travel vaccination status, health of the traveller, his or her expected behaviour while travelling, risk of disease in the country to which he or she is travelling, as well as the country requirements, need to be taken into consideration when determining the need to vaccinate prior to travel. Travellers should ensure that all routine vaccinations are up to date prior to departure. Yellow fever vaccination, when travelling to or from yellow fever endemic areas, is the only compulsory travel vaccine. However, there are country specific recommendations for mandatory vaccination, i.e. the meningococcal vaccination for pilgrims attending the Hajj.


[Woe from Wit] is considered a comedy. A number of scenes in it completely justify that style. But in this great play there is much of the author's bitter grief for his country and his people ... The great Russian classic dramatists showed their deep love for their people and their country by bringing out the tears which are hidden in laughter--a characteristic expressive of many Russian works of art. --Konstantin Stanislavsky [Why must actors try] to convince me at all costs that Chatsky, who spends much time talking to fools and who loves a foolish woman, is a very intelligent man ... --Anton Chekhov, A Dreary Story In its nearly 200-year history, scholarship on Griboedov's play Woe from Wit has been dominated by ideological readings. In the first few years of the play's circulation, it sparked debate between conservative critics and Decembrist-Romantic writers about its depiction of Moscow society. The progressive critics of the mid- to late nineteenth century, such as Vissarion Belinsky and Nikolai Dobroliubov, praised the work as one of the first sobering depictions of Russian reality, a tradition that, according to them, was continued by Pushkin and Gogol. Soviet critics would later canonize this reading of Woe from Wit in the twentieth century. The political reading has indeed been predominant--many critics have viewed the work as a Decembrist manifesto and its hero Chatsky as the most articulate spokesman of that movement. Even the Formalist Yuri Tynianov focused on the historical prototypes for the play's characters rather than its innovative formal aspects. Western scholarship about the play is relatively limited, but has included some re-evaluation of the play's characters and analyses of its meter and language. (1) However, the main feature of the play--its mixing of the tragic and comedic, or rather its status as a tragicomedy--has to my knowledge received little attention. This paper therefore provides a reading of Woe from Wit as a tragicomedy and, in doing so, shows how it anticipated many of Chekhov's dramatic techniques: an undermined raisonneur and concomitant authorial distancing, a domino effect of unrequited love, constant miscommunication and disconnect between all characters, and the incorporation of elements of commedia dell'arte. This reading opposes the view of Chekhov's dramaturgy as anomalous and unprecedented in Russian letters and instead suggests an evolution of the tragicomic genre, which had its earliest roots in Denis Fonvizin's The Minor, was developed further in Griboedov's Woe from Wit and Gogol's The Government Inspector, and culminated in Chekhov's plays. First let us consider the nature of tragicomedy, a genre that is difficult to define. Hazel Barnes attempts a definition using three dramatic situations. (2) The first of these occurs when there is an incongruity between subject and tone, that is, between a situation as it is normally judged and the attitude to it induced by the characters. The second tragicomic situation arises when there is a discrepancy between the attitudes of the characters and the spectators, not because of dramatic irony, but when the characters are fully aware of their circumstances. A common device used to create such situations is undercutting, as when a character makes a solemn declaration and then trips and falls over, as Trofimov does in Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard, or when one takes a bite out of a cucumber while musing on existential questions, as Sharlotta does in the same play. (3) The final tragicomic scenario involves an "unrealistic closing up or denial of the gap between desire and reality ... a betrayal of the human condition." (4) To recognize these tragicomic scenarios in Woe from Wit, one need not look further than the play's conclusion. In this fraught denouement, Sofya discovers Molchalin's duplicity, Chatsky is declared insane by society, and all romantic intrigues collapse. Nevertheless the action is conveyed in lighthearted couplets and is accompanied by the jeers and laughter of the society characters. …


The photoprotective and acclimation capacity against ultraviolet radiation (UVR) was assessed for the dinoflagellate Heterocapsa sp. We examined the effect of UVR and N availability on photosynthetic activity and on the accumulation of photoprotective substances such as mycosporine‐like amino acids (MAAs) and xanthophyll cycle pigments. Cells were cultivated under two different light treatments, photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) and PAR + UVR, and at two NaNO3 concentrations, mid nitrogen (MN, 0.1 mmol L−1) and high nitrogen (HN, 1 mmol L−1) for 6 d. MAA and photosynthetic pigment contents as well as maximum quantum yield of fluorescence (Fv : Fm) and electron transport rate were analyzed at the initial time and after 3 and 6 d of experimentation. Fv : Fm decreased because of UVR and N limitation. N enrichment reduced the deleterious effect of UVR on photosynthesis. The content of photosynthetic pigments and MAAs was higher at HN than at MN supply and a positive effect of UVR on MAA and pigment accumulation was observed, suggesting that under HN conditions the deleterious UVR effect is counteracted by MAAs. Under N limitation thermal energy dissipation takes place by the xanthophyll cycle, i.e., an increase of the de‐epoxidation degree was observed under these culture conditions. However, UVR seems to favor diadinoxanthin accumulation; thus, no photoprotection through the xanthophyll cycle seems available in cells exposed to PAR + UVR and MN. We conclude that not only MAA accumulation but also N availability is very important to determine the photoprotective capacity against UVR of Heterocapsa sp.


The power grid is evolving rapidly. With the addition of micro-grids and renewable energy resources, and increasing automation in decision-making enabled by sensors, the grid has become very complex. Research in the area of smart grids shows that the grid is vulnerable to cyber-attacks. In particular, recent studies reveals how false data injection could lead to variety of problems in the smart grid operation. A well-crafted attack can pass the bad data detection systems during state estimation and affect the operation and control of the power grid. In this paper, we build on prior efforts in this space to describe how false data injection attacks can be alleviated using conventional techniques by protecting certain critical sensors in the power system. The feasibility of false data injection attacks with incomplete network knowledge is explained in this paper considering IEEE 14 bus test system. The assumptions for defining the attacking region are also validated with the help of different case studies. This paper depicts the importance of securing the power grid against cyber-attacks.


The provision of a quintuple-play service (fixed Internet and telephony, mobile telephony/Internet, security/control applications, and wireless high-definition audio/video distribution) along wavelength division multiplexing long-reach passive optical networks has been proposed recently. Five coexisting orthogonal frequency division multiplexing based signals have been used to deliver the quintuple-play service to each user. In this paper, the electrical power distribution (EPD) among those five coexisting signals is studied using numerical simulation. The need for EPD optimization is stressed, as the optimum EPD (OEPD) enables the maximization of the signal and network performances. The OEPD is achieved by setting optimized gains (OG) in the electrical amplifiers used to impose the electrical power level of each one of the coexisting signals. For practicability, the gains are optimized only for a specific fiber length. For other fiber lengths, the use of those OG may cause performance degradation. This degradation can be mitigated if a predistortion (PD) scheme, which compensates for the frequency-dependent losses (FDLs) of the transmission channel, is used with proper OG. It is shown that the main advantage of using OG + PD over using OG only is to enable the reduction of the performance degradation that occurs for other fiber lengths than the one considered in the OG optimization. The capability to mitigate the FDLs is more limited in the absence of PD. Therefore, the advantage of using OG + PD over OG increases with the magnitude of the variation of the FDLs inside the band of the signals. However, under the conditions considered in this work, the impact of the use of OG + PD on the maximum transmission reach (MTR) is determined to be reduced (less than 1% relative to the MTR obtained with OG only, 126.5 km of standard single-mode fiber).


History of human odor analysis in disease diagnosis The use of the sense of smell as an indicator of human disease probably originated with Hippocrates (circa 400 BC). Early medical practitioners recognized that the presence of human diseases changed the odors released from the body and breath. Physicians once relied heavily on their sense of smell to provide useful clues for identifying the causes of human ailments. Descriptive terms were used to describe odors (or aromas) associated with specific human diseases and disorders (Fig. 1). This odor information was a valuable tool for physicians to assess patients' conditions and help diagnose diseases centuries before modern analytical instruments became available for this purpose. Odor recognition by human smell was used by doctors (with diminishing emphasis) up until the early 1980's, just before electronic noses (enoses) came on the scene.


Within the substantial body of research examining the professional knowledge of physical education (PE) teachers one particular area remains relatively under-explored: namely, their understandings of young people's participation in leisure-sport and the implications of this, if any, for the practice of PE. There are grounds for thinking, however, that in this aspect of their professional knowledge PE teachers might not be as conversant with patterns of participation—among young people, generally, and their own pupils, in particular—as one might expect. In order to examine this tentative hypothesis, the present study involved focus groups with a total of 29 PE teachers at six secondary schools in England. A central finding of the study was that PE teachers' perceptions of their youngsters' leisure-sport lives tended to be characterized by a blend of myth and reality. Many teachers, for example, underestimated the levels of participation in leisure-sport both of their own pupils and the 15–16 years age group, generally. Nevertheless, the teachers' observations regarding what amounted to growing and diversifying sporting repertoires among their pupils were, to a greater or lesser degree, commensurate with the profiles reported by the pupils, and with wider trends associated with the changing lifestyles and preferences of young people. The paper concludes by briefly locating this study of professional knowledge within the sociology of knowledge, while observing that the content and form of PE for Year 11 pupils at the six schools in this study appeared to be informed by the common-sense, everyday knowledge of PE teachers rather than by evidence from national or local surveys of young people or studies of their own pupils.


At the Twin Cities Metropolitan Area looks to improve transit choices and seeks to improve existing transit service, the safety of transit users needs to be an issue that is considered carefully as each new service is added, old services changed, and new stops are added. This report is intended to be a resource for informing transit decisions in the Twin Cities Metropolitan Area and in Greater Minnesota. It does not address the safety of the transit vehicle itself; many studies have done that. It focuses on the design of "transit environments" as they impact the personal safety of transit users. The report looks at site specific physical design issues, that is, transit stop or station design. But it also goes beyond to address the nature of the larger environment in which the transit stop or station is located. Issues of access are also addressed because the character of the pathways leading to and from transit stops are integral parts of the transit environment.


The set of random walks with different step sets (of short steps) in the quarter plane has provided a rich set of models that have profoundly different integrability properties. In particular, 23 of the 79 effectively different models can be shown to have generating functions that are algebraic or differentiably finite. Here we investigate how this integrability may change in those 23 models where in addition to length one also counts the number of sites of the walk touching either the horizontal and/or vertical boundaries of the quarter plane. This is equivalent to introducing interactions with those boundaries in a statistical mechanical context. We are able to solve for the generating function in a number of cases. For example, when counting the total number of boundary sites without differentiating whether they are horizontal or vertical, we can solve the generating function of a generalised Kreweras model. However, in many instances we are not able to solve as the kernel methodology seems to break down when including counts with the boundaries.


The main objective of this research is to demonstrate a form exploration technique based on parametric form generation and evolutionary optimization. Accordingly, the design process of a truss bridge is considered, and two types of form-finding methods are presented, numerical modeling with computational analyses on one hand versus physical modeling on the other hand. The focus of this research is on form determination using the first method to indicate its ability to explore and evaluate forms based on multiple goals and offering arrays of comparable, good solutions instead of a single "optimal" form. Additionally, the physical modeling of the truss bridges is considered in order to draw a comparison between the form finding techniques that designers use to comprehend, evaluate or describe the performance of a typical structure. The geometric configuration processing of the truss bridges is based on a mathematical system known as Formex algebra and the respective parametric formulations of the forms are provided by the algebra's associated programming software, Formian. The next step of form generation is implemented using the ParaGen method, based on genetic algorithm (GA) concepts. This method provides arrays of solutions that are structurally evaluated and mutated or recombined through an iterating cycle. In the case of the existence of multiple design criteria or cases which cannot be explicitly defined in terms of quantitative objectives, ParaGen provides visual representation of the solutions and allows the designer to have a suitable interaction and make decisions regarding personal preferences. The ParaGen framework uses a non-destructive, dynamic population to fill a database with solutions linked to a variety of performance characteristics. The database of solutions can then be explored for any multi-objective performance criteria. A detailed search can also be carried out by either choosing solutions based on visual criteria or by performance criteria. Ultimately, the explained procedure demonstrates how designers can expand their design perspective and be provided with arrays of appropriate solutions, instead of simply one best solution, using a dynamic process of form generation and optimization.


Since Tintin first appeared in 1929, he has captivated generations of children and adults alike. Millions followed Tintin's journeys from the wilds of the Congo to the streets of Prague, Moscow and New York. Tintin: The Art of Herge offers new insight into this iconic character, with incredible access to original sources from the Herge Museum in Belgium. Designed by Christian de Portzamparc, the Herge Museum opened in 2009 to celebrate Tintin creator Georges Remi, later known as Herge. The museum features hundreds of original plates, photographs and documents displaying the work and inspiration of the famed comic artist. Illustrated by images of this unparalleled collection, Tintin: The Art of Herge provides a rare glimpse into Tintin and Herge's world. Previously unpublished drawings depict how the beloved characters were created and offer fresh insight into the stories of all twenty-two Tintin books.


Improving the insulation, solar heat gain, and infiltration characteristics of windows in a home has the potential to significantly improve the overall thermal performance by reducing heat transfer through the window and also by decreasing air leakage into and out of the home. As approximately 43% of existing homes still have low-performing, single-pane clear windows (~50 million houses) and millions of other homes have only double-pane clear glass windows (Cort 2013), improving window performance also presents a significant opportunity for energy savings in the residential sector. Today, various energy-saving window retrofit opportunities are available to homeowners, ranging from window coverings and storm panels to highly-insulating triple-pane R-5 window replacements. Many of these technologies have been evaluated in the field, in the "Lab Homes" at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and through modeling to prove their cost-effectiveness and performance in different climate regions. Such information is necessary to increase market penetration of such efficient technologies. Recently, the Pacific Northwest's Regional Technical Forum approved a utility measure for lowemissivity storm windows based on such data. This action represents a watershed moment for increasing the variety and prevalence of fenestration options in utility programs, especially for the low-income demographic. This paper will review various window retrofit options, the most recent field test and modeling data regarding their performance and cost-effectiveness, and discuss future rating efforts. This information is useful for utilities and energy-efficiency program managers to help effectively implement incentive measures for these technologies.


For about half a year (February-July, 1953) Dr. M. Boeseman, curator of Fishes of the Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie, was the guest of the Instituto Tropical de Investigaciones Cientificas at San Salvador. During this time Dr. Boeseman made extensive collections in numerous localities throughout the Republic of El Salvador and, though his main attention was directed towards the fishes, an interesting collection of Decapod Crustacea was collected and sent home to Leiden. This collection forms the main subject of the present paper. As Dr. G. Kruseman, curator of Insects of the Zoological Museum at Amsterdam, collected some Decapoda in the same region during his stay in El Salvador in the summer of 1952, this material also is included in the present report. The number of species of Decapoda dealt with here is not very large and probably represents only a small portion of the actual number of species inhabiting the territory of El Salvador. Nevertheless it seems worth while to publish the present notes since the carcinological fauna of El Salvador is very poorly known, most of the species being recorded here for the first time as belonging to that fauna. Furthermore the collections contain some species which until now were insufficiently known, and the systematic status of which could be elucidated. I am very thankful to Dr. Boeseman for the interest shown in my work and for the many informations received. Furthermore I am much indebted to the authorities of the Zoological Museum at Amsterdam for their permission to study the material collected by Dr. Kruseman. The collector's numbers mentioned in the enumeration of the material are Dr. Boeseman's, unless stated otherwise. The abbreviations cb. and cl.


We present a stabilized numerical formulation for incompressible continua based on a higher‐order Finite Calculus (FIC) approach and the finite element method. The focus of the paper is on the derivation of a stabilized form for the mass balance (incompressibility) equation. The simpler form of the momentum equations neglecting the non‐linear convective terms, which is typical for incompressible solids, Stokes flows and Lagrangian flows is used for the sake of clarity. The discretized stabilized mass balance equation adds to the standard divergence of velocity term a pressure Laplacian and an additional boundary term. The boundary term is relevant for the accuracy of the numerical solution, especially for free surface flow problems. The Laplacian and boundary stabilization terms are multiplied by non‐linear parameters that have an extremely simple expression in terms of element sizes, the pressure and the discrete residuals of the incompressibility equation and the momentum equations, thus ensuring the consistency of the method. The stabilized formulation allows solving the incompressible problem iteratively using an equal‐order interpolation for the velocities (or displacements) and the pressure, which are the only unknowns. The use of additional pressure gradient projection variables, typical of many stabilized methods, is unnecessary.


In the wake of Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, religious accommodation has become increasingly controversial. That controversy has given rise to a new legal theory gaining popularity among academics and possibly a few Supreme Court justices: the idea that the First Amendment's Establishment Clause condemns accommodations whenever they generate anything beyond a minimal cost for third parties.

The third-party thesis is appealing. But this Article argues that there are good reasons to believe it falls short as an interpretation of the Establishment Clause. In its place, the Article offers a new theory for understanding the relationship between costly accommodations and the Establishment Clause. That theory begins with a simple assertion: the Establishment Clause is not a prohibition on generic harm but instead a ban on government attempts to promote a favored religion. Thus, the fundamental inquiry is not whether a private party bears some cost but instead whether the government is using its power to foster religious conformity.

Although largely overlooked in the literature, members of the founding generation actually did equate accommodations with establishments on at least two occasions, both involving instances in which accommodations encouraged religious conformity. And as it turns out, the principles drawn from those incidents provide powerful explanations for many of the Court's modern precedents—sometimes more powerful than the Court's own reasoning. But even more, viewing the Establishment Clause as a ban on attempts to induce religious conformity also offers a more plausible way of thinking about the occasional costs of accommodation. This approach will be more more deferential to legislative judgments than an approach focused squarely on harm. But that is not a reason for rejecting it, especially when the limits it provides have proven fairly reliable in dealing with the problem.


How is big industry linked to rising obesity in the United States? This issue is tangentially explored in the article that I consider. My commentary expands on this point to apprehend the role of corporations and industries in producing and profiting from population health problems. Taking the cases of obesity and cigarette smoking together, I examine how corporations claim social-responsibility values as a strategic means of forestalling criticism and protecting their markets while shifting accountability for the risks and harms that are related to consumption onto consumers themselves. These dynamics reveal the centrality of biopolitical injustice to the workings of contemporary capitalism.


Electrosurgery is an application of electrically generated heat energy to tissue to alter it for therapeutic purposes. Electrosurgery has been used in dentistry for many purposes such as for, gingivectomy, pulpotomy, frenectomy, operculectomy and hemostasis. This paper highlights its application and usage in dentistry. This paper covers various procedures performed under electrosurgery and scalpel for e.g., Case 1: Describes lingual frenectomy using electrosurgical method, Case 2: Operculectomy with electrosurgical method, Case 3: Soft-tissue uncovering of upper incisors with electrosurgery, Case 4: Soft-tissue uncovering using only scalpel and Case 5: Soft-tissue uncovering of unerupted molars using electrocautery method.


Reliable packet delivery within stringent delay constraints is of primal importance to industrial processes with hard real-time constraints, such as electrical grid monitoring. Because retransmission and coding techniques counteract the delay requirements, reliability is achieved through replication over multiple fail-independent paths. Existing solutions such as parallel redundancy protocol (PRP) replicate all packets at the MAC layer over parallel paths. PRP works best in local area networks, e.g., sub-station networks. However, it is not viable for IP layer wide area networks which are a part of emerging smart grids. Such a limitation on scalability, coupled with lack of security, and diagnostic inability, renders it unsuitable for reliable data delivery in smart grids. To address this issue, we present a transport-layer design: IP parallel redundancy protocol (iPRP). Designing iPRP poses non-trivial challenges in the form of selective packet replication, soft-state and multicast support. Besides unicast, iPRP supports multicast, which is widely using in smart grid networks. It duplicates only time-critical UDP traffic. iPRP only requires a simple software installation on the end-devices. No other modification to the existing monitoring application, end-device operating system or intermediate network devices is needed. iPRP has a set of diagnostic tools for network debugging. With our implementation of iPRP in Linux, we show that iPRP supports multiple flows with minimal processing and delay overhead. It is being installed in our campus smart grid network and is publicly available.


Abstract People are living longer than ever before, and with this arises new complications and challenges for humanity. Among the most pressing of these challenges is of understanding the role of aging in the development of dementia. This article is motivated by the Mayo Clinic Study of Aging data for 4742 subjects since 2004, and how it can be used to draw inference on the role of aging in the development of dementia. We construct a hidden Markov model (HMM) to represent progression of dementia from states associated with the buildup of amyloid plaque in the brain, and the loss of cortical thickness. A hierarchical Bayesian approach is taken to estimate the parameters of the HMM with a truly time-inhomogeneous infinitesimal generator matrix, and response functions of the continuous-valued biomarker measurements are cut-point agnostic. A Bayesian approach with these features could be useful in many disease progression models. Additionally, an approach is illustrated for correcting a common bias in delayed enrollment studies, in which some or all subjects are not observed at baseline. Standard software is incapable of accounting for this critical feature, so code to perform the estimation of the model described below is made available online. Code submitted with this article was checked by an Associate Editor for Reproducibility and is available as an online supplement.


What Are Literature Study Groups? In this article, I examine the effectiveness of adding a literature study group component to an undergraduate reading course. The use of literature study groups as an instructional strategy is a relatively new practice. This method, a reading approach or instructional strategy developed in the late 1980s, emphasizes collaborative reading and discussing of self-selected, unabridged, unexcerpted children's literature (Edelsky, 1988; Eeds & Wells, 1989; Peterson & Eeds, 1990) with school-age children. Although literature study groups may be known by other names such as lit sets or literature circles, the idea is the same (Gilles, 1989). Presented with an array of books, students choose a first or second choice to read. With the instructor acting as a facilitator and participant, small groups (usually four to seven students) are formed. The students in a given group read the same book and periodically meet together to discuss both the book and their responses and reactions, often recorded in a log or journal. As a culminating project, the groups of readers frequently create ways to share or extend the book with their classmates. The strategy of implementing literature study groups is rooted in the transactional theory of literature (Rosenblatt, 1991), suggesting that the interpretations participants bring into their literature study groups are the result of a transactional process in which readers both bring meaning to and take meaning from a text (Peterson & Eeds, 1990). Readers develop a broader understanding of what they read as they interact with themselves, the book, and the teacher in an ongoing dialogue. Watson (1996) notes that literature study groups include all the language modes: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Personal transactions are strengthened through these modalities; as one student put it, there is more to remember when you read a book as part of a literature study group (Watson, 1996). Essential elements of literature study groups include self-selection of books, which promotes heterogeneous grouping; self-pacing and agenda setting; group meetings for discussion; student-posed rather than teacher-imposed questions; and celebrations or sharing of the book. Most literature study groups for children revolve around fictional works, although some groups may move into text sets in which several genres of books are read including fiction, nonfiction, and poetic works (e.g., many different genres of books featuring wolves). Wanting undergraduates to become acquainted with professional books that are not textbooks, I modified the original concept of using fictional works in literature study groups to invite participants to read nonfiction, professional books exploring issues related to literacy. Prerequisites of the Books Chosen The main criteria I used were based on Peterson and Eeds's (1990) Grand Conversations: Literature Groups in Action, in which they state that books selected for literature study groups must not only be good books, but they must be grand books that engender conversation. In my search for professional books to offer as choices, I established the following criteria: * The books must contain many connections to reality rather than long diatribes on theory. For this course, I wanted books to show obstacles or barriers to literacy rather than tell about them. * Books addressing controversial issues would be better because the participants could try to sort out the issues with the help of their group. Books that tend to need other readers would be desirable so that the sole reader might talk through and sort out the messages or connections within the book. I chose books that need other readers for discussion. * Books that allow the reader an emotional connection to the characters are essential. Although these books would be nonfiction professional works, I wanted the books to read more like a novel. …


The stratigraphic sections Halevikdere, Kocadere and Eceli covering the Devonian succession in the Eastern and Central Taurides have been measured and studied for biostratigraphy, geochemistry, sedimentology and facies in the context of the project "De- vonian Ecosystems and Climate of Turkey (DEVEC-TR)". The Devonian sedimentary succession consists of carbonates and siliciclastic sediments mostly deposited in shallow marine environments. The samples taken from the carbonate beds throughout the sections reveal abundant and diverse assemblages of the foraminifera. This paper, however, includes the foraminifers described only from the Frasnian (Late Devonian) depositional sequence in the studied sections. The Frasnian foraminiferal microfauna in the Taurides can be character- ized predominantly by a common occurrence of nanicellids, paratikhinellids and tikhinellids which are biostratigraphically significant elements of the Frasnian strata in the Russian Platform and Urals. The foraminiferal assemblages from the Frasnian deposits in the mea- sured sections consist of 15 genera and 12 species. The distribution of the foraminifers described herein allowed the recognition of three biostratigraphic zones characterized successively by Nanicella ovata Zone, Paratikhinella cannula Zone and Tikhinella fringa Zone.


It is widely thought that continental chemical weathering provides the key feedback that prevents large fluctuations in atmospheric CO2, and hence surface temperature, on geological time scales. However, low-temperature alteration of the upper oceanic crust in off-axis hydrothermal systems provides an alternative feedback mechanism. Testing the latter hypothesis requires understanding the timing of carbonate mineral formation within the oceanic crust. Here we report the first radiometric age determinations for calcite formed in the upper oceanic crust in eight locations globally via in-situ U-Pb laser ablation–inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry analysis. Carbonate formation occurs soon after crustal accretion, indicating that changes in global environmental conditions will be recorded in changing alteration characteristics of the upper oceanic crust. This adds support to the interpretation that large differences between the hydrothermal carbonate content of late Mesozoic and late Cenozoic oceanic crust record changes in global environmental conditions. In turn, this supports a model in which alteration of the upper oceanic crust in off-axis hydrothermal systems plays an important role in controlling ocean chemistry and the long-term carbon cycle.


More than 1,030 individuals served as special referees for The Journal of Obstetrics andGynaecology Research (JOGR). The Editorial Board, Asia and Oceania Federation of Obstetrics and Gynaecology (AOFOG) and Japan Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology (JSOG) take this opportunity to acknowledge these reviewers who have contributedmany hours and much effort in the evaluation of manuscripts submitted to JOGR during the past year. We also continue to seek advice from reviewers and readers alike with regards to their overall evaluation of JOGR.


Ethiopia has the largest livestock population in Africa, making a considerable contribution to the livelihood of Ethiopian people and to the wider economy. However, zoonotic diseases threaten the performance and potential benefits of this vast livestock sector. Emerging zoonotic diseases, such as bovine tuberculosis, brucellosis and anthrax that have acquired global significance seriously affect the livestock sector in the country. A number of policies and regulations have been designed in order to prevent and control the transmission of animal and zoonotic diseases in Ethiopia. This paper documents the key policy provisions and institutions involved in these initiatives and identifies entry points for the design of specific implementable strategies for the control of bovine tuberculosis (bTB): a disease that is endemic among cattle in Ethiopia and particularly highly prevalent in its dairy sector.  The analysis of this study is based on a review of existing documentation carried out in 2017. The results indicate: (i) the existence of various policy provisions for disease prevention and control but with limited recognition of  different disease transmission pathways including 'animal to animal', 'animal to human', and 'human to animal; (ii) that these policies and regulations only provide a general framework without specifying the interventions related to specific disease types such as bTB; (iii) that different institutions are given similar tasks and that there is no strong coordination mechanism among the institutions in terms of fulfilling these tasks and avoiding the duplication of effort; and (iv) that more attention has been given to policies on human health, especially relating to selected priority diseases. These trends imply the need to design and implement strategic interventions in the prevention and control of bTB transmission both within the animal population and from the animal to the human population.

 Key words: Bovine tuberculosis, Ethiopia, policy, zoonoses.


This presentation was delivered at the 40th Anniversary of the Taylor Law Conference sponsored by the NYS Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) in Albany in May 2008. The presentation dealt with the New York Court of Appeals' approach to public sector labor law. Professor Vincent M. Bonventre identified patterns and trends in the decisions of the Court of Appeals, the state's highest court, over the fifteen year period during which Judith S. Kaye has served as Chief Judge. A review of those decisions is revealing. Overall patterns for the fifteen years, as well as recent trends, emerge from the court's rulings when reviewed in light of certain considerations: unanimous versus divided decisions, pro-employee versus pro-management ones, pro versus con-collective bargaining rulings, decisions in which public policy was deemed to prohibit versus permit collective bargaining or arbitration or certain terms or conditions of employment. All of the foregoing is illustrated in graphs that underscore these contrasts in the cases collectively, as well as highlight the recent trends suggesting a pro-management change in the court's direction.


The dawn of medical robots for hospital applications has enormously enhanced the services rendered to the patients. The medical robots, spanning from surgical to rehabilitation, provide their support not only to the doctors but to the patients as well. In spite of such advancement, some major health hazards still exist for the
hospital nurses. Lifting and moving the patients in hospitals are the usual duties of nurses. Injuries and backache occur while they frequently lift the unconscious, un-cooperating or immobile patients. This research highlights on the development of a single prototype arm of a Patient Assistance for Lifting Mobility Robot (PALMBOT) as
an effort in order to resolve this problem. Fieldwork conducted in Queen Elizabeth Hospital and Nursing Training College, Kota Kinabalu reveals that 83.9% of nurses
have backache and back injuries due to patient handling. Observations on lifting techniques and hospital specifications were used to conceive the PALMBOT. The
PALMBOT is a semi-automatic robot designed especially to assist nurses to perform lifting and transferring patients to different locations, thereby reducing the chances of
nurses getting injured during these tasks. The three arms of the PALMBOT, which perform the automatic patient loading and unloading process, use a set of open end conveyor systems. Since safety is a primary concern of the PALMBOT, Artificial
Intelligence (AI) was incorporated in developing various sensing and control modules. Neural network was employed for the detection and execution systems which consist of Patient Position Tracking System (PPTS), Danger Monitoring System
(DMS), Automatic Procedure Sequencing System (APSS) and Fail Safe and Automatic Recovery System (FSARS). The intricacy faced in maintaining the tension of the conveyor was resolved by using fuzzy logic in the Conveyor Tension Control System. A prototype single PALMBOT arm was fabricated. All the hardware and software modules are interconnected by using several tools such as MATLAB, EPOS Position Control and MPLAB® IDE PIC C working on the LABVIEW V8.0 as a common platform. The PALMBOT system is tested by a set of experiments and by simulated studies and found to be demonstrating an acceptable performance. It is envisaged
that the PALMBOT is a very useful addition to the modern hospital facilities.


Resilience Assessment of Electric Grids and Distributed Wind Generation under Hurricane Hazards by Akwasi Frimpong Mensah Modern society is increasingly dependent on high quality electricity for its economy, security, cultural life, public health, safety and governance. As such, ensuring the resilience of electric power systems against deliberate attacks and natural disasters is critical to the continuous function, particularly of urban cities. This thesis proposes an efficient for assessing the resilience of electric power systems under hurricane hazards. The thesis also explores the use of wind turbines as distributed generation to provide back-up electricity during hurricane-induced outages. The study develops computationally efficient models for evaluating outages in electric grids, while demonstrating their applicability through modeling a large real system subject to natural hazards, structural and system responses, and restoration processes. It employs a Bayesian networks approach and uses influence networks constructed via N-1 contingence Direct Current (DC) flow analyses to make the framework computationally tractable, time-efficient and amenable for real-time updating of information via data fusion in the future. The framework computes hurricane-induced customer outages in distributed 1 km blocks across the entire system, and simulates system restoration according to resource mobilization practices and sequences identified from historic events. The study uses the Harris County electric grid in Texas under Hurricane Ike in 2008 to illustrate the framework's application. The framework yields system responses that are in agreement with observed outages, with a mean error of 15.4% in outages aggregated at the ZIP code level. Performance comparison of the proposed framework with two previously existing models shows that the model has a better prediction accuracy and requires a significantly lower computation time than the existing models. The model takes minute and half as compared to more than an hour required by the previous models to run 50 simulations. Having observed widespread outages in the electric power system, with some lasting several days or weeks before power restoration, the study also looked at the reliability of wind turbines to support their integration in the form of distributed generation in power systems. The study introduced a closed-form methodology for computing the system failure probabilities of wind turbines considering different failure event definitions. The methodology is enhanced to incorporate consequences such as downtimes and repair costs of individual component failures, and to determine the turbine unavailability or cost risks. It yields vital reliability information that could be readily used for planning maintenance and forecasting wind power outputs necessary for widespread distributed wind generation. Furthermore, the study examines the use of tuned liquid column dampers (TLCDs) to increase the reliability of wind turbines. Comparison of results for wind turbines with and without the damper shows that a baseline TLCD of 1% mass ratio significantly reduces the structural vibrations (by as much as 47%), and considerably decreases the unavailability probability of a turbine (by up to 8%). Armed with the resilience assessment model for power systems and the reliability analysis tools for wind turbines, the study also develops a probabilistic model for quantifying the impact of distributed wind generation (DWG) on an electric grid during hurricane-induced outage periods. The model incorporates energy adequacy assessment principles while accounting for the uncertainty in electricity demands and in power output due to variability in the wind resource, unavailability of DWG units owing to turbine failures, as well as component failures in the main utility system. An application of the model to Harris County's power system equipped with turbines of total rated capacity of 1.8 GW shows that the DWG can provide back-up power to up to 85% of the customers in a distribution area which directly connects a DWG unit, while reducing the overall outages in the entire county by 8.5%. Thus, DWG can help improve the resilience of electric grids, support the rapid recovery of hurricane-affect communities and reduce economic losses associated with widespread and prolonged outages. In summary, the study provides computationally efficient tools for exploring a wide range of what-if scenarios in large real energy systems. The models can be readily adapted to consider other emerging technologies such as storage systems, vehicle grids, smart grids and micro grids in electric grid resilience assessments. Thus, they can support resiliencebased decisions for hurricane preparedness and mitigation, and restoration strategies that could ensure rapid recovery of the systems. They support efforts in ensuring a reliable and a sustainable supply of electricity during normal conditions or in the immediate aftermath of hurricane events. The outage assessment model, for instance, is directly implemented in the City of Houston's Storm Risk Calculator, an online tool that informs resident users about the local risks they face from an in-coming hurricane, and the city's emergency managers in hurricane disaster management. I dedicate this dissertation to my love and best friend, Maame Afua Mensah and my daughter, Analisa Destiny Mensah.


Biometric recognition is an integral component of modern identity management and access control systems. Due to the strong and permanent link between individuals and their biometric traits, exposure of enrolled users' biometric information to adversaries can seriously compromise biometric system security and user privacy. Numerous techniques have been proposed for biometric template protection over the last 20 years. While these techniques are theoretically sound, they seldom guarantee the desired noninvertibility, revocability, and nonlinkability properties without significantly degrading the recognition performance. The objective of this work is to analyze the factors contributing to this performance divide and highlight promising research directions to bridge this gap. The design of invariant biometric representations remains a fundamental problem, despite recent attempts to address this issue through feature adaptation schemes. The difficulty in estimating the statistical distribution of biometric features not only hinders the development of better template protection algorithms but also diminishes the ability to quantify the noninvertibility and nonlinkability of existing algorithms. Finally, achieving nonlinkability without the use of external secrets (e.g., passwords) continues to be a challenging proposition. Further research on the above issues is required to cross the chasm between theory and practice in biometric template protection.


Impact ejecta layers in four formations in the Hamersley Basin (Western Australia) and in one formation from the Transvaal Supergroup (South Africa) show striking evidence for impact‐related reworking. Each layer contains sand‐sized spherules of a former silicate melt that resemble those found in well‐documented impact layers. Given available isotopic age dates of associated strata and uncertainties in stratigraphic correlation, these layers represent a minimum of three and a maximum of five impacts between ca. 2.49 and 2.63 Ga. All of these layers were deposited below wave base in deep‐shelf environments, yet they show a common suite of sedimentary features indicating deposition and reworking under high‐energy conditions. These features occur in a consistent order: (1) extensive erosion, including the transport of meter‐scale rip‐up clasts, (2) reworking by waves, (3) synwave to postwave offshore‐directed bottom return flow, and (4) later reworking by sediment gravity flows. We interpret the consistent association of erosion, wave reworking, and bottom return flow as a result of tsunami triggered by the impact. The sediment gravity flows may have been triggered by impact or may occur much later. The wave features in these layers indicate they are the result of oceanic impacts, and their sedimentological similarities suggest a consistent set of depositional processes that can be used to recognize the distal ejecta layers of marine impacts, particularly those deposited in deep‐shelf settings. Given the relatively rapid tectonic recycling of oceanic crust, such layers probably constitute our best source of information on the frequency and effects of large impacts in open‐ocean basins.


The finite-element method including simulated annealing algorithm is adopted for the analysis and optimization of photonic-crystal waveguiding structures. The dispersion relations of the photonic-crystal waveguides are found by solution of an eigenvalue equation. The waveguide structures including bends and branches are analyzed by use of a scattering formulation. The symmetry of the structure is exploited to classify the modes as well as to reduce the computations. Based on the transmission spectra of a waveguide's bends and branches, a branch is optimized by use of the simulated annealing algorithm.


Examining the most important key developments in highly integrated wireless RF front ends, this book describes and evaluates both active and passive solutions for on-chip high-Q filtering, and explores M-phase filters in depth. An accessible step-by-step approach is used to introduce everything an RF designer needs to know about these filters, including their various forms, principles of operation, and their performance against implementation-related imperfections. Real-world examples are described in depth, and detailed mathematical analyses demonstrate the practical quantification of pertinent circuit parameters.


Two of the most prominent algorithms for solving unconstrained smooth games are the classical stochastic gradient descent-ascent (SGDA) and the recently introduced stochastic consensus optimization (SCO) [Mescheder et al., 2017]. SGDA is known to converge to a stationary point for specific classes of games, but current convergence analyses require a bounded variance assumption. SCO is used successfully for solving large-scale adversarial problems, but its convergence guarantees are limited to its deterministic variant. In this work, we introduce the expected co-coercivity condition, explain its benefits, and provide the first last-iterate convergence guarantees of SGDA and SCO under this condition for solving a class of stochastic variational inequality problems that are potentially non-monotone. We prove linear convergence of both methods to a neighborhood of the solution when they use constant step-size, and we propose insightful stepsize-switching rules to guarantee convergence to the exact solution. In addition, our convergence guarantees hold under the arbitrary sampling paradigm, and as such, we give insights into the complexity of minibatching.


The application of in vivo measurement techniques, derived from nuclear and atomic physics, to problems encountered in occupational medicine is discussed. The main techniques, neutron activation and X-ray fluorescence, are described, and their use for in vivo measurements of cadmium and lead is explored in some detail. The extension of these and other, related, techniques to the possible measurement of other elements of importance in occupational medicine is considered. The use of in vivo measurements as a tool for research into the toxicological effects of cadmium, associated with occupational exposure is taken as an example of the way in which in vivo elemental analysis can contribute to research in occupational medicine.


Despite extensive studies on pegmatites in the past (Barth 1928, Bjorlykke 1935, Brotzen 1959, Niggli 1920, 1937) and more recently (Cerny 1982, Gordienko 1996, London 2005, Peretyazhko et al., 2004 Shmakin & Makagkon 1999, Strunz 1974) their origin and genesis remain controversial, particularly so for complexly zoned pegmatites. Some researchers (e.g., Fersmann 1931, Turner & Verhoogen 1960) consider them to be of igneous origin, while others believe that pegmatites are metamorphically or metasomatically generated (e.g., Barth 1962, Gresens 1967). In this paper we present evidence in favor of the igneous origin of pegmatites and provide insights into some major pegmatite-forming processes. Our evidence is based primarily on fluid and melt inclusions (FI and MI, respectively) and experimental studies, and suggests that the vast majority of granitic pegmatites are of magmatic origin, even though many may be affected by recrystallization and metasomatism. The very existence of silicate melt inclusions in minerals of pegmatites provides proof of their magmatic origin. In this contribution, we also discuss melt and fluid inclusion evidence concerning the nature and evolution of some granitic pegmatites. Our observations bear primarily on F-enriched and/or alkaline pegmatites, but they are also useful for considering processes involving simple pegmatites composed of feldspar, quartz, and little else. We confine ourselves to major processes of pegmatite formation that can be constrained by the study of MI and FI. Processes and evidence of the late hydrothermal evolution stage, characterized by dilute aqueous solutions, are beyond the scope of this paper.


A new edition of this established text has been expanded and updated, treating this important field in a holistic manner. The structure of the previous book has been retained, but enhanced with new text and illustrations, and more numerical problems with a wider scope. Readers will find much on the background to the industry and details of such centrally important operations as refining, heat exchange, cracking, polymerisation and hydrogenation.

 There is a chapter on offshore matters, which includes some incidents that occurred since the first edition. National and international standards are considered as these relate to such things as site layout. The coverage of the fire and explosion behaviour of hydrocarbons has been extended, in particular in relation to flash points. The topic of leaked gas detection has been introduced, and there is considerable extension of the coverage of static electricity hazards.

 There is more on liquefied natural gas (LNG), including details of processes for its regasification. Natural gas condensate features, having grown considerably in importance since the first edition. Re-refining of crude oil products that have previously been used as lubricants or as hydraulic fluids has also experienced growth, and this too has its place in the book from the perspective of safety. Tight gas and coal bed methane feature, as does the controversial matter of hydraulic fracture to obtain them.

 The chemical processing chapter has been extended to include hydrocracking, hydrodesulphurisation and hydrodenitrogenation. The COMAH (Control of Major Accident Hazards) regulations are covered and sign conventions for hazards are explained with illustrations.


The sources of variability in feeding motor programme (FMP) of the terrestrial slug, Limax maximus, were examined in relation to: (1) changes in load on the feeding apparatus; (2) changes in concentration of attractive food stimuli; and (3) changes in satiety signalled by feedback from the gut. These sources of variability, which affect both timing of the central pattern generator for feeding and probability of occurrence of FMP, were compared in intact animals and in isolated brain preparations. The load on feeding apparatus of intact animals is altered by varying the hardness of their food. An animal will show a higher 'bite cycle' frequency on soft food as compared with hard food. In physiological preparations, weights attached to buccal muscles similarly increase load. Cycle frequency of FMP triggered by food extracts is increased when buccal muscles are-unloaded compared with FMP when muscles are loaded. Increasing the chemostimulant concentration of food results in greater numbers of intact animals feeding for longer periods. Increasing the food extract concentration used to trigger FMP in physiological preparations causes similar increases in feeding duration. Intact animals use cues from gut distention to indicate satiation and terminate feeding. Inflation of the crop in physiological preparations causes an early termination of feeding activity, along with decreased FMP cycle frequency.


Research in opponent modelling has shown success, but a fundamental question has been overlooked: what happens when a modeller is faced with an opponent that cannot be successfully modelled? Many opponent modellers could do arbitrarily poorly against such an opponent. In this paper, we aim to augment opponent modelling techniques with a method that enables models to be used safely. We introduce -safe strategies, which bound by the possible loss versus a safe value. We also introduce the Safe Policy Selection algorithm (SPS) as a method to vary in a controlled fashion. We prove in the limit that an agent using SPS is guaranteed to attain at least a safety value in the cases when the opponent modelling is ineffective. We also show empirical evidence that SPS does not adversely affect agents that are capable of modelling the opponent. Tests with a domain of complicated modellers show that SPS is effective at eliminating losses while retaining wins in a variety of modelling algorithms.