In multiuser MIMO system, multiuser multiplexing and diversity gain can be achieved by spatial scheduling. However, the limited battery life and terminal size of the User Equipment (UE) in a cellular system put a constraint on MIMO when the tranmitter has more antenna than the receiver in downlink, the conventional MIMO schemes can only exploit partial multiplexing gain and diversity gain. In a multiuser MIMO OFDMA system, multiuser diversity gain can be achieved by exploiting the independent frequency and spatial selective fading one another by joint spatial and frequency scheduling. In this paper, different multiuser multiple access schemes with greedy scheduling of MIMO OFDMA are investigated, e.g. TDMA, FDMA/TDMA and SDMA/FDMA/TDMA. For full spatial-frequency multiuser diversity gain and spatial multiplexing gain can be achieved, SDMA/FDMA/TDMA obtains highest spectrum efficiency. Its gain exceeds that of TDMA and FDMA/TDMA at least 80% and 40% respectively. The more antennas configured, the more gain can be observed from SDMA/FDMA/TDMA.


Globalisation, liberalisation and convergence of communication markets have triggered intensive debates about the options for regulatory reform, including the growing role of alternative modes of regulation (self-regulation, co-regulation). These alternatives or supplements to traditional statutory regulation are marked by the involvement of nongovernmental actors in regulatory processes. Both industry and policy makers consider alternative regulation to have great potential for solving problems in communication markets. Regulators are increasingly required to assess the potential and limitations of alternative regulatory institutions to inform or improve regulatory systems. As part of this, they are examining how existing alternative regulatory schemes work and what improvements can be made to them. Regulatory authorities are seeking to identify best practice in other countries in relation to self- and co-regulation and regulatory innovation. Empirical evaluations are intended to contribute to a better understanding of alternative modes of regulation and increase the knowledge base for decisions on whether various types of co- and self-regulatory solutions might be preferable to full statutory regulation. This report is intended to contribute to the regulator's assessment- and regulatory choice-efforts. It examines whether and how success and failure of selected self- and co-regulatory schemes can be explained by their respective institutional design, by characteristics of the industries involved and by the established regulatory environment. In other words, the performance of selected self- and co-regulatory schemes is examined comparatively and it is investigated as to whether and how performance differences can be explained by differences in the organisational design of the alternative regulatory institutions (institutional/organisational success factors) and by differences regarding their particular industrial and regulatory environments (enabling contextual factors).


In my thesis I investigate compositional techniques for synthesis of safety controllers. A safety controller, in this context, is a state machine that gives the set of safe control outputs for every possible sequence of observations from the plant under control. Compositionality, in this context, refers to the ability to compose the plant model with a safety controller that is derived in a local context, meaning we only consider a selected subsets of the full set of plant model components. The main research question addressed in the thesis is how compositional techniques can have a beneficial effect on scalability. Here scalability applies to the way the running time and memory requirements of the synthesis algorithm increase with the number of plant model components. The working hypothesis was that compositionality should indeed have a beneficial impact on scalability. The intuition behind this is that using compositional techniques we should be able to avoid or at least partly alleviate the type of state explosion problem that is typically seen when synthesizing controllers for larger plant models that consist of the paralel composition of multiple plant model components. The experimental results presented in the thesis are positive in the sense that they indeed support the working hypothesis. We see on a natural example the compositional algorithm exhibits linear scaling behavior whereas the monolithic (non compositional) algorithm exhibits super–exponential scaling behavior. We see this even for an example that intrinsically requires a combination of local control constraints and a global control constraint, where the local constraints are each in turn dependent on a small number of adjacent plant components, whereas the global constraint is intrinsically dependent on all plant model components simultaneously. A first main contribution is a symbolic algorithm that works directly on a compact symbolic representation of the controller thereby avoiding explicit construction of the underlying state graph. The algorithm works by refining the representation of the control strategy in a counterexample driven manner. Upon termination the algorithm will yield a symbolic representation of the most permissive, safe control strategy for the given plant model. The algorithm is specifically designed for models that feature partial observability, meaning that certain internal state of the plant model is not directly observable by the controller. A second main contribution is a compositional technique that also explicitly takes partial observability into account. For this we develop a compositional algorithm that invokes the aforementioned strategy refinement algorithm repeatedly. In particular the compositional algorithm performs a two step synthesis process for each relevant subset of the plant model: (1) computation of the local context which effectively forms a local overapproximation of the allowable behavior, (2) computation of the local controller which effectively forms a local underapproximation of the deniable behavior. We prove that upon termination of the algorithm the context and the controller signatures coincide and we obtain precisely the desired most permissive safety controller, yet constructed in an incremental, compositional fashion. What sets these contributions apart from other contributions in the field is the fact that I consider compositionality in combination with partial observability, and also the fact that the resulting compositional algorithm does not rely on any type of explicit, congruence based state minimization procedure. Even though the two aforementioned main contributions can be considered separately, it may be more informative to view them in combination: it is the compositional algorithm that manages to exploit to the maximal extent the symbolic strategy refinement algorithm that underlies it, or, vice versa, it is the symbolic strategy refinement algorithm that enables the compositional algorithm that relies on it to scale well on larger problem instances.


Abstract Subalkaline basalts from NE Egypt represent an episode of magmatism at c. 24 Ma, coincident with widespread eruptive activity in northern Africa. New geochemical data provide insight into the mineralogical and isotopic characteristics of the underlying mantle. The basalts show little geochemical variation, with incompatible trace element abundances similar to those of ocean island basalts. They display fairly smooth primitive mantle-normalized incompatible trace element patterns. Trace element abundances and Sr–Nd–Pb–Hf isotopic signatures are consistent with contributions from two distinct source regions, one similar to the Afar plume and the other located within the metasomatized spinel-facies subcontinental lithosphere. Mixing of melts from these two domains was followed by minor crustal contamination during prolonged ascent or emplacement. Integrating the geochemical data with available tomographic information allows us to develop a framework for understanding mid-Tertiary magmatic activity throughout northern Africa. A model for this widespread volcanism involves ascent of upwelling mantle derived from the margins of the South African Superplume rooted at the core–mantle boundary and/or through small-scale convection at the 660 km discontinuity. Ascent of magmas to the surface was facilitated by pre-existing structures within the lithosphere, including those associated with incipient rifting of the Red Sea. Supplementary material: Mineral chemistry data are available at http://www.geolsoc.org.uk/SUP18483.


Education is an important tool for the development of human potential. Organizations and individuals interested in development consider knowledge, skills and attitudes, obtained through formal, non-formal and incidental learning, as invaluable assets. Therefore, it is necessary to reflect on fundamental elements that shape the process through which education is attained: How do people learn, and what are the conditions that facilitate effective learning? Answers to these questions demonstrate that no education can be politically neutral, because there is no value-free education. The traditional or indigenous education systems in Nigeria, which covered (and still cover) physical training, development of character, respect for elders and peers, development of intellectual skills, specific vocational trainings, developing a sense of belonging and participation in community affairs, and understanding, appreciating and promoting the cultural heritage of the community were, and are, not value-free. In other words, the goals and purpose of education, the content, the entire process and the procedures chosen for evaluation in education are all value-laden. This book attempts to show that the teaching-learning process in higher education, and religion, taught and learned through non-formal and informal education (or the hidden curriculum), and other socialization processes within and outside the formal school system, all interface to determine the persons that women become. This education enhances or limits women?s capabilities, whether in the civic-political sphere or in their attempts to resist violence. Hence, education and religion have ways of empowering or disempowering women.


Narrow riparian woodlands along non-perennial streams have made it possible for vervet monkeys to penetrate the semi-arid karoo ecosystem of South Africa, whilst artificial water points have more recently allowed these populations to colonize much more marginal habitat away from natural water sources. In order to better understand the sequelae of life in these narrow, linear woodlands for historically 'natural' populations and to test the prediction that they are ecologically stressed, we determined the size of troops in relation to their reliance on natural and artificial water sources and collected detailed data from two river-centred troops on activity, diet and ranging behaviour over an annual cycle. In comparison to other populations, our data indicate that river-centred troops in the karoo were distinctive primarily both for their large group sizes and, consequently, their large adult cohorts, and in the extent of home range overlap in what is regarded as a territorial species. Whilst large group size carried the corollary of increased day journey length and longer estimated interbirth intervals, there was little other indication of the effects of ecological stress on factors such as body weight and foraging effort. We argue that this was a consequence of the high density of Acacia karroo , which accounted for a third of annual foraging effort in what was a relatively depauperate floristic habitat. We ascribed the large group size and home range overlap to constraints on group fission. Conservation implications: The distribution of group sizes, sampled appropriately across habitats within a conservation area, will be of more relevance to management than average values, which may be nothing more than a statistical artefact, especially when troop sizes are bimodally distributed.


Drug regulatory agencies around the world have implemented programs to expedite drug development and review for promising new products for serious diseases. These programs are all intended to minimize delays in patient access to innovative medicines, and have used broadly similar strategies to shorten drug development and review timelines. However, they differ in many key respects, and some stakeholders have suggested that these differences create unnecessary barriers in the development and approval process, possibly leading to delays in access. In collaboration with FDA, the Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy convened an expert workshop to elicit feedback from a broad range of stakeholders as to whether a lack of harmonization across expedited programs is interfering with the efficient development of new products and, if so, to explore strategies for addressing these challenges. This report provides a summary of key themes and major findings from that discussion.


This thesis details the chemical synthesis and nanocharacterisation of magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs). Throughout this thesis, solution-based synthesis methods are used to fabricate MNPs with a variety of shapes, from spheres and cubes to wires and octapods.

Chapter 3 assesses the role of polyol solvent in autoclave-based magnetite NP synthesis. It was found that solvents containing functional groups (especially primary alcohols) afforded the greatest control over final MNP morphology and that the presence of additional alkyl substituents could disrupt the packing of surfactant molecules around a particle surface, giving rise to more complex 'compound' MNPs. Magnetic measurements show the particles to be superparamagnetic, with saturation magnetisation values close to that of the bulk.

In Chapter 4 It was found that by replacing the polyol solvents used in Chapter 3 with a large excess of bulky surfactant molecules it was possible to form high aspect ratio lanthanide oxide (LnOx) nanowires and ribbons. It was found that the nanowires formed via an intriguing 3-stage 'oriented assembly' mechanism, in which individual NPs form, before aligning anisotropically and recrystallising into a more crystallographically homogeneous product. The magnetic properties of Gd2O3 nanowires and Dy2O3 nanoribbons are very similar to those of discrete particles, implying that no long-range ordering exists in the nanowires. Optical characterisation of the Eu2O3 nanowires showed that there is an increase in fluorescence lifetime going from bulk Eu2O3 to the nanoscale.

In Chapter 5 the high temperature reflux approach is used in the synthesis of manganese oxide (as MnO) particles, using manganese-containing polynuclear carboxylate complexes as precursors. It was found that control over MnO NP size and shape is dependent on many factors, such as the carboxylate ligand present in the precursor (which can disrupt particle stabilisation by surfactant molecules) and the heating regime, which ii determines if the particles grow under thermodynamic or kinetic growth regimes. The magnetic behaviour of MnO MNPs was found to be dependent on the relative number of surface spins present in the particles.

In Chapter 6 new routes to gadolinium-doped magnetite particles are discussed. It was found that decomposition of a single-source precursor yielded doped magnetite particles which had a gadolinium content of 2–4%. Magnetic characterisation of these particles showed them to be superparamagnetic, with a reduced saturation magnetisation compared to bulk magnetite. Preliminary investigations showed that the gadolinium doped particles (after being rendered water soluble by a ligand exchange reaction) were readily taken up by human fibroblast cells and exhibited low toxicities.


In August 2008, the twelfth in a series of biennial conferences on the Literature of Region and Nation was held at Aberdeen University in the North-East of Scotland. Over fifty scholars, representing no fewer than twenty different countries, convened for the occasion; and twenty-two of the papers presented are included in this volume. As at previous conferences in the series, the papers range widely in approach, in subject-matter and in geographical coverage: readers of this book will find explorations of literature from all five continents. The papers are arranged thematically: the central concepts of region and nation are examined in the first section; and subsequent sets of papers go on to consider literary and pictorial representations of places and people, literature of diaspora and exile (a keynote topic of the conference), the use of language (particularly non-standard languages) in literary texts, and artistic interactions between cultures. All the papers have been peer-reviewed, and some extensively revised. The collection demonstrates the vitality of scholarship in the field of regional literary studies.


Nitrogen dioxide retrievals from the Aura/Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) have been used extensively over the past decade, particularly in the study of tropospheric air quality. Recent comparisons of OMI NO2 with independent data sets and models suggested that the OMI values of slant column density (SCD) and stratospheric vertical column density (VCD) in both the NASA OMNO2 and Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute DOMINO products are too large, by around 10–40%. We describe a substantially revised spectral fitting algorithm, optimized for the OMI visible light spectrometer channel. The most important changes comprise a flexible adjustment of the instrumental wavelength shifts combined with iterative removal of the ring spectral features; the multistep removal of instrumental noise; iterative, sequential estimates of SCDs of the trace gases in the 402–465 nm range. These changes reduce OMI SCD(NO2) by 10–35%, bringing them much closer to SCDs retrieved from independent measurements and models. The revised SCDs, submitted to the stratosphere‐troposphere separation algorithm, give tropospheric VCDs ∼10–15% smaller in polluted regions, and up to ∼30% smaller in unpolluted areas. Although the revised algorithm has been optimized specifically for the OMI NO2 retrieval, our approach could be more broadly applicable.


This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of the adoption of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure Rule 23, and with it, the advent of the modern class action. As the fiftieth anniversary approached, many scholars, including myself, said that class actions were dead, dying, or headed for a zombie state. Many of the Supreme Court's recent class action cases all but confirmed that view. In just the last six years, the Supreme Court ratcheted up the requirements for class certification under Rule 23 in Wal-Mart Stores v. Dukes and Comcast v. Behrend, increasing the cost and difficulty of obtaining certification. And, in a series of cases, the Court permitted the use of class action prohibitions in arbitration contracts, thus eliminating a swath of class actions and, often, the underlying claims themselves. The Court's language in these cases also tracked stock arguments against the class action, leaving the distinct impression that the Roberts Court was on a mission to diminish or destroy the class action procedure.
But a funny thing happened on the way to the funeral: just as the obituaries for the class action were being written, the Supreme Court issued a series of decisions that breathed new life into it. In Halliburton Co. v. Erica P. John Fund, Inc. (Halliburton II) and Amgen Inc. v. Connecticut Retirement Plans & Trust Funds, the Court reaffirmed the fraud-on-the-market theory, a critical tool in securities class actions. In Tyson Foods v. Bouaphakeo, the Court vindicated the use of statistical proof to satisfy Rule 23 requirements, distancing itself from strong suggestions in prior cases that individualized proof requirements would doom class certification. And the language in these cases tracked stock arguments in favor of class actions.
To paraphrase Mark Twain, the rumors of the class action's death now seem greatly exaggerated. But the Court's class action decisions raise a new and perhaps more vexing question. If the Court is not fully intent on destroying the class action, what drives its seemingly disparate decisions? Do they reflect an anti–class action agenda losing steam, as Professor Coffee has suggested? Was the unbridled anti–class action agenda an illusion to begin with? Or is there a deeper explanation for these decisions? Part I of this Article demonstrates that the Court's "pro–class action" decisions cannot be easily reconciled with their "anti–class action" counterparts through traditional means—neither through straightforward applications of Rule 23, nor precedent, nor particular case facts. But Part II posits that the Court's seemingly disparate class action cases can still be rationalized. To do so, however, one must look past the procedural veneer and consider the underlying substantive rules and remedial regimes at stake. Indeed, a key question presented in each case—notwithstanding what appears in the petitions for writs of certiorari—is whether the Court will embrace an interpretation of a substantive rule that has the effect of facilitating the availability of the class action. The Court's ultimate answer reflects a composite judgment about the substantive rule at issue and its implications for the availability of the class action device. Accordingly, to the extent one insists that procedural rules are, or ought to be, transsubstantive—that, "in form and manner of application, [they do] not vary from one substantive context to the next"—the Court's class action jurisprudence might actually be deemed "non-transsubstantive."
This Article's thesis has numerous implications—for separation of powers, judicial lawmaking power, federalism, the role of precedent, notions of transsubstantive procedure, procedural theory, and the nature and legitimacy of the judicial role, among others. The limitations of the Article format permit consideration in Part III of just two: First, the implications for the nature and scope of the federal courts' procedural and substantive lawmaking powers under the Rules Enabling Act [hereinafter Enabling Act]. And second, related implications for the nature and legitimacy of the judicial role in "procedural" opinions.


Terrain height variations in mountainous areas cause problems in the radiometric correction of SAR images. The authors propose a novel SAR system which exploits the monopulse principle to determine the elevation angle and thus the height at the different parts of the image. From the ratios of images radiometrically modulated by the difference and sum antenna pattern in cross-track direction, the authors can calculate the appropriate elevation angle at any point in the image. In this paper, they present design considerations for an array antenna for DLR's airborne X-band SAR system and give estimates of the error due to system noise and azimuth ambiguities as well as the expected performance and precision in topographic mapping. >


The Wars of the Roses which took place in England during the 15th century have passed into folk-memory as bloody, vicious struggles for power, with the throne as the prize and ordinary people as the victims. William Shakespeare's propaganda for the Tudor dynasty played a great part in creating this legend. Yet the truth was rather more complex. Although power changed hands often, and sometimes with bewildering speed, English society in general was relatively stable, and prosperous. The Wars of the Roses represent a stage in the evolution of a British nation, emerging from the long shadow of medieval France that had lain over these islands since the Norman Conquest. This popular book covers the period beautifully.


The term sectoral approaches has come to be frequently used in forums for global warming negotiations, particularly on a future framework. In the intensified debate on a post-Kyoto framework, the establishment of an equitable framework embracing major greenhouse gas (GHG) emitters is sought and sectoral approaches have been discussed as a possible solution. This paper therefore seeks to study the background for the current call for sectoral approaches to analyse the different stances taken by Japan, the US and the EU towards them, thus identifying the features of various types of sectoral approaches and how the can actually function.


Abstract : Recent technological advances have generated interest in using a field emission cathode in a radio-frequency (RF) electron gun. One of the necessary steps towards the realization of this concept is to establish a comprehensive understanding of the electron distribution produced by such a cathode, and the goal of this work is to expand this body of knowledge. For the specific case of ungated field emitter arrays we investigate aspects of the temporal and transverse electron distribution, as well as the relationship between emission timing and the ensuing acceleration of the electrons. We show that an upper bound can be placed on the magnitude of the transverse momentum imparted to the electrons by the nonlinear accelerating forces that exist close to the emitter tips. This establishes a limit on the cathode's intrinsic emittance, an important determining factor for beam quality. We examine the consequences of this result in the context of relevant theoretical and experimental studies reported in the literature. This is followed by a series of calculations based on a simple emitter model, which are used to study specific aspects of the transverse momentum distribution. Our focus then shifts to the longitudinal beam dynamics. An examination of the on-axis trajectories demonstrates that it is possible to design a gun such that essentially all of the field-emitted current reaches the exit of the cavity. This indicates a source of this type may be capable of producing high average beam power. In the final chapter, the properties of ungated field emission cathodes are compared with the properties of cathodes that are typically used in RF guns. This gives some insight into how the field emission cathode might perform in this setting.


Atlantic Drift publishes twenty-four poets from the UK, Ireland, USA and Canada in an exciting partnership between Arc Publications and Edge Hill University Press. This anthology seeks to highlight new and existing writing and to define/redefine the discussions between poets from both sides of 'the pond'. By developing a dialogue between English-speaking traditions, Atlantic Drift will include some of the most exceptional poetry and poetics written in the twenty-first century, featuring Claudia Rankine, Jerome Rothenberg, Rosmarie Waldrop, Charles Bernstein, Bhanu Kapil and Allen Fisher. Edited by James Byrne and Robert Sheppard.


Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and imaging (NMR/MRI) are widely applied methods for non-destructive analysis of biological systems, materials and medical applications. Dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) is a method to enhance NMR signal by means of polarization transfer from unpaired electrons to nuclei through saturation the electron spin transition by microwave (MW). DNP in liquids is governed by Overhauser mechanism which results from the simultaneous flipping of electron and nuclear spins. The DNP efficiency decreases with increasing an external magnetic field. Since many organic molecules, which are potentially interesting for DNP as polarizers, are not soluble in water, the Overhauser DNP analysis has been done for toluene solutions. Also nonpolar solvents, in contrast to water, suffer less from dielectric losses and this allows using larger volume of the investigated samples. These experiments have demonstrated higher DNP efficiency of nitroxide radicals in toluene solution than in aqueous solution at low radical concentration. The reason is higher Heisenberg spin exchange rate between different hyperfine EPR transitions due to lower viscosity of toluene.
The theoretical model of the relaxation dynamic for the electron-nuclear hyperfine coupled system with S=1/2 and I=1 has been analytically solved and the analytical expressions for the saturation factors of the individual hyperfine lines have been obtained. The electron-electron double resonance (ELDOR) method has been extended for the experimental measurements of the saturation factors and the polarization recoveries for radicals with more than 2 hyperfine lines. The series of experiments have demonstrated that the DNP enhancement increases with increasing of molecular size and does not depend on the nitroxide radical concentration in the case of dominant nitrogen nuclear relaxation between hyperfine EPR transitions.
Several nitroxide derivatives with the covalently linked fullerene C60, as the dye with high quantum yield of the triplet state, have been synthetized. The transient EPR experiments of the photoexcited fullerene-nitroxide derivatives have demonstrated the feasibility to generate high non-equilibrium electron spin polarization by light. The photoexcited electron polarization, if successfully transferred to solvent nuclei, may provide a new method to perform DNP in liquids without MW irradiation.


The bZIP gene is a transcription factor that plays various roles in relation to plant stress and hormone signaling. This gene is also involved in plant environmental stress and herbicide tolerance. We generated Nicotiana benthamiana transgenic plants with LebZIP2-encoding gene isolated from tomatoes using Agrobacterium-mediated transformation. Transgenic seeds harvested from these T0 transgenic plants were grown and examined for gene transfer and changes in phenolic compounds in the T1 generation. RT-PCR analysis using a primer specific to the LebZIP gene confirmed that the gene was transferred to the T1 generation. We analyzed the increase and decrease tendency for 30 phenolic compounds using the T1 generation-transgenic plants and investigated the mechanism between the specifically increased compound and LebZIP2 gene. Gallic acid, homogentisic acid, protocatechuic acid, myricetin, t-cinnamic acid, and b-resorcyclic acid were identified as the phenolic compounds that increased in T1 transgenic plants overexpressing the LebZIP gene. Among these, homogentisic acid at 246.75-1055.19 µg/g, was increased by 2-5 fold in the T1 transgenic plants compared to the control. Protocatechuic acid was found at 1640.54-2456.00 µg/g and was increased by 2-4 fold in T1 transgenic plants. t-Cinnamic acid was present in a small amount of 23.14 µg/g in the control, whereas it was 102.19-135.47 µg/g in T1 transgenic plants, showing an increase of 4-5 folds. These results indicated that homogentisic acid, protocatechuic acid, and t-cinnamic acid among the 30 phenolic compounds analyzed, were significantly increased in LebZIP2-overexpressing T1 transgenic plants, and support the evidence that the LebZIP2 gene is significantly involved in the increment of three phenolic compounds.


Acclaimed for his writing on Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr., Tupac Shakur, and many more, Michael Eric Dyson has emerged as the leading African-American intellectual of his generation. This collection gathers the best of Dyson's vast and growing body of work from the last several years: his most incisive commentary, the most stirring passages, and the sharpest, most probing and broadminded critical analyses. From Michael Jordan to the role of religion in public life, from Toni Morrison to patriotism in the wake of 9/11, the mastery and ease with which Dyson tackles just about any subject of relevance to black America today is without parallel.


This article examines cultural depictions of firemen during the Second World War in film, radio and the press. It focuses on the masculine identities ascribed to those unable to fulfil the idealised masculine role of being in the armed forces. The article argues that firemen's role in the defence of Britain gave them access to many, if not all, of the ideal attributes more commonly associated with the venerated image of the armed forces hero. However, such an image was temporally specific and only prominent during the months of the Blitz. As such, this article imparts important knowledge about men and masculinity in this period.


The current crisis in public employee benefits is a fairly conventional moral hazard story about overly generous promises made by both private sector employers and politicians spending public dollars. The private sector, forced by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) in 1993 to confront the true cost of promises made to future retirees, dealt with the newly discovered debt in a number of ways, including the termination of defined benefit plans which were quickly replaced by defined contribution plans. The public sector was also forced to confront its own largesse with the implementation of GASB 45 which focused careful attention on the present value of the level of benefits promised. This period of scrutiny coincided with skyrocketing health care costs and a deep recession that saw enormous private sector job loss and, unsurprisingly, growing resentment by private sector employees of the relatively lavish benefits still enjoyed by unionized public workers. This paper describes the astonishing scope of public sector benefits-driven indebtedness and provides an account which contrasts the prudent self-correction process in the private sector with the ongoing struggle of many states to address the issue. In addition, the paper proposes specific reforms - the movement of all employees into DC plans, mandated use of realistic rates of return, the explicit promotion of the cultural norms of thrift and frugality, and, in extreme cases where the political landscape appears incapable of responding effectively to the crisis, the modification of legal regimes to prohibit collective bargaining over benefits - for policy makers to consider.


Generalization bounds which assess the difference between the true risk and the empirical risk, have been studied extensively. However, to obtain bounds, current techniques use strict assumptions such as a uniformly bounded or a Lipschitz loss function. To avoid these assumptions, in this paper, we follow an alternative approach: we relax uniform bounds assumptions by using on-average bounded loss and on-average bounded gradient norm assumptions. Following this relaxation, we propose a new generalization bound that exploits the contractivity of the log-Sobolev inequalities. These inequalities add an additional loss-gradient norm term to the generalization bound, which is intuitively a surrogate of the model complexity. We apply the proposed bound on Bayesian deep nets and empirically analyze the effect of this new loss-gradient norm term on different neural architectures.


Traditionally, modelling tasks involve the building of mathematical equations which can best
describe the underlying process. Such a modelling practice normally requires a deep
understanding of the systems under investigation, hence the reason why it is often referred to
as knowledge-driven modelling. On the contrary, knowledge extraction from data (or datadriven
modelling), inspired principally from artificial intelligence techniques, is based on
limited knowledge of the modelling process and relies on the data describing the input and
output mappings. Such a process is able to make abstractions and generalisations of the
process and plays often a complementary role to knowledge-driven modelling.
The Fuzzy Rule-Based System (FRBS) has been found more appealing for such a knowledge
extraction process, compared to other 'black-box' modelling techniques, due to its ability of
providing human understandable knowledge. However, such interpretability is only semiinherent
in the FRBS. Without a special caution one can easily end up with a FRBS with
equally good predictions as those given by the 'black-box' modelling methods, while on the
other hand with equally bad interpretability. Hence, extracting a transparent (interpretative)
FRBS is reckoned to be of a multi-objective nature with often conflicting outcomes, which
gives the rationale of using bio-inspired optimisation paradigms, more specifically, Artificial
Immune Systems, in this research project. In a bid to further improve the overall predictive
performance, especially for the scatter and uncertain data set, an error correction scheme is
proposed so that one can compensate the original predictive model via the predicted error.
The proposed immune optimisation framework was tested extensively using several
benchmark problems and was compared with other salient techniques. Consistent better
performances were obtained. The immune based modelling approach was tested using a set of
benchmark problems, and was further applied to different real data sets, viz. Tensile Strength
(TS), Elongation and Reduction of Area (ROA), taken from the steel industry, which are all
featured by high dimensional, nonlinear and sparse data spaces. Results show that the
ii
proposed modelling approach is capable of eliciting not only accurate but also transparent
FRBSs. Such a transparent FRBS establishes the required predictions of the mechanical
properties of materials, which on the one hand can help metallurgists to further understand
the underlying mechanisms of alloys processing, and on the other hand will automate and
simplify their design. Charpy toughness (impact energy) as a special data set featured by
scatters and uncertainties was used to validate the proposed error correction mechanism and
proved its validity.
The project is part of the research activities which are currently conducted in the Institute for
Microstructural and Mechanical Process Engineering: The University of Sheffield
(IMMPETUS).


ABSTRACT A new methodology is proposed for qualitative discourse analysis (QDA) aimed at gaining enhanced insights into learning possibilities and indicators that arise during classroom group discussions. The constitution of this new methodology has two principle components: a discourse analysis approach that aims to identify the relationships between content and group dynamics; and a network analysis (NA) approach that uses the same data to identify meaning-related structural dynamics found in the data. The proposed methodology pairs these two components to create a supplementary iterative interchange that facilitates the attainment of greater analytic insights than are achievable by either of the two components individually. The critical aspects of the methodology are illustrated and discussed using real classroom data in ways that provide a procedural exemplar. The strengths and limitations of the proposed methodology are also discussed.


Americans have been inundated with financial scandals at large corporations during the past two years. In many cases, unethical behavior and poor oversight of corporate management are to blame. But the corporate income tax has also been a key source of corporate inefficiency and scandal. The tax code distorts financial and investment decisions, and spurs executives to hunt for tax shelters. These tax problems are highlighted in the 2,700-page report on Enron Corporation by the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT 2003a). Enron is just one company, but it took a team of JCT investigators a year to figure out how all its tax shelters worked. The JCT's efforts were a mirror image of the efforts of Enron, the accounting firms, and investment banks that put Enron's tax shelters into place originally. The JCT (2003a:16) concluded that Enron "excelled at making complexity an ally." While an ally to Enron, tax complexity is an enemy to productive corporate management and efficient investment decisionmaking. Enron-style tax sheltering has not been the only type of corporate tax scandal in the news. Attention has also focused on the growing number of U.S. companies reincorporating in low-tax jurisdictions, such as Bermuda. U.S. firms can save taxes on their foreign operations by creating a foreign parent company for their worldwide operations. At the same time, there are growing concerns about the uncompetitiveness of the U.S. corporate tax because of the high statutory rate of 35 percent and the complex rules on foreign investment (Edwards and de Rugy 2002). The corporate income tax is also feeling pressure from financial innovation on Wall Street. A recently decided case in the U.S. Tax Court, which involved Bank One's use of derivatives, was an 8-year battle with a trial that produced a 3,500-page transcript and 10,000 exhibits (Simpson 2003: C1). The corporate tax system is having trouble keeping up with today's complex and globalized economy. The corporate income tax has three fundamental flaws. The first flaw is that the U.S. statutory tax rate is the second highest among the 30 major industrial countries (KPMG 2003). That high rate reduces investment, encourages firms to move profits abroad, and provides incentives to push the legal margins with complex tax shelters. The second flaw is that the corporate tax base of net income or profits is inherently complex because it relies on concepts, such as capital gains and capitalization of long-lived assets, that are difficult to consistently account for in a tax system. Costs of capitalized assets are deducted through depreciation, amortization, and other rules. The income tax rules for capitalized assets and capital gains are repeatedly exploited in tax shelters, and they distort capital investment, business reorganizations, and other decisions. The third fundamental flaw is the gratuitous inconsistency that Congress has injected into the tax code. One example is the different treatment given to corporate debt and equity. Another example is the different tax rules imposed on corporations and the half dozen other types of businesses. Such inconsistencies have played a key role in the tax shelters exploited by Enron and other firms. Worse, they distort capital markets and channel investment into less productive uses. This article discusses the most serious corporate tax distortions and examines fundamental reforms to fix them. One option examined is full repeal of the corporate tax. Alternately, the replacement of the corporate income tax with a cash-flow tax is discussed. A cash-flow tax would eliminate most of the serious distortions in the corporate tax system by eliminating capital gains taxation, replacing capitalization with expensing, and creating financial neutrality between debt and equity. By cutting individual dividend and capital gains tax rates and providing partial expensing treatment for business investment, the 2003 tax law was a good first step toward corporate tax reform (see JCT 2003b). …


CONTEXT
Concussions are a global public health concern, and education on the importance of self-reporting may not reach all athletes to the same degree around the world.

OBJECTIVE
To determine if differences were present in the concussion awareness, understanding, and -reporting behaviors of collegiate athletes' in 3 countries with varied degrees of concussion publicity.

DESIGN
Cross-sectional survey.

SETTING
Collegiate sports medicine clinics.

PATIENTS OR OTHER PARTICIPANTS
Collegiate athletes in the United States (n = 964; high publicity), Ireland (n = 302; moderate publicity), and Jordan (n = 129; low publicity). The degree of concussion publicity was categorized based on the extent of national public health awareness initiatives, care guidelines, research publications, and mass media coverage.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S)
Participants completed a 10- to 15-minute survey on concussion awareness, understanding, and -reporting behaviors. The main outcome measures were concussion education (awareness; 21 options; select all sources of concussion information), concussion knowledge (understanding; maximum score of 49), and diagnosed/nondisclosed concussion history (reporting behaviors; self-report yes/no items).

RESULTS
A higher proportion of Jordanian athletes reported never having received concussion information previously (73.6%) than Irish (24.2%) or US athletes (9.4%). Knowledge differed among countries (P < .0001, η2 = .28), with US athletes displaying higher total knowledge scores (40.9 ± 4.5) than Jordanian (35.1 ± 5.6) and Irish (32.1 ± 3.5) athletes. A greater percentage of Irish and US athletes reported a history of a diagnosed concussion (31.8% and 29.6%, respectively) and history of concussion nondisclosure (25.2% and 15.5%, respectively) than Jordanian athletes (2.3% and 0.0% for history of a diagnosed concussion and history of concussion nondisclosure, respectively).

CONCLUSIONS
In the United States, where concussion publicity is high, formal legislation exists, and sports medicine resources, concussion awareness and understanding were increased. More culturally appropriate concussion initiatives are needed globally to ensure that athletes around the world can identify concussive injuries and understand the dangers of continued sport participation while concussed.


Recent trends show that in the coming decades, Kenya's natural resources will continue to face significant pressure due to both anthropogenic and natural stressors, and this will have greater negative impacts on socio-economic development including food security and livelihoods. Understanding the impacts of these stressors is an important step to developing coping and adaptation strategies at every level. The Water Towers of Kenya play a critical role in supplying ecosystems services such as water supply, timber and non-timber forest products and regulating services such as climate and water quantity and quality. To assess the vulnerability of the Water Towers to climate change, the study adopted the IPCC AR4 framework that defines vulnerability as a function of exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity. The historical trends in rainfall indicate that the three Water Towers show a declining rainfall trend during the March-April-May (MAM) main rainy season, while the October-November-December (OND) short rainy season shows an increase. The temperature patterns are consistent with the domain having a common rising trend with a rate in the range of 0.3°C to 0.5°C per decade. Projection analysis considered three emissions scenarios: low-emission (mitigation) scenario (RCP2.6), a medium-level emission scenario (RCP4.5), and a high-emission (business as usual) scenario (RCP8.5). The results of the high-emission scenario show that the annual temperature over the Water Towers could rise by 3.0°C to 3.5°C by the 2050s (2036-2065) and 3.6°C to 4.8°C by the 2070s (2055-2085 results not presented), relative to the baseline period 1970-2000. The findings indicate that exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity vary in magnitude, as well as spatially across the Water Towers. This is reflected in the spatially variable vulnerability index across the Water Towers. Overall vulnerability will increase in the water towers leading to erosion of the resilience of the exposed ecosystems and the communities that rely on ecosystem services these landscapes provide.


Advanced LIGO and Virgo are now in their third observing run, having detected ten binary black hole mergers and one binary neutron star merger to date. The future of this field is bright, with future prospects including tests of general relativity in the ultra-strong field regime, probing of bulk matter at supranuclear densities, and much more. I will recap what gravitational-wave astronomy has taught us about the Universe to date, and discuss some of the next major discoveries that we hope to see in the upcoming observation runs. I will also discuss a new piece of software that is lowering the bar for gravitational-wave and non-gravitational-wave scientists alike to easily analyse LIGO/Virgo data, with the opportunity to make their own discoveries.


Mutations in the hepcidin gene HAMP and the hemojuvelin gene HJV have recently been shown to result in juvenile haemochromatosis (JH). Hepcidin is an antimicrobial peptide that plays a key role in regulating intestinal iron absorption. Hepcidin levels are reduced in patients with haemochromatosis due to mutations in the HFE and HJV genes. Digenic inheritance of mutations in HFE and HAMP can result in either JH or hereditary haemochromatosis (HH) depending upon the severity of the mutation in HAMP. Here we review these findings and discuss how understanding the different types of haemochromatosis and our increasing knowledge of iron metabolism may help to elucidate the host's response to infection.


In this paper, we study the following robust optimization problem. Given an independence system and candidate objective functions, we choose an independent set, and then an adversary chooses one objective function, knowing our choice. The goal is to find a randomized strategy (i.e., a probability distribution over the independent sets) that maximizes the expected objective value in the worst case. This problem is fundamental in wide areas such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, game theory and optimization. To solve the problem, we propose two types of schemes for designing approximation algorithms. One scheme is for the case when objective functions are linear. It first finds an approximately optimal aggregated strategy and then retrieves a desired solution with little loss of the objective value. The approximation ratio depends on a relaxation of an independence system polytope. As applications, we provide approximation algorithms for a knapsack constraint or a matroid intersection by developing appropriate relaxations and retrievals. The other scheme is based on the multiplicative weights update (MWU) method. The direct application of the MWU method does not yield a strict multiplicative approximation algorithm but yield one with an additional additive error term. A key technique to overcome the issue is to introduce a new concept called (η,γ)-reductions for objective functions with parameters η and γ. We show that our scheme outputs a nearly α-approximate solution if there exists an α-approximation algorithm for a subproblem defined by (η,γ)-reductions. This improves approximation ratios in previous results. Using our result, we provide approximation algorithms when the objective functions are submodular or correspond to the cardinality robustness for the knapsack problem.


In this paper I present a new argument for prospectivism: the view that, for a consequentialist, rightness depends on what is prospectively best rather than what would actually be best. Prospective bestness depends on the agent's epistemic position, though exactly how that works is not straightforward. I clarify various possible versions of prospectivism, which differ in how far they go in relativizing to the agent's limitations. My argument for prospectivism is an argument for moderately objective prospectivism, according to which the right thing to do is what would make sense given reasonable beliefs, reasonable probability estimates and a reasonable understanding of value.
My argument is an argument for this form of prospectivism over objectivism. Arguments about prospectivism and objectivism usually use an example with the following form: an agent has a choice between options – one she knows would be acceptable, while the other could either be catastrophic or very good. Objectivists argue that the right thing to do is what would in fact be best (though the agent cannot know which option that is) while prospectivists argue that the agent's ignorance is relevant, and the right thing to do is to compromise. The question is how we should understand the underlying argument. It is not about action guidance. Moderately objective prospectivism is not action guiding, because an actual agent may not have access to reasonable beliefs, probability estimates and so on. Another common argument is that the objective notion is the primary one. I show that there are no good grounds for this claim.
My argument uses the distinction between rightness and goodness to show that a consequentialist theory, that bases rightness on goodness, should take into account how much goodness is at stake. Crucially, potential losses as well as gains are relevant. So long as goodness, rather than rightness, is in the driving seat, we should not be "bestness fetishists." As the name suggest, this would be an irrational privileging of the best option. This argument does not apply to pure deontology: a pure deontology does not use the notion of goodness at all, and so there is nothing to compromise with. If the agent does not know what is right, there is nothing further to say.
I end by arguing against a recent strategy that aims to show that although objectivism is true (the right option is the best one), we should sometimes do what is wrong (i.e. what is prospectively best). I argue that insofar as this is correct, it is simply prospectivism with awkward terminology.


The purpose of this paper is to provide a better understanding of how the financing of the compliance obligations which are related to "AML / CFT" (Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism) does affect the financial performance of banks in Lebanon. The main question is: Does the compliance system play a positive impact on the risk management in Lebanese banking sector? Based on a sample of 66 respondents from BLOM Bank employees, the empirical results showed that the employment of a compliance regulatory system has increased bank's costs. However, its implementation is not an option since it guarantees the compliance with the local, regional and international policies. Besides, the study revealed that there are numerous benefits associated with these costs that help banks to increase their awareness towards policies and regulations. These benefits are related to the high level of staff training, the closer due-diligence leveling, and the deeper contribution in combating tax evasion by implementing the CRS (Common Reporting Standards) standard in banks systems, which guarantee that information on financial accounts will be automatically exchanged between governments from a worldwide point of view


We propose a method that detects the true direction of time series, by fitting an autoregressive moving average model to the data. Whenever the noise is independent of the previous samples for one ordering of the observations, but dependent for the opposite ordering, we infer the former direction to be the true one. We prove that our method works in the population case as long as the noise of the process is not normally distributed (for the latter case, the direction is not identifiable). A new and important implication of our result is that it confirms a fundamental conjecture in causal reasoning --- if after regression the noise is independent of signal for one direction and dependent for the other, then the former represents the true causal direction --- in the case of time series. We test our approach on two types of data: simulated data sets conforming to our modeling assumptions, and real world EEG time series. Our method makes a decision for a significant fraction of both data sets, and these decisions are mostly correct. For real world data, our approach outperforms alternative solutions to the problem of time direction recovery.


ABSTRACT Aim: Markers of epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) and markers associated with cancer stem cells (CSC) have been associated with increased chemoresistance in small cell lung cancer (SCLC). We and others previously demonstrated that elevated circulating tumour cells (CTC) are associated with worse survival. In the current exploratory study we hypothesized that markers of EMT and CSC in tumour biopsies obtained at diagnosis were associated with overall survival in patients with SCLC. Methods: Biopsies selected from small cell lung cancer pts study published previously by our group [ Ann Oncol 2012;23:2937-42]. Epithelial markers [Cytokeratin 8,18,19 (CK; ab41825, Abcam), EPCAM (VU1D9, cellsignaling), E-cadherin (24E10, cellsignaling)] and mesenchymal markers [Vimentin (V9, Santa Cruz) and c-MET (EP1454Y, Abcam)] were used as biomarkers for EMT. SOX2 (L1D6A2, cellsignaling) and CD44 (IM7, Biolegend) were used as CSC markers. Scoring by two independent observers having no information about clinical outcome. Immuno-Reactive Score (IRS) was made by multiplying percentage (0-6) and intensity (0-3). IRS score>=5 was high, =2 low Results: From 38 patients (mean age 65 yrs [49-84], 18 female pts, ECOG performance score 1 [0-3], extensive disease stage 26 pts, CTC at baseline 19 [0-14040]) adequate material was available to cut at least 10 tumour containing slides for immunohistochemical staining. Staining intensity high/low: CK 10/27; Vimentin 23/15; CD44 19/19; SOX-2 17/21; cMET 19/19; IRS high/low EPCAM 20/18, E-cadherin 14/24. Combining primary tumour low c-MET intensity with high CK intensity and high E-Cadherin IRS resulted in a significantly worse survival vs the c-METhigh/CKlow/E-cadherinlow group, OS 10 vs 24 month, p=0.040. A trend towards a positive correlation between CTC and primary tumor c-METlow was seen, p=0.062. Conclusions: SCLC with an epithelial phenotype (E-Cadhigh, CKhigh, cMETlow) may give rise to more epithelial CTCs in circulation than those with an mesenchymal phenotype and have a worse prognosis. Disclosure: All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.


A novel bacterial strain, designated LCJ02(T), was isolated on R2A agar from donkey (Equus asinus) milk powder and subjected to a taxonomic study using a polyphasic approach. Strain LCJ02(T) showed a Gram-negative reaction, was non-motile, non-spore-forming and possessed rod-shaped cells and yellow-pigmented colonies. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that the novel isolate formed a cluster with several uncultured bacterial clones and with cultured members of the genera Hydrotalea, Sediminibacterium and Lacibacter (family Chitinophagaceae, phylum Bacteroidetes). The gene sequence similarities with respect to the type strains of recognized species from the above genera and other phylogenetic neighbours ranged from 89.3 to 92.9%. The G+C content of the genomic DNA was 49.2 mol%, the only isoprenoid quinone was MK-7 and the major fatty acids were iso-C(15:0), iso-C(17:0) 3-OH, iso-C(15:1) G and summed feature 3 (C(16:1)ω7c and/or iso-C(15:0) 2-OH). The major polar lipids of strain LCJ02(T) were phosphatidylethanolamine, two unidentified aminophospholipids, one unidentified aminolipid and five unidentified lipids. The results of physiological and biochemical tests allowed phenotypic differentiation of strain LCJ02(T) from its closest phylogenetic neighbours. On the basis of the evidence of this polyphasic study, isolate LCJ02(T) represents a novel genus and species in the family Chitinophagaceae for which the name Asinibacterium lactis gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is LCJ02(T) ( =KCCM 90108(T) =JCM 18484(T)).


Historically, population health researchers have privileged methodological considerations in their research and practice. With the entry of researchers from varied social science disciplines into the field, and the growing recognition of the impact of social phenomena such as class, gender, and ethnicity on the health of populations, questions of social theory are poised to take on a greater salience in population health inquiry. This paper invites a dialogue focussed on the use of social theory in population health research and practice. We critique two common orientations to social theory found in the population health literature: the inexplicit and post hoc uses of social theory. We then propose three forms of engagement with social theory – to frame research, interpret emerging data and critique results. In our view, opening up a dialogue on social theory is an important step toward improving the explanatory potential and policy relevance of population health activities.


The dynamic response of a nonlinear system with three degrees of freedom, which is excited by nonideal excitation, is investigated. In the considered system the role of a nonideal source is played by a direct current motor, where the central axis of the rotor is not coincident with the axis of rotation. This translation generates a torque whose magnitude depends on the angular velocity. During the system operation a general coordinate assigned to the nonideal source grows rapidly as a result of rotation. We propose the decomposition of the equations of motion in such a way to extract the solution which is directly related to the rotation of an unbalanced rotor. The remaining part of the solution describes pure oscillation depending on the dynamical behaviour of the whole system. The decomposed equations are solved numerically. The influence of selected system parameters on the rotor vibration is examined. The presented approach can be applied to separate vibration and rotation of motions in many other engineering systems.


BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: CTA is considered the imaging modality of choice in evaluating the supraaortic vessels in many institutions, but radiation exposure remains a matter of concern. The objective of the study was to evaluate a fully automated, attenuation-based kilovolt selection algorithm in carotid CTA in respect to radiation dose and image quality compared with a standard 120-kV protocol. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Ninety-eight patients were included: 53 examinations (patient age, 66 ± 12 years) were performed by use of automated adaption of tube potential (80–140 kV) on the basis of the attenuation profile of the scout scan (study group), and 45 examinations (patient age, 67 ± 11 years) were performed by use of a standard 120-kV protocol (control group). CT dose index volume and dose-length product were recorded from the examination protocol. Image quality was assessed by ROI measurements and calculations of SNR and contrast-to-noise ratio. Subjective image quality was evaluated by 2 observers with the use of a 4-point scale (3, excellent; 0, not diagnostic). RESULTS: Subjective image quality was rated as "excellent" or "good" in all examinations (study group, 2.8; control group, 2.8). The algorithm automatically selected 100 kV in 47% and 80 kV in 34%; 120 kV was retained in 19%. An elevation to 140 kV did not occur. Compared with the control group, overall CT dose index volume reduction was 33.7%; overall dose-length product reduction was 31.5%. In the low-kilovolt scans, image noise and mean attenuation of ROIs inside the carotid arteries were significantly higher than in 120-kV scans, resulting in a constant or increased (80-kV group) contrast-to-noise ratio. CONCLUSIONS: The attenuation-based, kilovolt selection algorithm enables a dose reduction of >30% in carotid artery CTA while maintaining contrast-to-noise ratio and subjective image quality at adequate levels.


In this paper, we use a linear program to empirically decompose fitted neural networks into ensembles of low-bias sub-networks. We show that these sub-networks are relatively uncorrelated which leads to an internal regularization process, very much like a random forest, which can explain why a neural network is surprisingly resistant to overfitting. We then demonstrate this in practice by applying large neural networks, with hundreds of parameters per training observation, to a collection of 116 real-world data sets from the UCI Machine Learning Repository. This collection of data sets contains a much smaller number of training examples than the types of image classification tasks generally studied in the deep learning literature, as well as non-trivial label noise. We show that even in this setting deep neural nets are capable of achieving superior classification accuracy without overfitting.


Between February 22, 2010 and March 3, 2010 the U.S. Geological Survey, Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center mapped the bathymetry and acoustic backscatter of the Elwha River Delta, Strait of Juan de Fuca, Washington State. In addition to the main survey, 3 small surveys of interest to USGS partners were conducted on February 26, 2010. The first is the area surrounding the abandoned Rayonier Pier site in Port Angeles Harbor, the second is a former log-storage facility on the southern side of Ediz Hook near the Port Angeles Coast Guard station. Both of these smaller surveys were conducted during a weather day where sea conditions were too rough for surveying outside the harbor breakwaters. In addition, several lines of data were collected on the outer face of Ediz hook as the vessel transited to and from the Elwha river delta to inspect failure features along the northen edge of Ediz Hook first observed in 2005 during USGS cruise K-1-05-PS. The surveys were conducted using the research vessel R/V Parke Snavely outfitted with an interferometric sidescan sonar for swath mapping and Real-Time Kinematic navigation equipment for accurate shallow water operations.


Objective: 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), or ecstasy, is a synthetic drug used recreationally, mainly by young people. It has been suggested that MDMA has a Th cell skewing effect, in which Th1 cell activity is suppressed and Th2 cell activity is increased. Experimental allergic airway inflammation in ovalbumin (OVA)-sensitized rodents is a useful model to study Th2 response; therefore, based on the Th2 skewing effect of MDMA, we studied MDMA in a model of allergic lung inflammation in OVA-sensitized mice. Methods: We evaluated cell trafficking in the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid, blood and bone marrow; cytokine production; L-selectin expression and lung histology. We also investigated the effects of MDMA on tracheal reactivity in vitro and mast cell degranulation. Results: We found that MDMA given prior to OVA challenge in OVA-sensitized mice decreased leukocyte migration into the lung, as revealed by a lower cell count in the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid and lung histologic analysis. We also showed that MDMA decreased expression of both Th2-like cytokines (IL-4, IL-5 and IL-10) and adhesion molecules (L-selectin). Moreover, we showed that the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis is partially involved in the MDMA-induced reduction in leukocyte migration into the lung. Finally, we showed that MDMA decreased tracheal reactivity to methacholine as well as mast cell degranulation in situ. Conclusions: Thus, we report here that MDMA given prior to OVA challenge in OVA-sensitized allergic mice is able to decrease lung inflammation and airway reactivity and that hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis activation is partially involved. Together, the data strongly suggest an involvement of a neuroimmune mechanism in the effects of MDMA on lung inflammatory response and cell recruitment to the lungs of allergic animals.


Exploiting geothermal (GT) resources requires first and foremost locating suitable areas for its development. Remote sensing offers a synoptic capability of covering large areas in real time and can cost effectively explore prospective geothermal sites not easily detectable using conventional survey methods, thus can aid in the prefeasibility stages of geothermal exploration. In this paper, we evaluate the techniques and approaches used in literature for the detection of prospective geothermal sites. Observations have indicated that, while thermal temperature anomalies detection have been applicable in areas of magmatic episodes and volcanic activity, poor resolution especially from space borne data is still a challenge. Consequently, thermal anomalies have been detected with some degree of success using airborne data, however, this is mostly in locations of known surface manifestations such as hot springs and fumaroles. The indirect identification of indicator minerals related to geothermal systems have been applied using multispectral and hyperspectral data in many studies. However, the effectiveness of the techniques relies on the sophistication and innovative digital image processing methods employed to sieve out relevant spectral information. The use of algorithms to estimate land surface temperature and heat fluxes are also applied to aid thermal anomaly detection, nevertheless, remote sensing techniques are still complementary to geologic, geophysical and geochemical survey methods. While not the first of its kind, this review is aimed at identifying new developments, with a focus on the trends and limitations intrinsic to the techniques and a look at current gaps and prospects for the


This paper investigates the use of local receptive field networks (LRFN) in detecting sensor failures of a control system in the presence of model-plant mismatch. Simulation results indicate that LRFNs hold significant promise in sensor failure detection. Another issue discussed in this paper is a method to prune redundant nodes. A simple scheme which uses singular value decomposition (SVD) is developed to identify and remove excess nodes. Comparable classification performance is obtained using reduced and standard LRFN.


Background: Heavy metals have detrimental effects on the health of human being. The values of manganese (Mn) and lead (Pb) in some plant species and soil samples in an arid area of Iran were evaluated in this study. Methods: The values of Pb and Mn in 94 plant samples from 8 plant species and the related soil samples in 2010 were considered in Shahroud and Damghan, central Iran. Moreover, the soil-to-plant transfer factors of these two elements were investigated. Results: Except for barley, the values of Pb in all of the considered plants were higher than the standard level of 0.3 mg/kg. The amounts of Mn in all of the plant species other than pistachio were higher than the standard level of 25 mg/kg. As a whole, the bio-concentration factor of Mn was higher than that of Pb in the study area. Conclusion: None of the soil-to-plant transfer factors exceeded one. Grape recorded the highest amounts of Pb and Mn compared with that of other investigated plant species. However, since its respective bio concentration factor (BCF) was lower than one, it cannot be


I. INTRODUCTION The basic tenets of human rights law do not exist in the vacuum of individual nations and local constitutions. (1) Their persuasive impact transcends borders. (2) The broad, global response to basic human rights law has a symbiotic relationship with narrow, domestic human rights decisions. (3) Relying upon international human rights laws and norms as persuasive authority when deciding domestic legal issues should not only be permissible; it should be encouraged. (4) This note argues that U.S. courts, particularly the Supreme Court, should utilize international law as persuasive authority within the context of human rights related decisions. (5) Part II examines seminal U.S. Supreme Court cases in which international human rights law was a persuasive force, and contrasts treatment of foreign law in the Canadian and Australian courts. (6) In Part III, this note traces the history of international human rights law as persuasive authority in both Supreme Court and state decisions. (7) Part IV provides an analysis of why and how international human rights laws should be used as persuasive authority in the United States. (8) Finally, Part V concludes that consideration of foreign law within the framework of human rights related legal opinions aids the constitutional decision-making process in a manner similar to that of the amicus brief. (9) II. FACTS The debate regarding what, if any, role international law should play in human rights cases in the United States sharpened in recent years. (10) The subject is prominently featured in recently decided U.S. Supreme Court cases, as well as the confirmation hearing of Justice Sonya Sotomayor. (11) In the last decade, three influential Supreme Court decisions applied international human rights norms as persuasive authority, though not without controversy or condemnation. (12) The debate over the use of international law in domestic courts is not unique to the United States. (13) Countries around the world, including Canada and Australia, grapple with the proper place for international human rights law within their domestic constitutional decision making processes. (14) A. Impact of International Human Rights Law on Juvenile Life Without Parole Cases In 2009 the Supreme Court heard arguments in two cases, Graham v. Florida and Sullivan v. Florida, to determine the constitutionality of a juvenile life without parole (JWOP) sentence. (15) During the progression of each case, the petitioner utilized international law to support the argument that a JWOP is unconstitutional in non-homicide cases. (16) The thrust of the international law argument in both cases was that petitioner's sentence is "unusual" because few states would issue the same punishment for a juvenile non-homicide offense, nor would the sentence be imposed anywhere else in the world. (17) In May 2010, the Graham Court employed the aforementioned international law analysis to support its conclusion that the sentencing practice is unconstitutional. (18) The international law portion of the petitioner's argument in Graham proceeds in two distinct steps: 1) establish foreign law as a factor that the Court uses when deciding human rights related issues, specifically in Eighth Amendment cases and 2) use international legal practices to underscore the "unusual" nature of a JWOP sentence. (19) Petitioner pointed out that the Court considers several factors to determine whether a sentence violates the Eighth Amendment, including: "a comparison of the sentence imposed to evolving standards of decency as reflected in the laws and practices of the States and the international community." (20) The brief was clear that international law is just one part of the whole, stating that no factor is dispositive in the Court's decision on the proportionality of a JWOP sentence. (21) Petitioner's argument proved to be effective, as it mirrored the Court's subsequent reasoning in the case's ultimate disposition. …


Nonclassical antifolates, 2,4-diamino-5-substituted-furo[2, 3-d]pyrimidines 3-12 with bridge region variations of C8-S9, C8-N9, and C8-O9 and 1-naphthyl, 2-naphthyl, 2-phenoxyphenyl, 4-phenoxyphenyl, and 2-biphenyl side chains were synthesized as phenyl ring appended analogues of previously reported 2, 4-diamino-5-(anilinomethyl)furo[2,3-d]pyrimidines. The phenyl ring appended analogues were designed to specifically interact with Phe69 of dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) from Pneumocystis carinii (pc) to afford selective inhibitors of pcDHFR. Additional substituted phenyl side chains which include 2,5-dichloro, 3,4-dichloro, 3,4,5-trichloro, 3-methoxy, and 2,5-dimethoxy analogues 13-17 were also synthesized. The compounds were prepared by nucleophilic displacement of 2,4-diamino-5-(chloromethyl)furo[2,3-d]pyrimidine(2) with the appropriate thiol, amine, or naphthol. Compound 2 was obtained from 2,4-diamino-6-hydroxypyrimidine and 1, 3-dichloroacetone. The compounds were evaluated as inhibitors against DHFR from P. carinii, Toxoplasma gondii, and rat liver. Two analogues, 2,4-diamino-5-[(2'-naphthylthio)methyl]furo[2, 3-d]pyrimidine (5) and 2,4-diamino-5-[(2'-phenylanilino)methyl]furo[2,3-d]pyrimidine (11) showed significant selectivity and potency for pcDHFR compared to trimethoprim. The X-ray crystal structure of 5 with pcDHFR was also carried out, which corroborated the design rationale and indicated a hydrophobic interaction of the naphthalene ring of 5 and Phe69 of pcDHFR which is responsible, in part, for the more than 18-fold selectivity of 5 for pcDHFR as compared with rat liver DHFR.


ABSTRACT Achieving long-term climate mitigation goals in Japan faces several challenges, starting with the uncertain nuclear power policy after the 2011 earthquake, the uncertain availability and progress of energy technologies, as well as energy security concerns in light of a high dependency on fuel imports. The combined weight of these challenges needs to be clarified in terms of the energy system and macroeconomic impacts. We applied a general equilibrium energy economic model to assess these impacts on an 80% emission reduction target by 2050 considering several alternative scenarios for nuclear power deployment, technology availability, end use energy efficiency, and the price of fossil fuels. We found that achieving the mitigation target was feasible for all scenarios, with considerable reductions in total energy consumption (39%–50%), higher shares of low-carbon sources (43%–72% compared to 15%), and larger shares of electricity in the final energy supply (51%–58% compared to 42%). The economic impacts of limiting nuclear power by 2050 (3.5% GDP loss) were small compared to the lack of carbon capture and storage (CCS) (6.4% GDP loss). Mitigation scenarios led to an improvement in energy security indicators (trade dependency and diversity of primary energy sources) even in the absence of nuclear power. Moreover, preliminary analysis indicates that expanding the range of renewable energy resources can lower the macroeconomic impacts of the long term target considerably, and thus further in depth analysis is needed on this aspect. Key policy insights For Japan, an emissions reduction target of 80% by 2050 is feasible without nuclear power or CCS. The macroeconomic impact of such a 2050 target was largest without CCS, and smallest without nuclear power. Energy security indicators improved in mitigation scenarios compared to the baseline.


According to judicial opinions, the Restatement (Second) of Contracts, and some analysts, the reasons for failing to perform a contract, whether willful, negligent, or unavoidable, have little or no bearing in determining contract liability. Contract liability is said to be "strict," meaning that the reasons for nonperformance are irrelevant in determining the injured party's rights. In this Article, I argue that the reasons for failing to perform, which focus on whether non-performance is the promisor's fault, are crucially important in the resolution of many, perhaps most disputes under contract law.


SKETCH system is a handy-typed machine drawing system of a finite labeled directed graph. A proto-type of SKETCH system (algorithms and programs) was developed and applied to various problems by the present author and his colleagues at the International Institute for Advanced Study of Social Information Science, Fujitsu Limited, Japan. In order to utilize for the Innovation Management Task of IIASA, this system has been installed on FORTRAN-77/UNIX-7/VAX780 by the present author, where specifications for input/output have been modified to fit the new environment, to improve the easiness of operations and to advance the effectiveness of representations. Moreover, several applications ranging from simple examples to practical problems have been carried out by using the new system.

This paper is brief but overall introduction to SKETCH system. Our viewpoint, algorithms, design (specification) and applications are shown to demonstrate the usefulness of SKETCH system for scientists and engineers.


The 2016 presidential election shook American democracy to its foundations. From Russia's hacking of Democratic National Committee emails to President Trump's false allegations of widespread voting fraud, America's democratic institutions emerged from the election battered and bruised. The stunning turn of events and the unprecedented controversy that surrounded the election had a profound impact on public opinion. National surveys now consistently find that a majority of Americans question the integrity of the nation's election system. Accordingly, this article contends that we have entered into a dangerous new chapter in the nation's history that not only threatens public confidence in election fairness but potentially could even undermine the long-term health of the nation's democracy. The unjustified fear of election fraud has itself become a threat to America's democratic principles.
This article identifies three toxic developments that if left unchecked threaten the future of voting rights in America. The first is the rise of fake news. As the traditional news media has lost its gate-keeper status and as the internet has facilitated the rapid spread of misinformation, false allegations of voting fraud dominate news cycles. The pervasive nature of the claims has triggered a precipitous decline in public confidence in election integrity, even though there is no factual basis to justify the public's fear of widespread fraud. The second is the phenomenon of hyperpolarization. The partisan divide has reached such historic levels that Republicans and Democrats increasingly view the opposing party as a threat to the nation's well-being. Hyperpolarization makes partisans more inclined to attempt to limit the political influence of opposing voters, a development that is particularly dangerous in the United States because of the third toxic feature of contemporary politics: partisan control of election administration. Unusual among major democracies, the United States entrusts the majority party with responsibility for administering elections and setting voting rules. In recent years partisans have become increasingly aggressive in adopting election laws that benefit one party at the expense of the other. The real scandal of American politics is not illegal vote rigging or voter fraud but rather the extent to which partisans are legally permitted to manipulate election rules for political advantage.
The United States thus stands at a uniquely dangerous moment in its history. The risk that America may evolve into an illiberal democracy is particularly high in light of the ongoing battle over voter registration restrictions and other laws that limit access to voting. In the name of safeguarding election integrity, legislatures across the country have adopted new voting laws that many courts and scholars have concluded make it harder for poor and minority voters to participate in the democratic process. As Americans increasingly view election stakes in apocalyptic terms, as false allegations of election fraud spread like wildfire, and as partisan officials control election rules, America's democratic institutions face their most serious domestic challenge since the enactment of the Voting Rights Act in 1965. This article concludes by proposing three steps to defend and preserve the vitality of America's liberal democratic norms at this dangerous moment in the nation's history.


Users store vast amounts of sensitive data on a big data platform. Sharing sensitive data will help enterprises reduce the cost of providing users with personalized services and provide value-added data services. However, secure data sharing is problematic. This paper proposes a framework for secure sensitive data sharing on a big data platform, including secure data delivery, storage, usage, and destruction on a semi-trusted big data sharing platform. We present a proxy re-encryption algorithm based on heterogeneous ciphertext transformation and a user process protection method based on a virtual machine monitor, which provides support for the realization of system functions. The framework protects the security of users' sensitive data effectively and shares these data safely. At the same time, data owners retain complete control of their own data in a sound environment for modern Internet information security.


AIMS OF THE STUDY
To analyse medical end-of-life decision making among the oldest old (80+ years) in Switzerland, focusing not only on treatments withheld or withdrawn but also on those continued until death.

METHODS
This was a retrospective follow-up study of deaths registered in Switzerland between August 2013 and January 2014 using a standardised questionnaire completed by the attending physician. All individuals aged 65 years and older who did not die suddenly and completely unexpectedly, and who had met the responding physician prior to death were included (n = 2842). We examined three age groups: 65–79, 80–89, and 90+ years. Logistic regression analysis was used to identify age-related differences, controlled for place of death and sociodemographic characteristics.

RESULTS
In 83.8% of the study population at least one medical end-of-life decision was made, and for 39.4% the use of a potentially life-sustaining treatment was documented. Alleviation of pain and other symptoms with a possible life-shortening effect was performed with 29% higher odds among the 90+-year-olds (odds ratio [OR] 1.29, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.01–1.66) than in the youngest age group. Withholding or withdrawing potentially life-sustaining treatment with or without the explicit intention to hasten death did not differ with age. However, when the frequency of withholding a potentially life-sustaining treatment was compared with the frequency of using this treatment (either continued until death or withdrawn later on), the former was more common in old age (80–89 years), and particularly in very old age (90+ years) for most of the treatments studied. This applied especially for ventilator therapy (80–89 years: OR 2.83, 95% CI 1.82–4.41; 90+ years: OR 6.17, 95% CI 2.89–13.17, compared with 65–79 years), artificial nutrition (ORs 2.33, 95% CI 1.46–3.71 and 4.44, 95% CI 2.28–8.65, respectively), and antibiotics (ORs 1.53, 95% CI 1.11–2.09 and 1.57, 95% CI 1.05–2.35, respectively). Age had no independent impact on artificial hydration.

CONCLUSIONS
The use of some potentially life-sustaining treatments decreased with older age and, in relation, the relative frequency of withholding such treatments increased. There may be various reasons for this finding: less benefit of a particular treatment in older patients for instance due to comorbidities, higher burden of treatment, and finally a tacit consensus of physicians and patients that death is nearing.


At the millennium, the health care system in the United States continues to be in crisis. The United States, to its shame, is the only industrialized country in the world that has not established universal health coverage. It is estimated that 42.6 million people have no health insurance--10 million are children (U.S. Census Bureau, 1999). The loss of health coverage and delays in care have resulted in thousands of deaths. (Himmelstein & Woolhandler, 1994). Despite the numbers, we can never calculate all of the human suffering that results from not having access to medical care. As social workers in the health care industry, we are eyewitnesses to this suffering on a daily basis. Medical social workers are expected to alleviate much of this suffering. We are on the front lines of the health care crisis in the United States. We explain the eligibility requirements for insurance programs and how to enroll in programs to purchase low-cost medication and counsel patients who cannot pay medical bills. Medical soc ial workers have a vast knowledge base and access to resources in the community to help patients and their families cope with illness and disability. PROFESSION UNDER ATTACK The profession of medical social work itself has come under attack. Social workers are laid off when hospitals and clinics close or merge. Entire social work departments have been eliminated in hospitals, and nurse discharge planners or case managers have assumed the role of social worker. Social work as a discipline in the medical setting is struggling to survive (Globerman, 1999). Health care administrators often do not value the role social work plays because they do not see how it contributes to profitability. Social worker's "productivity" is increasingly measured by the number of patients seen (patient contacts) and how quickly the patient was discharged. Shortened length of stay and other efforts to lower acute-care costs have greatly affected social work practice in hospitals (Hammer & Kerson, 1998). It is becoming more difficult, and at times impossible, for social workers to do comprehensive and patient-centered discharge planning. Downsizing and hiring freezes leave social workers with higher casel oads and less time to spend with more patients and families. In the current health care environment, which is driven by the pursuit of profit not patient need, the social work code of ethics is being profoundly challenged (Riffe, 1998). Access to health care in the United States is not a right but instead a commodity to be bought and sold. If you cannot afford it, you cannot have it. Worse, if you are sick, if you have a "pre-existing condition" you can be denied insurance coverage. If you need health care you are less likely to get it. This is the perverse logic at the center of for-profit health care provision--insurers do not want to insure groups that are considered "high-utilizers." Among the groups targeted as heavy users are chronically ill and elderly people. Social workers reject this categorization of patients as dehumanizing and stigmatizing. MEDICARE AND MEDICAID Wilbur Cohen, assistant secretary of health, education, and welfare under President John F. Kennedy, and other social workers played leading roles in the development of Medicare. Medicare finances health care for 38 million people and pays 20 percent of the U.S. health care bill (McFall & Teitelman, 1998/1999). From its inception the Medicare program has had serious limitations and gaps in coverage. Most notably, Medicare does not pay for prescription medication. Recent statistics indicate that 18 percent, or 7 million, of the 38 million Medicare recipients are enrolled in managed care (McFall & Teitelman, 1998/1999). Seniors chose to enroll in HMOs because of the prescription drug benefit as well as little to no co-payments and deductibles. After many years of Medicare managed care, we know it is a disaster for elderly people and people with disabilities. …


We investigate empirically the determinants of the quality of governments in a large cross-section of countries. We assess government performance using measures of government intervention, public sector efficiency, public good provision, size of government, and political freedom. We find that countries that are poor, close to the equator, ethnolinguistically heterogeneous, use French of socialist laws, or have high proportions of Catholics or Muslims exhibit inferior government performance. We also find that the larger governments tend to be the better performing ones. The importance of historical factors in explaining the variation in government performance across countries sheds light on the economic, political, and cultural theories of institutions.


Cancer tissues in histopathology images exhibit abnormal patterns; it is of great clinical importance to label a histopathology image as having cancerous regions or not and perform the corresponding image segmentation. However, the detailed annotation of cancer cells is often an ambiguous and challenging task. In this paper, we propose a new learning method, multiple clustered instance learning (MCIL), to classify, segment and cluster cancer cells in colon histopathology images. The proposed MCIL method simultaneously performs image-level classification (cancer vs. non-cancer image), pixel-level segmentation (cancer vs. non-cancer tissue), and patch-level clustering (cancer subclasses). We embed the clustering concept into the multiple instance learning (MIL) setting and derive a principled solution to perform the above three tasks in an integrated framework. Experimental results demonstrate the efficiency and effectiveness of MCIL in analyzing colon cancers.


The repercussions of climate change will be felt in various ways throughout both natural and human systems in Sub-Saharan Africa. Climate change projections for this region point to a warming trend, particularly in the inland subtropics; frequent occurrence of extreme heat events; increasing aridity; and changes in rainfall—with a particularly pronounced decline in southern Africa and an increase in East Africa. The region could also experience as much as one meter of sea-level rise by the end of this century under a 4 °C warming scenario. Sub-Saharan Africa's already high rates of undernutrition and infectious disease can be expected to increase compared to a scenario without climate change. Particularly vulnerable to these climatic changes are the rainfed agricultural systems on which the livelihoods of a large proportion of the region's population currently depend. As agricultural livelihoods become more precarious, the rate of rural–urban migration may be expected to grow, adding to the already significant urbanization trend in the region. The movement of people into informal settlements may expose them to a variety of risks different but no less serious than those faced in their place of origin, including outbreaks of infectious disease, flash flooding and food price increases. Impacts across sectors are likely to amplify the overall effect but remain little understood.


We use transaction-level data and detailed modeling of the high-frequency behavior of federal funds-Eurodollar yield spreads to provide evidence of strong integration between the federal funds and Eurodollar markets, the two core components of the dollar money market. Our results contrast with previous research indicating that these two markets are segmented, showing them to be well integrated even at high (intraday) frequency. We document several patterns in the behavior of federal funds-Eurodollar spreads, including liquidity effects from trading volume on yield spreads' volatility. Our analysis supports the view that targeting federal funds rates alone is sufficient to stabilize rates in the (much larger) dollar money market as a whole.


We show how to communicate Heisenberg-limited continuous (quantum) variables between Alice and Bob in the case where they occupy two inertial reference frames that differ by an unknown Lorentz boost. There are two effects that need to be overcome: the Doppler shift and the absence of synchronized clocks. Furthermore, we show how Alice and Bob can share Doppler-invariant entanglement, and we demonstrate that the protocol is robust under photon loss.


The central theme of this Article, "Sex, Culture, and Rights: A Re/conceptualization of Violence," is that a re/vision of acts that constitute violence against women is necessary for gender equality -- both domestically and internationally -- to become a reality. This reconceptualization must address not only the normative concept of violence, i.e., the use of physical force, but it must also transform and reposition the idea of violence within a broader framework that includes, considers and aims to eradicate (1) psychological, social and political subordination of women; (2) male dominant (and female subservient) cultural and traditional practices; as well as (3) economic marginalization and subjugation of women.First, in looking at sex (meaning both sex and gender) and culture, this Article will expose the status of women in the international human rights construct. This analysis will reveal that women world-wide are still far from enjoying of equality in any sphere, and in any state within the international community.It is important to emphasize that the new model's redefinition of violence against women that this Article proposes is more comprehensive, expansive and extensive than the everyday variety of "A hit B"--be it with sex, a fist, a bat or a gun; be it at war, at home, at work or in the streets. To be sure, the discussion will include this "common understanding" of violence. However, this Article also challenges the global community to develop a conceptualization of violence with, and from, a gender-sensitive perspective, with a view to eradicating practices harmful to women, particularly with the aspirational goal of attaining real, rather than virtual or theoretical, equality for women. Such an expanded vision must condemn truly abusive, although not directly physically intrusive, conduct that has shattering effects on all women's lives by perpetuating their subordinated status and entrenching their second-class existence. The Article's proposed model presents a re/constructed notion of violence, that not only facilitates discourse on violence itself, but also engenders an environment that will enable the eradication of violence and the promotion of women's self-determination, empowerment and equality.


In a non-stationary job search model we allow unemployed workers to have a permanent option to leave the labour force. Transitions into nonparticipation occur when reservation wages drop below the utility of being nonparticipant. Taking account of these transitions allows the identification of duration dependence in the job offer arrival rate and the wage offer distribution. We estimate the structural model with individual data from the German Socio-Economic Panel and use simulated maximum likelihood. The results show that the presence of significant negative duration dependence in the wage offer distribution causes reservation wages to decrease. The rate at which job offers arrive is constant over the unemployment duration. These findings provide micro evidence that the job search environment of unemployed workers is non-stationary because of loss of skills.


Climate change policies have stimulated a shift towards renewable energy sources such as biomass. The economic crisis of 2008 has also increased the practice of household biomass burning as it is often cheaper than using oil, gas or electricity for heating. As a result, household biomass combustion is becoming an important source of air pollutants in the European Union. This position paper discusses the contribution of biomass combustion to pollution levels in Europe, and the emerging evidence on the adverse health effects of biomass combustion products. Epidemiological studies in the developed world have documented associations between indoor and outdoor exposure to biomass combustion products and a range of adverse health effects. A conservative estimate of the current contribution of biomass smoke to premature mortality in Europe amounts to at least 40 000 deaths per year. We conclude that emissions from current biomass combustion products negatively affect respiratory and, possibly, cardiovascular health in Europe. Biomass combustion emissions, in contrast to emissions from most other sources of air pollution, are increasing. More needs to be done to further document the health effects of biomass combustion in Europe, and to reduce emissions of harmful biomass combustion products to protect public health. Biomass combustion is an important source of air pollution and ill health in the EU: emissions need to reduce http://ow.ly/RYkPk