Property-preserving hashing is a method of compressing a large input x into a short hash h(x) in such a way that given h(x) and h(y), one can compute a property P (x,y) of the original inputs. The idea of property-preserving hash functions underlies sketching, compressed sensing and locality-sensitive hashing. Property-preserving hash functions are usually probabilistic: they use the random choice of a hash function from a family to achieve compression, and as a consequence, err on some inputs. Traditionally, the notion of correctness for these hash functions requires that for every two inputs x and y, the probability that h(x) and h(y) mislead us into a wrong prediction of P (x,y) is negligible. As observed in many recent works (incl. Mironov, Naor and Segev, STOC 2008; Hardt and Woodruff, STOC 2013; Naor and Yogev, CRYPTO 2015), such a correctness guarantee assumes that the adversary (who produces the offending inputs) has no information about the hash function, and is too weak in many scenarios. We initiate the study of adversarial robustness for property-preserving hash functions, provide definitions, derive broad lower bounds due to a simple connection with communication complexity, and show the necessity of computational assumptions to construct such functions. Our main positive results are two candidate constructions of propertypreserving hash functions (achieving different parameters) for the (promise) gap-Hamming property which checks if x and y are "too far" or "too close". Our first construction relies on generic collision-resistant hash functions, and our second on a variant of the syndrome decoding assumption on low-density parity check codes. ∗E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com †E-mail: email@example.com ‡E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com. Research supported in part by NSF Grants CNS-1350619, CNS1718161 and CNS-1414119, an MIT-IBM grant, and a DARPA Young Faculty Award.


We present LUXCalc, a new utility for calculating likelihoods and deriving weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP)-nucleon coupling limits from the recent results of the LUX direct search dark matter experiment. After a brief review of WIMP-nucleon scattering, we derive LUX limits on the spin-dependent WIMP-nucleon couplings over a broad range of WIMP masses, under standard assumptions on the relevant astrophysical parameters. We find that, under these and other common assumptions, LUX excludes the entire spin-dependent parameter space consistent with a dark matter interpretation of DAMA's anomalous signal, the first time a single experiment has been able to do so. We also revisit the case of spin-independent couplings, and demonstrate good agreement between our results and the published LUX results. Finally, we derive constraints on the parameters of an effective dark matter theory in which a spin-1 mediator interacts with a fermionic WIMP and Standard Model fermions via axial-vector couplings. A detailed appendix describes the use of LUXCalc with standard codes to place constraints on generic dark matter theories.


Several argument has been made that open source software development process some times also referred as free and open source software development (FOSSD) violates the traditional software engineering principles and researches advocates to rethink and re-evaluate the studies and concepts of software engineering. The aim of this paper is to investigate the software development process models of Open source software on the software engineering perspectives. In this paper a discussion on some of development models of OSS and their comparison with the traditional development models is made and the software engineering practices followed in open source development environment is also been discussed. Principle difference and similarities of these development models with the conventional models are also discussed. The ultimate goal is to understand how open source software development processes are similar to or different from software engineering processes and to bring better understanding to the development process of Open Source Software.


We investigate the manipulation of web search results to promote the unauthorized sale of prescription drugs. We focus on search-redirection attacks, where miscreants compromise high-ranking websites and dynamically redirect traffic to different pharmacies based upon the particular search terms issued by the consumer. We constructed a representative list of 218 drug-related queries and automatically gathered the search results on a daily basis over nine months in 2010-2011. We find that about one third of all search results are one of over 7 000 infected hosts triggered to redirect to a few hundred pharmacy websites. Legitimate pharmacies and health resources have been largely crowded out by search-redirection attacks and blog spam. Infections persist longest on websites with high PageRank and from .edu domains. 96% of infected domains are connected through traffic redirection chains, and network analysis reveals that a few concentrated communities link many otherwise disparate pharmacies together. We calculate that the conversion rate of web searches into sales lies between 0.3% and 3%, and that more illegal drugs sales are facilitated by search-redirection attacks than by email spam. Finally, we observe that concentration in both the source infections and redirectors presents an opportunity for defenders to disrupt online pharmacy sales.


[1] The high variability of the intensity of suprathermal electron flux in the solar wind is usually ascribed to the high variability of sources on the Sun. Here we demonstrate that a substantial amount of the variability arises from peaks in stream interaction regions, where fast wind runs into slow wind and creates a pressure ridge at the interface. Superposed epoch analysis centered on stream interfaces in 26 interaction regions previously identified in Wind data reveal a twofold increase in 250 eV flux (integrated over pitch angle). Whether the peaks result from the compression there or are solar signatures of the coronal hole boundary, to which interfaces may map, is an open question. Suggestive of the latter, some cases show a displacement between the electron and magnetic field peaks at the interface. Since solar information is transmitted to 1 AU much more quickly by suprathermal electrons compared to convected plasma signatures, the displacement may imply a shift in the coronal hole boundary through transport of open magnetic flux via interchange reconnection. If so, however, the fact that displacements occur in both directions and that the electron and field peaks in the superposed epoch analysis are nearly coincident indicate that any systematic transport expected from differential solar rotation is overwhelmed by a random pattern, possibly owing to transport across a ragged coronal hole boundary.


Making solar thermal systems less expensive, often results in a lower system efficiency. However, the cost-benefit ratio is relevant from the perspective of the consumer. The complex impact of component-related and system-related design parameters on the economics of a complete system makes the evaluation and economical optimization difficult. Therefore, a complete simulation environment has been developed, which can automatically optimize solar-thermal systems, including collector and system parameters. The main collector module consists of a one-dimensional thermal model that was validated with a commercial solar collector. The efficiency curve and the production cost were calculated as a function of several design and construction parameters. The collector module was linked to the commercial software Polysun ® , so that parametric studies can be performed with minimal effort. Optimization problems can be solved by using the Matlab ® optimization toolbox. The simulation environment was used for sensitivity studies and optimization problems in order to analyze the impact of collector design-parameters with respect to system cost, system yield and economic values. We will demonstrate how a collector can be optimized and how the ideal system parameters like collector number and storage volume can be easily calculated. Finally, we will show how the optimizer is used for a given system in order to find ideal values for the absorber-sheet thickness and the number of pipes. Due to the holistic approach, the application of this tool set can be used for collector development as well as for system planning.


PURPOSE
Telemedicine has become a common method for the transmission of images and patient data across long distances. Our goal was to assess the efficiency and accuracy of Photomailer MD software, a store-and-forward telemedicine system, in the urologic setting.

METHODS
Photomailer MD software was loaded on two computers in the host institution, one with a T1 connection to the Internet and the other with a dial-up modem connection (24,000 bits/second), and computers at three remote sites. A total of 14 clinical cases, comprised of digitized histories and radiographic images, were sent to the remote institutions four separate times using the four transmission modes available: nonencrypted, 56-bit encryption, 128-bit encryption, and 128-bit encryption with password. The following data points were recorded: file size before and after encryption, file transmission times, and diagnostic accuracy of the remote urologists. One-way ANOVA was used to compare mean values statistically, while the z-test was used to compare diagnostic accuracies.

RESULTS
Encryption increased the file size by a mean of 37.8%, with the three encryption modes increasing file sizes by the same number of kilobytes. When a dial-up modem was used, encrypted files required a significantly longer transmission time (P < 0.05) than the unencrypted files. The same trend was seen with the T1 connection, although the differences often were not significant. When T1 transmission times were compared with modem times with other variables held constant, modem times were significantly longer (P < 0.05). Diagnostic accuracies for each of the three remote centers ranged from 85.7% to 100%. Differences in accuracy rates between attending physicians and residents were not significant.

CONCLUSIONS
Photomailer MD provides a secure, convenient, and affordable method of transmitting patient images and records via the Internet. Transmission speed was significantly greater when using a T1 line and also tended to be faster when files were not encrypted. There was no significant difference in transmission time among the three encryption modes; therefore, 128-bit encryption with a password should be used to maximize security. Diagnostic accuracies were comparable to those in the literature. In general, 640 x 480-pixel resolution was adequate for urologic diagnoses, although higher-resolution images may improve accuracy.


There is a strong political will in the Western Balkan states to align the region's pharmaceutical legislation and practice with that of the European Union. Accordingly, recent policy changes were aimed at harmonization of policies with other European countries. Several national drug laws were updated or completely re-written in the last several years. More specifically, provisions were made for the simplification of drug registration requirements, licensing of professionals and businesses in the sector, implementation of ethics standards, price controls and reimbursement of drugs through national health insurance systems. Countries in the region have introduced various measures for cost containment, mostly through positive lists with various co-payment levels or expenditure caps for prescribing physicians. Some institutional buyers are using pooled procurement with open tenders to ensure lower prices. Nevertheless, there are still a number of challenges such as lack of enforcement of rules and standards, limited access to drugs for low income populations, inefficiencies in resource allocation and in the distribution chain, lack of control over physicians prescribing behavior and occasional conflicts between public health and industrial policy objectives. For the foreseeable future, there will be a need for further capacity building in the pharmaceutical sector, with a focus on increased oversight and higher professional standards, more efficient use of limited public resources, equity of access and rational use of medicines. Nevertheless, drug expenditure is set to grow in this region as it did in other countries in Eastern Europe, typically at a rate of about twice GDP growth, due to inevitable factors such as innovation, aging populations, increasing incomes and better access to healthcare.


Because of secrecy, little is known about the political economy of central bank lending. Utilizing a novel, hand-collected historical daily dataset on loans to commercial banks, we analyze how personal connections matter for lending of last resort, highlighting the importance of governance for this core function of central banks. We show that, when faced with a banking panic in November 1930, the Banque de France (BdF) lent selectively rather than broadly, providing substantially more liquidity to connected banks – those whose board members were BdF shareholders. The BdF's selective lending policy failed to internalize a negative externality – that lending would be insufficient to arrest the panic and that distress via contagion would spillover to connected banks. Connected lending of last resort fueled the worst banking crisis in French history, caused an unprecedented government bailout of the central bank, and resulted in loss of shareholder control over the central bank. JEL Classification: E44, E58, G01, G32, G33, G38, N14, N24


The emergence of African states as independent by 1970 had brought hope and expectations to nationals that the winds of change were to be equated with good life and freedom. Yet, no sooner had political freedom been gained than expectations turned elusive. The causes were bad political governance that soon burdened many states, military interventions of one-party states, abuse of rule of law, mass corruption and nations disintegrating. Also, the quest for freedom and dignity was not helped by a continental union that focused solely on political liberation of Africa and ignored any concerted effort towards integration and promotion of socio-economic lives of people. This article examines the political tremors that had engulfed some states in Africa and the resultant intervention by foreign powers. It is argued, that a major cause of the political ruffle in Tunisia, the Cote D'Ivoire, Egypt and Libya had been the inability of the African Union to be pro-active in enforcing norms of good governance among member-states through its inspecting agency, the African Peer Review. The apparent political paralysis is therefore a function of an African Union impotence that needs to be resolved Underlying the tremors are issues of democracy, good governance, and public service reform for which a theoretical discourse is engaged. Keywords: African Union, democracy, governance, revolution, impotence. APRM, civil war Disciplines: Public Management, African Studies, Political Studies


Synopsis David Ferguson's mineral prospecting expeditions to South Georgia (1912), the Falkland Islands and the South Shetland Islands (1913–1914), on behalf of the Christian Salvesen whaling company of Leith and now largely forgotten, were early examples of commercially motivated terrestrial exploration in the South Atlantic region. Prior geological knowledge was very limited and Ferguson complemented his unsuccessful prospecting work with attempts to understand the regional geology of the areas that he visited. These interpretations were based on relatively cursory fieldwork undertaken in an arduous environment, and did not prove robust; but the well-documented specimen collections that Ferguson accumulated provided the basis for excellent and much-cited petrographical accounts by G. W. Tyrrell of Glasgow University. Ferguson had studied geology at the university and the influence of his mentor there, Professor J. W. Gregory, is apparent. In turn, Gregory utilized Ferguson's observations in support of a subsided 'South Atlantic continent', opposing the 'displacement hypothesis' for that region formalized by Alfred Wegener from 1912 onwards. Ferguson's field notebooks and most of his rock specimens are now held by Glasgow University (Archive Services and Hunterian Museum, respectively) but he distributed representative specimen collections widely, and these are extant in several other British museums. Specimens were also supplied to, and discussed with, William Speirs Bruce who, following the 1902–1904 Scottish National Antarctic Expedition, took a keen interest in Ferguson's discoveries.


the growth in size, complexity and the number of chronic diseases in the NHS. In addition, there is an increase in demand for high quality care, processes and planning. Effective Discharge Planning (DP) requires practitioners to have appropriate, patient personalised and updated knowledge in order to be able to make informed and holistic decisions about a patients' discharge.
This research examines the role Knowledge Management (KM) plays in planning an effective discharge plan and examines existing ways in which DP is currently carried out, identifies the stakeholders who are involved in the DP process and highlights problem areas requiring further improvement. The research also examines KM models and KM models in healthcare and integrates KM with DP in the form of a KM-based DP model. The development of the model is based on primary research, using the Grounded Theory method on a sample of stakeholders in the DP process in typical NHS hospitals. Through a process of thematic coding to the point of theoretical saturation the primary research builds on the thorough secondary research, applying problem analysis techniques in an innovative way.
The model is intended to highlight the problem areas that require focus and provides a seamless overview allowing healthcare personnel to thoroughly plan the discharge of a patient with the involvement of both patients and carers. By following the guidelines in the model, healthcare personnel, patients and carers will be prompted to identify and implement the relevant factors that make up an effective discharge plan.
The KM-based DP model is validated by the actors involved in planning the discharge (i.e. a sample of healthcare personnel). The doctoral challenge of the research is in the development and validation of an original discharge planning model using an innovative application of the Grounded Theory method. The model has implications for further academic research and for a controlled implementation in practice.


An Incomplete Rose: "Nowhere Elaborated" When one considers the outstanding heroines of J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth, Rosie Cotton may not come immediately to mind. Her competition is daunting, from the regal Galadriel and courageous Eowyn (1) to the exotic Arwen and commanding Melian. For one thing, hobbit women, with the exception of the unsavory though ultimately redeemed Lobelia Sackville-Baggins, seem more noteworthy for their recurring absence than their presence in Tolkien's texts. The mothers, sisters, and future wives of male hobbit protagonists repeatedly appear as faceless names; though Tolkien assures his readers that the Old Took's three daughters were remarkable, their stories, too, are mere ellipses (Hobbit 2). Moreover, when Rosie is recalled, it is the idealized memory rather than the flesh-and-blood Shire lass who frequently is valued. Rosie's worth often seems tied to the greatness she inspires in the quest-bound Samwise Gamgee. Tolkien himself was aware of his loud silence with regard to Rosie Cotton. In a letter to Milton Waldman probably written in 1951, Tolkien describes the Sam-Rosie relationship as a crucial key to the theme of The Lord of the Rings despite this lack of exposition: I think the simple 'rustic' love of Sam and his Rosie (nowhere elaborated) is absolutely essential to the study of his (the chief hero's) character, and to the theme of the relation of ordinary life (breathing, eating, working, begetting) and quests, sacrifice, causes, and the 'longing for Elves', and sheer beauty. (Letters 161) For Tolkien, then, Rosie's worth lies not only in the inspiration her existence provides during the quest, but also in the promise of her actions after the Ring's destruction--loving Sam, of course, and also performing her "ordinary life" activities of cooking, homemaking, nurturing, and mothering. Such efforts empower Sam (and through him the Shire) to, in Tolkien's words, breath, eat, work, and beget. This role makes Rosie more than a mere memory but no less of an ideal. Tolkien's defense of Rosie as an essential ingredient to his message provides the reader with a better understanding of Rosie as a symbol of humble hearth and home, but it fails to offer a deeper appreciation of Rosie as a character and individual. This incomplete portrait of Rosie Cotton drawn by Tolkien now serves as a challenge to the burgeoning world of Tolkien fan fiction. Fan fiction itself is far from new, of course; one could say that the medieval authors who embellished and explored preexisting Arthurian legends were early, if not the earliest, fan fiction producers. Contemporary fan fiction has been dated back to the publication of the first Star Trek fanzine, Spocknalia, in 1967 (Verba 1) and ably documented by the likes of Henry Jenkins, Camille Bacon-Smith, Joan Marie Verba, Constance Penley, Cheryl Harris, and Alison Alexander, among others. Tolkien fan fiction likewise has a notable history. One need only to glance over past publications from The Tolkien Society, The American Tolkien Society, and The American Hobbit Association, to name but a few groups, to recognize the ongoing literary impulse to contribute to the landscape of Middle-earth. Twenty-first century Tolkien fan fiction represents a new incarnation of Tolkien fandom, however. Traditional fan fiction outlets and by-products such as conventions, printed fanzines, and awards continue to thrive, but the Internet also allows online fan fiction archives, discussion boards, lists, blogs, live journals, RPGs (role-playing games), and MUSHs (multi-user shared hallucinations) to flourish, as well. Thanks to the instant accessibility of electronic texts and the widespread popularity of Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings film trilogy (2001-2003), multiple generations of fans are now involved together in the production and critique of Tolkien fan fiction. Journalist Noy Thrupkaew suggests this is a worthy endeavor, since fan fiction authors "have changed TV- and movie-watching"--and, it seems certain, book-reading--"from a passive act into one that is participatory, allowing the deciphering and creation of meaning" (Thrupkaew). …


Aluminum is present throughout the
environment and in many industrial processes and consumer goods. While very useful in everyday lives, it has
no inherent biological functions in humans.
High quantities in the human body can be toxic, resulting a range of
skeletal, neurological, and hematopoietic effects. A system has been developed to analyze
aluminum using the neutron activation analysis (NAA) technique in vivo. NAA was performed with a transportable
neutron generator as a neutron source and a high purity germanium (HPGe)
detector for spectroscopy. The neutron
generator and HPGe detector were completely modelled in MCNP6. Measurements were carried out to evaluate the
accuracy of the MCNP6 simulations and to determine the detection capabilities
of the system for aluminum. Simulations
were also conducted to determine the acceptability of radiation dose to
subjects undergoing analysis. The
detection limit for the system was evaluated using skeletal bone as a long-term
aluminum biomarker. The detection limit
was determined to be 3.41 x 101 μg of Al per g of dry bone for an irradiation time of
six minutes. This detection level is below
a point at which physiological effects have been observed in humans. A lower detection level was demonstrated to
be possible with a longer irradiation time.
The radiation absorbed dose was determined to be 7.30 mGy for an irradiation
of six minutes. The system can therefore
be utilized as a potential screening and monitoring tool for high skeletal
burdens of aluminum that may lead to physiological effects.

The simulation and calculation
techniques developed herein were applied to a set of human subject data that
were acquired for a purpose other than evaluating aluminum. The human subject data included both bone Al
from NAA and fingernail Al from mass spectrometry measurements. No significant aluminum signals were observed
when assessing the in vivo NAA spectra data.
Through simulation and calculation, it was demonstrated that the NAA experimental
parameters resulted in an elevated detection limit for aluminum that is above
Al skeletal loads observed in healthy individuals. The elevated detection limit prevented the in
vivo detection of aluminum in a healthy population, thus confirming the NAA results.


Many tumors are regulated by complex interactions with cellular components of the microenvironment including mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) or endothelial cells (ECs). While the role of receptor-ligand interaction at the cell surface is well documented, direct cell-to-cell contact has not been clearly established. Recently, tunneling nanotubes (TnTs) have been shown to support cell-to-cell transfer of organelles, various plasma membrane components and cytoplasmic molecules in several cell lines. We thus investigated the formation of TnTs between stromal cells and cancer cells supported by them. We demonstrate that TnTs occur between different cancer and stromal cell lines. TnTs formation seemed to be dependent of large membrane adhesion. We show that intercellular transfers of cytoplasmic content can occur by TnTs. However, we demonstrate that the exchange of mitochondria occurs preferentially between endothelial cells and cancer cells and contributes to chemoresistance. Our results point out the role of direct endothelial to cancer cell exchange, which emphasize our hypothesis that this angiogenesis-independent role of the endothelium plays a role in the constitution of the metastatic niche.


In just 24 lessons of one hour or less, learn how to start using Unreal Engine 4 to build amazing games for Windows, Mac, PS4, Xbox One, iOS, Android, the web, Linuxor all of them! Sams Teach Yourself Unreal Engine 4 Game Development in 24 Hours straightforward, step-by-step approach shows you how to work with Unreal Engine 4s interface, its workflows, and its most powerful editors and tools. In just hours youll be creating effects, scripting warfare, implementing physicseven developing for mobile devices and HUDs. Every lesson builds on what youve already learned, giving you a rock-solid foundation for real-world success. Organize new projects and work with the Gameplay Framework Master Unreals units and control systems Import 3D models and work with the Static Mesh Editor Create new landscapes and use Unreals foliage system Bring characters and creatures to life with the Persona Editor Apply materials and build lighting Integrate and modify audio with the Unreal Sound Cue Editor Craft particle effects and simulate physics Set up and react to player inputs Build levels and entirely new worlds Get started with powerful Blueprint visual scripting system Script an arcade game from start to finish Create events that respond to player actions Spawn Actors during gameplay Design and create action-based encounters Optimize games for mobile devices and touch-based inputs Build menus with Unreals UMG UI Designer Prepare your game for deployment Step-by-step instructions carefully walk you through the most common Unreal Engine 4 game development tasks. Practical, hands-on examples show you how to apply what you learn. Quizzes and Exercises help you test your knowledge and stretch your skills. Notes and tips point out shortcuts and solutions. All the project files and assets you'll need are available for download, including "before-and-after" files demonstrating initial setup and proper completion for every exercise.


The paper will describe the scope of the program of Electronic Supply of Academic Publications To and from Universities in the developing countries includes universities from the following countries, Catholic University of Eastern Africa, Nairobi, Kenya Kenyatta University, Nairobi, Kenya Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda Saint Augustine University. Mwanza, Tanzania Sokoine University of Agriculture, Morogoro, Tanzania Uganda Martyrs University, Nkozi, Uganda University of Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania University of Nairobi, Kenya University of Zambia, Lusaka University of Zimbabwe, Harare
The Electronic Supply of Academic Publications is a system for electronic publishing of academic publications on the Internet and e-learning for the enhancement of knowledge and skills for academic staff members in the use of electronic scientific resources on the Internet. It facilitates access to the International academic resources on the Internet and creates the possibility for the academicians to electronically publish their articles and reports on the Internet thus making their academic works known and available to the world.

Access to the International academic resources on the Internet has two core aspects i.e. availability of resources, knowledge and skills to use the online resources optimally and the publishing of academic works in developing regions by means of the Internet. This involves the creation of an academic electronic publishing system for academicians to publish.

The Electronic publishing involves two modules namely;

(a) The Functionaries of Electronic publishing system. These are the managers of the e-publishing and developing the system for publishing. Functionaries of the Electronic Supply of Academic Publishing at the African universities are situated in the Library as Virtual Library officer for technical management and converting files to different format. The manager and the users of the electronic supply of academic publication work hand in hand with academic departments of different disciplines.

(b)The second module is e-publishing. E-publishing is a proper development of Electronic Supply of Academic Publication management. It allows direct publishing of articles on the Internet by means of web browser. All the publications have to be put in series/journals owned by a given entity (departments, Institutes) participating in the Electronic Supply of Academic Publications. The Virtual Library Officer submits a publication to the web browser system together with its bibliographical data by means of a web form. The Publication is then automatically uploaded to the proper folder on the Electronic Supply of Academic server.

The Electronic Supply of Academic Publication has an out put which transforms the publication database into an OAI-repository. This means that a continuously updated copy of the publication data of every participating university in the form of an Open Archive Initiative Repository will be harvested by search engines on the Internet enabling the users to access Electronic Supply of Academic Supply Publications thus enhancing their scope of exposure.


ABSTRACT In this paper we review the literature on teacher inquiry (TI) to explore the possibility that this process can equip teachers to investigate students' learning as a step towards the process of formative assessment. We draw a distinction between formative assessment and summative forms of assessment [CRELL. (2009). The transition to computer-based assessment: New approaches to skills assessment and implications for large-scale testing. In F. Scheuermann & J. Björnsson (Eds.), JRC Scientific and technical reports. Ispra: Author; Webb, M. (2010). Beginning teacher education and collaborative formative e-assessment. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 35, 597–618; EACEA. (2009). National testing of pupils in Europe: Objectives, organisation and use of results. Brussels: Eurydice; OECD. (2010b). Assessing the effects of ICT in education (F. Scheuermann & E. Pedró, Eds.). Paris: JRC, OECD]. Our review of TI is combined with a review of the research concerning the way that practices with technology can support the assessment process. We conclude with a comparison of TI and teacher design research from which we extract the characteristics for a method of TI that can be used to develop technology-enhanced formative assessment: teacher inquiry into student learning. In this review, our primary focus is upon enabling teachers to use technology effectively to inquire about their students' learning progress.


WaSH (Water, Sanitation & Hygiene) Safety Plans have been developed to provide a holistic approach to protecting public health through the assessment and management of risks from insufficient or unsafe water supply, inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene practices. A successful trial of a WaSH Safety Plan was conducted in an urban community in Kathmandu, Nepal. The trial demonstrated that WaSH Safety Plans are a powerful tool which quantifies the risks posed to the community and strengthens the decision making process in order to justify that interventions are targeted towards specific needs.


The microlensing technique is a unique method to hunt for cold planets over a range of mass and separation, orbiting all varieties of host stars in the disk of our galaxy. It provides precise mass-ratio and projected separations in units of the Einstein ring radius. In order to obtain the physical parameters (mass, distance, orbital separation) of the system, it is necessary to combine the result of light curve modeling with lens mass-distance relations and/or perform a Bayesian analysis with a galactic model. A first mass-distance relation could be obtained from a constraint on the Einstein ring radius if the crossing time of the source over the caustic is measured. It could then be supplemented by secondary constraints such as parallax measurements, ideally by using coinciding ground and space-born observations. These are still subject to degeneracies, like the orbital motion of the lens. A third mass-distance relation can be obtained thanks to constraints on the lens luminosity using high angular resolution observations with 8 m class telescopes or the Hubble Space Telescope. The latter route, although quite inexpensive in telescope time is very effective. If we have to rely heavily on Bayesian analysis and limited constraints on mass-distance relations, the physical parameters are determined to 30–40% typically. In a handful of cases, ground-space parallax is a powerful route to get stronger constraint on masses. High angular resolution observations will be able to constrain the luminosity of the lenses in the majority of the cases, and in favorable circumstances it is possible to derive physical parameters to 10% or better. Moreover, these constraints will be obtained in most of the planets to be discovered by the Euclid and WFIRST satellites. We describe here the state-of-the-art approaches to measure lens masses and distances with an emphasis on high angular resolution observations. We will discuss the challenges, recent results and perspectives.


In the literature on changes in political journalism, it is often claimed that journalists and media pundits have become more prominent in the media's political news coverage. At the same time, politicians allegedly receive less attention and are more often depicted either positively or negatively instead of neutrally. It has also been claimed that those commenting on politicians' actions in the news are predominantly conservative. Based on data from a content analysis of thousands of news stories from all five Danish national elections since 1994, this study investigates whether the assumed changes have indeed taken place. Among other things, the results show that journalists and media pundits today appear more often on camera and that media pundits more often than not are right-rather than left-wing. However, these and other trends are not unidirectional, suggesting more complex patterns than is often assumed.


Jaminan Kesehatan Nasional or JKN realized as the one of problem solving for equity of healthcare in Indonesian setting. At the same point, it has to compatible with all aspects in health financing issues by its newly adopted systems. This review aims to reveal JKN health financing policy since it implemented by 2014 in Indonesia. Several bibliographies databases were identified to conduct literature reviews that comprised of international and national/local journals. It founds that JKN principles focuses on mutual support, not-for-profit, good governance, and portability aspects. JKN enrollment consisted of two types polisholders including incapable polis insurance (PBI JKN) that bear by the Indonesian government, and capable polis insurance (none PBI JKN). JKN have to synergize with recent existing challenges including integration from previous regional health insurance (Jamkesda), healthcare facilities, package benefit, financing issue as well as the deficit issue which happened as lower dues that making by JKN polisholder than the high claim by the healthcare facilities particularly in hospitals. Although, JKN emerges to tackle the inequity of healthcare in all Indonesian regions, the existing settled Jamkesda in several regions, particularly regions with high regional income, made JKN integration as the setback health financing on its regions. Limited healthcare facilities that cooperated with BPJS-Kesehatan also challenged the JKN implementation as well as financial lose in affecting by mismatch between medical expenditures with JKN claimed as per package. It concludes that the political willing to choose several options including to prevent JKN deficit depend on the leader commitment to make JKN as not for another journey but it shall be the destination for health financing in Indonesia.


Gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding refers to any hemorrhage ascribed to the pathologies of the gastrointestinal tract, extending from the mouth to the anal canal. Despite the recent improvements in the endoscopic, hemostatic and adjuvant pharmacologic techniques, the reported mortality is still around 5%-10% for peptic ulcer bleeding and about 15%-20% for variceal hemorrhages. Although endoscopic management reduces the rates of re-bleeding, surgery, and mortality in active bleeding; early recurrence ratios still occur in around 20% of the cases even with effective initial hemostatic measures. In this quest for an alternative pro-hemostatic agent for the management of GI bleedings, Ankaferd blood stopper (ABS) offers a successful candidate, specifically for "difficult-to-manage" situations as evidenced by data presented in several studies. ABS is a standardized mixture of the plants Thymus vulgaris, Glycyrrhiza glabra, Vitis vinifera, Alpinia officinarum, and Urtica dioica. It is effective in both bleeding individuals with normal hemostatic parameters and in patients with deficient primary and/or secondary hemostasis. ABS also modulates the cellular apoptotic responses to hemorrhagic stress, as well as hemostatic hemodynamic activity. Through its effects on the endothelium, blood cells, angiogenesis, cellular proliferation, vascular dynamics, and wound healing, ABS is now becoming an effective alternative hemostatic medicine for gastrointestinal bleedings that are resistant to conventional anti-hemorrhagic measurements. The aim of this review is to outline current literature experience suggesting the place of ABS in the management of GI bleeding, and potential future controlled trials in this complicated field.


Submerged aquatic invasive plant species are increasingly being recognised as a major threat to South African water ways. Pet stores, aquarists and the internet-mediated trade were investigated as pathways for submerged invasive macrophyte introductions into South Africa. Online and manually distributed surveys were used to determine the extent of movement of invasive as well as indigenous submerged plant species in South Africa. Sixty-four stores and twenty-three aquarists were surveyed. Four areas of risk were identified in this study. Firstly, and most importantly, a variety of invasive and/or prohibited plants are sold by pet stores. Secondly, there is a lack of knowledge regarding identification as well as regulation of submerged species, which may then result in the unintentional trade of potentially invasive species. It seems that, in many cases, the pet stores are ignorant or misinformed of the potential dangers, rather than intentionally attempting to breach the legislation. Thirdly, aquarists own, trade and move plants in and around the country, which makes it very difficult to monitor which species are being moved around South Africa and to what extent. Finally, the internet is a pathway of potential concern, but it is difficult to quantify its contribution to the trade of invasive species in South Africa.


Organic compounds, such as organic dyes and phenols, are the main pollutants in wastewater. In the past years, a large number of studies on the fabrication and photocatalytic organics degradation of BiVO4 and its related materials have been reported in the literature. In this chapter, we shall focus on the advancements in the synthesis and photocatalytic applications of several kinds of BiVO4-based photocata‐ lysts: (i) well-defined morphological BiVO4 photocatalysts, (ii) porous BiVO4 photoca‐ talysts, (iii) heteroatom-doped BiVO4 photocatalysts, (iv) BiVO4-based heterojunction photocatalysts, and (v) supported BiVO4 photocatalysts. We shall discuss the struc‐ ture–photocatalytic performance relationship of the materials and the involved photocatalytic degradation mechanisms. In addition, we also propose the research trends and technologies for practical applications of the BiVO4-based photocatalytic materials.


Plant vascular meristems are sets of pluripotent cells that enable radial growth by giving rise to vascular tissues and are therefore crucial to plant development. However, the overall dynamics of cellular determination and patterning in and around vascular meristems is still unexplored. We study this process in the shoot vascular tissue of Arabidopsis thaliana, which is organized in vascular bundles that contain three basic cell types (procambium, xylem and phloem). A set of molecules involved in this process has now been identified and partially characterized, but it is not yet clear how the regulatory interactions among them, in conjunction with cellular communication processes, give rise to the steady patterns that accompany cell-fate determination and arrangement within vascular bundles. We put forward a dynamic model factoring in the interactions between molecules (genes, peptides, mRNA and hormones) that have been reported to be central in this process, as well as the relevant communication mechanisms. When a few proposed interactions (unverified, but based on related data) are postulated, the model reproduces the hormonal and molecular patterns expected for the three regions within vascular bundles. In order to test the model, we simulated mutant and hormone-depleted systems and compared the results with experimentally reported phenotypes. The proposed model provides a formal framework integrating a set of growing experimental data and renders a dynamic account of how the collective action of hormones, genes, and other molecules may result in the specification of the three main cell types within shoot vascular bundles. It also offers a tool to test the necessity and sufficiency of particular interactions and conditions for vascular patterning and yields novel predictions that may be experimentally tested. Finally, this model provides a reference for further studies comparing the overall dynamics of tissue organization and formation by meristems in other plant organs and species.


We present a lightweight library for testing concurrent Scala programs by systematically exploring multiple interleavings between user-specified operations on shared objects. Our library is targeted at beginners of concurrent programming in Scala, runs on a standard JVM, and supports conventional synchronization primitives such as `wait`, `notify`, and `synchronized`. The key component of the library is the trait `SchedulableMonitor` that accepts a thread schedule, and interleaves as per the schedule all user-specified operations invoked through multiple threads on objects implementing the trait. Using our library, we developed a unit test engine that tests concurrent operations on shared objects on thousands of schedules obtained by bounding the number of context-switches. If a unit test fails on a schedule, the test engine offers as feedback the interleaved traces of execution that resulted in the failure. We used our test engine to automatically test and evaluate two assignments: (a) lock-based producer/consumer problem, and (b) lock-free sorted list implementation, offered to a class of 150 under-graduate students of EPFL. Our evaluations show that the system is effective in detecting bugs in students' solutions.


The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of different surface treatments on shear bond strength of saliva-contaminated resin-resin interfaces. Flat resin surfaces were fabricated. In the control group, no contamination or surface treatment was performed. The resin surfaces of the experimental groups were contaminated with saliva and air-dried, and then submitted to: (G1) rinsing with water and drying; (G2) application of an adhesive system; (G3) rinsing and drying, abrasion with finishing disks, etching and application of adhesive system; (G4) rinsing and drying, etching, application of silane and adhesive system. Resin cylinders were placed over the treated surfaces. The specimens were stored in water or ethanol. Shear bond strength tests were performed and the mode of failure was evaluated. Data were submitted to two-way ANOVA and Dunnett T3 test. Contamination of resin-resin interfaces with saliva significantly reduced shear strength, especially after prolonged storage (p<0.05). Similar values to the original bond strength were obtained after abrasion and application of adhesive (G3) or etching and application of silane and adhesive (G4). If contamination occurs, a surface treatment is required to guarantee an adequate interaction between the resin increments.


Although many studies have investigated the relationship between market structure and the prices of bank services, most have been concerned with metropolitan areas. These studies generally have used bank balance sheet and income statement ratios as bank conduct proxies. Moreover, prior studies have approximated local banking markets with county or SMSA boundaries. ; This study develops a methodology for delineating the geographic boundaries of local banking markets through the use of secondary economic and demographic data. This methodology is utilized to delineate rural banking markets in the states of Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. The relationship between those markets and rural bank conduct is investigated. Conduct is measured with explicit price and nonprice information generated by telephone survey. ; The market determination methodology is based on the assumption that people will bank where they live, work, or obtain goods and services. Using a classification system which categorizes communities according to variety and amount of retail business transactions, a gradient concept is developed which initially approximates market boundaries according to local minima in the gradient. ; The market determination methodology is based on the assumption that people will bank where they live, work, or obtain goods and services. Using a classification system which categorizes communities according to variety and amount of retail business transactions, a gradient concept is developed which initially approximates market boundaries according to local minima in the gradient. ; The natural banking markets determined for the entire state of Minnesota are compared with banking markets approximated by county or SMSA boundaries. The counties or SMSAs are allowed to underestimate or overestimate the natural market by as much as 30 percent of total deposits before being classified as unacceptable approximators. According to these criteria, 61 percent of the counties and SMSAs are found to be unacceptable approximators. When the criteria are tightened to permit only 10 percent underestimation or overestimation, 79 percent of the counties and SMSAs are rated unacceptable. This implies that researchers and policy makers should be cautious about approximating local banking markets with political boundaries. Additional methods for testing the procedure and making it operational are suggested. ; The methodology is used to delineate local banking markets in Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. Twenty-five rural markets are randomly selected from each state. A total of 333 banks from these markets forms the basis for the structure-conduct analysis. These banks are surveyed by telephone to determine explicit price and nonprice information. ; The methodology is used to delineate local banking markets in Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. Twenty-five rural markets are randomly selected from each state. A total of 333 banks from these markets forms the basis for the structure-conduct analysis. These banks are surveyed by telephone to determine explicit price and nonprice information. ; Increases in concentration are significantly associated with increases in the rates rural banks charge on each type of loan included in the study. Moreover, increases in market share are significantly associated with increases in nonprice effort. Consequently, policy makers are confronted with selecting between: (1) higher prices and increased provision of ancillary banking services, or (2) lower prices and less service.


Monte Carlo simulations were performed on the hollow spherical geometry of binary Invar alloy based on a model with a localized spin Hamiltonian taking into account the occurrence of high-spin (HS) and low-spin (LS) states for the atomic magnetic moments of one of its components. When heating the system from its ferromagnetic ground state to above the Curie temperature and then subsequent cooling, domain formation is observed, which is not expected for particles of this size. The domains consist of HS atoms surrounded by LS atoms. Since the LS atoms do not interact magnetically, the alignment of spin moments between regions of HS atoms are independent of each other and thus there is a reduced contribution to the total magnetic moment, resulting in a decrease in the magnetization of the system. Reduction of the total magnetic moment in this geometry is size and thickness dependent.


A $k$-orbit map is a map with its automorphism group partitioning the set of flags into $k$ orbits. Recently $k$-orbit maps were studied by Orbanic, Pellicer and Weiss, for $k \leq 4$. In this paper we use symmetry type graphs to extend such study and classify all the types of $5$-orbit maps, as well as all self-dual, properly and improperly, symmetry type of $k$-orbit maps with $k\leq 7$. Moreover, we determine, for small values of $k$, all types of $k$-orbits maps that are medial maps. Self-dualities constitute an important tool in this quest.


The reign of Queen Elizabeth I, which spanned over forty years, was a time of economic stability, with outstanding successes in the fields of maritime exploration and defence. The period also saw a huge expansion in trade, the creation of new industries, a rise in social mobility, urban isation and the development of an extraordinary literary culture. Elizabeth I & Her People explores the stories of those individuals whose achievements brought about these changes in the context of an emerging national identity, as well as giving a fascina ting glimpse into their way of life through accessories and artefacts. The book, which accompanies a major exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, London, features portraits of the Queen and her courtiers, including explorers and sea captains such as Francis Drake and Martin Frobisher, statesmen and soldiers such as William Cecil, Lord Burghley and Christopher Hatton and enchanting portraits of the Queen's female courtiers such as Bess of Hardwick, Countess of Shrewsbury, and Elizabeth Vernon, Countes s of Southampton. However, from the mid - sixteenth - century interest in portraiture broadened, as members of a growing wealthy middle class sought to have their likenesses captured for posterity. The book includes intriguing lesser - known images of Elizabeth an merchants, lawyers, goldsmiths, butchers, calligraphers, playwrights and artists - all of whom contributed to the making of a nation and a new world power.


In today's complex communication environment, emotional intelligence, communication effectiveness, and strategic alignment remain a key topic of concern among managers and employees worldwide. Communication effectiveness is a key for organization's performance and progress. The interrelationship between emotional intelligence, communication effectiveness, and strategic alignment plays a vital role in the growth and success of organizations of Iran. Emotional intelligence (EI) and communication effectiveness are proposed as an important predictor of key organizational outcomes including strategic alignment. The paper is undertaken to understand the relationship between demographic variables (age and gender) and emotional intelligence, and communications effectiveness to improve strategic alignment in the organizations of Iran. The dimension of emotional intelligence in this study includes: happiness and optimism. Data (N = 82) for this study were collected through questionnaires and the participants were managers in Agriculture Bank and Educational Administrations of Iran. The aim of this paper is to assess the emotional intelligence and communication effectiveness and relationship with strategic alignment. The results showed emotional intelligence can impact on communications effectiveness through demographic variable and also communication effectiveness has a positive impact on strategic alignment.

 Key words: Emotional intelligence, communications effectiveness, strategic alignment, demographic factors.


Aim: The study was conducted at a smallholder goat farm located in Labu, Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of proper feeding program on growth performances of replacement breeder goats. Materials and Methods: A total of 30 healthy female boer cross goats at the age of 4 months old with average initial live body weight (BW) of 20.05±0.5 kg were used for on-farm feeding trial to evaluate the growth performance as preparation for breeding purposes. The experimental goats were divided into two groups of 15 animals each labeled as control and treatment groups, which were kept under intensive farming system. Goats in control group were fed with normal routine feeding protocol practiced by the farmer, while goats in the treatment group were fed with new feed formulation. Throughout the experimental period, on-farm monitoring and data collection were carried out. Initial BW and body condition score (BCS) were recorded before the start of the experiment while final BW and BCS were gained after 7 months of the experimental period. Average daily gain (ADG) was calculated after the experiment end. Data on BW, ADG, and BCS were recorded from both groups for every 2 weeks and reported monthly. The feed intake for the control group was 2.8 kg/animal/day which practiced by the farmer and 3.2 kg/animal/day as new feed formulation for the treatment group. Results: After 7 months of the experimental period, final BW shows an improvement in treatment group (39.1±1.53 kg) compared with control group (32.3±1.23 kg). The ADG in treatment group also gives promising result when comparing with control group. Goats in treatment group significantly attained better ADG than control group which were 126.7 g/day and 83.3 g/day, respectively. For the BCS, goats in the treatment group had shown an improvement where 86.67% (13 out of 15) of the group had BCS ≥3 (1-5 scoring scale) and only 66.67% (10 out of 15) of the control group had BCS ≥3. Conclusion: Therefore, it was concluded that implementation of proper feeding program as shown in treatment group give promising result to improve the growth performance of replacement breeder goats which can be adopted by the farmers to improve farm productivity.


This Article develops a typology of place-based investment tax incentives that can be used to evaluate the relevance of empirical findings, identify new areas of research, and predict the impact of specific tax incentive designs. This typology will be especially valuable for the purpose of analyzing the new federal Opportunity Zones investment tax incentives.

This Article makes several contributions to tax, poverty, and empirical legal literature. First, it defines the category of place-based investment tax incentives and identifies key elements of variation across the category. Second, the typology presented here can be used by both tax and poverty law researchers to help assess the applicability of existing empirical studies to specific types of place-based investment tax incentives. Third, this Article identifies areas for further legal and empirical research.

As this Article explains, community oriented types of place-based investment tax incentives, which contain features specifically designed to benefit residents of poor communities, are uncommon under existing law. These rare types of tax incentives are theoretically promising and enjoy some empirical support; nevertheless, due in part to their rarity, they have been largely understudied. The most complete understanding of place-based investment tax incentives, therefore, will require additional research about the ideal design and impact of community oriented investment tax incentives.


CONTEXT
Proliferating cells reprogram their cellular glucose metabolism to meet the bioenergetic and biosynthetic demands and to maintain cellular redox homeostasis. Pyruvate kinase M (PKM) is a critical regulator of this metabolic reprogramming. However, whether estradiol-17β (E2) reprograms cellular metabolism to support proliferation of human primary endometrial stromal cells (hESCs) and the molecular basis of this reprogramming are not well understood.

OBJECTIVES
Our objectives were to study whether E2 induces reprogramming of glucose metabolism in hESCs and to investigate the potential roles of PKM2 in E2-induced metabolic reprogramming and proliferation of these cells.

METHODS
The oxygen consumption rate and extracellular acidification rate were assessed by a Seahorse XF24 analyzer. PKM2 expression was assessed by real-time RT-PCR and immunoblotting.

RESULTS
E2 induces a Warburg-like glucose metabolism in hESCs by inducing the expression of PKM. E2 also enhanced PKM splicing into the PKM2 isoform by upregulating the c-Myc-hnRNP axis. Furthermore, E2 induces PKM2 oxidation, phosphorylation, and nuclear translocation. In addition to its glycolytic function, PKM2 physically interacted with estrogen receptor-α (ERα) and functioned as an ERα coactivator. Small-molecule PKM2 activators ameliorated ERα transcriptional activity and abrogated the E2-induced hESC proliferation.

CONCLUSIONS
We show for the first time that E2-induced hESC proliferation is associated with a shift in glucose metabolism toward aerobic glycolysis, and the molecular basis for this metabolic shift is linked to the effects of E2 on PKM2. In addition, PKM2 acts as a transcriptional coactivator for ERα and small-molecule PKM2 activators inhibit ERα transcriptional activity and reduce E2-induced cell proliferation.


The Iraq is beginning to look like a rerun of the Vietnam War, and not just because critics are crying out that the United States has again fallen into a quagmire. War opponents argue that a wartime president has overstepped his constitutional bounds and that if Congress' constitutional role in deciding on war had been respected, the United States could have avoided trouble or at least have entered the war with broader popular support. According to Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy, the White House is improperly "abusing power, is excusing and authorizing torture, and is spying on American citizens." The terrorists would never have been harshly interrogated and intelligence surveillance never domestically expanded if only President George W. Bush had looked to Congress. These war critics misread the Constitution's allocation of warmaking powers between the executive and legislative branches. Their interpretation is weakest where their case should be its strongest: who gets to decide whether to start a war. For much of the history of the nation, presidents and congresses have understood that the executive branch's constitutional authority includes the power to begin military hostilities abroad. Energy in the Executive During the last two centuries, neither the president nor Congress has ever acted under the belief that the Constitution requires a declaration of war before engaging in military hostilities abroad. Although the United States has used force abroad more than 100 times, it has declared war only five times: the War of 1812, the Mexican-American and Spanish-American wars, and World War I and II. Without declarations of war or any other congressional authorization, presidents have sent troops to oppose the Russian Revolution, intervene in Mexico, fight Chinese Communists in Korea, remove Manuel Noriega from power in Panama, and prevent human rights disasters in the Balkans. Other conflicts, such as both Persian Gulf Wars, received "authorization" from Congress but not declarations of war. Critics of these conflicts want to upend long practice by appealing to an "original understanding" of the Constitution. But the text and structure of the Constitution, as well as its application over the last two centuries, confirm that the president can begin military hostilities without the approval of Congress. The Constitution does not establish a strict warmaking process because the Framers understood that war would require the speed, decisiveness, and secrecy that only the presidency could bring. "Energy in the executive," Alexander Hamilton argued in the Federalist Papers, "... is essential to the protection of the community against foreign attacks." He continued, "the direction of war most peculiarly demands those qualities which distinguish the exercise of power by a single hand." Rather than imposing a fixed, step-by-step method for going to war, the Constitution allows the executive and legislative branches substantial flexibility in shaping the decision-making process for engaging in military hostilities. Given the increasing ability of rogue states to procure weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) and the rise of international terrorism, maintaining this flexibility is critical to preserving US national security. The Declare War Clause Critics of the President's war powers appeal to an understanding of declarations probably taught in most high school civics classes. It is perhaps common sense to equate the power to "declare" war with the power to "begin" or "commence" war. The Constitution's Declare War Clause, however, should not be considered in isolation. In fact, the Constitution does not consistently use the word "declare" to mean "begin" or "initiate." For instance, one constitutional provision withdraws from states the power to "engage" in war. If "declare" meant "begin" or "make," the provision should have prohibited states from "declaring" war. …


Connectionist accounts of quasiregular domains, such as spelling–sound correspondences in English, represent exception words (e.g., pint) amid regular words (e.g., mint) via a graded "warping" mechanism. Warping allows the model to extend the dominant pronunciation to nonwords (regularization) with minimal interference (spillover) from the exceptions. We tested for a behavioral marker of warping by investigating the degree to which participants generalized from newly learned made-up words, which ranged from sharing the dominant pronunciation (regulars), a subordinate pronunciation (ambiguous), or a previously nonexistent (exception) pronunciation. The new words were learned over 2 days, and generalization was assessed 48 hr later using nonword neighbors of the new words in a tempo naming task. The frequency of regularization (a measure of generalization) was directly related to degree of warping required to learn the pronunciation of the new word. Simulations using the Plaut, McClelland, Seidenberg, and Patterson (1996) model further support a warping interpretation. These findings highlight the need to develop theories of representation that are integrally tied to how those representations are learned and generalized.


This paper is intended as a tribute to Andrzej Zawislak, one of the precursors of systems approach to organization theory in Poland. More specifically, we highlight four recurring themes in his work: learning by studying systemic paradoxes, theorizing about organizations as complex human systems, reflection on the role of university in its social context, and scepticism towards rationality of social science. We believe that Zawislak's unique voice deserves to be heard and may serve as a fruitful starting point for theorizing about organizations.


Trauma is the first mortality cause in developing countries. In addition, one of the leading causes of disability in these countries has been considered as health-related economic losses. This study aimed to evaluate the incidence rate and demographic characteristics of four extremity trauma in victims of road traffic accidents, who referred to the Shahid Rajaee Trauma Hospital during March-August 2015. This study was conducted on all patients with trauma caused by road traffic accidents, who referred to Shahid Rajaee Hospital in Shiraz, Iran during March- August 2015. Demographics of the patients and information related to their stage of trauma were recorded and analyzed. Chi-square, analysis of variance (ANOVA) and independent t-test were used to evaluate the results, which were indicative of high frequency of four extremity trauma in the head, chest and abdomen. Frequency of physical trauma was more observed in male patients, compared to female subjects. According to the results, the frequency of trauma is more observed in young adults, compared to the elderly and mortality caused by head, chest and abdomen trauma were less observed. Duration of hospital state was more seen in patients with the upper and lower extremity injuries, compared to those with head, chest and abdomen trauma. Moreover, no significant difference was observed between male and female patients with four extremity trauma. However, the frequency of four extremity trauma, such as scratch and being crushed, was significantly lower, compared to fracture and dislocation. According to the results of this study, the frequency of four upper and lower extremity injuries was higher in male and young adults, compared to other patients.


Pentecostal Christianity has in the last several decades demonstrated an ability to globalize with great speed and to flourish in social contexts of poverty and disorganization in which other social institutions have been unable to sustain themselves. This article asks why Pentecostalism should be so successful at institution building in harsh environments. I argue that this question is more fundamental than those scholars more often ask about the kinds of compensations that Pentecostalism provides for its adherents. I then draw on Collins's theory of interaction ritual chains to suggest that it is Pentecostalism's promotion of ritual to the center of social life that grounds its unusual institution-building capacity.


This paper describes a software project called PsySound3. This software provides an accessible platform for the analysis of sound recordings using procedures applied in acoustics and psychoacoustics. Acoustical analysis methods include a sound level meter module, as well as processes such as Fourier transform, cepstrum, Hilbert transform and auto-correlation. Psychoacoustical models include dynamic loudness, sharpness, roughness, loudness fluctuation, pitch height and pitch strength. Results are presented as numbers, auditory graphs and visual graphs. The software is modular, allowing additional analysis methods to be contributed. Several additional analysis modules are planned. The software is distributed freely via www.psysound.org. This paper illustrates some of the analysis possibilities by using auditory alarms as examples. [


Governance of Australia's Murray–Darling Basin (the Basin) is frequently lauded as an example to other river managers globally. Freshwater environments in the Basin are particularly vulnerable to water scarcity and change. In this paper, governmental responses are assessed to draw global lessons on climate change adaptation for rivers. A range of climate change adaptation measures for freshwater ecosystem conservation in the Basin are outlined namely: higher, long‐term allocations of water to the environment; reviewing water allocation on a cyclical basis; allocating an equal or greater share of available water to the environment in dry years; and environmental works and measures to use less water to conserve wetlands. Examples of poor translation of science into policy that do not adequately consider the risks, costs, and benefits of adaptation interventions are explored. Adaptation policy in the Basin illustrates the risks of heavy reliance on infrastructure, of the high costs of trade‐offs between environmental measures versus socio‐economic and political concerns, and of dependence on too few measures. Lessons include the need for rigorous evaluation of risks, costs, and benefits to minimize perverse outcomes, and for adequate incentives and penalties for implementation of adaptation policies across governance scales. It is concluded that rather than a focus on only a few interventions, such as environmental flows, better adaptation practice requires deployment of a suite of different but complementary measures that spreads risk and maximizes resilience to climate variability and change. WIREs Clim Change 2013, 4:429–438. doi: 10.1002/wcc.230


Abstract In order to model quantitatively exsolution of volatiles over the range of basaltic melt compositions found on oceanic islands, I present compositional parameterizations of H2O and CO2 solubilities and use these parameterizations to develop vapor saturation and degassing models for alkalic basaltic liquids. Vapor-saturation diagrams generated as a function of melt composition are used to determine the pressure at which the melt was last in equilibrium with a vapor and the composition of the vapor phase based on measured H2O and CO2 contents in basaltic glasses. These models allow the calculation of the pressure at which a magma of known initial volatile content reaches vapor saturation and begins to exsolve a vapor phase. The higher solubility of CO2 in alkalic magmas causes vapor saturation in CO2-bearing alkalic magmas to be reached at lower pressures than in CO2- bearing tholeiitic magmas having identical volatile contents. However, if variations in major element and volatile concentrations were linked by variations in the extent of melting, then volatile-rich, strongly alkalic magmas would begin to exsolve a vapor at slightly higher pressures than volatile-poor alkali olivine basalts or tholeiites. Partitioning of H2O and CO2 into the vapor during volatile exsolution is controlled by the difference between H2O and CO2 solubilities. As melts become more alkalic, the relative difference between H2O and CO2 solubilities decreases, thus diminishing the preferential partitioning of CO2 into the vapor. Exsolution of volatiles from tholeiites is characterized by strong partitioning of CO2 into the vapor such that most or all CO2 is lost before any significant loss of H2O. In contrast, the combination of higher CO2 solubility and higher volatile contents (and perhaps higher CO2/H2O ratio) in alkalic melts results in less fractionation between CO2 and H2O during volatile exsolution.


Complete blood counts were analyzed for 12 samples (six male & six female: Ages 15-40 years) of leukemia blood Samples for different dose rate and time of exposure using a Radium-226 source. Thus, an optimum time of exposure and exposure dose rate has improved for leukemia blood samples. Blood samples fractionated and placed in plastic wills, and melodic Coulter used to analysis exposed leukemia blood samples before and after exposure. Exposure technique involving CR-39 nuclear track detector and radiation survey dosimeter were used to estimate the alpha particle density incident on the blood samples and the exposed dose rate, respectively. In the first part, density of the accumulation of alpha particle on the surface of leukemia blood samples, and on the surface of CR-39NTDs varies exponentially with the exposed dose rate. This depends on the restricted energy loss of the incident alpha particles and target density. Assess an optimum time of exposure dose rate (1100 μSv/h) was the second objective. This depended on the changes in the blood components (PLT, WBC, and RBC) due to irradiation occurred for different durations of irradia-tion, and the duration of irradiation that influenced the leukemia blood samples (1Male; 16 year and one Female 17 years) in this research was five minutes. Changes in the density of PLT, WBC, and RBC for leukemia blood samples and for different male (five male) and females (five female) was the third part of this research. It was found that the changes were variables due to the exposed dose rate. Optimum exposed dose rate to make more effects on the cancer cells for the leukemia blood samples began at the radiation dose rate of 43.25 1.206 μSv/h for both; male and female relatively, and this due to chromosomal aberration of the exposed cells. Finally, comparison study with the healthy blood samples has been investigated. More details are listed and clarified in the tables and figures of this paper.


The main goal of this article is to investigate whether the rates of return on listed companies - football clubs can affect their athletic performance or bookmakers' market expectations. For this purpose 2001-2014 stock prices were collected of three companies - AS Roma, Juventus and SS Lazio - listed on the Milan Stock Exchange as well as their betting odds from the website www.betexplorer.com. The assumption that there are relationships between financial factors and results of sport events or bookmakers' expectation was posed after the study of the world literature in this field.


In the recent years, there has been interests regarding an overhead crane to be erected inside of Cal Poly Simpson Strong Tie Lab (Building 187). This under running single girder crane system will be used for construction classes, and to lift heavy equipment. The erection of this 2 Ton indoor crane will be crucial to provide modular pieces, for whom that lost their homes due to the California fires. Additionally, there has been previous senior projects researches; reference attached preconstruction services, and a full structural analysis of SST Laboratory. I am in charge of collecting information regarding: Bid Estimate, Advertisement Strategy, Permit Compliance. This project seeks funding from Cal Poly trade partners, to help allocate these resources to minimize cost impacts. As well as partially selfallocate proportion of this crane project, while using Facilities Management and Development to manage any proper permitting requirements.


Abstract. Catchment flood response consists of multiple components of flow originating from different surface and subsurface layers. This study proposes an extension of Viglione et al. (2010a) analytical framework to represent the dependence of catchment flood response to the different runoff generation processes. The analytical framework is compared to simulations from a distributed hydrologic model. A large number of rainfall–runoff events from three catchments of Tar River basin in North Carolina are used to illustrate the analytical framework. Specifically, the framework is used to estimate three flood event characteristics (cumulative runoff volume, centroid, and spreadness of hydrograph) through three corresponding framework parameters: the rainfall excess and the mean and variance of catchment response time. Results show that, under the smooth topographic setups of the study area, the spatial and/or temporal correlation between rainfall and runoff generation are insignificant to flood response; delay in flood response due to runoff generation and routing are of equal importance; the shape of the flood is mainly controlled by the variability in runoff generation stage but with non-negligible contribution from the runoff routing stage. Sensitivity tests show that the framework's main error source is the systematic underestimation of the flood event's centroid and spreadness, while the random error is relatively low.


This paper presents the real-time implementation of a bi input-extended Kalman filter (EKF) (BI-EKF)-based estimator in order to overcome the simultaneous estimation problem of the variations in stator resistance Rs and rotor resistance Rr' aside from the load torque tL and all states required for the speed-sensorless control of induction motors (IMs) in the wide speed range. BI-EKF algorithm consists of a single EKF algorithm using consecutively two inputs based on two extended IM models developed for the simultaneous estimation of Rr' and Rs. Therefore, from the point of real-time implementation, it requires less memory than previous EKF-based studies exploiting two separate EKF algorithms for the same aim. By using the measured stator phase voltages and currents, the developed estimation algorithm is tested with real-time experiments under challenging variations of Rs , Rr', and tL in a wide speed range; the results obtained from BI-EKF reveal significant improvement in the all estimated states and parameters when compared with those of the single EKFs estimating only Rr' or Rs.


New Findings from Natural Substances present the state-of-the-art and future prospects for the application of biomolecules in the pharmaceutical, agricultural, food and industrial sectors. The book presents eight reviews contributed by more than twenty experts on interesting natural substances, and plant sources, that serve as sources of natural remedies for a variety of ailments.

The reviews in the book cover the use of herbs like Heliotropium and Astragalus. Additional health benefits of extracts from essential oils, Caenorhabditis elegans, and olive oil, as well as the medicinal use of rosmarinic acid and hydrolates. The contributions highlight a range of pharmacological agents from natural sources that have anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory, cardioprotective and neuroprotective effects.

The contents are presented in a simple and organized style. The book will broaden the knowledge about biological products for a variety of readers - generalists, students and researchers, alike.


Розглянуто проблему гідросепарації вторинних полімерів. Розроблено математичн у модель процесу , проаналізовано умови занурення полімерів у воду та їх відокремлення від інших твердих побутових відходів. Hydraulic separation is a way of separating solid waste (MSW) into components with water. The technology is cheaper than incineration, with relatively rapid deployment. With the technology of hydro solid waste can be recycled up to 85 % of unsorted waste, which then will be used to rework both recyclables and organic waste – production of biogas and electricity. For hydraulic sorting of solid waste using water, which is a natural odor neutralizer. Originally unsorted waste coming into the emergency department, equipped with exhaust fans. They were then passed through a stream of water where organic and inorganic components are separated by gravity regulate water flow. The purpose of this paper is the problem of sorting waste by hydro polymer material in which plastics are sorted from the total weight of waste by adding air to the water, which changes its density, resulting in getting water-air mixture in which the polymers are not emerges the surface, and begin to settle, as their bulk density greater than the density of the resulting mixture. Ten years ago, the term hydraulic separation was very new to the vocabulary used in the North American hydronics market. Back then the contemporary topic being discussed and applied was primary/secondary piping. The idea being that several loads, each served by its own secondary circuit and associated circulator, could be connected to a common primary loop, with its own circulator. The «magic» of closely-spaced tees is what prevented the flow rate in any of these circuits from interfering with the flow rate in the others. In essence, that is what hydraulic separation is: the ability of two or more circulators within the same piping system to simultaneously operate without interfering with each other.


In this research educational decision-making system was studied based on five (internal and external) factors including: environment of decision-making (suprasystems), structure of decision–making, process of decision-making, implementing of decision–making, and evaluation and feedback of decision–making. Data was gathered by questionnaire from two groups, members of the Faculties of Education settled in Tehran and staff managers and specialists of the Ministry of Education. Findings show that the educational decision–making system has many imperfections with structural factors being the most important and implementation factors the least of them. Furthermore, the study samples emphasize decentralization of educational decision–making system.


The contributions included in this volume reflect both the challenges and opportunities of an incipient process of reflection and dialogue between indigenous peoples, governments and development agencies on a subject of vital importance for the approximately 40 million indigenous people of the hemisphere. In addition to the critical issues of poverty reduction, self-development, indigenous rights and secured access to land and natural resources, a common thread throughout this volume is the close interrelationship between sound and sustainable socioeconomic development and the preservation and strengthening of cultural identity. This volume contains the English translation of a selection of essays and presentations made during the International Seminar on Indigenous Development: Poverty, Democracy and Sustainability, organized on the occasion of the First General Assembly of the Fund for the Development of the Indigenous Peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean (Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia, May 22 and 23, 1995).


In this current year, Islamic commercial banking industries have grown rapidly. They are involved in a tight competition. The competition is not only happened between Islamic commercial banking companies but also with conventional banking companies. The reasons of customers to do a transaction with Islamic commercial banking companies are needed to be understood by either practitioners or scholars. The research aim is to investigate the variables which affect consumer's behavior in terms of doing transactions in Islamic commercial banking companies in Malang. Theory of planned behavior is used in this research as a basic frame work for analyzing those variables. The population of this research is all of Islamic commercial banking companies which are located in Malang. Sample is collected by using probability sampling method. In terms of answering the research question, multiple regressions are used. F-test and t-test are used in order to test the hypotheses. The result of this research shows that the three independent variables (attitude towards behaviour, subjective norms, and perceived control behaviour) has a significant influence either as partial or simultaneous goes together with the variable of the consumer's behavior in terms of doing transactions in Islamic commercial banking companies in Malang. The most significant variable from the three independent variables is attitude towards behaviour (68,1%). Keywords: transaction, Theory of Planned Behavior, Islamic banking


This year, some 2400 young Australians entered our medical schools, and in the coming years their numbers will increase further. The Prime Minister recently announced yet another new medical school and continues to top up medical school places. With these developments one thing is obvious — policy announcement is easy, but policy implementation is not. Already, there is talk that the existing health system might find it difficult to meet the educational needs of increased numbers of students. Already, medical students are voicing concern about the effect of increased student numbers on the quality of their education in the clinical years, especially the high student-to-teacher ratios and projected bottlenecks in future vocational training. And this pressurecooker environment can only worsen. In short, we are heading to a crisis in medical education. There is talk in academic circles of "new ways" — sharing teaching hospitals among medical schools, simulation centres, increased involvement of private hospitals, specialist and general practices, and community health services in teaching. But the realisation of these new ways requires time, as does the development of skilled clinical teachers. Undoubtedly, the issue is complex. Crucial to effective medical education is the capacity of an already stretched public hospital system to sustain both service delivery and quality clinical training. It's time for the federal and state governments to take stock and ensure that medical education and training are not jeopardised by overburdened, under-resourced and suboptimal clinical environments. Funding for capacity building is necessary, but undoubtedly will fall victim to the federal–state political game of who pays. No matter that both are responsible for the health rights of all Australians. The last thing we want is a future generation of medical students disillusioned through questionable quality of clinical exposure and experience.


The Swedish Union of Tenants is known today as perhaps the strongest tenants' organisation in the world, with an established institutional role in the rent-setting system and a mandate to collectively bargain rents. What is relatively unknown, however, is that this system emerged out of a period of widespread rent struggle during the mid-war period. This was especially noteworthy in the city of Gothenburg. During the 19th Century, Gothenburg had become an important industrial centre and its population multiplied tenfold. Together with other groups, such as clerks and small shop owners, the workers formed a distinct popular class culture with organisational expressions and collective mobilisation that changed the social and political order of the city forever. One of these expressions was the tenants' unions, seen as a sort of trade unions for the rented home. Tenants' unions advocated protective legislation for tenants and confronted landlords, both with legal means and with militant methods such as rent strikes and blockades. This militancy reached its highest levels from 1932 to 1937. The collective mobilisation and organisation of the tenants altered the power relations between landlords and tenants, which can be seen both in the concessions made by landlords in numerous conflicts and in the fact that the landlords altered their organisations to defend themselves against the tenant offensive. By the time of the rent control act of 1942, centralised collective bargaining had been largely implemented and the collective organisations had become established and recognised interest organisations. The historical relationship between organised labour and tenants, and the effect of tenant organising on the rental market, are still under-researched subjects. This article is intended to both explore the historic rise of the tenants' movement and to show the very real historical conflict between independent grassroot organisations and political parties in housing and labour history.


In 2005, the State of Oklahoma (State) brought a suit against Tyson Foods, Inc. for the improper disposal of poultry waste in the Illinois River Watershed (IRW). Approximately four years later, the Cherokee Nation (Nation) asserted its interests in the IRW and its right to intervene under Rule 24 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. The district court found that the Nation had delayed too long and denied the motion as untimely. On appeal, this decision was upheld based on the fact that the Nation could never have reasonably believed that it was being adequately represented by the State. This Comment argues that the Nation's belief that it was adequately represented was in fact reasonable.


This paper uses innovation and diffusion theory and the technology acceptance model as its theoretical basis. The paper proposes a new theoretical model that emphasises on Small to Medium Enterprises' adopting Business to Business electronic commerce by identifying the individual factors, including perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, innovativeness, attitude, and behaviour as the factors affecting owners/managers decision to the adoption. Because of individuals' uniqueness and the nature of B2B techniques, differences in education, organisational culture, past experience with technology, and the pressures from important business partners and suppliers are identified as possible moderators for the effects of individual factors.


Realtime novel view synthesis, which generates a novel view of a real object or scene in realtime, enjoys a wide range of applications including augmented reality, telepresence, and immersive telecommunication. Image-based rendering (IBR) with rough geometry can be done using only an off-the-shelf camera and thus can be used by many users. However, IBR from images in the wild (e.g., lighting condition changes or the scene contains objects with specular surfaces) has been a tough problem due to color discontinuity; IBR with rough geometry picks up appropriate images for a given viewpoint, but the image used for a rendering unit (a face or pixel) switches when the viewpoint moves, which may cause noticeable changes in color. We use the eigen-texture technique, which represents images for a certain face using a point in the eigenspace. We propose to regress a new point in this space, which moves smoothly, given a viewpoint so that we can generate an image whose color smoothly changes according to the point. Our regressor is based on a neural network with a single hidden layer and hyperbolic tangent nonlinearity. We demonstrate the advantages of our IBR approach using our own datasets as well as publicly available datasets for comparison.


Case series suggest that human T‐cell leukaemia virus type 1 (HTLV‐1) is associated with kidney disease; however, little is known about the impact of proviral load (PVL). The present study was commenced to determine whether higher HTLV‐1 PVL is associated with end stage kidney disease (ESKD) in Indigenous Australians. A case‐control study was conducted in Alice Springs Hospital (ASH), 1 July 2007 to 30 November 2015. Cases included all 80 Indigenous adults (>17 years) with HTLV‐1c and ESKD, matched 1:1 by sex to controls with HTLV‐1 who had no renal disease or other recognised disease associations of HTLV‐1, and were recruited during the same period. The association between PVL and ESKD was assessed using logistic regression. Median (IQR) HTLV‐1c PVL for subjects with ESKD (6.86, IQR (3.35, 8.23) log copies per 105 peripheral blood leukocytes (PBL) (ie, 0.95; IQR, 0.03; 3.70% PBL) was significantly higher than that of the asymptomatic group (3.47; IQR (−0.04, 6.61) log copies per 10 5 PBL (ie, 0.01; IQR, 0.00; 0.52% PBL) (asymptomatic vs ESKD, P (ranksum) < .001). Major factors associated with ESKD were diabetes (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 21.80; 95% CI, 4.84, 98.22; P < .001), hypertension (aOR, 4.16; 1.11, 15.64; P = .03), remote residence (aOR, 5.34; 95% CI, 1.17, 27.29; P = .03) and HTLV‐1c PVL greater than or equal to 100 copies per 10 5 PBL (aOR, 3.67; 95% CI, 1.36, 9.92; P = .01). Higher HTLV‐1c PVL are strongly associated with inflammatory diseases. The high HTLV‐1c PVL reported here may have clinical implications for people with HTLV‐1 who require haemodialysis. Longitudinal studies are required to determine whether this association is causal.


To reduce the human efforts in neural network design, Neural Architecture Search (NAS) has been applied with remarkable success to various high-level vision tasks such as classification and semantic segmentation. The underlying idea for the NAS algorithm is straightforward, namely, to enable the network the ability to choose among a set of operations (e.g., convolution with different filter sizes), one is able to find an optimal architecture that is better adapted to the problem at hand. However, so far the success of NAS has not been enjoyed by low-level geometric vision tasks such as stereo matching. This is partly due to the fact that state-of-the-art deep stereo matching networks, designed by humans, are already sheer in size. Directly applying the NAS to such massive structures is computationally prohibitive based on the currently available mainstream computing resources. In this paper, we propose the first end-to-end hierarchical NAS framework for deep stereo matching by incorporating task-specific human knowledge into the neural architecture search framework. Specifically, following the gold standard pipeline for deep stereo matching (i.e., feature extraction -- feature volume construction and dense matching), we optimize the architectures of the entire pipeline jointly. Extensive experiments show that our searched network outperforms all state-of-the-art deep stereo matching architectures and is ranked at the top 1 accuracy on KITTI stereo 2012, 2015 and Middlebury benchmarks, as well as the top 1 on SceneFlow dataset with a substantial improvement on the size of the network and the speed of inference. The code is available at this https URL.


The effect of extending the conjugation length, the deployment of various substituents and configurational locking of the polyene backbone on the second-order nonlinear optical (NLO) response of a series of indoline based compounds has been investigated. The compounds were examined using Hyper-Rayleigh scattering (HRS) and relative second-harmonic generation (SHG) techniques with a femtosecond operating system with a 1300 nm fundamental wavelength. All of the compounds were found to have high molecular hyperpolarizabilities with β values of up to 1230 × 10-30 esu. At the macroscopic level-for poled polymer thin films-a strong second-order NLO signal has been detected and d33 values of up to 217 pm/V are found-a response of some ten times greater than that found for the well known azo dye Disperse Red 1.


This selection of essays comes from Africa South, a remarkable magazine which, for five years in the early days of South Africa's apartheid, presented a principled but non-partisan opposition to the National Party government's policies and practices. Africa South was unique in coupling its reportage of South Africa with attention to the rest of Africa, at a time when many colonies were attaining independence from colonial rule. The essays speak to contemporary readers interested in issues beyond nationalism (transnationalism and globalization), and to those interested in the historical trade and other networks which crossed both the Atlantic and the Indian oceans, holding Africa at their center. The essays' strongest common focus is on people. As individuals and in groups, people's lives are central to all analyses of political, economic, and legal developments. Ronald Segal, the prescient founder-editor of Africa South, attracted as his contributors men and women who could write with clarity and potent, youthful intensity. Most of these writers would, later in their careers, become famous in their own right. Some of the contributors in this collection include: Basil Davidson, Cyprian Ekwensi, Ruth First, Lionel Forman, Helen Joseph, Nelson Mandela, Z.K. Matthews, Fatima Meer, Phyllis Ntantala, Alan Paton, and Walter Sisulu.