The purpose of this paper is to analyze some effects of export and food crop strategies on farm income and food self-sufficiency at the household level in the Eastern and upper Casamance regions of Senegal. The objectives of the government of Senegal include food self-sufficiency and export crop expansion through crop diversification. Over the last twenty years, extension programs have emphasized the introduction of cotton and maize. Although maize seems to have found its way easily in the existing farming system, the performance of cotton is less clear. After an initial rapid expansion, cotton acreage and production started to decline from the mid 70's. This raises questions about the lont-term suitability of cotton and emphasizes the need for additional research into what happens when new crops are introduced into the farming system, with possible implications for policy-making. Crop diversification as a strategy of development is dictated by the necessity to diversify national export earnings and reduce risk and uncertainty at the farm level. However, a policy which might appear sound at the macro level may be seen in a different light by the small farmer. There are two major questions about cash crops. First, are the returns in good years sufficient to offset the losses in bad years? Second even in good years, are the returns to cash crops high enough to enable the farmer to meet the food needs of his family? A personal observation is that the Senegalese small farmer asks himself these types of questions, particularly the second one. Whatever may be the tenor of the official crop diversification policy, priority is likely to be given to the food crops in his farming system. A central hypothesis of development theory is that farmers respond to prices and that farmers maximize income subject to certain constraints such as meeting family food needs. Therefore a policy of diversification which does not take into account farm level constraints, such as minimum food production, has little chance of success. In an agriculturally based economy, the macro and micro issues are so interrelated that it would be unwise to look at them separately. This paper undertakes a preliminary analysis of a particular crop diversification strategy - introduction of cotton - taking into account farm level constraints which might influence farmers' decision-making.


ABSTRACT The retroviral restriction factor TRIMCyp, derived from the TRIM5 gene, blocks replication at a postentry step. TRIMCyp has so far been found in four species of Asian macaques, Macaca fascicularis, M. mulatta, M. nemestrina, and M. leonina. M. fascicularis is commonly used as a model for AIDS research, but TRIMCyp has not been analyzed in detail in this species. We analyzed the prevalence of TRIMCyp in samples from Indonesia, Indochina, the Philippines, and Mauritius. We found that TRIMCyp is present at a higher frequency in Indonesian than in Indochinese M. fascicularis macaques and is also present in samples from the Philippines. TRIMCyp is absent in Mauritian M. fascicularis macaques. We then analyzed the restriction specificity of TRIMCyp derived from three animals of Indonesian origin. One allele, like the prototypic TRIMCyp alleles described for M. mulatta and M. nemestrina, restricts human immunodeficiency virus type 2 (HIV-2) and feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) but not HIV-1. The others restrict HIV-1 and FIV but not HIV-2. Mutagenesis studies confirmed that polymorphisms at amino acid residues 369 and 446 in TRIMCyp (or residues 66 and 143 in the cyclophilin A [CypA] domain) confer restriction specificity. Additionally, we identified a polymorphism in the coiled-coil domain that appears to affect TRIMCyp expression or stability. Taken together, these data show that M. fascicularis has the most diverse array of TRIM5 restriction factors described for any primate species to date. These findings are relevant to our understanding of the evolution of retroviral restriction factors and the use of M. fascicularis models in AIDS research.


This paper reports the results of a scoping study which reviewed research about child abuse, child protection and disabled children published in academic journals between 1996 – 2009. The review was conducted using a five stage method for scoping studies. Several studies have revealed a strong association between disability and child maltreatment, indicating that disabled children are significantly more likely to experience abuse than their non-disabled peers. Those with particular impairments are at increased risk. There is evidence that the interaction of age, gender and/or socio-cultural factors with impairment results in different patterns of abuse to those found among non-disabled children although the reasons for this require further examination. It appears that therapeutic services and criminal justice systems often fail to take account of disabled children's needs and heightened vulnerability. In Britain, little is known about what happens to disabled children who have been abused and how well safeguarding services address their needs. Very few studies have sought disabled children's own accounts of abuse or safeguarding. Considerable development is required, at both policy and practice level, to ensure that disabled children's right to protection is upheld. The paper concludes by identifying a number of aspects of the topic requiring further investigation.


Whether the human brain is equipped with a special neural substrate for numbers, or rather with a common neural substrate for processing of several types of magnitudes, has been the topic of a long-standing debate. The present study addressed this question by using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and event-related potentials (ERPs) together with the size-congruity paradigm, a Stroop-like task in which numerical values and physical sizes were varied independently. In the fMRI experiment, a region-of-interest analysis of the primary motor cortex revealed interference effects in the hemisphere ipsilateral to the response hand, indicating that the stimulus-stimulus conflict between numerical and physical magnitude is not completely resolved until response initiation. This result supports the assumption of distinct comparison mechanisms for physical size and numerical value. In the ERP experiment, the cognitive load was manipulated in order to probe the degree to which information processing is shared across cognitive systems. As in the fMRI experiment, we found that the stimulus-stimulus conflict between numerical and physical magnitude is not completely resolved until response initiation. However, such late interaction was found only in the low cognitive load condition. In contrast, in the high load condition, physical and numerical dimensions interacted only at the comparison stage. We concluded that the processing of magnitude can be subserved by shared or distinct neural substrates, depending on task requirements.


Poverty and inequality are often estimated from grouped data as complete household surveys are neither always available to researchers nor easy to analyze. In this study we assess the performance of functional forms proposed by Kakwani (1980a) and Villasenor and Arnold (1989) to estimate the Lorenz curve from grouped data. The methods are implemented using the computational tools POVCAL and SimSIP, developed and distributed by the World Bank. To identify biases associated with these methods, we use unit data from several household surveys and theoretical distributions. We find that poverty and inequality are better estimated when the true distribution is unimodal than multimodal. For unimodal distributions, biases associated with poverty measures are rarely larger than one percentage point. For data from multi-peaked or heavily skewed distributions, the biases are likely to be higher and of unknown sign.


Some recent studies have been investigating the existence of market power in the European banking system, in general, and the Spanish banking industry, in particular. Although results are mixed, the evidence suggests some commercial banks and savings banks benefit from monopoly rents. Some other studies [Berger and Hannan, Review of Economics and Statistics LXXX (1998) 454-465] have also found strong evidence that banks in more concentrated markets exhibit lower cost efficiency levels. Our study merges these two groups of findings by exploring how cost efficiency measures for Spanish banks are related to market power using more flexible techniques, which are more consistent with those employed to measure efficiency in the first stage of the analysis. Results show that the relationship varies according to the level of market power, the component of efficiency evaluated (cost, technical or allocative) and the type of banking firm (commercial bank or savings bank), suggesting that the "quiet life" might be a reality only for some banks.


Objective:Substantial country-level variation exists in prejudiced attitudes towards male homosexuality and in the extent to which countries promote the unequal treatment of MSM through discriminatory laws. The impact and underlying mechanisms of country-level stigma on odds of diagnosed HIV, sexual opportunities, and experience of HIV-prevention services, needs and behaviours have rarely been examined, however. Design:Data come from the European MSM Internet Survey (EMIS), which was administered between June and August 2010 across 38 European countries (N = 174 209). Methods:Country-level stigma was assessed using a combination of national laws and policies affecting sexual minorities and a measure of attitudes held by the citizens of each country. We also assessed concealment, HIV status, number of past 12-month male sex partners, and eight HIV-preventive services, knowledge, and behavioural outcomes. Results:MSM living in countries with higher levels of stigma had reduced odds of diagnosed HIV and fewer partners but higher odds of sexual risk behaviour, unmet prevention needs, not using testing services, and not discussing their sexuality in testing services. Sexual orientation concealment mediated associations between country-level stigma and these outcomes. Conclusion:Country-level stigma may have historically limited HIV transmission opportunities among MSM, but by restricting MSM's public visibility, it also reduces MSM's ability to access HIV-preventive services, knowledge and precautionary behaviours. These findings suggest that MSM in European countries with high levels of stigma are vulnerable to HIV infection. Although they have less opportunity to identify and contact other MSM, this might change with emerging technologies.


In this paper, we propose a novel key recovery attack against secure ECDSA signature generation employing regular table-based scalar multiplication. Our attack exploits novel leakage, denoted by collision information, which can be constructed by iteratively determining whether two entries loaded from the table are the same or not through side-channel collision analysis. Without knowing the actual value of the table entries, an adversary can recover the private key of ECDSA by finding the condition for which several nonces are linearly dependent by exploiting only the collision information. We show that this condition can be satisfied practically with a reasonable number of digital signatures and corresponding traces. Furthermore, we also show that all entries in the pre-computation table can be recovered using the recovered private key and a sufficient number of digital signatures based on the collision information. As case studies, we find that fixed-base comb and T_SM scalar multiplication are vulnerable to our attack. Finally, we verify that our attack is a real threat by conducting an experiment with power consumption traces acquired during T_SM scalar multiplication operations on an ARM Cortex-M based microcontroller. We also provide the details for validation process.


We propose an automatic method to infer high dynamic range illumination from a single, limited field-of-view, low dynamic range photograph of an indoor scene. In contrast to previous work that relies on specialized image capture, user input, and/or simple scene models, we train an end-to-end deep neural network that directly regresses a limited field-of-view photo to HDR illumination, without strong assumptions on scene geometry, material properties, or lighting. We show that this can be accomplished in a three step process: 1) we train a robust lighting classifier to automatically annotate the location of light sources in a large dataset of LDR environment maps, 2) we use these annotations to train a deep neural network that predicts the location of lights in a scene from a single limited field-of-view photo, and 3) we fine-tune this network using a small dataset of HDR environment maps to predict light intensities. This allows us to automatically recover high-quality HDR illumination estimates that significantly outperform previous state-of-the-art methods. Consequently, using our illumination estimates for applications like 3D object insertion, produces photo-realistic results that we validate via a perceptual user study.


As libraries and librarians move more towards evidence-based decision making, the data being generated in libraries is growing. Understanding the basics of statistical analysis is crucial for evidence-based practice (EBP), in order to correctly design and analyze research as well as to evaluate the research of others. This article covers the fundamentals of descriptive and inferential statistics, from hypothesis construction to sampling to common statistical techniques including chi-square, correlation, and analysis of variance (ANOVA).


IoT systems consist of Hardware/Software systems (e.g., sensors) that are embedded in a physical world, networked and that interact with complex software platforms. The validation of such systems is a challenge and currently mostly done by prototypes. This paper presents the virtual environment for simulation, emulation and validation of an IoT platform and its semantic model in real life scenarios. It is based on a decentralized, bottom up approach that offers interoperability of IoT devices and the value-added services they want to use across different domains. The framework is demonstrated by a comprehensive case study. The example consists of the complete IoT "Smart Energy" use case with focus on data privacy by homomorphic encryption. The performance of the network is compared while using partially homomorphic encryption, fully homomorphic encryption and no encryption at all.As a major result, we found that our framework is capable of simulating big IoT networks and the overhead introduced by homomorphic encryption is feasible for VICINITY.


A well-managed organization sees employees as the source of quality and productivity. This study examines the perception of work motivation in relation to job satisfaction and organizational commitment of library personnel in academic and research libraries in Oyo state, Nigeria. Two hundred library personnel (41% female, 59% male) were selected through a total enumeration sampling from five research and four academic libraries. A questionnaire called Work Motivation, Job Satisfaction, and Organizational Commitment Scale (WMJSCS) with the overall co-efficient of r = 0.83 cronbach alpha was adapted from Organization Commitment Questionnaire by Mooday et al. (1979), Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire by Weiss, 1967, and Motivation Behaviour Scale of Akinboye, 2001. The Executive Behaviour Battery was used for data gathering. Four research questions were developed and analyzed using multiple correlation/classification, multiple regression, and t-test statistical tools. The result indicates that both job satisfaction and commitment correlate with perception of work motivation by library workers. No significant difference exists in the perception of work motivation of professional and non-professional library personnel. Employees in academic libraries and research libraries have the same level of job satisfaction. Years of experience have no relationship with commitment.


The interest in accurate prediction of failure of sheet metals in the automotive industry has increased significantly over the last two decades. This paper aims to evaluate two failure prediction approaches implemented in the commercial Finite Element code AutoFormplus R7.04; (i) the standard Forming Limit Diagram (FLD), and (ii) the Non-linear Forming Limit Diagram. The evaluation will be testing the two approaches accuracy on predicting failure of both an AA6016 aluminium alloy and a CR440Y780T-DP dual-phase steel alloy specimen exposed to combined tension and bending. Based on the findings of this study, it is concluded that neither of the evaluated approaches is able to accurately predict failure in both cases presented.


In 2007, each of Maine's four federally recognized Indian tribes lost lawsuits limiting their ability to self-govern. The following year, Maine's state legislature passed a joint resolution declaring its support for the then newly adopted United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). Focusing on two provisions of the UNDRIP, the right to self-determination and the duty to consult, this article examines the current status of Maine tribes under the Declaration. Although this article argues for the customary international law status of the right to self-determination and the duty to consult (thereby placing legally binding obligations on States), the intent is not to conduct a thorough analysis of whether the UNDRIP, as a whole or through its individual provisions, amounts to customary international law. Instead, the primary purpose of this article is to juxtapose Maine's and the United States' support of the UNDRIP with Maine's treatment of its tribes. Given the incongruity of this treatment, coupled with the failure of the settlement acts to ensure the recognition and protection of rights afforded to the tribes under international human rights law and federal Indian law, the UNDRIP provides an opportunity to revisit the settlements with Maine's Indian tribes to ensure that the tribes' rights are respected. As the United States announced in its recent statement reversing its position on the UNDRIP, the UNDRIP "expresses [the] aspirations of the United States . . . to improve our laws and policies." The laws settling the Maine Indian land claims are examples of where improvements are needed to meet international legal obligations.


Journal publication has long been relied on as the only required communication of results, tasking journalists with bringing news of scientific discoveries to the public. Output of science papers increased 15% between 1990 and 2001, with total output over 650,000. But, fewer than 0.013—0.34% of papers gained attention from mass media, with health/medicine papers taking the lion's share of coverage. Fields outside of health/medicine had an appearance rate of only 0.001—0.005%. In light of findings that show scientific literacy declining despite growing public interest and scientific output, this study attempts to show that reliance on journal publication and subsequent coverage by the media as the sole form of communication en masse is failing to communicate science to the public.


Freezing refers to a loss of word order freedom found across typologically very different languages. It occurs when argument identifying mechanisms such as agreement and case do not sufficiently distinguish verbal arguments. Word order can in such situations be said to be exceptionally used to unambiguously distinguish the arguments. In the optimality-theoretic literature it has been shown that a bidirectional grammar can elegantly capture this word order freezing. Bidirectional optimality-theoretic grammar, however, does not typically deal well with ambiguity and optionality. This leads to problems in modeling word order, where these two types of variation do appear. In this paper, I will show that by adopting a notion of grammaticality in Optimality Theory we shall call stratified strong bidirectionality and by looking more seriously at the role of the context and argument markedness in comprehension, we can successfully model both word order freezing and word order freedom in bidirectional Optimality Theory.


This dissertation contains three independent essays; each essay can be read in isolation. The first essay investigates the causal effect of criminal convictions on various labor market outcomes in young adults. The estimation method used is a nonparametric bounding approach intended to partially identify the causal effect. The data used for this essay comes from the 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of the Youth. The second essay reevaluates the causal effect of post-secondary schooling on unemployment incidence using historical data from the 1980 U.S. Census and information on cohort level Vietnam War conscription risk. Conscription risk is used as an instrument for endogenous post-secondary schooling in a specification that accounts for the discrete nature of the treatment and outcome of interest. The third essay investigates the underlying necessary assumptions needed for the monotone instrumental variable (MIV) assumption to have identifying power on both the upper and lower bounds of a treatment effect when the treatment of interest is binary. I show that if the treatment is monotonic in the instrument, as is routinely assumed in the literature on instrumental variables, then for the MIV to have identifying power on both the lower and upper bounds of the treatment effect, the conditional-on-received-treatment outcomes cannot exhibit the same monotonicity assumed by the MIV. Results are highlighted with an application investigating the effect of criminal convictions on job match quality using data from the 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of the Youth.


We review the importance of the physical mechanisms involved in river meandering by comparing some existing linear models and extensions thereof. Such models are hierarchically derived from a common and general mathematical framework and then analyzed with a detailed discussion of the physical processes and relevant hypotheses that are involved. Experiments and field data are also used to discuss the related morphodynamic processes. The analysis of the models shows the importance of the closure of secondary currents especially in the modeling of eddy viscosity. This aspect confirms the usefulness of using simplified models for some practical applications, provided the secondary currents are modeled in detail. On the other hand, the free response of the sediments, the phase lag of secondary currents, and the momentum redistribution due to the coupling between the main and the transverse flow are shown to be less relevant. Hence the second‐order models, which neglect the effect of superelevation induced by the topography‐driven lateral flow on the longitudinal flow, can reasonably be considered a good approximation for both predictive analysis and the computation of the resonant conditions. Finally, the analysis of higher harmonics suggests that the multilobed pattern can intrinsically be present in both second‐ and fourth‐order models.


BACKGROUND & AIMS
Extended liver resection leads to hepatic failure because of a small remnant liver volume. Excessive parenchymal damage has been proposed as the principal cause of this failure, but little is known about the contribution of a primary deficiency in liver regeneration. We developed a mouse model to assess the regenerative capacity of a critically small liver remnant.

METHODS
Extended (86%) hepatectomy (eHx) was modified to minimize collateral damage; effects were compared with those of standard (68%) partial hepatectomy (pHx) in mice. Markers of liver integrity and survival were evaluated after resection. Liver regeneration was assessed by weight gain, proliferative activity (analyses of Ki67, proliferating cell nuclear antigen, phosphorylated histone 3, mitosis, and ploidy), and regeneration-associated molecules. Knockout mice were used to study the role of p21.

RESULTS
Compared with pHx, survival of mice was reduced after eHx, and associated with cholestasis and impaired liver function. However, no significant differences in hepatocyte death, sinusoidal injury, oxidative stress, or energy depletion were observed between mice after eHx or pHx. No defect in the initiation of hepatocyte proliferation was apparent. However, restoration of liver mass was delayed after eHx and associated with inadequate induction of Foxm1b and a p21-dependent delay in cell-cycle progression. In p21(-/-) mice, the cell cycle was restored, the gain in liver weight was accelerated, and survival improved after eHx.

CONCLUSIONS
Significant parenchymal injury is not required for liver failure to develop after extended hepatectomy. Rather, liver dysfunction after eHx results from a transient, p21-dependent block before hepatocyte division. Therefore, a deficiency in cell-cycle progression causes liver failure after extended hepatectomy and can be overcome by inhibition of p21.


To facilitate the monitoring and management of modern transportation systems, monocular visual traffic surveillance systems have been widely adopted for speed measurement, accident detection, and accident prediction. Thanks to the recent innovations in computer vision and deep learning research, the performance of visual traffic surveillance systems has been significantly improved. However, despite this success, there is a lack of survey papers that systematically review these new methods. Therefore, we conduct a systematic review of relevant studies to fill this gap and provide guidance to future studies. This paper is structured along the visual information processing pipeline that includes object detection, object tracking, and camera calibration. Moreover, we also include important applications of visual traffic surveillance systems, such as speed measurement, behavior learning, accident detection and prediction. Finally, future research directions of visual traffic surveillance systems are outlined.


The purpose of this project is the creation of a Business Plan for a security company. The project is divided into 6 chapters that conforms a solid study containing the most important points in the creation of a new company. In order to achieve these objectives each chapter has its own subject. The first chapter constrains the business activity sector, its profile and the services offered by the company. The second chapter presents a selection of products in order to accomplish the different activities carried out by the company and the pricing of the products offered by the company in relationship with the market are analyzed in this chapter. In chapter three, is studied the economical position of the market sector based on the results obtained from the considered, competitor companies. The fourth chapter describes the characteristics of the company such as the targets, the structure, the employee's profiles and other characteristics. The fifth chapter exposes the economical and financial plan for the first three years of business activity and analyzes the possible figures. Finally, in chapter six the conclusions, the future work and the environmental impacts are presented.


New research is demonstrating that thyroid hormone transport across cellular membranes plays an important role in intracellular triiodothyronine (T3) levels of peripheral and pituitary tissues and is proving to have considerable clinical significance. Reduced T4 and T3 transport into the cells in peripheral tissues is seen with a wide range of common conditions, including insulin resistance, diabetes, depression, bipolar disorder, hyperlipidemia, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, neurodegenerative diseases, migraines, stress, anxiety, chronic dieting and aging, while the intracellular T3 level in the pituitary often remains unaffected. The pituitary has different transporters than every other tissue in the body. The thyroid transporters in the body are very energy dependent and are affected by numerous conditions, including low energy states, toxins and mitochondrial dysfunction, while the pituitary remains unaffected. Because the pituitary remains largely unaffected and is able to maintain intracellular T3 levels while the rest of the body suffers from significantly reduced intracellular T3 levels, there is no elevation in thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) despite the presence of wide-spread tissue hypothyroidism, making the TSH and other standard blood tests a poor marker to determine the presence or absence of hypothyroidism. Because the T4 transporter is more energy dependent than the transporter for T3, it is also not surprising that T4 preparations are generally ineffective in the presence of such conditions, while T3 replacement is shown to be beneficial. Thus, if a patient with a normal TSH presents with signs or symptoms consistent with hypothyroidism, which may include low basal body temperature, fatigue, weight gain, depression, cold extremities, muscle aches, headaches, decreased libido, weakness, cold intolerance, water retention, slow reflex relaxation phase or PMS, a combination of both clinical and laboratory assessment, which may include a T3/reverse T3 ratio and the level of sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG), should be used to determine the likely overall thyroid status and if a therapeutic trail of straight T3 or a T4/T3 combination is indicated and not based solely on standard thyroid function tests.


In the month of May, the Netherlands moved out of the "intelligent lockdown", and into the "1.5 meter society", which aims to mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic by means of safe-distance measures. This paper assesses how Dutch citizens have complied with these social distancing measures. It analyses data from two surveys conducted in May (between 8-14 and between 22-26) among nationally representative samples (N = 984 and N = 1021). We find that a combination of factors explains social distancing compliance. On the one hand we see that people are more likely to comply if they have an intrinsic motivation to do so, when they have the capacity to comply, when they have good impulse control, when they think compliance is normal, and when they see a general duty to obey rules generally. The paper also assesses how compliance has changed over time, assessing changes in May as well as how these are different from compliance with lockdown measures in April. During this period, there has been a gradual decline in compliance that coincides with a decline in intrinsic motivations and capacity for compliance, and there has been an increase in opportunities to violate the measures. The paper assesses what these changes may mean for current and future success of COVID-19 mitigation measures.


Advances in Organic Synthesis is a book series devoted to the latest advances in synthetic approaches towards challenging structures. The series presents comprehensive reviews written by eminent authorities on different synthetic approaches to selected target molecules and new methods developed to achieve specific synthetic transformations or optimal product yields. Advances in Organic Synthesis is essential for all organic chemists in academia and the industry who wish to keep abreast of rapid and important developments in the field.

Contents of this volume include these 6 reviews:

- Multicomponent synthesis of heterocycles by microwave irradiation

- Stereoselective procedures for the synthesis of olefines

- Advanced microwave assisted organic synthesis method in organic chemistry

- Five and six-membered n-heterocycle rings from diaminomaleonitrile

- Peptidomimetics: current and future perspectives on hiv protease inhibitors

- A review on synthesis, chemistry, and medicinal properties of benzothiazines and their related scaffolds


AIM
The present study was undertaken to compare and evaluate shear bond strength of two self-etching adhesives (sixth and seventh generation) on dentin of primary and permanent teeth.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Flat dentin surface of 64 human anterior teeth (32 primary and 32 permanent) divided into four groups of 16 each. Groups A and C were treated with Contax (sixth generation), while groups B and D were treated with Clearfil S3 (seventh generation). A teflon mold was used to build the composite (Filtek Z-350) cylinders on the dentinal surface of all the specimens. Shear bond strength was tested for all the specimens with an Instron Universal Testing Machine. Data were statistically analyzed using one-way ANOVA for multiple group comparison, followed by student's unpaired 't' test for group-wise comparison.

RESULTS
There was no statistically significant difference in shear bond strength among the study groups except that primary teeth bonded with Contax exhibited significantly lesser shear bond strength than permanent teeth bonded with Clearfil S3.

CONCLUSION
This study revealed that Clearfil S3 could be of greater advantage in pediatric dentistry than Contax because of its fewer steps and better shear bond strength in dentin of both primary and permanent teeth.


An exploration of a new division of laborbetween machines and humans, in which people provide value to the economy with little or no compensation. The computerization of the economy -- and everyday life -- has transformed the division of labor between humans and machines, shifting many people into work that is hidden, poorly compensated, or accepted as part of being a "user" of digital technology. Through our clicks and swipes, logins and profiles, emails and posts, we are, more or less willingly, participating in digital activities that yield economic value to others but little or no return to us. Hamid Ekbia and Bonnie Nardi call this kind of participation -- the extraction of economic value from low-cost or free labor in computer-mediated networks -- "heteromation." In this book, they explore the social and technological processes through which economic value is extracted from digitally mediated work, the nature of the value created, and what prompts people to participate in the process. Arguing that heteromation is a new logic of capital accumulation, Ekbia and Nardi consider different kinds of heteromated labor: communicative labor, seen in user-generated content on social media; cognitive labor, including microwork and self-service; creative labor, from gaming environments to literary productions; emotional labor, often hidden within paid jobs; and organizing labor, made up of collaborative groups such as citizen scientists. Ekbia and Nardi then offer a utopian vision: heteromation refigured to bring end users more fully into the prosperity of capitalism.


Since the risk of oil spills will never diminish and they continue to be a recurring event, methods to manage them are required to be cost efficient and effective. Dispersants are one of the practical responses to oil spills at sea to break the slick into fine droplets. To reduce toxicity of dispersants in the marine environment and enhance biodegradation of the dispersed oil, biosurfactants can be used instead of chemical surfactants in the dispersant formulations. The objective of this research was to evaluate the capability of the biosurfactant rhamnolipid (JBR425) in dispersing oil slicks and ways to improve its efficiency. At 25C and salinity of 35[per thousand], JBR425 (2%) in saline applied at a dispersant-oil ratio (DOR) of 1:2, could disperse 65% of Brut crude oil into the water without settling, but the percentage drops to 12.5% after 2 min of settling. Different solvents and additives were used to increase its efficiency in terms of percentage dispersion and stabilization of the dispersed oil in water. Starch and cellulose, as natural polymeric additives, were used to increase the stability of the emulsion but they were not effective. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)


Abstract. We present the development of ANISORROPIA, the discrete adjoint of the ISORROPIA thermodynamic equilibrium model that treats the Na + -SO 4 2− - HSO 4 − -NH 4 + -NO 3 − -Cl − -H 2 O aerosol system, and we demonstrate its sensitivity analysis capabilities. ANISORROPIA calculates sensitivities of an inorganic species in aerosol or gas phase with respect to the total concentrations of each species present with less than a two-fold increase in computational time over the concentration calculations. Due to the highly nonlinear and discontinuous solution surface of ISORROPIA, evaluation of the adjoint required a new, complex-variable version of the model, which determines first-order sensitivities with machine precision and avoids cancellation errors arising from finite difference calculations. The adjoint is verified over an atmospherically relevant range of concentrations, temperature, and relative humidity. We apply ANISORROPIA to recent field campaign results from Atlanta, GA, USA, and Mexico City, Mexico, to characterize the inorganic aerosol sensitivities of these distinct urban air masses. The variability in the relationship between fine mode inorganic aerosol mass and precursor concentrations shown has important implications for air quality and climate.


gprMax is open source software that simulates electromagnetic wave propagation, using the FiniteDifference Time-Domain (FDTD)method, for the numericalmodelling of Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR). gprMax was originally developed in 1996 when numerical modelling using the FDTD method and, in general, the numerical modelling of GPR were in their infancy. Current computing resources offer the opportunity to build detailed and complex FDTD models of GPR to an extent that was not previously possible. To enable these types of simulations to bemore easily realised, and also to facilitate the addition of more advanced features, gprMax has been redeveloped and significantly modernised. The original C-based code has been completely rewritten using a combination of Python and Cython programming languages. Standard and robust file formats have been chosen for geometry and field output files. New advanced modelling features have been added including: an unsplit implementation of higher order PerfectlyMatched Layers (PMLs) using a recursive integration approach; diagonally anisotropicmaterials; dispersive media using multi-pole Debye, Drude or Lorenz expressions; soil modelling using a semiempirical formulation for dielectric properties and fractals for geometric characteristics; rough surface generation; and the ability to embed complex transducers and targets.


Andreas Bodenstein von Karlstadt's Von Abtuhung der Bilder und Das Keyn Bedtler unther den Christen seyn sollen were printed as a single tract on January 27, 1522, and headed by a single, dedicatory preface. A rhetorical analysis of both essays shows aspects of Karlstadt's legalistic hermeneutic, with its heavy reliance on the Old Testament, and a notion of "offense" rooted in material-spiritual circumstances that offend God and, consequently, Karlstadt himself. His rhetoric rests upon and sustains a premise that to be faithful is to submit oneself to Scripture, as the law of God, and to fulfill its mandates. His tract is a prophetic summons to the judgment of God's word, to measure contemporary treatment of images and begging according to God's administrative codes in the Old Testament, which are ratified in the New Testament and forever apply to the Christian Church. Karlstadt's prophetic rhetoric describes a "true Christian" differently than Luther's does.


We summarize the results of two experimental programs at the Alternating Gradient Synchrotron of BNL to measure the nuclear transparency of nuclei measured in the A(p,2p) quasielastic scattering process near 90 deg. in the pp center of mass. The incident momenta varied from 5.9 to 14.4 GeV/c, corresponding to 4.8<Q{sup 2}<12.7 (GeV/c){sup 2}. Taking into account the motion of the target proton in the nucleus, the effective incident momenta extended from 5.0 to 15.8 GeV/c. First, we describe the measurements with the newer experiment, E850, which had more complete kinematic definition of quasielastic events. E850 covered a larger range of incident momenta, and thus provided more information regarding the nature of the energy dependence of the nuclear transparency. In E850 the angular dependence of the nuclear transparency near 90 deg. and the nuclear transparency deuterons were studied. Second, we review the techniques used in an earlier experiment, E834, and show that the two experiments are consistent for the carbon data. E834 also determines the nuclear transparencies for lithium, aluminum, copper, and lead nuclei as well as for carbon. A determination of the ({pi}{sup +},{pi}{sup +}p) transparencies is also reported. We find for both E850 and E834 that the A(p,2p) nuclearmore » transparency, unlike that for A(e,e{sup '}p) nuclear transparency, is incompatible with a constant value versus energy as predicted by Glauber calculations. The A(p,2p) nuclear transparency for carbon and aluminum increases by a factor of two between 5.9 and 9.5 GeV/c incident proton momentum. At its peak the A(p,2p) nuclear transparency is {approx}80% of the constant A(e,e{sup '}p) nuclear transparency. Then the nuclear transparency falls back to a value at least as small as that at 5.9 GeV/c, and is compatible with the Glauber level again. This oscillating behavior is generally interpreted as an interplay between two components of the pN scattering amplitude; one short ranged and perturbative, and the other long ranged and strongly absorbed in the nuclear medium. A study of the A dependent nuclear transparency indicates that the effective cross section varies with incident momentum and is considerably smaller than the free pN cross section. We suggest a number of experiments for further studies of nuclear transparency effects.« less


Static characteristic extraction method Control flow-based features proposed by Ding has the ability to detect malicious code with higher accuracy than traditional Text-based methods. However, this method resolved NP-hard problem in a graph, therefore it is not feasible with the large-size and high-complexity programs. So, we propose the C500-CFG algorithm in Control flow-based features based on the idea of dynamic programming, solving Ding's NP-hard problem in O(N2) time complexity, where N is the number of basic blocks in decom-piled executable codes. Our algorithm is more efficient and more outstanding in detecting malware than Ding's algorithm: fast processing time, allowing processing large files, using less memory and extracting more feature information. Applying our algorithms with IoT data sets gives outstanding results on 2 measures: Accuracy = 99.34%, F1-Score = 99.32%.


The use of highly directional antenna radiation patterns for both the access point (AP) and the user equipment (UE) in the emerging millimeter-wave (mmWave)-based New Radio (NR) systems is inherently beneficial for unicast transmissions by providing an extension of the coverage range and eventually resulting in lower required NR AP densities. On the other hand, efficient resource utilization for serving multicast sessions demands narrower antenna directivities, which yields a trade-off between these two types of traffic that eventually affects the system deployment choices. In this work, with the tools from queuing theory and stochastic geometry, we develop an analytical framework capturing both the distance- and traffic-related aspects of the NR AP serving a mixture of multicast and unicast traffic. Our numerical results indicate that the service process of unicast sessions is severely compromised when (i) the fraction of unicast sessions is significant, (ii) the spatial session arrival intensity is high, or (iii) the service time of the multicast sessions is longer than that of the unicast sessions. To balance the multicast and unicast session drop probabilities, an explicit prioritization is required. Furthermore, for a given fraction of multicast sessions, lower antenna directivity at the NR AP characterized by a smaller NR AP inter-site distance (ISD) leads to a better performance in terms of multicast and unicast session drop probabilities. Aiming to increase the ISD, while also maintaining the drop probability at the target level, the serving of multicast sessions is possible over the unicast mechanisms, but it results in worse performance for the practical NR AP antenna configurations. However, this approach may become feasible as arrays with higher numbers of antenna elements begin to be available. Our developed mathematical framework can be employed to estimate the parameters of the NR AP when handling a mixture of multicast and unicast sessions as well as drive a lower bound on the density of the NR APs, which is needed to serve a certain mixture of multicast and unicast traffic types with their target performance requirements.


Felt seismicity induced by hydraulic fracturing is very rare, with only a handful of reported cases worldwide. Using an optimized multistation cross‐correlation template‐matching routine, 77 earthquakes were identified in Poland Township, Mahoning County, Ohio, that were closely related spatially and temporally to active hydraulic fracturing operations. We identified earthquakes as small as local magnitudes ( M L) ∼1 up to 3, potentially one of the largest earthquakes induced by hydraulic fracturing in the United States. These events all occurred from 4 to 12 March 2014, and the rate decayed once the Ohio Department of Natural Resources issued a shutdown of hydraulic fracturing at a nearby well on 10 March. Using a locally derived velocity model and double‐difference relocation, the earthquakes occurred during six stimulation stages along two horizontal well legs that were located ∼0.8  km away. Nearly 100 stimulation stages in nearby wells at greater distances from the earthquake source region did not coincide with detected seismicity. During the sequence, hypocenters migrated ∼600  m along an azimuth of 083°, defining a vertically oriented plane of seismicity close to the top of the Precambrian basement. The focal mechanism determined for the M L 3 event had a vertically oriented left‐lateral fault plane consistent with the earthquake distribution and the regional stress field. The focal mechanism, orientation, and depth of hypocenters were similar to those of the 2011 Youngstown earthquake sequence that occurred 18 km to the northwest and was correlated with wastewater injection instead of hydraulic fracturing. Considering the relatively large magnitude of the Poland Township events and the b ‐value of 0.89, it appears the hydraulic fracturing induced slip along a pre‐existing fault/fracture zone optimally oriented in the regional stress field.


Ferromagnetic Cr2Te3 nanorods were synthesized by a one-pot high-temperature organic-solution-phase method. The crystalline phases and magnetic properties can be systematically tuned by varying the molar ratio of the Cr and Te precursors. A magnetically hard phase, identified as chemically ordered Cr2Te3, is the dominating one at the precursor ratio between Cr : Te = 1 : 1.2 and 1 : 1.8. A magnetically soft phase, attributed to chemical disorder due to composition inhomogeneity and stacking faults, is present under either Cr-rich or Te-rich synthesis conditions. A large coercivity of 9.6 kOe is obtained for a Cr : Te precursor ratio of 1 : 1.8, which is attributed to the large magnetocrystalline anisotropy of ordered Cr2Te3 nanorods, and verified by density-functional theory calculations. The hard and soft phases sharing coherent interfaces co-exist in a seemingly single-crystalline nanorod, showing an unusual transition from exchange-coupled behavior at higher temperatures to two-phase behavior as the temperature is lowered.


The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act can be criticized on many substantive grounds, and for its effect on deficits. But the legislative process also revealed important shortcomings beyond its haste. Traditional tax policy metrics -- conventional revenue estimates, dynamic estimates and distributional analyses -- yield misleading results in a tax framework that loses over one trillion dollars. The result is that the legislation has even more deleterious welfare implications than these standard metrics suggest.


Daniel James Brown's robust book tells the story of the University of Washington's 1936 eight-oar crew and their epic quest for an Olympic gold medal, a team that transformed the sport and grabbed the attention of millions of Americans. The sons of loggers, shipyard workers, and farmers, the boys defeated elite rivals first from eastern and British universities and finally the German crew rowing for Adolf Hitler in the Olympic games in Berlin, 1936.


The Cerro la Mina Au (Cu-Mo) porphyry-high sulfidation prospect is located in Chiapas State, southeastern Mexico, outside of the major metallogenic provinces of Mexico. The prospect is hosted by Pleistocene alkaline volcanic rocks of the Chiapanecan volcanic arc that formed in a complex triple-junction tectonic setting. Cerro la Mina's stratigraphy comprises pyroclastic flows that were intruded by monzodiorites and diorites at 1.04 ± 0.04 Ma (U-Pb, zircon), and that were overlain by debris flows and synvolcanic trachyandesite domes. The volcanic stratigraphy of Cerro la Mina is dominated by pyroclastic flows and rare basalts that are cut by the Cerro la Mina breccia pipe, a matrix-rich granular, vertically oriented, downward-tapering, polymict lithic rock unit that is host to all of the significant alteration and mineralization. A NW-trending sinistral wrench fault, which was active throughout the history of Cerro la Mina, is responsible for dismembering the prospect after mineralization.

The magmatic hydrothermal system was composed of early porphyry-style potassic veins (quartz + K-feldspar ± biotite) and stage 1 pyrite that are preserved in clasts within the breccia pipe, suggesting that brecciation disrupted an embryonic porphyry system. Late potassic alteration occurred after the formation of the breccia pipe, as its matrix is strongly K-feldspar altered. Hydrothermal fluids then produced phyllic alteration composed of quartz, muscovite, illite, illite-smectite, and chlorite that is associated with stage 2 pyrite ± chalcopyrite ± molybdenite ± quartz veins. An unusual zoned pattern of advanced argillic-argillic alteration overprinted potassic and phyllic alteration. This zoning included a low-temperature ( 120°C) quartz + dickite ± kaolinite ± pyrophyllite ± alunite that occurs from 250 m to the present-day surface. The advanced argillic-argillic altered rocks host the most significant Au-Cu mineralization, which is associated with stage 3 marcasite, sphalerite, galena, and barite, and stage 4 arsenian pyrite ± enargite ± covellite.

The magmatic hydrothermal system at Cerro la Mina began sometime between monzodiorite emplacement (1.04 ± 0.04 Ma; zircon U-Pb) and the precipitation of porphyry stage 2 molybdenite at 780 ± 10 ka (Re-Os). 40Ar/39Ar dating of biotite (689 ± 13 ka) records the age at which the hydrothermal system cooled below the biotite closure temperature of ~300°C and provides a maximum estimate for the onset of advanced argillic-argillic alteration. Sulfur isotope results of sulfides (–2.5 to +4.9‰; mean +0.7‰; n = 20) and a sulfate (barite; +10.5‰; n = 1) suggest a magmatic source of sulfur for all four stages of mineralization. The lack of residual quartz, rare alunite, and anomalous halloysite-kaolinite alteration may be explained by the high acid-buffering capacity of alkaline volcanic host rocks, high CO2 contents of the alkaline magma, and/or potentially by a highly reduced magmatic hydrothermal fluid.

At the regional metallogenic scale, the Cerro la Mina prospect along with the nearby Santa Fe mine and Campamento deposit represent parts of a porphyry copper system—specifically, a porphyry/high-sulfidation, proximal skarn and intermediate sulfidation deposit, respectively. The characteristics of Cerro la Mina (i.e., anomalous halloysite-kaolinite alteration) broaden the window for additional discoveries to be made in the porphyry-epithermal environment.


While artificial intelligence is successful in many applications that cover specific domains, for many commonsense problems there is still a large gap with human performance. Automated sentiment analysis is a typical example: while there are techniques that reasonably aggregate sentiments from texts in specific domains, such as online reviews of a particular product category, more general models have a poor performance. We argue that sentiment analysis can be covered more broadly by extending models with commonsense knowledge acquired at scale, using human computation. We study two sentiment analysis problems. We start with document-level sentiment classification, which aims to determine whether a text as a whole expresses a positive or a negative sentiment. We hypothesize that extending classifiers to include the polarities of sentiment words in context can help them scale to broad domains. We also study fine-grained opinion extraction, which aims to pinpoint individual opinions in a text, along with their targets. We hypothesize that extraction models can benefit from broad fine-grained annotations to boost their performance on unfamiliar domains. Selecting sentiment words in context and annotating texts with opinions and targets are tasks that require commonsense knowledge shared by all the speakers of a language. We show how these can be effectively solved through human computation. We illustrate how to define small tasks that can be solved by many independent workers so that results can form a single coherent knowledge base. We also show how to recruit, train, and engage workers, then how to perform effective quality control to obtain sufficiently high-quality knowledge. We show how the resulting knowledge can be effectively integrated into models that scale to broad domains and also perform well in unfamiliar domains. We engage workers through both enjoyment and payment, by designing our tasks as games played for money. We recruit them on a paid crowdsourcing platform where we can reach out to a large pool of active workers. This is an effective recipe for acquiring sentiment knowledge in English, a language that is known by the vast majority of workers on the platform. To acquire sentiment knowledge for other languages, which have received comparatively little attention, we argue that we need to design tasks that appeal to voluntary workers outside the crowdsourcing platform, based on enjoyment alone. However, recruiting and engaging volunteers has been more of an art than a problem that can be solved systematically. We show that combining online advertisement with games, an approach that has been recently proved to work well for acquiring expert knowledge, gives an effective recipe for luring and engaging volunteers to provide good quality sentiment knowledge for texts in French. Our solutions could point the way to how to use human computation to broaden the compe-


It is a theorem of Denker and Urbanski that if T:ℂ→ℂ is a rational map of degree at least two and if ϕ:ℂ→ℝ is Holder continuous and satisfies the "thermodynamic expanding" condition P(T,ϕ) > sup(ϕ), then there exists exactly one equilibrium state μ for T and ϕ, and furthermore (ℂ,T,μ) is metrically exact. We extend these results to the case of a holomorphic random dynamical system on ℂ, using the concepts of relative pressure and relative entropy of such a system, and the variational principle of Bogenschutz. Specifically, if (T,Ω,P,θ) is a holomorphic random dynamical system on ℂ and ϕ:Ω→ ℋα(ℂ) is a Holder continuous random potential function satisfying one of several sets of technical but reasonable hypotheses, then there exists a unique equilibrium state of (X,P,ϕ) over (Ω,Ρ,θ).


This photographic exhibition revolves around the idea of ability. Physical and cognitive processes are reviewed and explored in the context of creative work. The photographs depict prototypes currently being used by people with severe functional limitations in Brighton, UK. This visual approximation to the object of study constitutes the first step of a larger collaborative research project between Ivan Garbayo and Patricia Prieto-Blanco. Ivan Garbayo is an Occupational Therapist who has been working with in this field for over a decade. By applying the principles of accessible design to visual production tools, he aims to both facilitate access as well as to foster social, economic and sensory inclusion of people with severe functional limitations. By applying visual research methods to this investigation, Patricia Prieto-Blanco aims to both reach wider audiences as well as to facilitate an interdisciplinary discussion about ability and creative expression. Audio-visual resources are valuable tools of stimulation that can be productively used to foster interaction and communication when working with people with severe functional limitations. But, what happens when the receivers become the producers? The aim of the photographic series is to both raise awareness as well as to foster an exploration of socio-cultural inclusion and embodiment.


Using photocatalysts and solar energy to split water into hydrogen is an ideal energy source, hereto, a novel hybrid multifunctional g-C3N4–CuS nanocomposite photocatalyst was synthesized for H2 evolution by integrating g-C3N4 nanosheets with hexagonal CuS nanoplates via a facile hydrothermal method at room temperature. The ultrathin large surface area g-C3N4 nanosheets were prepared by a "green" liquid exfoliation route from bulk g-C3N4 in isopropanol. Different nanostructural g-C3N4 materials were compared and the results confirmed that the g-C3N4 nanosheet had better hydrogen evolution than the bulk material under solar irradiation due to its larger surface area and higher light absorption efficiency. Furthermore, given the improved charge separation efficiency, the novel nanocomposite g-C3N4–CuS-1 demonstrated a much better hydrogen evolution rate (126.5 μmol h−1) than the pure g-C3N4 nanosheet under solar light. Its performance is also superior to that of other semiconductor modified g-C3N4 materials, making it a promising photocatalyst for future hydrogen generation application. The optical properties, crystal phase and morphology of the obtained composites were characterized systematically using various analytical methods. It was concluded that O2˙− was the dominant radical for hydrogen evolution through photoluminescence (PL) and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) analysis.


Multiple Sclerosis (MS), a neuronal demyelination disease of the central nervous system, is the most common neurological disease in young adults worldwide, with an unknown cause. It affects over 23,000 people in Australia, and despite effective immune-based treatments, clinical deterioration and disability still occur. Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV), a human herpesvirus, which infects early in life and remains dormant within immune cells, is common in the unaffected population but almost universal in MS patients. Studies have found that MS patients maintain elevated EBV-specific antibody levels, most notably against latent Epstein-Barr Nuclear Antigen-1 (EBNA-1) proteins. The aims of this research were to investigate the significance of EBV immune responses, including those targeting the novel epitope EBNA-1(398-413), previously associated with MS risk in disease-discordant identical twins, and to understand the relationship between EBV-specific serological responses and genetic risk factors in an established MS cohort (n=426) and healthy controls (n=186). This study also investigated the influence of arginine modification (citrullination) on EBNA-1(398-413)-specific antibody responses, as well as the role of EBNA-1-specific IgG subclass bias. Novel in-house assays were compared with commercial ELISAs for EBV viral capsid antigen (VCA) and EBNA-1. MS patients had significantly higher antibodies against all EBV targets. Inclusion of EBNA-1(398-413)-specific antibody levels further discriminated cases and controls in risk analysis, in addition to genetic risk factors. Citrullinated and IgG1-specific EBNA-1 antibody levels were also elevated in MS cases compared to controls, although they did not improve case-control classification in combined statistical models. EBNA-1(398-413)-specific IgG from acute patients showed different protein reactivity from whole serum, as well as differences between progressive MS serum and healthy control plasma. This project contributes to the importance of EBV in the pathogenesis of the complex disease MS, and has identified novel and statistically powerful relationships between environmental and genetic MS risk factors.


Calcite cement is the dominant control on reservoir quality in turbidite sandstones of the Upper Permian Bell Canyon Formation, Delaware Basin. These well-sorted, very fine-grained arkoses were deposited in a basin-floor setting by channel-levee systems terminating in broad lobes. Calcite cement distribution in the East Ford and Geraldine Ford fields was mapped using core, log, and thin-section data. Calcite is concentrated in tightly cemented zones that are mostly less than 1 ft (0.3 m) thick. Areas that have high percentages of calcite-cemented sandstone (20%) occur along the margins of the sandstone bodies, in overbank and lobe deposits, where sandstone pinches out into siltstone. Areas that have the lowest percentage of calcite-cemented sandstone (10%) occur where the sandstone is thickest, in the channel facies. Isotopic composition of the calcite (13C = 1.8 to 3.0 [relative to the Peedee belemnite, PDB], 18O = 4.6 to 6.3 [PDB]) is consistent with the source of calcium carbonate being from dissolution of detrital carbonate rock fragments and marine skeletal debris. Because internal sources of calcite were apparently insufficient to account for the cement volume, cement components are interpreted as having been transported into the sandstones from organic-rich basinal siltstones and limestones. Feldspars buffered acidic formation waters near where they entered the sandstone, resulting in calcite concentrated near the sandstone margins. The calcite formed near maximum burial depths of 4800 ft (1.5 km) and temperatures of 104F (40C) from marine pore waters with 18O of approximately 0 (relative to standard mean ocean water). Most of the calcite-cemented zones are interpreted as being concretions that extend no more than a few meters laterally. Production data and geophysical log correlations suggest that some cemented zones are laterally continuous at least 1000 ft (300 m) and cause vertical reservoir compartmentalization. Laterally extensive calcite layers may be associated with the base of turbidite deposits.


Parallels between corporate governance and state governance appear to be growing. This essay focuses on the suggestion that corporate governance is becoming structured much more like public government in certain ways. This shift may well be helpful for enhancing credibility and confidence in capital markets, but it also raises important questions. Will reforms enacted in the post-Enron era limit managers' discretion to innovate, take risks, and respond quickly to changing economic circumstances? How far should society go in imposing on corporations the kinds of procedures found commonly in democratic governments?


BACKGROUND: Operating room (OR) utilization generally ranges from 50% to 75%. Inefficiencies can arise from various factors, including prolonged anesthesia preparation time, defined as the period from induction of anesthesia until patients are considered ready for surgery. Our goal was to use patient-related and procedure-related factors to develop a model predicting anesthesia preparation time. METHODS: From the electronic medical records of adults who had noncardiac surgery at the Cleveland Clinic Main Campus, we developed a model that used a dozen preoperative factors to predict anesthesia preparation time. The model was based on multivariable regression with "Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator" and 10-fold cross-validation. The overall performance of the final model was measured by R2, which describes the proportion of the variance in anesthesia preparation time that is explained by the model. RESULTS: A total of 43,941 cases met inclusion and exclusion criteria. Our final model had only moderate discriminative ability. The estimated adjusted R2 for prediction model was 0.34 for the training data set and 0.27 for the testing data set. CONCLUSIONS: Using preoperative factors, we could explain only about a quarter of the variance in anesthesia preparation time—an amount that is probably of limited clinical value.


Objective: To investigate the mechanism of IL-37 in alleviating myocardial ischemia reperfusion injury by regulating inflammatory response balance.
Method: 30 Wistar male mice were randomly and equally assigned into Sham group (Sham operation), IL-37 intervention group (I/R plus IL-37 intervention, short for experimental group) and control intervention group (I/R+normal saline, short for control group), respectively. Sham operation or myocardial Ischemia Reperfusion (I/R) model were performed in Wistar male mice. Mice in experimental group received human recombined IL-37 intervention. The infarction area and cardiac function were examined. The expression of TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6 and TGF-β in serum and myocardial infarction border zone were measured. MPO activity was examined as an indicator of neutrophil recruitment.
Result: Compared with control group, I/R infarction area of mice in experimental group were significantly decreased (P<0.01), while EF and FS was increased remarkably (P<0.05). Compared with Sham group, the level of TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6 and TGF-β in serum and myocardial infarction border zone was increased both in control and experimental group (P<0.01), with significantly increased MPO activity (P<0.01). Moreover, the level of TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6 and MPO in serum and myocardial infarction border zone in experimental group was significantly lower than that in control group (P<0.01). However, the TGF-β level was higher in experimental group than that in control group (P<0.01).
Conclusions: IL-37 could decrease I/R infarction area and improve cardiac function after myocardial ischemia reperfusion injury. The protective effect of IL-37 against I/R injury might be associated with down-regulating the secretion of proinflammatory factors, inhibiting MPO expression and up-regulating the secretion of anti-inflammatory cytokines.


This paper develops a Bayesian approach to inference in a class of partially identified econometric models. Models in this class are characterized by a known mapping between a point identified reduced‐form parameter μ and the identified set for a partially identified parameter θ. The approach maps posterior inference about μ to various posterior inference statements concerning the identified set for θ, without the specification of a prior for θ. Many posterior inference statements are considered, including the posterior probability that a particular parameter value (or a set of parameter values) is in the identified set. The approach applies also to functions of θ. The paper develops general results on large sample approximations, which illustrate how the posterior probabilities over the identified set are revised by the data, and establishes conditions under which the Bayesian credible sets also are valid frequentist confidence sets. The approach is computationally attractive even in high‐dimensional models, in that the approach avoids an exhaustive search over the parameter space. The performance of the approach is illustrated via Monte Carlo experiments and an empirical application to a binary entry game involving airlines.


The absence of repeated direct measures of job skill requirements, such as a fully updated edition of the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT), creates problems for anyone interested in understanding whether, how much, and how fast the demand for cognitive skills in the workplace has grown over time. Many studies have merged cross-sectional skill scores for detailed occupations from the DOT or O*NET with time series of occupational employment shares, but this fails to capture any within-occupation changes in job requirements. This paper considers the utility of using workers' personal education as a time-varying measure of occupational skill requirements. Trends in educational composition within detailed occupations for 1990-2001 are examined using very large sample data. Shift-share analyses decompose the total change in workforce education into components attributable to changes in occupational employment shares and in education levels within occupations. Because occupations are often characterized in terms of modal education, the extent of educational heterogeneity within occupations is examined. Limitations of workers' personal education as a measure of job complexity, the need for repeated direct measures of job requirements, and implications for BLS data programs are discussed. JEL classification: J21 J23 J24 J62


This article considers why there is not more conflict between women and their doctors in obstetric decision-making. While patients in every other medical context have complete autonomy to refuse treatment against medical advice, elect high-risk courses of action, and prioritize their own interests above any other decision-making metric, childbirth is viewed anomalously because of the duty to the fetus that the state and the doctor owe at birth. Many feminist scholars have analyzed the complex resolution of these conflicts when they arise, particularly when the state threatens to intervene to override the birthing woman's autonomy. This article instead considers the far more common scenario when women and their doctors align in the face of great decision-making complexity and uncertainty. What decision-making framework normalizes this doctor-patient alignment and how does this decision-making framework complicate the actualization of autonomy for the women who do not elect this framework? This article concludes that many, if not most, of the four million women who birth in hospital settings attended by physicians align with their doctors by applying a shared decision-making framework that presumptively elects the outcome that minimizes any, even minor, risks to the fetus. While individual patients can certainly elect this approach autonomously, when understood in the context of tort law — in which the actions of "most women" and "most doctors" can become the standard of care itself — this framework is deeply concerning. This fetal-focused decision-making framework perpetuates an illusion of autonomy because doctors can apply the framework independently. This decision-making model problematically resurrects the ghost of Roe v. Wade's medical model in which doctors effectuate decision-making autonomy for women. Understood in a tort lens, while this illusion of autonomy might not seem problematic to the individual women who elect this framework, it risks imputing a distorted standard of care to all obstetric cases by creating a primacy that always prioritizes fetal risks over maternal risks, a primacy that explicitly contravenes existing tort standards. Tort law ordinarily governs "unreasonable risks," whereas this framework elevates any fetal risk to an unreasonable risk and reduces any maternal risk short of death to reasonable. It risks imputing to all women a standard requiring the complete acceptance of medical guidance.This article concludes that tort law standards should explicitly govern not just the "what" of childbirth outcomes, but the "how" of childbirth decision-making by using decision-making aids to ensure that women's autonomy is actual and not illusory. Incorporating decision-making aids in the standard of care would remedy the illusion of autonomy by ensuring that "most women's" decision-making frameworks are not presumptively applied to all women so as to distort tort law and undermine patient autonomy.


The D-{sup 3}He fusion reaction has been used to produce medical radioisotopes using the University of Wisconsin Inertial Electrostatic Confinement (IEC) Fusion Device. The high-energy 14.7 MeV proton generated from the reaction can activate materials for isotope production. The traditional IEC setup has been altered to generate medical isotopes using beam-target D-{sup 3}He fusion. Beam target D-{sup 3}He reactions in a thin-walled, water-cooled, stainless steel tube were used to create {sup 13}N, an isotope used in Positron Emission Tomography. At a maximum ion energy of 85 keV, 1.0 nCi of {sup 13}N was created as a proof of principle experiment. A scaled-up version of this concept may provide for a smaller, less expensive radioisotope generator for future commercial needs.


A theoretical analysis of the pump-induced temperature change and associated thermal phase shift occurring in a pumped doped fiber is presented. Although the primary devices targeted are all-optical switches based on doped fibers, where such effects can be detrimental, this analysis is also applicable to lasers, amplifiers, and other doped fiber devices. The effects of a single pump pulse, multiple pulses and continuous wave (CW) pumping are investigated, both in the dynamic and steady-state regimes. Simple expressions are derived for the thermal relaxation time constant of a fiber, and for its steady-state temperature rise and thermal phase shift under CW pumping. This study predicts that in all-optical fiber switches utilizing a reasonably good dopant the thermal effect due to a single short pulse is negligible in all interferometers, while the steady-state effect can be sizable in a standard fiber Mach-Zehnder but is negligible in a twin-core fiber, a two-mode fiber, and a specially designed Mach-Zehnder interferometer.


Title: Implicit leadership theories, context and leadership position. Abstract: Different prototypes of leaders exist in the organizations. These leadership prototypes are linked to organizational culture and accepted cultural norms. Persons are categorized as leaders on the basis of the per- ceived match between their behavior and the prototypic attributes of a preexisting leader category in the mind of the followers. These categories are modeled by the organizational culture and societal practices. The main goal of this study consists on finding individual differences between mili- tary and civilian environments on implicit leadership theories. It was also analyzed individual differences between people placed in leadership posi- tions (leaders) and subordinates (followers). The last goal was to verify whether implicit leadership theories are influenced by organizational cul- ture perception. Participants in the study were: a) Civilians: 1003 male adults and women (31%, leaders and 69%, followers). B) Military cadets: 488, mostly males (37%, leaders and 63%, followers). Instruments used were a list of adjectives internationally used to assess implicit leadership theories, a questionnaire to describe organizational culture (Bass & Avolio, 1992). Results confirmed individual differences between military and civil contexts, for leaders and followers. Military cadets perceived the ideal mili- tary leader as a more self oriented person, making decisions without taking consideration of followersopinions. Civilian followers considered that an effective leader had to be participative, democratic, with high consid- eration of the follower. These characteristics resulted much less important for military than for civilian population.


High medical costs of treatment of severe bronchiolitis in infants impose a severe economic burden, especially in tropical middle-income countries. There is a critical need therefore to explore the risk factors concerned. In our retrospective cohort study, we included all infants younger than two years admitted in Rionegro, Colombia, owing to bronchiolitis. We used log-binomial regression and estimate prevalence ratios. Out of a total of 417 included, 300 (72.12%) had severe bronchiolitis, with respiratory syncytial virus and current exposure to cigarette smoking being independent predictors.


As the quintessential digital archive, Facebook no longer requires an introduction; its user-base is currently estimated at one billion profiles. On the front end, it is the epitome of the postmodern living archive. Its underbelly, however, remains much less explored and theorized. What kinds of servers are required to host such large amounts of "free" information, offering up data so rapidly, across so many platforms? Taken together, these pragmatic questions inform an important theoretical intervention: these dislocated centers—existing in "enterprise zones" and arctic hideaways—not only effectively blind us to the potential environmental costs of our everyday obsession with self-archiving but also demand a serious revision of the preservation ideals that underpin the archive. This article offers up a series of provocations about data storage centers, as the archive's underbelly, with the intent of reconnecting Facebook to the bodies and machines that enable it and the ideals that inform it.


Greek prayers are requests. As such they are speech acts marked off from everyday language by performance conditions on which their effectiveness depends. Inscribed Greek prayers, left in sanctuaries, provide information about these conditions. But inscribed prayers are more than memorials of an original act of praying. When read out loud, they were meant to re-enact and re-perform the prayer to which they refer. Inscriptional and other evidence suggests that eventually inscribed prayers were even meant to be read by the gods to whom they were addressed, who were judged likely to be present in the places where these inscriptions were erected or placed. Votive reliefs are an additional source of information about Greek prayer. They provide visual evidence about the sending of prayers and about their reception by the gods, who are portrayed as attending to the speaker and in that very act, answering his or her prayer. Votive reliefs, that is, are typically representations of successful interchanges with a god, and, as such, are fitting gifts to gods for prayers answered. Like inscribed prayers, subsequent acts of viewing votive reliefs stimulate re-performance of the act of gratitude to which they refer. The gift is on such occasions re-given. A votive relief from the late fourth century B.C.E., now in the Louvre (755), provides visual evidence of these interpretations. In this relief, Hygieia is represented as resting her right hand on a disc or plaque that lies on top of a pillar. I argue that this object is a representation of a votive disc, and that Hygieia9s pose signifies acknowledgment of such a gift-offering.


Background/aims To report interocular differences in retinal nerve fibre layer (RNFL), optic nerve head and macular parameters in children using spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT). Methods This was an observational cross-sectional study including 108 healthy children aged 6–17 years with no ocular abnormality except refractive error. After a comprehensive eye exam and axial length measurement, RNFL, optic nerve and macular thickness measurements were performed using the Cirrus OCT machine. Right and left eyes were compared and interocular differences were computed. Subjects were also divided into two groups based on age (under or over 10 years of age). Main outcome measures were interocular differences and their correlations with age and gender. Results The study included 108 children, mean age 10.7±3.1 years; significant interocular differences were observed in both macular and RNFL parameters. The macular thickness analysis revealed interocular differences in the outer nasal and outer inferior quadrants, with left eyes displaying larger values. With respect to RNFL parameters, right eyes displayed thicker nasal and temporal quadrants, and inferior clock hours; left eyes had a thicker superior quadrant. The older age group (>10 years) had more pronounced variation in interocular differences compared with the younger group with less mature visual systems. Conclusions Normal variation in interocular symmetry exists. Our results can contribute to establishing a standard reference for interocular differences in OCT parameters in children aged 6–17 years using the Cirrus device.


It is still unclear why the transition temperature Tc of cuprate superconductors falls with underdoping. The doping dependence of the critical magnetic field Hc2 is directly relevant to this question, but different estimates of Hc2 are in sharp contradiction. We resolve this contradiction by tracking the characteristic field scale of superconducting fluctuations as a function of doping, via measurements of the Nernst effect in La1.8−xEu0.2SrxCuO4. Hc2 is found to fall with underdoping, with a minimum where stripe order is strong. The same non-monotonic behaviour is observed in the archetypal cuprate superconductor YBa2Cu3Oy. We conclude that competing states such as stripe order weaken superconductivity and cause both Hc2 and Tc to fall as cuprates become underdoped.


This Article explores the interplay between the 1976 Copyright Act and the moral rights doctrine. Although it was written prior to the enactment of the Visual Artists Rights Act, the limited nature of that statute does not significantly alter the analysis or position advanced herein. The Article recogizes that the content of any federal scheme adopted in this country for protecting a creator's personal rights will be influenced greatly by the 1976 Act. It examines the relationship between the 1976 Act and the moral rights doctrine, focusing on three distinct inquiries. The first section of this discussion explores the scope of protection for personal rights currently afforded by the copyright law and concludes that existing copyright law is an inadequate substitute for a cohesive moral rights doctrine. The second section examines the relevant statutory provisions, the legislative history, and judicial interpretations of the 1976 Act to determine the degree of compatibility between the copyright statute and the moral rights doctrine. This analysis demonstrates that, although the 1976 Act has a considerable amount of unrealized potential for protecting a creator's personal rights, the Act also contains some significant limitations, resuting from the recognition of interests conflicting with those of creators, that are likely to influence the scope of any moral rights doctrine adopted in this country. The last portion of this discussion examines whether section 301 of the 1976 Act, which governs preemption of other laws, precludes the adoption of the moral rights doctrine on a state level. Although section 301 does not preempt most forms of state protection for moral rights when such claims are within the framework of substitute legal theories, state statutes that attempt to provide comprehensive protetion for moral rights are vulnerable to preemption. Therefore, the most effective means of safeguarding a creator's personal rights in this country would be the incorporation into the 1976 Act of more provisions governing the special needs of creators distinct from their possible status as copyright owners. This Article concludes with a proposal for amending the 1976 Act so as to implement an American version of the moral rights doctrine that would balance all the competing interests concerned in extending protection to the personal rights of creators.


An endogenous hallucinogenic compound binds to a ligand-gated chaperone. N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) is a hallucinogen found endogenously in human brain that is commonly recognized to target the 5-hydroxytryptamine 2A receptor or the trace amine–associated receptor to exert its psychedelic effect. DMT has been recently shown to bind sigma-1 receptors, which are ligand-regulated molecular chaperones whose function includes inhibiting various voltage-sensitive ion channels. Thus, it is possible that the psychedelic action of DMT might be mediated in part through sigma-1 receptors. Here, we present a hypothetical signaling scheme that might be triggered by the binding of DMT to sigma-1 receptors.


1. The physical and behavioral characteristics and the temporal patterning of musth were studied over a ten-year period in a free-ranging population of African elephants. 2. Males spent more time in association with females during musth than during non-musth periods. 3. Males were more aggressive during their musth periods than during non-musth. 4. The occurrence and duration of musth were age-related: no male under 24 years was seen in musth; bouts of must among younger individuals were short and sporadic, while older males experienced longer more predictable periods of musth on an annual basis. 5. Although males in musth were observed year-round, the frequency of musth males was highest during and following the two rainy seasons and, in general, good rainfall years had higher frequencies of males in musth than did poor rainfall years. 6. The number of males in musth per month correlated closely with the number of females observed in estrus. However, since the period of estrus lasts only four to six days (Moss, 1983), while musth may last several months, the onset of musth was not necessarily triggered by the onset of estrus in a particular female. 7. The musth periods of different males were asynchronous and each male came into musth at a specific time of year. This period was relatively consistent from one year to the next, particularly among the older males. 8. Males in musth advertised their heightened sexual and aggressive state through visual and olfactory signals and by vocalizing. It is suggested that these signals function to announce identity, condition and location to both rival males and to potentially receptive females. 9. The physical and behavioral characteristics and temporal patterning of musth in African and Asian elephants are compared and found to be remarkably similar. 10. The physical and behavioral manifestations of musth in elephants are similar to those described for other male mammals during rut. Since estrus in female elephants is less clumped relative to most ungulates, male elephants have a different temporal pattern of rutting. Although the musth periods of male elephants are asynchronous the phenomenon can functionally be considered a rutting period.


The diffusion of correlation is used to detect, localize, and characterize dynamical and optical spatial inhomogeneities in turbid media and is accurately modeled by a correlation diffusion equation. We demonstrate experimentally and with Monte Carlo simulations that the transport of correlation can be viewed as a correlation wave {analogous to a diffuse photon-density wave [Phys. Today48, 34 (1995)]} that propagates spherically outward from sources and scatters from macroscopic spatial variations in dynamical and/or optical properties. We demonstrate the utility of inverse scattering algorithms for reconstructing images of the spatially varying dynamical properties of turbid media. The biomedical applicability of this diffuse correlation probe is illustrated in studies of the depth of burned tissues.


This project focuses on how to determine the chloride content in concrete structures exposed to marine environment in an accurate way. When analyzing dust from dry drilling in concrete, it is very often a fact that the chloride profiles show extensive variations even if the sampling has been performed within a very concentrated area with the sampling points close to each other. Several authors have observed this phenomenon in earlier research and some of these are referred to in this thesis. The aim of this project has been to find reasons to these extensive variations and to find inspection methods that decrease the variations. Both laboratory studies and field studies have been performed within the line of this work. The laboratory study has consisted of concrete sampling by dry drilling and by profile grinding 100 mm cores on a concrete slab that had been submerged in saline water in the laboratory. The chloride profiles from the cores have been used as a reference to all other samples collected on the slab. The study shows that profile grinding of cores is the most accurate method to perform sampling on concrete with the purpose of analyzing the chloride content, and that when using small bore diameters the sampling should be performed as mixed samples from several bore holes. In all cases, samples should not only be analyzed for chloride but also for binder content. The results from the dry drilling in laboratory shows that the binder content becomes over estimated in the dust samples compared to the analyzed cores on the same concrete slab. This means that the analyzed dust samples seams to contain a higher chloride content than the cores analyzed by profile grinding. This phenomenon became obvious when simulating chloride profiles using data from EPMA. Most probably the drilling follows an easy path between the large aggregate particles. One field study has been performed in the port of Trelleborg in southern Sweden and another one in the port of Malmo, also in southern Sweden within some 50 km distance but facing the open sea in different directions. The field study in Trelleborg has consisted of an inventory of existing concrete structures in the harbour and climate studies of the wind and temperature in the area followed by a more detailed inspection including sampling on selected parts of a quay. This study shows that the exposure to open sea clearly influences the chloride content in concrete structures exposed to marine environment more than the main wind direction. The field study in the port of Malmo also confirms this finding. The conclusions of this work is that when sampling concrete on structures in marine environment it is important not only to study the surrounding environmental loads such as the dominating wind direction, but also the exposure of the structure to the open sea which has shown to be of great importance in the field studies. If it is possible, the sampling should be performed by profile grinding cores. The studies in the laboratory have shown that sampling cores gives small variations in the analyzed chloride content. If dry drilling is used, the diameter of the drill bit should not be smaller than 20 mm. In all cases the analyzes should include the binder content, since it is the binder who contains chlorides. Presenting the chloride content in % by binder content has been shown to give the smallest variations in this study. (Less)


Volatile viscous fluids on partially-wetting solid substrates can exhibit interesting interfacial instabilities and pattern formation. We study the dynamics of vapor condensation and fluid evaporation governed by a one-sided model in a low Reynolds number lubrication approximation incorporating surface tension, intermolecular effects and evaporative fluxes. Parameter ranges for evaporation- dominated and condensation-dominated regimes and a critical case are identified. Interfacial instabilities driven by the competition between the disjoining pressure and evaporative effects are studied via linear stability analysis. Transient pattern formation in nearly-flat evolving films in the critical case is investigated. In the weak evaporation limit unstable modes of finite amplitude non-uniform steady states lead to rich droplet dynamics, including flattening, symmetry breaking, and droplet merging. Numerical simulations show long time behaviors leading to evaporation or condensation are sensitive to transitions between film-wise and drop-wise dynamics.


Guadeloupe, a French territory in the Caribbean, is one of France's regions most at risk from natural disasters. The archipelago faces six categories of natural risk – hurricane, flooding, earthquake, volcanic eruption, tsunami and landslides – that are features of life in all islands of the Caribbean. In 2016, Hackers Against Natural Disasters was set up with the primary aim of increasing resilience to these cyclically recurring threats. Every year since its creation HAND has participated in Caribe Wave, an annual tsunami simulation exercise held in the Caribbean region. HAND's contribution to this exercise involves developing innovative digital tools that are accessible to everybody. The goal is to be able to provide locals with effective early warning prior to disaster striking, and to restore power and communications (social media, amateur radio and smartphone apps) as quickly as possible. HAND's vision is built on the idea that everybody – men, women and children – are vital components in building a more resilient society.


This paper examines return interrelationships between numbers of equity sectors across several European markets. The markets comprise six Member States of the European Union (EU): namely, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland and Italy. The five sectors include the consumer discretionary, consumer staples, financial, industrials and materials sectors. Generalised Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity in Mean (GARCH- M) models are used to consider the impact of returns in other European markets on the returns in each market across each sector. The results indicate that there are relatively few significant interrelationships between sectors in different markets, with most of these accounted for by the larger markets in France, Germany and Italy. The evidence also suggests the consumer discretionary, financial and materials sectors are relatively more interrelated than the consumer staples and industrials sectors. This has clear implications for portfolio diversification and asset pricing in the EU.


Many methods for computing eigenvalues of a large sparse matrix involve shift-invert transformations which require the solution of a shifted linear system at each step. This thesis deals with shift-invert iterative techniques for solving eigenvalue problems where the arising linear systems are solved inexactly using a second iterative technique. This approach leads to an inner-outer type algorithm. We provide convergence results for the outer iterative eigenvalue computation as well as techniques for efficient inner solves. In particular eigenvalue computations using inexact inverse iteration, the Jacobi-Davidson method without subspace expansion and the shift-invert Arnoldi method as a subspace method are investigated in detail. A general convergence result for inexact inverse iteration for the non-Hermitian generalised eigenvalue problem is given, using only minimal assumptions. This convergence result is obtained in two different ways; on the one hand, we use an equivalence result between inexact inverse iteration applied to the generalised eigenproblem and modified Newton's method; on the other hand, a splitting method is used which generalises the idea of orthogonal decomposition. Both approaches also include an analysis for the convergence theory of a version of inexact Jacobi-Davidson method, where equivalences between Newton's method, inverse iteration and the Jacobi-Davidson method are exploited. To improve the efficiency of the inner iterative solves we introduce a new tuning strategy which can be applied to any standard preconditioner. We give a detailed analysis on this new preconditioning idea and show how the number of iterations for the inner iterative method and hence the total number of iterations can be reduced significantly by the application of this tuning strategy. The analysis of the tuned preconditioner is carried out for both Hermitian and non-Hermitian eigenproblems. We show how the preconditioner can be implemented efficiently and illustrate its performance using various numerical examples. An equivalence result between the preconditioned simplified Jacobi-Davidson method and inexact inverse iteration with the tuned preconditioner is given. Finally, we discuss the shift-invert Arnoldi method both in the standard and restarted fashion. First, existing relaxation strategies for the outer iterative solves are extended to implicitly restarted Arnoldi's method. Second, we apply the idea of tuning the preconditioner to the inner iterative solve. As for inexact inverse iteration the tuned preconditioner for inexact Arnoldi's method is shown to provide significant savings in the number of inner solves. The theory in this thesis is supported by many numerical examples.


This paper develops and implements an integrated method to assess climate vulnerabil- ity in a socio-natural system by identifying and linking the natural and socio-economic factors that increase such vulnerability. With these insights, the method assists in developing effective strategies and measures to increase the system's resilience and adaptability to the adverse impacts of climate variability and change. In order to detect and address the interactions between natural and socio- economic dynamics, the climate vulnerability of the socio-natural system, later referred to as study area, is considered based on the concept of a complex adaptive system and is characterized through its natural, economic and socio-cultural local environments. A climate vulnerability index (CVI) is defined as a function dependent on 3 sub-indices, namely: climate exposure, resilience and adapt- ability, and the related second-order variables. The method was developed to be applied in the fol- lowing steps: (1) characterization of the natural and socio-economic dynamics; (2) integrated assess- ment of socio-economic, environmental and climatic baseline and future conditions, through use of an indicator system, related sub-indices and the CVI; and (3) comparative analysis of current and future CVI values, to be used for guidance in adaptation efforts.


More than twenty years after the fall of communism, many countries in Central and Eastern Europe are still seeking truth and justice for the repression suffered under communist rule. This search has been particularly notable in the Baltic states, given the three countries' histories as both former Soviet republics and later member-states of the European Union. On the one hand, the legacy of Stalinist oppression was more severe in these countries than elsewhere in Central Europe, but on the other hand much of this past could more easily be externalized onto the former Soviet Union (and by extension Russia) following re-independence. Transitional and Retrospective Justice in the Baltic States develops a novel conceptual framework in order to understand the politics involved with transitional and retrospective justice, and then applies this outline to the Baltic states to analyze more systematic patterns of truth- and justice-seeking in the post-communist world.