This thesis deals with the supramolecular organization of chiral aminoacids and dipeptides on metal surfaces. The emergence of homochirality in biomolecular systems is one of the most intriguing open questions of Nature. The self-assembly and amplification of chiral subunits into higher-order species is crucial in understanding the development of homochirality in biological function. Apart from being related to the very first organic molecules synthesized on earth, understanding the basics of chiral recognition and discrimination is of high technological relevance. In fact, the chemistry and technology of production and separation of enantiomers has evolved into a branch of materials science under the name of Chirotechnology. Even before the concept of molecule existed, Pasteur pointed out that the asymmetry of the crystals of tartaric acid he observed was related to the asymmetry of the components of which they were made. Nowadays, we can asses the landscape of these components even at the submolecular level by means of Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM). The aim of this thesis is twofold: primary to get an insight into the fundamental aspects of chiral recognition, under the main inspiring question: How does chiral recognition take place at the single molecule level? and secondly: How can we tune the expression of chirality on a metal surface to achieve global templation? The first part of this thesis presents a comprehensive study of the basic requirements for amino acid chiral templation of metal surfaces. By comparatively studying the adsorption behaviour of L-Phenylalanine (L-Phe) and L-Tyrosine (L-Tyr) on Cu(110) we show that conformational rigidity is a key parameter for the expression of footprint homochirality on metal surfaces. This parameter can be tuned by the appropriate choice of the amino acid residue. The molecular structure of the adsorbed molecules is studied by a combination of reflection absorption infrared spectroscopy (RAIRS), STM and molecular dynamics simulations (MD). The second part of the thesis focuses on the transfer of molecular chirality to supramolecular structures of Di-Phenylalanine (Phe-Phe) on Cu(110). We have followed the chiral recognition and discrimination among individual Phe-Phe enantiomers by STM and rationalized it using first principles and classical molecular dynamics simulations. The geometrical parameters of the final supramolecular structures are studied by near edge absorption fine structure (NEXAFS). Our results show that molecules whose static structure is not optimized for specific binding can selectively recognize each other and link through mutually induced conformational changes. The general idea of induced molecular fit in biomolecular recognition was introduced by Linus Pauling more than 50 years ago. We now report direct evidence of this dynamic scenario at the single molecule level. The last part of this thesis deals with the adsorption phase diagram of Phe-Phe on Cu(110). The encountered adsorption motifs and the chemical processes involved in the phase transitions are investigated by a combination of STM, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), low energy electron diffraction (LEED) and thermal programme desorption (TPD). The resulting supramolecular assemblies expose chiral cavities that can potentially be used as enantioselective adsorption sites.


Purpose: To evaluate if jugular vein flow restoration in various venographic defects indicative of chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency (CCSVI) in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients can have positive effects on cerebral lesions identified using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Materials and Methods: The Brave Dreams trial ( ClinicalTrials.gov identifier NCT01371760) was a multicenter, randomized, parallel group, double-blind, sham-controlled trial to assess the efficacy of jugular venoplasty in MS patients with CCSVI. Between August 2012 and March 2016, 130 patients (mean age 39.9±10.6 years; 81 women) with relapsing/remitting (n=115) or secondary/progressive (n=15) MS were randomized 2:1 to venography plus angioplasty (n=86) or venography (sham; n=44). Patients and study personnel (except the interventionist) were masked to treatment assignment. MRI data acquired at 6 and 12 months after randomization were compared to the preoperative scan for new and/or >30% enlargement of T2 lesions plus new gadolinium enhancement of pre-existing lesions. The relative risks (RR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) were estimated and compared. In a post hoc assessment, venograms of patients who underwent venous angioplasty were graded as "favorable" (n=38) or "unfavorable" (n=30) for dilation according to the Giaquinta grading system by 4 investigators blinded to outcomes. These subgroups were also compared. Results: Of the 130 patients enrolled, 125 (96%) completed the 12-month MRI follow-up. Analysis showed that the likelihood of being free of new cerebral lesions at 1 year was significantly higher after venoplasty compared to the sham group (RR 1.42, 95% CI 1.00 to 2.01, p=0.032). Patients with favorable venograms had a significantly higher probability of being free of new cerebral lesions than patients with unfavorable venograms (RR 1.82, 95% CI 1.17 to 2.83, p=0.005) or patients in the sham arm (RR 1.66, 95% CI 1.16 to 2.37, p=0.005). Conclusion: Expanded analysis of the Brave Dreams data that included secondary/progressive MS patients in addition to the relapsing/remitting patients analyzed previously showed that venoplasty decreases new cerebral lesions at 1 year. Post hoc analysis confirmed the efficacy of the Giaquinta grading system in selecting patients appropriate for venoplasty who were more likely to be free from accumulation of new cerebral lesions at MRI.


This paper explores the connection between alcohol mortality, drinking behaviour and macroeconomic fluctuations in Finland by using both aggregate and micro-level data during the past few decades. The results from the aggregate data reveal that an improvement in regional economic conditions measured by the employment-to-population rate produces a decrease in alcohol mortality. However, the great slump of the early 1990s is an exception to this pattern. During that particular episode, alcohol mortality did indeed decline, as there was an unprecedented collapse in economic activity. The results from the micro-data show that an increase in the employment-to-population rate and expansion in regional GDP produces an increase in alcohol consumption while having no effect on the probability of being a drinker. All in all, the Finnish evidence presented does not overwhelmingly support the conclusions reported for the USA, according to which temporary economic slowdowns are good for health. In contrast, at least alcohol mortality seems to increase in those bad times that are not exceptional economic crises like the one experienced in the early 1990s. However, there is evidence that alcohol consumption is strongly procyclical by its nature. This suggests that alcohol consumption and mortality may be delinked in the short-run business cycle context.


The economy of consumption in Madame Bovary does not allow for desires to be fulfilled. It is a novel about emptiness, and eating badly; Emma cannot eat or experience other pleasures in a way that sustains her. This is why the act of consumption--of food and drink, which will be the focal point of this study, but also of material goods and of lovers--is so crucial to Flaubert's novel. Significantly, she understands her discontent in terms of consumption, or rather, the impossibility of it: "Un homme, au moms, est libre; il peut parcourir les passions et les pays, traverser les obstacles, mordre aux bonheurs les plus lointains. Mais une femme est empechee continuellement" (153, emphasis mine). This inability to consume as she wishes or to "mordre aux bonheurs," will be the cause of her undoing and, eventually, her death--which, of course, is a result of dangerous consumption. Analyses of Emma as consumer have been largely confined by critical discourse to her role as reader. The questions raised by le bovarysme, first identified in 1892 by Jules de Gaultier, revolve around reading and subjectivity, and define an audience which, like Emma, was unable or unwilling to clearly separate the dreamworld of the text from a less appetizing reality. As Gaultier explained it, le bovarysme is a question of "le pouvoir departi a l'homme de se concevoir autre qu'il n'est" (1o). In recent studies devoted to this theme, Marielle Mace proposes that Emma is a montage, a self-made assemblage of parts plucked from the texts she has consumed: "des imitations choisies plusieurs sources, des 'flux imitatifs' contradictoires" (8). Borrowing a phrase from Jules Valles, Colette Camelin in turn raises the question of Emma as a "victime du livre" (3). Similar matters surface in Jacques Ranciere's "La mise a mort d'Emma Bovary," as his explanation of Emma's death implicitly recalls a central problem of bovarysme: "Telle est l'erreur d'Emma, sa faute contre l'art. Nous pouvons lui donner un nom: esthetisation de la vie quotidienne" (68). Though her appetite for literature is, admittedly, an unhealthy one, these studies neglect the most obvious form of consumption--one that is perhaps even more dangerous for the heroine of the novel. For while food is ever-present in Madame Bovary, and would seem to represent bounty and plenitude, it is, for Emma, a violent point of absence. The field of gastronomic studies would seem a natural point of entry to this problematic. For example, in French Food: On the Table, on the Page, and in French Culture, literature is used as a means of better understanding social and historic shifts in French food culture. With this sort of approach, however, food is often merely a means among others of charting the emergence of gastronomy which, in the nineteenth century, as Priscilla Parkhurst Ferguson notes, was "a cultural field in the making" (5). However, the volume also contains studies by such critics as Naomi Schor and Lawrence Schehr, whose work attends much more closely to the problems posed by food in fiction--problems which, in Madame Bovary, are critically important, both to the heroine and to the author's creative process. As Schehr observes, "food is never there for the sake of food" (125). And indeed, this statement could not be more true than it is in Madame Bovary. This study will examine the extent to which the space that Flaubert accords to food can serve as a microcosm of the work itself--a model of the perfect form Flaubert famously aspired to in his art. Even the most extensive criticism touching on the alimentary motif in Madame Bovary fails to expose the utter emptiness that characterizes food in the novel. In his seminal Litterature et Sensation, Jean-Pierre Richard devotes several pages to this topic in Bovary, in a chapter he begins with the following claim, with which few would argue: "On mange beaucoup dans les romans de Flaubert" (119). But this is precisely the point: on mange beaucoup. …


We demonstrated atmospheric responses to a reduction in Arctic sea ice via simulations in which Arctic sea ice decreased stepwise from the present‐day range to an ice‐free range. In all cases, the tropospheric response exhibited a negative Arctic Oscillation (AO)‐like pattern. An intensification of the climatological planetary‐scale wave due to the present‐day sea ice reduction on the Atlantic side of the Arctic Ocean induced stratospheric polar vortex weakening and the subsequent negative AO. Conversely, strong Arctic warming due to ice‐free conditions across the entire Arctic Ocean induced a weakening of the tropospheric westerlies corresponding to a negative AO without troposphere‐stratosphere coupling, for which the planetary‐scale wave response to a surface heat source extending to the Pacific side of the Arctic Ocean was responsible. Because the resultant negative AO‐like response was accompanied by secondary circulation in the meridional plane, atmospheric heat transport into the Arctic increased, accelerating the Arctic amplification.


Purpose:The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationships between women entrepreneurs' firm performance and two dimensions (enrichment and interference) of the business-family interface (BFI) in the moderating context of the level of economic development in two emerging countries – Morocco and Turkey. The enrichment perspective was operationalized as family instrumental (financial) and affective (moral) support, while interference was operationalized as gender-related personal problems.Design/methodology/approach:The study drew upon the work-family interface (WFI) theory from the family embeddedness perspective in the context of institutional economics. In Morocco, a purposive sample of 116 women entrepreneurs completed a self-administered questionnaire using field collection, mail, and phone surveying methods. In Turkey, 147 women entrepreneurs completed the questionnaire online and through personal contacts in business organizations.FindingsThe findings indicated a positive relationship of family financial support with business performance of female entrepreneurs in Morocco, a less economically advanced country. However, family moral support is related to better firm performance in Turkey, a more advanced economy. Gender-related personal problems of women entrepreneurs appear to hamper their business performance in Turkey; while in Morocco, the performance of women entrepreneurs seems to improve in the face of such impediments.Practical implications:The results provide initial evidence that female entrepreneurs benefit from the linkages of family-to-business enrichment in different ways, depending on the country's level of economic development. In less economically developed countries, women entrepreneurs benefit more from instrumental rather than affective components of the enrichment dimension of the BFI. Conversely, in more economically advanced countries, female entrepreneurs benefit more from affective rather than the instrumental elements of this dimension. Likewise, the components of the interference dimension of the BFI affect female entrepreneurs differently depending on the economic development of the countries. Women in the less-developed country of Morocco are less impeded by their personal problems compared to their counterparts in Turkey, a more developed economy. Actually, Moroccan women entrepreneurs improved their business performance when facing obstacles, most likely due to their increased inner strength and resilience acquired when battling adversarial institutional conditions.Originality/value:The present study makes three unique contributions to the entrepreneurship literature. First, the study links the two BFI dimensions (enrichment and interference) to firm performance with an exclusive focus on female business owners. Second, within the construct of enrichment, the study employs both family instrumental and emotional support. Third, the study shows that the country's level of economic development moderates the relationships between the BFI dimensions and firm performance.


This thesis studies financial and insurance markets under various specifications of asymmetric information. The opening chapter considers project financing under adverse selection and moral hazard. There are three main contributions. First, the issue of combinations of debt and equity is explained as the outcome of the interaction between adverse selection and moral hazard. Second, it shows that, in the presence of moral hazard, adverse selection may result in the conversion of negative into positive NPV projects leading to an improvement in social welfare. Third, it provides two rationales for the use of warrants. It also shows that, under certain conditions, a debt-warrant combination can implement the optimal contract as a competitive equilibrium. Chapter 2 examines insurance markets when some clients misperceive risk. Optimism may either increase or decrease precautionary effort and we show that this determines whether optimists or realists are quantity-constrained in equilibrium. Intervention may lead to a strict Pareto improvement on the laissez-faire equilibria. These results provide a more convincing justification for the imposition of minimum coverage requirements than standard models as well as a case for the use of taxes and subsidies in insurance markets. Chapter 3 focuses on the relationship between coverage and accident rates. In contrast to the prediction of competitive models of asymmetric information that if all agents buy at least some insurance there must be positive correlation between coverage and accident probability, some recent empirical studies find either negative or zero correlation. If optimism discourages precautionary effort there exist separating equilibria that potentially explain the puzzling empirical findings. It is also shown that zero correlation between coverage and risk does not imply the absence of barriers to trade in insurance markets. We conclude with some implications for empirical testing.


Much of contextaware application research has dealt with the technical aspects of context capturing and how to interpret the context of a user. Little effort has been spent on the experience and usage of these systems. This thesis will present the general aspects of social awareness and present an example on how these concepts can be implemented into a location-based information system to help users navigate a potential information overload. This thesis also states that giving the users an experience of not being alone in the system increases the pleasure of using such a system. However this implies a decrease in privacy.

To demonstrate these ideas I will describe a locationbased information system, GeoNotes, built by a group of researchers at SICS, the Swedish Institute of Computer Science. I will state a set of interaction requirements for how to extend the GeoNotes system with functionality for social awareness. Furthermore I will set up functional requirements for those interaction requirements to after implementation be able to conclude which interaction requirements I have been able to implement for. I will also give suggestions on how to position users in a WLAN.

The deliverable from this project is a locationbased information system with functionality for social awareness. However, it was not within this project to test the system on true users. Therefore the statement that this functionality can help users to navigate a potential information overload is still just a hypothesis.

To retrieve the position of a user in a W-LAN a packet is sent to all base stations in the network. In the first returning packet the mac address of contacting base station is extracted. Each base station is therefore a unique position. Triangulation was discarded due to its sensitivity to noise and weather circumstances, although a system that uses triangulation would have offered a much higher granularity.


This work aims to present a combined version of reduced candidate mechanism (RCM) and iteration-free pulse replacement (IFPR) as a novel and efficient way to enhance the performance of algebraic codebook search in an algebraic code-excited linear-prediction speech coder. As the first step, individual pulse contribution in each track is given by RCM, and the value of N is then specified. Subsequently, the replacement of a pulse is performed through the search over the sorted top N pulses by IFPR, and those of 2–4 pulses are carried out by a standard IFPR. Implemented on a G.729A speech codec, this proposal requires as few as 20 searches, a search load tantamount to 6.25% of G.729A, 31.25% of the global pulse replacement method (iteration = 2), 41.67% of IFPR, but still provides a comparable speech quality in any case. The aim of significant search performance improvement is hence achieved in this work.


This paper presents a methodology to identify net demand shocks as well as wage rigidities in heterogeneous labor markets on the basis of nonparametric regression. We show how this approach can be used to make suggestions for immigration policy in economies with labor market rigidities. In an application to western Germany it is demonstrated that nonparametric regression is feasible in higher dimensions with only a few thousand observations. In sum, labor markets able to absorb immigrants are characterized by above average age and by professional occupations. On the other hand, labor markets for young workers in service occupations are identified to exhibit rising unemployment due to wage rigidities and are therefore not recommended for immigration.


Teach For America (TFA), a teaching not-for-profit organization that recruits and places non-certified teachers in traditionally difficult to staff schools and districts, has without doubt helped shape the growing conversation of education reform.  And while this contribution can be found in the teachers it trains and the alumni who venture into education leadership roles, it can be readily found in the realm of media, and in particular, the social media of Twitter.  This paper provides an analysis of 15,304 "tweets" that were sent by, or to TFA and its top officers as well as all "tweets" including the "hashtag" of #TFA. As an exploratory analysis of the content and audience of tweets sent by core TFA individuals and including TFA related "hashtags," we show that TFA rarely engages with critics as it uses the media of Twitter to reinforce its reform rhetoric within its own reform coalition.  Moreover, we assert that the action of ignoring questions and counter-narratives in social media, for example, is grounded on the assumption that neoliberal educational reforms are seemingly above reproach and beyond critique.


Why do some managers shine during a high-level crisis while others stumble? Those who have an action plan in place are the ones who can react quickly, manage rumors, and respond to victims and stakeholders sincerely and adequately while keeping their organization afloat. Leading crisis management expert Laurence Barton has spent more than two decades consulting with top companies on how to anticipate and respond to workplace threats and tragedies. In Crisis Leadership Now he offers concrete solutions for managing disruptive events-from industrial accidents and acts of violence to embezzlement, product recalls, and terrorism. Barton takes you through his journey of advising senior executives on crisis events and examines: The characteristics that define a true crisis Proven strategies to help you understand andrespond to early warning signals Ways to mitigate threatening situations How to effectively communicate your decisionsin a timely manner to employees, shareholders,customers, and other constituencies In this forward-looking guide, Barton applies his corporate insider's insight to numerous case studies, demonstrating how such catastrophes happen to real companies and real people every day. These studies form a framework for building crisis management thinking into your company's strategic toolbox. Anticipating all forms of trouble, advising senior management and boards of directors about potential events, and devising a business recovery plan will allow your organization to rebound should tragedy strike. Barton has also created an indispensable sample crisis management plan, and includes detailed templates for addressing a wide spectrum of incidents and threats. Arming you with an arsenal of strategies, tools, and know-how, Crisis Leadership Now ensures that your company's leaders will demonstrate confidence and implement solutions in the midst of chaos.


It is known that irrigation application method can impact crop water use and water use efficiency, but the mechanisms involved are incompletely understood, particularly in terms of the water and energy balances during the growing season from pre‐irrigation through planting, early growth and yield development stages. Grain corn (Zea mays L.) and sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench) were grown on four large weighing lysimeters at Bushland, Texas in 2013 (corn) and 2014 (sorghum). Two of the lysimeters and surrounding fields were irrigated by subsurface drip irrigation (SDI) and the other two were irrigated by mid elevation spray application (MESA). Crop evapotranspiration (ETc) was measured using the weighing lysimeters and soil water content was measured using the neutron probe and electromagnetic sensors. Periodic measurements of plant height, width, leaf area index and biomass were made, and final biomass and yield were measured. Micrometeorological measurements included incoming and outgoing short and long wave radiation, soil heat flux, precipitation, air temperature and humidity and wind speed. Irrigation amounts were metered. Compared with MESA irrigation, using SDI saved from 2.5 to 2.2 inches of water that was lost to evaporation early in the season (pre‐plant to 25 days after planting) in 2013 and 2014, respectively. While sorghum, particularly short season sorghum, is not a crop ordinarily considered for SDI, it was grown successfully using SDI with yields averaging 120 bu/acre, comparable to others reported for short season sorghum at Bushland. In the relatively dry 2013 season, SDI increased corn yields by 35 bu/acre (20%) compared with MESA irrigation, while reducing overall corn water use by 3.6 inches.


The study sought to find out the relationship between the liquidity and the profitability of banks listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange. Seven out of the nine listed banks were involved in the study. The study was descriptive in nature. It adopted the longitudinal time dimension, specifically, the panel method. Document analysis was the main research procedure adopted to collect secondary data for the study. The financial reports of the seven listed banks were studied and relevant liquidity and profitability ratios were computed. The trend in liquidity and profitability were determined by the use of time series analysis. The main liquidity ratio was regressed on the profitability ratio. It was found that for the period 2005-2010, both the liquidity and the profitability of the listed banks were declining. Again, it was also found that there was a very weak positive relationship between the liquidity and the profitability of the listed banks in Ghana.


Any-angle pathfinding is a fundamental problem in robotics and computer games. The goal is to find a shortest path between a pair of points on a grid map such that the path is not artificially constrained to the points of the grid. Prior research has focused on approximate online solutions. A number of exact methods exist but they all require super-linear space and pre-processing time. In this study, we describe Anya: a new and optimal any-angle pathfinding algorithm. Where other works find approximate any-angle paths by searching over individual points from the grid, Anya finds optimal paths by searching over sets of states represented as intervals. Each interval is identified on-the-fly. From each interval Anya selects a single representative point that it uses to compute an admissible cost estimate for the entire set. Anya always returns an optimal path if one exists. Moreover it does so without any offine pre-processing or the introduction of additional memory overheads. In a range of empirical comparisons we show that Anya is competitive with several recent (sub-optimal) online and pre-processing based techniques and is up to an order of magnitude faster than the most common benchmark algorithm, a grid-based implementation of A.


There is a large and growing belief, based on a handful of recent scholarly works, that the propensity of states to use force against one another is on the decline. I take issue with two lines of argument that support this conclusion. The first is the claim that, whereas the two World Wars were statistical anomalies, the "Long Peace" that followed is a meaningful trend: I show that both are very plausibly the result of the same stochastic process. The second is the claim that there is less war now than there was in the recent past: I examine what is meant by war, control for two confounding influences that resulted from the proliferation of states in the 20th century, and show that, taking those considerations into account, no such trend is evident.


Cirrhosis is a common disease that may be complicated with multiple organ dysfunctions, including a progressive deterioration of cardiac and renal function. Hepatorenal syndrome (HRS) is defined as potentially reversible renal failure in patients with liver cirrhosis and ascites. Cirrhotic cardiomyopathy (CCM) is a chronic cardiac dysfunction in cirrhosis in the absence of known cardiac disease. An association between CCM and HRS is suggested in cases of advanced cirrhosis that are nonresponsive to the usual therapies for HRS. We report four cases of patients with severe liver cirrhosis in different evolutionary stages of CCM who were diagnosed with HRS type I refractory to usual protocols. In these scenarios, a positive inotropic drug was temporarily used in an attempt to reverse the worsening of renal function. This case series may suggest a treatment with efficacy for refractory HRS, although randomized controlled studies are needed to confirm this hypothesis.


The purpose of this study was to determine the feasibility of introducing a unit on transformations to the tenth-grade geometry program. To do this the experimenter considered five questions. -- 1. Can students attain competence with the mathematical concepts unique to the transformation approach? -- 2. How does student achievement on the transformation unit compare with student achievement on topics in the current geometry program? -- 3. What is the effect of the unit on student attitudes towards mathematics? -- 4. What are the attitudes of teachers towards the experimental materials? -- 5. Can the united be taught effectively without special teacher training? -- The study is essentially a non-comparative study in that no control group was used. The study consisted of presenting a fourteen lesson unit on transformations to 208 grade ten geometry students in six classes at Beaconsfield High School. The materials for the unit were taken from chapters four and five of a text by Coxford and Usiskin, Geometry: a Transformation Approach. -- To determine the students' achievement on the unit, two tests were administered. The first was given at the end of the eighth lesson and the other was gtiven at the end of the fourteenth lesson. Both of these tests were constructed by the experimenter and was designed to test whether the behavioral objectives for the unit had been achieved. The Connelly Taxonomized Attitude Questionnaire was given as a pre-test, post-test to determine the effect of the experimental unit on student attitudes towards mathematics. To determine how the teachers felt towards the materials an experimenter-made questionnaire was given to each of the five teachers who taught the experimental materials. -- A dependent t-test for means was performed on the average score for the experimental unit and the average score computed to represent the students' achievement on topics in the regular program of studies. A t-value of 10.717 indicated that there was a significant difference between the two sets of scores at the .05 level of significance. Since the mean for the experimental unit was higher than the mean for the regular topics it seemed reasonable to assume that students achieved considerably higher on the experimental unit. -- A dependent t-test for means was also performed on the pre-test, post-test attitude scores. A t-value of .772 indicated that there was no significant change in the attitudes of students towards mathematics at the .10 level of significance during the teaching of the experimental materials. -- The responses to the teacher questionnaire were analyzed and the results showed that teachers had favorable attitudes towards the materials. They recommended them highly to other teachers and they indicated that the materials were easy to read and most appropriate for the average student. They also indicated that the unit had value for both the terminating and continuing students in mathematics.


We introduce quadri-tilings and show that they are in bijection with dimer models on a family of graphs {R} arising from rhombus tilings. Using two height functions, we interpret a subfamily of all quadri-tilings, called triangular quadri-tilings, as an interface model in dimension 2+ 2. Assigning "critical" weights to edges of R, we prove an explicit expression, only depending on the local geometry of the graph R, for the minimal free energy per fundamental domain Gibbs measure; this solves a conjecture of [8]. We also show that when edges of R are asymptotically far apart, the probability of their occurrence only depends on this set of edges. Finally, we give an expression for a Gibbs measure on the set of all triangular quadri-tilings whose marginals are the above Gibbs measures, and conjecture it to be that of minimal free energy per fundamental domain.


Theoretical computations are performed on the comparative binding energetics of mitoxantrone (MX), a newly synthesized intercalating anthraquinone antitumor drug, to six representative double-stranded tetranucleotides: d(GCGC)2, d(CGCG)2, d(ATAT)2, d(TATA)2, d(GTGT), d(ACAC), and d(CCGG)2. The computations are performed with the SIBFA procedure, which uses empirical formulas based on ab initio SCF computations. The best binding configuration of mitoxantrone locates its two side chains in the major groove. A considerable preference is elicited for intercalation of the chromophore ring in a pyrimidine (3'-5') purine sequence rather than the isomeric purine (3'-5') pyrimidine sequence. Contrary to the situation encountered with "simple" intercalators, in which this preference is generally attributed solely to differences in the energies of unstacking necessary to generate the intercalation sites, the preference is dictated in MX to a large extent by the intermolecular interaction energy term. This result is imposed by the interactions of the side chains of MX with the oligonucleotide.


In 1985, a new pastor arrived at the Rockridge United Methodist Church and noted that only about 15 persons attended worship. Most were elderly, lived miles from the church, and had already voted to close the church. Ten years later, 80 people participated on Sundays, and the average age of the adults was closer to 30 years old. No one was moving to those distant suburbs, and a dearth of children and a lack of ethnic variety had been turned into an abundance of kids in a congregation with no ethnic majority. (1) Financially, the church of the mid-1980s was spending the last of the monies acquired from selling the manse and other properties. In 1997 a budget was proposed, passed and subsequently met that was higher than a tithe (10%) of the income of all the member families. Worship had changed from a rote, formal and somewhat tired obligation to a time of creativity, participation, beauty, tradition and spiritual engagement. While the church's United Methodist tradition had previously offered institutional structures, increasingly the congregation had re-engaged the Wesleyan narrative, including resources in its theology and practices. Previously the church's administrative council had focused on institutional survival; now energies were increasingly directed to the congregation's spiritual formation and missional engagement. This is not a case study of a mega-church; that kind of phenomenon was not attractive to us. The church was not part of any of the newer denomination-like movements; it was United Methodist with roots in the Evangelical United Brethren. We were not located in a sprawling suburb; rather, the location was urban Oakland, California. The narratives and reflections here will focus on the years 1986-1996, and provide a window into some of the formative years of change. (2) I do not intend to present a sequential history or a strategic plan; instead, I will examine how specific characteristics developed and synergistically recreated the congregation. The topics of congregational, spiritual and missional formation are interwoven. By congregational formation, I refer to the character and practices of our "life together", including the work of being a "community of interpreters". (3) By spiritual formation I refer not just to those classic disciplines like prayer and Bible study (although these are essential) but to a whole range of personal and family practices that form us affectively, cognitively, conatively (4) and in skill development. By missional formation I have in mind how we interest peoples and powers around us in being attentive to God's reign and gospel invitation. (5) Tell and retell historical narratives Rockridge United Methodist Church had been in decline for many years. From 1980-85 there had been four pastors. At one time, with several hundred members, this had been the flagship church of the Evangelical United Brethren denomination (EUB) for the San Francisco Bay area. The mid-1960s merger of the EUB with the Methodist Church had created the new United Methodist Church (UMC), but "united" was more a structural description than an accurate relational one. The remaining scars and differences were still very present. The kind of change some of us at Rockridge envisioned would require layers of remembering--bringing into our conversations those congregational memories about values, hopes, divisions and successes. We needed to bring these memories into conversations about theological and biblical narratives. We had noted how often biblical narratives referred to previous social projects, indicating how God's initiatives toward forming covenant communities met with cooperation or resistance. (6) If we were to be re-formed into a viable congregation, we needed the stories that had already shaped this people. We invited ourselves into the homes of the seniors, or invited them to ours, and we sought their memories. "What happened on Sundays? …


The purpose of this mixed method case study was to examine the effects of methods of instruction on students' perception of relevance in higher education non-biology majors' courses. Nearly ninety percent of all students in a liberal arts college are required to take a general biology course. It is proposed that for many of those students, this is the last science course they will take for life. General biology courses are suspected of discouraging student interest in biology with large enrollment, didactic instruction, covering a huge amount of content in one semester, and are charged with promoting student disengagement with biology by the end of the course. Previous research has been aimed at increasing student motivation and interest in biology as measured by surveys and test results. Various methods of instruction have been tested and show evidence of improved learning gains. This study focused on students' perception of relevance of biology content to everyday life and the methods of instruction that increase it. A quantitative survey was administered to assess perception of relevance pre and post instruction over three topics typically taught in a general biology course. A second quantitative survey of student experiences during instruction was administered to identify methods of instruction used in the course lecture and lab. While perception of relevance dropped in the study, qualitative focus groups provided insight into the surprising results by identifying topics that are more relevant than the ones chosen for the study, conveying the affects of the instructor's personal and instructional skills on student engagement, explanation of how active engagement during instruction promotes understanding of relevance, the roll of laboratory in promoting students' understanding of relevance as well as identifying external factors that affect student engagement. The study also investigated the extent to which gender affected changes in students' perception of relevance. The results of this study will inform instructors' pedagogical and logistical choices in the design and implementation of higher education biology courses for nonbiology majors. Recommendations for future research will include refining the study to train instructors in methods of instruction that promote student engagement as well as to identify biology topics that are more relevant to students enrolled in non-major biology courses.


Why were European economies able to pursue the simultaneous commitment to full employment and welfare state expansion during the first decades of the postwar period and why did this virtuous relationship break down during recent decades? This book provides an answer to this question, by highlighting the critical importance of a political exchange between unions and governments, premised on wage moderation in exchange for the expansion of social services and transfers. The strategies pursued by these actors in these political exchanges are influenced by existing wage bargaining institutions, the character of monetary policy and by the level and composition of social policy transfers. The book demonstrates that the gradual growth in the fiscal burden has undermined the effectiveness of this political exchange, lowering the ability of unions' wage policies to affect employment outcomes.


Stable blast furnace operation is required to reduce energy consumption in iron and steelmaking industry. For the stable blast furnace operation, precise controlled drainage is one of the important factors. However, the effects of the various in-furnace conditions on the stable operation were not examined well. Therefore, in this work, basic characteristic features of drainage in a blast furnace hearth were examined.Two- and three-dimensional mathematical model were developed based on the finite difference method to simulate molten iron and slag flow in a hearth of a blast furnace. Pressure drop evaluation model in a taphole was developed to reflect pressure variation in a blast furnace hearth on drainage rate of molten iron and slag for the three-dimensional mathematical model.The two-dimensional mathematical model results were validated with measured interfaces shapes obtained using an experimental model. The three-dimensional mathematical model results were validated with measured total, iron and slag drainage rate of Chiba No. 6 blast furnace. The results indicate that the drainage behavior and residual iron and slag volume were affected by the conditions in the hearth. The taphole conditions dominate the total drainage rate under the term of assumed blast furnace conditions. In order to reduce the residual slag volume, the taphole diameter change during the tap should be controlled. The decrease of the coke diameter causes increase of the residual slag volume, decrease of the residual iron volume.


Conservation of the seven lagoons of the Palavas complex (southern France) has been severely impaired by nutrient over-enrichment during at least four decades. The effluents of the Montpellier wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) represented the main nutrient input. To improve the water quality of these lagoons, this WWTP was renovated and upgraded and, since the end of 2005, its effluents have been discharged 11 km offshore into the Mediterranean (total investment €150 M).
Possibilities of ecosystem restoration as part of a conservation programme were explored by a focus group of experts. Their tasks were: (i) to evaluate the impact of the reduction of the nutrient input; (ii) if necessary, to design additional measures for an active restoration programme; and (iii) to predict ecosystem trajectories for the different cases. Extension of Magnoliophyta meadows can be taken as a proxy for ecosystem restoration as they favour the increase of several fish (seahorse) and bird (ducks, swans, herons) species, albeit they represent a trade-off for greater flamingos. Additional measures for active ecosystem restoration were only recommended for the most impaired lagoon Mejean, while the least impaired lagoon Ingril is already on a trajectory of spontaneous recovery.
A multiple contingent valuation considering four different management options for the Mejean lagoon was used in a pilot study based on face-to-face interviews with 159 respondents. Three levels of ecosystem restoration were expressed in terms of recovery of Magnoliophyta meadows, including their impact on emblematic fish and avifauna. These were combined with different options for access (status quo, increasing access, increasing access with measures to reduce disturbance). The results show a willingness of local populations to pay per year about €25 for the highest level of ecological restoration, while they were only willing to allocate about €5 for additional footpaths and hides.

Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


In this paper, we examine an important threshold question in judicial behavior and administrative law: when do federal circuit courts decide to use the Chevron deference framework and when do they select a framework that is less deferential to the administrative agency's statutory interpretation? The question is important because the purpose of Chevron deference is to give agencies — not judges — policymaking space within statutory interpretation. We expect, nonetheless, that whether to invoke the Chevron framework is largely driven by political dynamics, with judges adopting a less deferential standard when their political preferences do not align with the agency's decision. To provide insight, we analyze circuit-court decisions from 2003 until 2013 that review agency statutory interpretations. Our results — from the largest and most comprehensive database of its kind — provide partial confirmation of our expectations. When courts reviewed liberal agency interpretations, all panels — liberal, moderate, and conservative — were equally likely to apply Chevron. But when reviewing conservative agency interpretations, liberal panels selected the Chevron deference framework significantly less frequently than conservative panels. Contrary to limited prior studies, we find no evidence of "whistleblower" or disciplining effects when judges of different judicial ideologies comprised the panel. Viewed together, our results provide important implications for the current debate on whether to eliminate, narrow, or clarify Chevron's domain.


This dissertation explores the role of group consciousness in the political life of Latinos in the United States. This dissertation provides a full analysis of group consciousness presence and performance among Latinos. In separate analyses, I test the impact of group consciousness across several areas of Latino political activity, including; political participation, partisanship, policy preferences, and the propensity to engage in coalitions with African Americans relative to other more dominant explanations of Latino political behavior. In addition to the role of group consciousness in Latino political behavior, I am also interested in determining the factors that contribute to group consciousness for Latinos. Therefore, chapter six is dedicated to discussing how group consciousness is formulated among Latinos. Ultimately I examine not only how group consciousness motivates Latino political behavior, but also how group consciousness is created for Latinos. Group consciousness has been suggested to be a multidimensional concept, consisting of the following dimensions; group identity, perceived discrimination, and support for collective activity. This dissertation improves on existing research focused on group consciousness by including measures for all three of these dimensions. This analysis provides evidence that these dimensions are not cumulative and are independent from one another. This finding has implications for how group consciousness should be measured in the future. Further, experiencing discrimination and participating in political activities directly tied to the Latino community contribute to group consciousness for Latinos.


Discrete PCA builds components for discrete data rather like PCA and ICA does for real data. The method has a long history and is most commonly used in genetics. Recent insights into the method are described here, and some examples of given of its use in automatically building a topic model for a document collection, and in its use as a tool for relevance estimation in search. The topic model can also be subsequently used in search. This discussion paper describes our ongoing research here. METHOD: discrete PCA PROBLEM: intelligent search


The objective of this research is to examine effective methods for urban change detection using multitemporal spaceborne SAR data in two rapid expanding cities in China. One scene of ERS-2 SAR C-VV image was acquired in Beijing in 1998 and in shanghai in 1999 respectively and one scene of ENVISAT ASAR C-VV image was acquired in near-anniversary dates in 2008 in Beijing and Shanghai. To compare the SAR images from different dates, a modified ratio operator that takes into account both positive and negative changes was developed to derive a change image. A generalized version of Kittler-Illingworth minimum-error thresholding algorithm was then tested to automatically classify the change image into two classes, change and no change. Various probability density functions such as Log normal, Generalized Gaussian, Nakagami ratio, and Weibull ratio were investigated to model the distribution of the change and no change classes. The results showed that Kittler-Illingworth algorithm applied to the modified ratio image is very effective in detecting temporal changes in urban areas using SAR images. Log normal and Nakagami density models achieved the best results. The Kappa coefficients of these methods were of 0.82 and 0.71 for Beijing and Shanghai respectively while the false alarm rates were 2.7% and 4.75%. The findings indicated that the change accuracies obtained using Kittler-Illingworth algorithm vary depending on how the assumed conditional class density function fits the histograms of change and no change classes.


Before the "reapportionment revolution," decades of precedent held that the legislative district boundaries were not justiciable, no matter how little the districts reflected population distributions. In Baker v. Carr, a majority of justices declared for the first time that courts could indeed address these disparities. This Article evaluates the impact of these decisions on legislative politics and policymaking. We examine three indicators of change. In the first, we test the impact of two key reapportionment cases, Reynolds v. Sims and Wesberry v. Sanders, on policies favoring rural and urban interests (using event study methodology). Our analysis shows that these decisions shifted the benefits of public policy toward urban interests and away from rural interests. The second effect of reapportionment that we study is the relationship of Southern Democrats to the rest of the Democratic Party in the U.S. House of Representatives and in the U.S. Senate. In our third test, we examine the political changes wrought by a similar set of cases affecting the California legislature.


This essay introduces the legal dimensions of the Anthropocene, i.e. the currently advocated new geological epoch in which humans are the defining force. It explores in this context two basic propositions. First, law as a technology of social organisation has been neglected in the otherwise highly technology-focused accounts by natural and social scientists of the drivers of the Anthropocene. Secondly, in those rare instances where law has been discussed, there is a tendency to assume that the role of law is to tackle the negative externalities of transactions (e.g. their environmental or social implications) rather than the core of the underlying transactions, i.e. the organization of production and consumption processes. Such focus on externalities fails to unveil the role of law in prompting, sustaining and potentially managing the processes that have led to the Anthropocene. After a brief introduction to the Anthropocene narrative and the possible role of law in it, it focuses on three main questions: the disconnection between natural and human history, the profound inequalities within the human variable driving the Anthropocene, and the technological transition required to reach a sustainable societal organisation.


For anyone wondering whatever happened to all the small neighborhood Rexall drug stores that were common in the 1920s through 1960s, this book answers that question and more about the Rexall era. The author is a professor emeritus in the School of Pharmacy at University of Mississippi, principal author of Pharmaceutical Marketing, and Mississippis Professor of the Year for 1993. The story begins with Louis Kohl Liggett, dubbed the "Father of Rexall," organizing the Drug Merchants of America in 1901 with forty original stockholders and a set of guiding principles on manufacturing and distributing name brand drug products. The name Rexall (meaning "king of all") was chosen for the group of products for what later became the United Drug Company. The book is illustrated with interesting old photographs and excerpts from Liggetts letters to his shareholders, advising and motivating them on advertising and selling. "Look at our prices again, please," he writes. "There is the Toothache Gum, about $2.00 per hundred packages. There are 250 of you stockholders. Why not each take 100, thats $500 to us." Liggett was an industrialist and an entrepreneur, but also a man who understood the value of loyalty and affectionately referred to his shareholders as "Pardners." One chapter describes the sense of family among the Rexall Family Druggists-independently owned, franchised drug stores-across the country, and contains numerous quotations and anecdotes from former Rexall employees. Many discussed the changes in the company that eventually resulted in bankruptcy. "Rexall premiered many ideas that I still see being used in retailing today," says one. "The franchise idea itself, Rexall was the first franchiser in America." Four chapters are devoted to illustrating how the company effectively executed the "4 Ps of marketing"-products, price, place, and promotion. It premiered the use of private label marketing to sell its product line of more than 2,000 items. The last chapter discusses Justin Darts role in the last three decades of Rexall history. Its a fascinating account of the downward spiral of the company as a result of management changes; acquisitions of non-related product manufacturers such as the Tupper Company, manufacturer of Tupperware; a mass merchandising strategy of distribution to wholesalers and retailers; and multiple sales of the company. In 1980 company president Larry Weber put the last nail in the Rexall coffin by canceling the contracts with the 10,000 Rexall druggists. In 1985 the Rexall name was purchased by the Florida-based Sundown company. The Rexall name may be visible on a handful of drug stores that still carry the brand name, but nowhere near the volume as before. "It seems somehow appropriate but also sad," writes Smith, "that the sunset of Rexall should occur with its name attached to Sundown." CINDY KRYSZAK (August 18, 2009)


That the Walter Sisulu University medical school continues to exist and to produce competent health professionals is evidence of extraordinary institutional resilience. The school is located in a university with a troubled history. But even as the university has lurched from crisis to crisis and has periodically been under threat of closure, the medical school has developed and grown to become the university's premier centre of excellence and, it has often been said, its raison d'etre, thanks in large part to sheer grit, commitment and sense of mission on the part of its leaders and academic community.


From a geological perspective, hydrogen has been neglected. It is not as common as biogenic or thermogenic methane, which are ubiquitous in hydrocarbon basins, or carbon dioxide, which is common in geologically active areas of the world. Nevertheless, small flows of hydrogen naturally reach the Earth's surface, occur in some metal mines and emerge beneath the oceans in a number of places worldwide. These occurrences of hydrogen are associated with abiogenic and biogenic methane, nitrogen and helium. Five geological environments are theoretically promising for exploration based on field, palaeofluid and theoretical evidence: ophiolites (Alpine, Variscan and Caledonian in order of decreasing prospectivity), thinned-crust basins (failed-arm rifts, aulacogens), potash-bearing basins, basement in cratonic areas and the Mid-Atlantic ridge and its fracture zones. The subsurface areas of these environments are relatively poorly known, compared to hydrocarbon basins. Hydrogen shows may indicate larger reserves in the subsurface, in a similar way to the beginnings of hydrocarbon exploration in the 19th century. The main source of hydrogen is ultramafic rocks, which have experienced serpentinization, although other generation processes have been identified, including biogenic production of hydrogen during very early stages of maturation and radiolysis. There are two main tectonic settings where serpentinization has operated. The main accessible onshore areas are where ophiolites are found tectonically emplaced within fold belts. Potentially much larger investigation areas lie in the subsurface of some ophiolites. These areas generally lie outside hydrocarbon provinces. However, where thrusting has emplaced ophiolites over a hydrocarbon-bearing foreland basin, tests involving sub-thrust conventional hydrocarbon exploration plays could also be employed to search for hydrogen. The other main tectonic setting is in highly extended basins, for example failed rifts or aulacogens, where thick sediments overlie thinned or absent crust above probably serpentinized mantle. These structures occur offshore on continental margins and extend onshore into long-lived rifts which have been reactivated and rejuvenated repeatedly. Conventional seismic reflection data are already available in these areas, but deep subsurface resolution is poor where there are extensive volcanic rocks. Analogues of these occurrences are also found in the deep oceans, along the mid-ocean ridges and offsetting transform faults. Here, thin crust and faulting may facilitate serpentinization of the mantle rocks by seawater ingress. Further research should aim to identify the extent of the hydrogen flux and its probable dominant role in the abiogenic production of hydrocarbons in Precambrian times, a natural process now largely replaced by biogenic participation. A similar industrial process replicates serpentinization, producing hydrogen and ultimately liquid hydrocarbons on a commercial scale in some countries. It remains to be proved whether a contribution from exploration can be made to any future hydrogen economy.


The ever-changing technological landscape is shifting generational patterns of authority. Authority is grounded in knowledge. Knowledge—technical, moral, or otherwise— commonly proceeds from an older generation to a younger one. This is changing. Younger generations in the Western world are posing their questions to Google rather than Grandpa, or God. Such challenges to the hierarchy of generational knowledge are not entirely novel though. The history of Western political thought suggests that they are telling indicators of impending political change.
The study engages two examples, one in Nietzsche ("Second Treatise" of On the Genealogy of Morality) and one in Plato ("Book One" of The Republic), wherein lapsed generational authority is discussed alongside the topic of justice. Both authors proceed from a definition of justice associated with ancestral authority and described in the language of debt and credit. Justice is what is owed to one's ancestors. Ancestral knowledge provides the first codification of duties. It is the first sense of law. It describes a clear division between the ruler (to whom one's obligations are due) and the ruled.
To date, the vast literature on these authors has not yet considered how the precise concept of ancestral authority informs the political meaning of their works. This is particularly the case for Nietzsche. The contest that he invokes with Plato, his philosophical ancestor, requires meditation on the significance of this idea. This comparative analysis meets this objective in two ways. First, it analyzes the selections to understand what happens politically and philosophically when the primary direction of intergenerational education changes. Second, it proposes that Nietzsche's politics of cultural formation should be understood as a non-nostalgic recovery of ancestral authority. This concept is central in Nietzsche's understanding of the shift from kinship-based models of justice to what he calls in §12 of the Second Treatise, "misarchism" or the "democratic idiosyncrasy" of being against the idea of rule itself. His account of justice describes the theological conditions that informed the shift from tribalism to universalism in the West, and by this account, he forces an assessment of the limits of overwriting the grandfathers' generational knowledge.


Two luminaries of 20th century astrophysics were Sir James Jeans and Sir Arthur Eddington. Both took seriously the view that there is more to reality than the physical universe and more to consciousness than simply brain activity. In his Science and the Unseen World (1929) Eddington speculated about a spiritual world and that "conscious is not wholly, nor even primarily a device for receiving sense impressions." Jeans also speculated on the existence of a universal mind and a non-mechanical reality, writing in his The Mysterious Universe (1932) "the universe begins to look more like a great thought than like a great machine." In his book QED Feynman discusses the situation of photons being partially transmitted and partially reflected by a sheet of glass: reflection amounting to four percent. In other words one out of every 25 photons will be reflected on average, and this holds true even for a "one at a time" flux. The four percent cannot be explained by statistical differences of the photons (they are identical) nor by random variations in the glass. Something is "telling" every 25th photon on average that it should be reflected back instead of being transmitted. Other quantum experiments lead to similar paradoxes. To explain how a single photon in the two-slit experiment can "know" whether there is one slit or two, Hawking and Mlodonow write: In the double-slit experiment Feynman's ideas mean the particles take paths that thread through the first slit, back out though the second slit, and then through the first again; paths that visit the restaurant that serves that great curried shrimp, and then circle Jupiter a few times before heading home; even paths that go across the universe and back. This, in Feynman's view, explains how the particle acquires the information about which slits are openS. It is hard to imagine a more absurd physical explanation. We can think of no way to hardwire the behavior of photons in the glass reflection or the two-slit experiments into a physical law. On the other hand, writing a software algorithm that would yield the desired result is really simple. A digital reality whose laws are software is an idea that has started to gain traction in large part thanks to an  influential paper in Philosophical Quarterly by Oxford professor Nick Bostrom. Writing in the New York Times John Tierney had this to say: Until I talked to Nick Bostrom, a philosopher at Oxford University it never occurred to me that our universe might be somebody else's hobby. But now it seems quite possible. In fact, if you accept a pretty reasonable assumption of Dr. Bostrom's, it is almost a mathematical certainty that we are living in someone else's computer simulation. An alternate view (and more optimistic view) is that there exists a great consciousness whose mind is the hardware, and whose thoughts are the software creating a virtual universe in which we as beings of consciousness live. Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */
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Background Renal impairment is associated with poor prognosis in the setting of atrial fibrillation (AF). While AF catheter ablation is an effective treatment modality for AF burden reduction and improvement of symptoms, changes in renal function after catheter ablation and their association with rhythm outcome have not been studied in a large contemporary AF ablation cohort. Objective To determine the association between CHADS2 and CHA2DS2-VASc scores and arrhythmia recurrences with changes in renal function following AF catheter ablation. Methods Estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) was estimated using the Chronic Kidney Disease Epidemiology Collaboration equation at baseline and during follow-up in 783 patients undergoing de novo AF catheter ablation. Complete rhythm follow-up was achieved in 626 patients (80%) using serial 7-day Holter ECG. Results The study population (n=783, 61±10 years, 64% men, 57% paroxysmal AF) was followed up at median 20 (IQR 12–27) months. Baseline eGFR correlated with CHADS2 (β=−0.258, p<0.001) and CHA2DS2-VASc scores (β=−0.434, p<0.001). On multivariable analyses, eGFR changes were associated with AF recurrences (B=−0.136, p=0.014), CHADS2 (B=−0.062, p=0.035) and CHA2DS2-VASc scores (B=−0.057, p=0.003). Conclusions In patients after AF catheter ablation, eGFR changes during mid-term follow-up are associated with AF recurrences, CHADS2 and CHA2DS2-VASc scores.


Background: Biomechanical changes in gait during pregnancy have been well studied in walking but not in running. Objective: To specifically examine adaptations in running biomechanics pre- to post-pregnancy, especially in the pelvis and trunk. Study Design: Pilot study. Methods: Five regular runners who were pregnant for the first time participated in this study. Participants ran at a self-selected speed on an instrumented treadmill while trunk, pelvis, and lower extremity kinematics were recorded. Baseline biomechanics were recorded prior to conception or within the first 14 weeks of gestation. Follow-up testing occurred at 6 weeks postpartum. Digital surveys were administered at baseline and 6 weeks postpartum, as well as at 14, 22, and 30 weeks of gestation. Surveys queried information regarding training characteristics, experience of pain, and perceived injury risk compared with pre-pregnancy. Results: Pelvis and trunk rotation excursions, sagittal hip range of motion, and cadence decreased from baseline to post-pregnancy, whereas stance time, step width, and sagittal knee range of motion increased. Average running volume and pace decreased postpartum, although variation occurred among participants. Abdominal pain was reported by 2 participants during pregnancy, with 2 participants reporting increased perceived injury risk. Conclusion: Taken together, these findings suggest postpartum runners restrict pelvis and trunk motion and increase gait stability, potentially as a protective response. Despite sample size, this pilot study presents initial evidence of biomechanical changes to running gait that occur pre- to post-pregnancy, which may have implications in developing support for pregnant and postpartum women interested in continuing or returning to running.


This paper deals with the low-pass filtering characteristic of the axial magnetic field of no-insulation and partial-insulation high temperature superconducting (HTS) coils carrying a dc-biased ac current. Recently, the no-insulation winding technique has been issued as a key technique to enhance the performance of HTS coils in terms of the overall current density, thermal stability, and mechanical integrity. In this paper, to verify the effect of time-varying external distortion on no-insulation HTS coils, an experimental analysis is carried on three HTS coils-insulation, no-insulation, and partial-insulation coils. To simulate the environment in which time-varying external distortion influences the HTS coils, a dc-biased ac current is carried by the HTS coils. The axial magnetic fields of no-insulation, partial insulation, and insulation HTS coils are experimentally tested and analyzed. When the coils carry a dc-biased ac current, the no-insulation and partial-insulation coils have a tendency to attenuate the high-frequency components and to act as a low-pass filter on the axial magnetic field; however, the insulation coil does not attenuate the high-frequency components of the axial magnetic field. The analysis of the experimental results can be useful data for the adoption of no-insulation and partial-insulation windings in superconducting applications.


One of the serious effects of diabetes is the excess storage of fat not only in adipocytes, but also in other tissues (termed lipotoxicity). Type II diabetes patients are insensitive to treatment with insulin, and it is hypothesized that insulin resistance results from an excessive accumulation of lipids in nonadipocytes such that the lipids interfere with the action of insulin on those cells. The hormone leptin, which can regulate food intake and neuroendocrine activity, now appears to regulate lipid oxidation in the mitochondria of nonadipocytes. Minokoshi et al. found that leptin injection in mouse muscle in vivo resulted in increased intracellular concentrations of adenosine 5′-monophosphate (AMP), and activated the α2 adenosine 5′-monophosphate-activated kinase (AMPK)--a protein that regulates cellular energy metabolism--in mouse muscle. However, not only did leptin activate α2 AMPK immediately in muscle, it also indirectly caused long-term activation of AMPK (for several hours) as mediated through the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus-dependent activation of AMPK was mediated by the α-adrenergic pathway. Leptin-mediated activation of AMPK led to the phosphorylation (and inactivation) of acetyl coenzyme A carboxylase (ACC), an enzyme that inhibits the import of lipids into and the oxidation of lipids in the mitochondria, and led to increased lipid oxidation in vivo. Leptin failed to increase phosphorylation of ACC in cells that overexpressed a dominant-negative form of AMPK, suggesting that leptin acts through AMPK to inhibit ACC and increase lipid oxidation. Thus, designing therapeutic drugs that target the leptin-AMPK pathway may prove useful for some diabetic patients. Y. Minokoshi, Y.-B. Kim, O. D. Peroni, L. G. D. Fryer, C. Müller, D. Carling, B. B. Kahn, Leptin stimulates fatty-acid oxidation by activating AMP-activated protein kinase. Nature 415, 339-343 (2002). [Online Journal] J. Friedman, Fat in all the wrong places. Nature 415, 268-269 (2002). [Online Journal]


We develop and test a theory that reconciles contradictions in how collectivistic norms influence group performance. We draw on the perceived diversity literature to hypothesize that collectivistic norms cause group members to "blur" demographic differences, resulting in a shared perception that group members are more similar to one another than they actually are. Whether this benefits or harms group performance depends on the level of objective diversity in the group and the relevance of the perceived diversity attribute for accomplishing the group's task. For conjunctive tasks, the group's performance is determined by its weakest member, and high levels of cohesion are needed. Our theory suggests that collectivism benefits group conjunctive performance when objective national diversity is high by blurring divisive relational differences but has no effect in groups with low objective national diversity. In contrast, for disjunctive tasks, the group's performance is determined by its best member, and we predict that collectivism harms group disjunctive performance when objective expertness diversity is high by blurring differences in task-relevant expertness, but has no effect in groups with low objective expertness diversity. We find support for our theory in two studies, including an archival study of 5,214 Himalayan climbing groups and a laboratory experiment assessing 356 groups. Our results show that collectivism has benefits and detriments for diverse groups, and that these contradictory effects can be understood by identifying how the collectivistic blurring of perceived group diversity helps or hurts groups based on the type of tasks on which they are working.


The optional Escherichia coli prr locus restricts phage T4 mutants lacking polynucleotide kinase or RNA ligase. Underlying this restriction is the specific manifestation of the T4‐induced anticodon nuclease, an enzyme which triggers the cleavage‐ligation of the host tRNALys. We report here the molecular cloning, nucleotide sequence and mutational analysis of prr‐associated DNA. The results indicate that prr encodes a latent form of anticodon nuclease consisting of a core enzyme and cognate masking agents. They suggest that the T4‐encoded factors of anticodon nuclease counteract the prr‐encoded masking agents, thus activating the latent enzyme. The encoding of a tRNA cleavage‐ligation pathway by two separate genetic systems which cohabitate E. coli may provide a clue to the evolution of RNA splicing mechanisms mediated by proteins.


This article examines social media companies' responsibility in addressing cyberbullying among children. Through an analysis of companies' bullying policies and mechanisms that they develop to address bullying, I examine the available evidence of the effectiveness of the current self-regulatory system. Relying on the privatization-of-the-digital-public-sphere framework, this article signals concerns regarding transparency and accountability and explains the process through which these policies develop and can influence the perceptions of regulators about what constitutes a safe platform. The article is based on a qualitative analysis of 14 social media companies' policies and interviews with social media company representatives, representatives of nongovernmental organizations, and e-safety experts from the United States and the European Union.


The creation of life-like believable characters is emerging as the central focus of next-generation game development and is viewed as critical to obtaining true mass-market appeal. Reactive crowd simulation is a critical component in creating believable character. The demo runs on a Xbox 360 and shows the following crowd behaviors. A typical downtown is populated with pedestrians and vehicles. The pedestrians mill about the town staying on the sidewalk and cross only at street corners (although some decide will jay walk from time to time). Occasionally, they will stop to talk with one another. Cars drive around the city and obey the traffic lights. The ambient behaviour is interrupted by traumatic event; in this case a terrorist pulls out a run and starts firing at the crowd who now move into a panic behaviour. Some crowd members run away immediately from the terrorist while others first cower in fear before running away. Crowd members who do not hear the weapon fire but see a panicking pedestrian may also panic or continue about their business depending on how cool they are. Vehicles also flee the terrorist and will drive on sidewalks and over pedestrians to save themselves.


A validated multi-physics numerical model that accounts for charge and species conservation, fluid flow, and electrochemical processes has been used to analyze the performance of solar-driven photoelectrochemical water-splitting systems. The modeling has provided an in-depth analysis of conceptual designs, proof-of-concepts, feasibility investigations, and quantification of performance. The modeling has led to the formulation of design guidelines at the system and component levels, and has identified quantifiable gaps that warrant further research effort at the component level. The two characteristic generic types of photoelectrochemical systems that were analyzed utilized: (i) side-by-side photoelectrodes and (ii) back-to-back photoelectrodes. In these designs, small electrode dimensions (mm to cm range) and large electrolyte heights were required to produce small overall resistive losses in the system. Additionally, thick, non-permeable separators were required to achieve acceptably low rates of product crossover.


In the mid-1980s, many people who had made television news their life's work began to get the uneasy feeling that the jig was up. They were heard to mutter things like"The networks will never be the engines that drive television news again," and "I'm glad I was there before the crash'" Television news professionals were reacting to a series of shockwaves that were reverberating through their industry. The waves were set off early in the decade by the convergence of several factors, among them: a new administration that ,Ams pursuing deregulation in all phases of American life, including broadcasting; a growing number of television outlets, both traditional and non-traditional; and a business climate that dared to foster the previously unthinkable notion of putting the broadcasting entities in play along with all of the other companies being merged and acquired. Since TV's very early days, the three network news divisions had "owned" television news. The networks set the journalistic and technical standards, and the rest of the world followed, But in only two decades, technical news considerations had gone from wishing forcolor film at faster speeds, to avoiding foreign governments' transmission systems in favor of a news division's own portable system. News producers went from worrying about whether their film would be out of the "soup" on time to wondering where to locate an earth station that had been flown in on a Lear jet. At the same time, the number of people covering a national or international story for American television ballooned, as more and more local stations acquired the hardware and expertise that had once been the networks' private preserve. Internal ferment Life back at the network headquarters also evolved. Gone were the traditional broadcasters who had leanred to live with -and had even felt a certain commitment to-federal license regulations. They were displaced by new, bottom-line generals who were playing by a deregulated handbook. And instead of three network armies fighting on all fronts, now there were new networks, plus the growing cable menace, independent news services and other guerrilla groups. The networks could no longer even set the agenda. In the battle for the hearts and minds of viewers, it was the viewers -aided by that ultimate high-tech weapon, the remote control-who began calling the shots. The networks' share of the prime-time viewing audience dropped from 92 percent in 1978 to 67 percent last year. The chaos spawned a new urgency to stand out. Television news executives began talking about making their programs look different and making them more compelling to a fickle viewing public. According to the new gospel, viewers' attention spans were shrinking, along with their tolerance for mundane pictures and graphics. Other developments reinforced the sense of upheaval. For instance, the 1988 presidential campaign was variously described as the dirtiest, the most insubstantial, the most negative political campaign in memory. (Of course, many of the same charges had been leveled against Campaign '84.) There was the rise of "trash television," including "professional wrestling:' "The Morton Downey, Jr. Show" and "Geraldo." Cable sports companies began ruminating about developing high school-level amateur athletics as a new, exciting programming genre. Television news is trying to settle into this anarchistic, viewer-driven environment and carry on. It is doing so by trial and error, and the jury is still out on whether it will find a new evolutionary mode or simply disintegrate. Psyching out producers All of this gives producers headaches. Fundamental questions such as, "What makes a good TV news story?" must be rethought. The question goes to the heart of professional communicators' interest in television news. They must grasp that news organizations are striving desperately to stand out and to satisfy viewers' needs for total video gratification: instant fact, thrill and resolution. …


Linköpings tekniska högskola Institutionen för systemteknik 581 83 Linköping Abstract The purpose of this master thesis, performed at FOI, was to evaluate a range gated underwater camera, for the application identification of bottom objects. The master thesis was supported by FMV within the framework of " arbetsorder Systemstöd minjakt (Jan Andersson, KC Vapen) ". The central part has been field trials, which have been performed in both turbid and clear water. Conclusions about the performance of the camera system have been done, based on resolution and contrast measurements during the field trials. Laboratory testing has also been done to measure system specific parameters, such as the effective gate profile and camera gate distances. The field trials shows that images can be acquired at significantly longer distances with the tested gated camera, compared to a conventional video camera. The distance where the target can be detected is increased by a factor of 2. For images suitable for mine identification, the increase is about 1.3. However, studies of the performance of other range gated systems shows that the increase in range for mine identification can be about 1.6. Gated viewing has also been compared to other technical solutions for underwater imaging.


Continuous room temperature synthesis of MAPbX3 perovskite nanocrystals was conducted using a facile flow reactor. The process exhibited outstanding reproducibility and the resulting nanocrystals showed a narrow size distribution, high stability and excellent emissive properties. Their photoluminescence can be tuned by changing the halide composition to cover the visible and near-infrared region.


[abstract] Given that their L1, Norwegian, and their L2, English, are lexical stress languages, Norwegian speakers will equally tend to stress lexical words during the course of acquisition of L3 French, insuring the prosodic autonomy of each word. In the present paper, we show that this strategy slows down the acquisition of two external sandhi phenomena in French, i.e. liaison and final consonant linking. The data, taken from two corpora recently collected in Tromso and Oslo, indicate that the learners' acquisition path is conditioned by internal factors like prosodic weight, perceptual salience and frequency, and by external factors like the different tasks to be completed, i.e. reading vs conversation. The data further indicate that liaisons following determiners and clitics are the first categories to be acquired and that spontaneous speech, where the learner does not have direct access to the graphic word, seems to favor erasing the prosodic boundaries required by the prosodic system of her L1.


In what way were mathematics curricula designed and developed in the Netherlands in the past? What was the role of the actors involved; what factors were very influential? These questions form the subject matter of this thesis. Possibly, knowledge of past processes could result in a more objective debate and a better balanced design and development of future mathematics curricula. We selected three historical cases on mathematics education, which were at the time considered a success. As much as possible data were collected from historical sources. To structure and describe the data, concepts from curriculum theory are used. One result is an extensive description of the mathematics curriculum of the Dutch Engineering School in the 17th century, of the Foundation of Renswoude in Utrecht in the 18th century and of the higher school for citizens (HBS) in the 19th century. Furthermore, a comparison of the three historical examples shows that for the intended curriculum there always was an influential initiator, with a clear aim, who was surrounded by capable people. Those people translated the ideals and aims into a viable formal curriculum. In the implementation the qualities of the mathematics teachers were considered extremely important; including education and knowledge relevant to the goals of the curriculum and pedagogical-didactical skills. The teachers were usually part of a network with relatively short connections, in which monitoring and accountability were normal procedures. The level of specification of the formal curriculum might differ; mathematics teachers determined the content and chose the learning materials and learning activities. Transition demands from the next stage, study or profession, were an important influence on the mathematics curriculum. Exams were an essential component in each curriculum, but not necessarily final exams. A preliminary analysis of the development and first period of implementation of the current mathematics curriculum in higher secondary school, shows that similar factors and actors were influential, however in different circumstances the influence appeared to be more negative. Based on knowledge about important factors and actors in mathematics curricula in the past, it is recommended that when designing a new mathematics curriculum, care is taken of matters such as the following. · An interpretation of ideals into a formal curriculum that is viable within the given conditions. · Clarity with regard to the main aims and other explicit and implicit aims; conflicts between aims should be solved as soon as possible. · The curriculum combines substantial content with modern digital learning materials. · Mandatory in-service training for all mathematics teachers, taking into account the individual level of knowledge and skills. · Selection of subject matter, learning materials and learning activities should first and for all be the responsibility of the mathematics teachers. · Sufficient financial means, taking into account the required in-service training, time and space for consultation between teachers, combined with a smart organisation. · A smart organisation in secondary education includes networks of teachers, both inside the school and between schools and with connections to primary and higher education.


The possibility to outsource over the internet should revolutionize foreign outsourcing, especially for services (UNCTAD, 2004). Our model describes materials and services input allocation from domestic vs. foreign suppliers. Allocations change when firms outsource online due to access and competition effects. Using data for 99 firms who started outsourcing online in 2003 together with a control group (never outsourcing online) of over 682 Irish firms, we apply OLS and Propensity Score Matching with Difference-in-Differences to find that 42-48 percent of foreign services inputs growth arises from online outsourcing.


This article presents results from a research project exploring the relational interplay between school staff and students, its functions and complexity in the secondary school context. School relationships (between students and different kinds of staff) are more or less indirectly related to educational content: subject matter as well as norms and values. In the teacher–student relationship, the teaching and learning of subject matter largely defines the relationship, whereas for school support staff, the relationship to such content is fairly distant. However, they all have in common that these assigned functions are created for the purpose of enabling the education of our youth. In this article, a case study from a secondary school is used to develop a typology for understanding the relevance that content may have in these different types of relationships. We also explore the sometimes unpredictable ways in which content can emerge as relevant. A year-long case study was conducted during the 2012–2013 school year at a secondary school that had recently been renovated and in which work had been done to improve the educational environment. Multiple data sources were used, including document analysis, mapping, contextual observations and interviews. Official statistics, newspaper articles and school quality reports were used to contextualize the case. In this article, interviews with different categories of school staff and students formed the main source of data. The different assigned functions of the staff were categorized as: educators, education professionals (e.g. counsellors) and education support professionals (e.g. caretakers). Although the latter were often indirectly connected to content, they could also have relevance through the relationships that they developed with students. Here, there is a point in separating the staff's assigned function as officially described and their relation to students as played out in practice. Two examples illustrate how members of staff diverge somewhat from their assigned functions in informal places and spaces to facilitate the educational experience of the students. It is argued that in a school for all students, this flexibility in school relationships can improve students' relations to content and school success.


The importance of manufacturing Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) to the economy is well documented. Most research on SMEs focuses on efficiency-related measures. The literature suggests that a significant amount of efficiency based initiatives have been directed at SMEs and that the time is now opportune to consider a more strategic approach. The literature survey indicates a dearth of empirical research on strategic planning in SMEs. In addition, the literature implies that strategic planning is influenced by a range of factors, which include culture, leadership and contingency factors such as the formality of planning, barriers to strategic development, the operating environment, size, ownership, perceived market share and industrial sector. Little is known about these factors in relation to SMEs and no attempt has been made to examine them in one integrated model in any firm size. Accordingly, the aim of this study was to empirically test the validity of a deductive model linking contingency factors: culture, leadership, strategic planning and organisational performance. This was attained by formulating a series of objectives and testing these objectives using a variety of methods. These included descriptive statistics, factor analysis, chi-square tests, canonical correlation analysis and the wilcoxon test.
The research utilises a hybrid positivist-phenomenological method. Exploratory research methods in conjunction with the literature review were-used Ho-develop an inductive model. The exploratory interviews were held with managing directors of SMEs in the engineering and electronics' sectors. A postal survey was used as it is the most reliable and effective means of data gathering in order to test the deductive model. The survey was based on the opinions or perceptions of managing directors - an approach extensively used by other researchers. The questionnaire achieved a satisfactory response rate (nearly 28%) and yielded strong factor structures during the data analysis stage. The main statistical techniques used in the analysis of the data included factor analysis and canonical correlation analysis - to derive clear associations between the main concepts and to link all the main factors in the deductive model.
The key findings indicate that there is no association between the contingency factors and the main concepts in the deductive model: culture, leadership, strategic planning and organisational performance. In addition, none of the contingency factors impact on the product type (mature, standard or customised), the proportion of total sales exported or the propensity to invest in research and development.
All the attributes of organisational culture are associated with the characteristics of strategic planning. The analysis also indicates that strategic planning is associated with the following dimensions of organisational performance: learning and growth, meeting customer demands and the provision of quality goods on time. This tends to suggest that strategic planning leads to an improvement in effectiveness. The results in relation to the main concepts of leadership, culture, strategic planning and organisational performance indicate that transactional - rewards, competence, creativity and employee focused leadership styles are associated with all five cultural types. The results indicate that these leadership styles are also likely to impact to a greater extent on strategic planning than laissez faire leadership styles. This finding broadens the Wilderom and van den Berg categorisation of leadership by the inclusion of transactional – rewards attributes.
The analysis of the data suggests that high success firms place a strong emphasis on each of the attributes of leadership and culture associated with strategic planning and on each of the characteristics of strategic planning associated with organisational performance. The main parts of the deductive model are therefore confirmed.
Finally, a comparison of the emphasis given to the attributes of culture, leadership and strategic planning by firms with 1-9 employees and those with 100-249 employees failed to detect any statistically significant differences. Accordingly, it can be concluded that size is not a key determinant of behaviour. The hypothesis that SMEs adhere to generic strategies such as the Miles and Snow typology was partially supported. These findings enable a greater understanding of the influences on strategic planning in SMEs and its role in relation to organisational performance. In particular, the findings are relevant to SME managing directors, policy makers, business advisers and researchers.
The research improves the understanding of strategic planning in SMEs. It fills a number of gaps identified in the literature review in relation to the relationship between contingency factors, culture, leadership, strategic planning and performance.
The main limitation of this study results from the use of a single respondent, although it should be noted that this approach has a strong base in the literature. Other possible limitations include the use of a lengthy questionnaire, the restriction of the sample to only two industrial sectors and the use of the strategic planning process as a surrogate measure of strategy. However, it is important to note that the latter is not unusual and other researchers have also adopted this approach.
The thesis comprises eleven chapters. Chapter 1 introduces the study by providing a brief critique of the literature and sets the study's aims and objectives. Chapters 2-6 provide the literature review in relation to: SMEs, strategic planning, leadership and culture. The methodology and research design are outlined in chapter 7. The remaining chapters involve the analysis of the data and the testing of the deductive model.


Most programming languages have been designed by committees or individuals. What happens if, instead, we throw open the design process and let lots of programmers weigh in on semantic choices? Will they avoid well-known mistakes like dynamic scope? What do they expect of aliasing? What kind of overloading behavior will they choose? We investigate this issue by posing questions to programmers on Amazon Mechanical Turk. We examine several language features, in each case using multiple-choice questions to explore programmer preferences. We check the responses for consensus (agreement between people) and consistency (agreement across responses from one person). In general we find low consistency and consensus, potential confusion over mainstream features, and arguably poor design choices. In short, this preliminary evidence does not argue in favor of designing languages based on programmer preference.


Nanostructured transparent conducting oxide (TCO) layers gain increasing importance as high surface area electrodes enabling incorporation of functional redox species with high loading. The fabrication of porous TCO films, namely, antimony‐doped tin oxide (ATO), is reported using the self‐assembly of preformed ATO nanocrystals with poly(ethylene oxide‐b‐hexyl acrylate) (PEO‐b‐PHA) block copolymer. The high molar mass of the polymer and tunable solution processing conditions enable the fabrication of TCO electrodes with pore sizes ranging from mesopores to macropores. Particularly notable is access to uniform macroporous films with a nominal pore size of around 80 nm, which is difficult to obtain by other techniques. The combination of tunable porosity with a large conducting interface makes the obtained layers versatile current collectors with adjustable performance. While all the obtained electrodes incorporate a large amount of small redox molecules such as molybdenum polyoxometalate, only the electrodes with sufficiently large macropores are able to accommodate high amounts of bulky photoactive photosystem I (PSI) protein complexes. The 11‐fold enhancement of the current response of PSI modified macroporous ATO electrodes compared to PSI on planar indium tin oxide (ITO), makes this type of electrodes promising candidates for the development of biohybrid devices.