Ten studies reported in this thesis outline the development of a behavioural test for assessing the role of verbal behaviour in identifying personal and social histories. The testing format was developed by employing the Stimulus Equivalence paradigm (Sidman, 1971) and extending upon the previous work of Watt, Keenan, Barnes and Cairns (1991). Chapter 1 presents a review of the behavioural literature concerned with stimulus equivalence and derived stimulus relations. Most importantly, a seminal study by Watt et al. (1991) is outlined. In that study, a simple stimulus equivalence paradigm was used to take advantage of the fact that people in Northern Ireland often respond to each other's names as indicative of religious background. Specifically, the researchers attempted to teach subjects the necessary baseline conditional discriminations to form two equivalence classes that were incongruent with the subject's social history. Watt et al. (1991) concluded subjects' personal and social histories interfere with their ability to derive specific equivalence relations in the laboratory. The relevance of this paradigm to all of the experimental work reported in this thesis is outlined.

Chapter 2 reports on two experiments (Experiments 1 & 2) that tested the applicability of the Watt et al. paradigm as a tool for assessing personal and social histories as discussed in Chapter 1. In Experiment 1, a novel Yes/No procedure was employed in a controlled experimental laboratory preparation to create and test for social histories. This novel YES/NO procedure required subjects to respond to two stimuli in the presence of the question "Do they go together" by clicking on either a Yes or No button on a computer screen. Experiment 2 involved an experiment that expanded upon this technique by applying this novel Yes/No adaptation of the Watt et al. paradigm in an
effort to assess the social categorisation of real-world terms by men and women from the general population. Both studies demonstrated the applicability of the adapted Watt et al. paradigm in assessing both laboratory-controlled and real-world social and personal histories. In Chapter 3, Experiment 3 explored the possibility of assessing differences in social history when using a novel instruction-based relational test. The test measure was capable of identifying subjects' laboratory created histories on the basis of response accuracy differentials across the test blocks in the absence of the equivalence training used in the Watt et al. Paradigm. That is, in place of equivalence training, subjects were presented with onscreen instructions informing them which stimuli to "put together" in the relevant phase of the test. Subjects were then presented with two test blocks, accompanied by different matching instructions. These blocks consisted of matching tasks involving the presentation of word pairs and in which responses to the Yes or No buttons were required. One set of rules was congruent with the subjects' personal/social history and the other set was incongruent with the subjects' personal/social history. This greatly modified Watt et al. procedure did not require equivalence training, but nevertheless successfully identified subjects' social and personal histories.

In Chapter 4, the relational test procedure (described in Chapter 3) was modified slightly and applied in a real-world setting to examine and identify the use of socially sensitive verbal relations within a series of different populations. This was explored across 2 experiments (Experiments 4 & 5). Experiment 4 demonstrated the utility of the current testing procedure in detecting cultural differences across populations with regard to the historical categorisation of socially sensitive stimuli relevant to the issue of homosexuality and homophobia. The test format was modified in that subjects no longer
responded using the onscreen YES and NO keys, but by pressing either a Blue or Red button onscreen in place of YES and NO, respectively. In this experiment, homosexual males from the USA and Ireland completed the modified relational test procedure consisting of two test blocks. Each block consisted of identical matching tasks but was accompanied by a distinct set of instructions. One set of instructions was congruent with the subjects' history (i.e., gay goes with good) while the other was incongruent (i.e., gay goes with bad). The test was successful in identifying the cultural background of subjects taking the test.

A slight modification of the foregoing procedure in Experiment 5 gave rise to similar results with regard to female subjects' categorisation of terms relating to children and sex. That is, when the relational test procedure was presented as before, but with subjects responding using keys on the keyboard, female subjects' fluency in associating child and sex terms was lower than their fluency in relating adult and sexual terms. That is, when instructed matching was congruent with the female subjects' personal and social histories (i.e. child goes with nonsexual) response accuracies were greater than when matching instructions were incongruent (i.e. child goes with sexual).

In Chapter 5, the experimental focus moved towards the use of a single stimulus onscreen rather than stimulus pairs. This represented a radical departure from the procedure used in Chapters 2-4. Specifically, subjects were no longer required to explicitly match the stimuli onscreen in relation to each other. Instead, Experiment 6 sought to assess the rate of acquisition of common response functions to words considered compatible for a normal population compared to words considered incompatible for a normal population. The experiment identified gender differences in
the rate of acquisition of common stimulus functions for members of distinct (e.g., child and sexual) and common (e.g., adult and sexual) verbal relations.

In Chapter 6, a laboratory analogue of the new single stimulus test procedure was developed. This was developed in tandem with a behavioural analysis of the Implicit Association Test (IAT; Greenwald, McGhee, & Schwartz, 1998) due to the topographical similarity of both measures. Specifically, Chapter 6 examined the IAT test format in terms of behavioural processes whilst also providing a laboratory analysis of the current test procedure using arbitrary laboratory created stimuli across a series of experiments (Experiments 7, 8, 9 & 10). Chapter 6 showed that a laboratory history of respondent conditioning and derived relational responding is sufficient in generating an IAT effect. In addition, this effect is malleable depending on the type of stimulus equivalence testing employed (i.e., symmetry and transitivity combined, transitivity alone, or no test). Chapter 7 provides a summary of the entire research program presented in the thesis, and reviews the development of a functionally-understood model of the IAT. Some important empirical and conceptual issues that arise from the various findings are also outlined. Finally, the relationship of the current research to work outside the field of behaviour analysis is considered.


This report is Section two of a series of reports on aeronautic instruments (Technical Report nos. 125 to 132, inclusive). This section discusses briefly barometric altitude determinations, and describes in detail the principal types of altimeters and barographs used in aeronautics during the recent war. This is followed by a discussion of performance requirements for such instruments and an account of the methods of testing developed by the Bureau of Standards. The report concludes with a brief account of the results of recent investigations. For accurate measurements of altitude, reference must also be made to thermometer readings of atmospheric temperature, since the altitude is not fixed by atmospheric pressure alone. This matter is discussed in connection with barometric altitude determination.


The text discusses on the air quality with various types of pollutants which included primary and secondary gaseous pollutants, respirable particulate, lead and microbes. Health impacts on children such as respiratory symptoms, asthma, allergies, and impairment of the lung functions, cognitive, as well as hearing ability have been discussed as evidence from previous research findings in other countries generally and in Malaysia specifically.
Vulnerability of children to the gaseous ambient air pollutants were highlighted. The indoor air quality has also lately posed threats to children especially microbes in indoor environment. These microbes specifically fungus, caused allergic reactions as well as trigger asthmatic related symptoms to sensitive groups. With the increase of environmental threats such as climate change, air quality will deteriorate further which may amplify respiratory
diseases and health problems among children especially the urban poor. Health risk assessment as a tool, can be used to assess the risk, however, it has limitations and is not protective of children. The US EPA has developed a "A Framework for Assessing Health Risk of Environmental Exposures to Children" document with the purpose of providing an overarching framework for a more complete
assessment of children's exposure to environmental agents and the resulting potential health risks. The future direction spells out the responsibilities of parents, teachers, ministries and governmental roles in the protection of children's health.


T ABLE OF C ONTENTS : I. Introduction. – II. A constitutional moment: admissibility subordinated to competence. – III. The tension between the institutional and the organic visions of Europe: the nature of the contested act. – IV. ERTA and us: contested equilibria between the two visions of Europe? – V. Concluding remarks. A BSTRACT : The ERTA case marks the constitutional inception of EU external relations. It laid the foun-dations for the legal framework governing the exercise of the EU's external competences and is often associated with the development of the doctrine of implied powers. The main tenets of the Court's pronouncement continue to define the fabric of the EU's external action. As the first Commission v Council litigation, ERTA encapsulates a still perceivable tension between two visions of Europe. One emphasises the autonomy of the EU institutional framework, the other regards the EU institutions as common organs in the hands of the Member States. ERTA 's dossier de procédure constitutes a unique laboratory to assess the development of the EU as a legal order and an international actor. Its precious documents offer new sources to appreciate the abovementioned tension and unravel the shifting constitutional equilibria emerging from the interplay between EU and Member States treaty-making powers. Building on the archival research, this Article reflects on the inner working of the Court's judicial strategy. It seeks to shed novel light on the genealogy of the fascinating debate on the constitutional underpinnings of EU external relations. K EYWORDS legal Council legal organic Europe sincere cooperation effet utile autonomy.


Activation of the transmembrane receptor type I for transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) requires its phosphorylation by transmembrane receptor type II (TβR-II). Phosphorylation of serine and threonine residues occurs in the conserved juxtamembrane domain of TβR-I called the GS region, but just how multiple phosphorylation activates the receptor to signal to downstream molecules including the transcription factor Smad has not been clear. Huse et al. show that a tetraphosphorylated form of the GS region had increased affinity for Smad2. When not phosphorylated, the GS region bound to the inhibitory immunophilin FKBP12. FKBP12 interaction is known to stabilize a catalytically inactive form of TβR-I. The presence of the nucleotide ATP weakened FKBP12-TβR interaction, suggesting competitive binding. The authors propose that when unphosphorylated, TβR-I assumes a conformation that binds to either FKBP12 or ATP. Phosphorylation of the GS region activates the receptor by eliminating binding of FKBP12 and enhancing affinity for the Smad substrate. M. Huse, T.W. Muir, L. Xu, Y.-G. Chen, J. Kuriyan, J. Massagué, The TGFβ receptor activation process: An inhibitor- to substrate-binding switch. Mol. Cell 8, 671-682 (2001). [Online Journal]


We introduce this special issue of Medial Anthropology Quarterly on public health genomics by exploring both the unique contribution of ethnographic sensibility that medical anthropologists bring to the study of genomics and some of the key insights offered by the essays in this collection. As anthropologists, we are concerned with the power dynamics and larger cultural commitments embedded in practices associated with public health. We seek to understand, first, the broad significance of genomics as a cultural object and, second, the social action set into motion as researchers seek to translate genomic knowledge and technology into public health benefits.


This Essay provides relatively novel answers to two related questions: First, are there moral reasons to limit the sorts of existences it is permissible to bring people into, such that one would be morally prohibited from procreating in certain circumstances? Second, can the state justify a legal prohibition on procreation in those circumstances using that moral reasoning, so that the law would likely be constitutional? These questions are not new, but my answers to them are and add to the existing literature in several ways. First, I offer a possible resolution to a recent debate among legal scholars regarding what has been called the nonidentity problem and its relation to the right to procreate. Second, using that resolution, I provide a novel constitutional argument that at least begins to justify limiting the right to procreate.This Essay proceeds in three parts. Part I introduces the nonidentity problem, explains why it creates seemingly irresolvable dilemmas for constitutional law, and sketches out two opposing positions in the legal debate. Part II uses a common exception to the nonidentity problem to buttress Lukas Meyer's solution: the notion of threshold harm. If my argument holds true, one cannot admit there is such a thing as a life not "worth living" without endorsing the notion that future persons deserve lives above some minimum threshold of well-being. Finally, Part III analogizes threshold harm to the state's compelling interest in protecting the welfare of living children. It demonstrates that if the state can limit the fundamental right to parent children when the parenting would cause the children's lives to be below a defined threshold of well-being, then the state can limit the fundamental right to procreate.


The main purpose of this study was to report the findings on physics students' critical thinking of early implementation of an integrated problem-based learning (PBL) approach. This study was performed on a cohort of 28 Physics with Electronics students from School of Science and Technology at University Malaysia Sabah. The sample was trained by the integrated PBL method for 1 semester (i.e., 14 weeks). Participants' critical thinking was evaluated using a previously validated instrument, the Watson Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal (WGCTA) (i.e., inference; assumption; deduction; interpretation; evaluation arguments) and their creative-critical thinking (i.e., superior creative thinking style; creative thinking style; balanced thinking style; critical thinking style; and superior critical thinking style) was using the YanPiaw Creative-Critical Thinking. Both tests administered before (pre-test, Form A) and (post-test, Form B) the teaching and learning process.. The result shows that there is significant different in two criterions that from WGCTA test: inference(sig 2-tailed, t = -3.478, p=.001<*.05) and interpretation(sig 2-tailed, t = -5.53, p=.00*<.05). As for the creative-critical thinking skills, the YCreative-Critical Thinking Test shows almost 32% of the students thinking style fall on balanced thinking style.


Welcome to the IASSIST Quarterly first issue of 2021 and of volume 45 (IQ 45(1) 2021).
I always find it interesting to learn more about other research areas. Often, I find approaches in less well-known areas can be transformed and transferred to my own areas, or make me aware of problems unwisely ignored hitherto and becoming potentials. In the case of the first article, you will become aware of the connection with linguistics from a data viewpoint. As a search for datasets requires using words of a language it is obvious that linguistic knowledge can be of benefit. However, most is obvious when you think of it - afterwards. Often, it is because you did not think it through - beforehand - that new information surprises you. And this also gives you a good opportunity to thank people who are working in areas you had not thought of - before. The benefits of combining and merging types of data such as linking survey data and social media data are obvious - again!  Before you start the journey of joining these types of data, the second article will provide you with valuable information gained from the experience of several projects and exemplified through cases using Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
The first article shows the support for diversity in research areas already in the title:  'A recommendation to the SSH community: take a linguist on board' authored by Jeannine Beeken of UK Data Service at University of Essex (UK). Theories and methods of linguistics are obviously relevant for data services where the search for and retrieval of data collections from vast data archives is an important step in the process towards analysis and findings in data. Beeken starts by introducing us to areas of this important retrieval step that are supported by Natural Language Processing (NLP) that increases findability, with the result that relevant descriptions of data collections are identified through online search. A simple example is that when searching for survey questions concerning 'war' the results will also include those from a search for 'armed conflict'. The development and upkeep of thesauri and language relationships is a huge and valuable task that is itself supported by linguistics and computers, for example by intelligent creation of metadata for studies. Linguistic knowledge is not only relevant for finding data but also valuable for the production of data. Computer linguistics have made great progress for the growing number of studies based on texts and data in the form of interviews. In the article, speech recognition and speech-to-text transcription is mentioned and the resulting interview transcription text can again become the subject of further computer and linguistic analysis.
The second article 'Informed consent for linking survey and social media data - differences between platforms and data types' will prepare you for benefits and obstacles when joining data from surveys and social media. The article is a part of the outcomes of several projects with participation of the authors Johannes Breuer, Tarek Al Baghal, Luke Sloan, Libby Bishop, Dimitra Kondyli, and Apostolos Linardis. The authors are based at GESIS in Germany, Essex University and Cardiff University in the UK, and EKKE in Greece. The article draws on their own projects as well as on specific other projects delivering the examples in the article.
When using self-reporting in research surveys - in this case for the study of social media - the data can prove to be unreliable. On the other hand, when research obtains data directly from the social media platforms the background, attitude, and behaviour variables for individuals are sparse compared to surveys. The obvious solution is to link such data collections. However, the linking requires informed consent. The 'joining of data' and 'informed consent' implies awareness of legal regulations - like GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) in Europe - as well as ethical standards and guidelines of relevant institutions. The article discusses these issues and demonstrates them through three studies that used data from Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Furthermore, the regulations and setups for the social platforms have to be well scrutinized. For example, if respondents share their private data, these may also affect the privacy rights of others, and data that are collected via APIs may have special restrictions with regard to data sharing. The appendices of the article contain the full text used in the various projects for explicating the use of data and the conditions in the linking of survey and social media data. In addition to raising general awareness and giving a good overview of problems when using social media data, the article will initiate you into being well prepared, as the cases discussed include many valuable references to pursue if you plan on commencing a project linking social media data with survey data.
Enjoy the reading.

Submissions of papers for the IASSIST Quarterly are always very welcome. We welcome input from IASSIST conferences or other conferences and workshops, from local presentations or papers especially written for the IQ. When you are preparing such a presentation, give a thought to turning your one-time presentation into a lasting contribution. Doing that after the event also gives you the opportunity of improving your work after feedback. We encourage you to login or create an author profile at https://www.iassistquarterly.com (our Open Journal System application). We permit authors to have 'deep links' into the IQ as well as deposition of the paper in your local repository. Chairing a conference session or workshop with the purpose of aggregating and integrating papers for a special issue IQ is also much appreciated as the information reaches many more people than the limited number of session participants and will be readily available on the IASSIST Quarterly website at https://www.iassistquarterly.com. Authors are very welcome to take a look at the instructions and layout:
https://www.iassistquarterly.com/index.php/iassist/about/submissions
Authors can also contact me directly via e-mail: email@example.com. Should you be interested in compiling a special issue for the IQ as guest editor(s) I will also be delighted to hear from you.
Karsten Boye Rasmussen - March 2021


Tumour debulking surgery aims to produce a smaller target for adjuvant therapy whilst also removing much of the tumour associated immunosuppression. Even so, cures are rarely seen in either animal studies or human patients receiving debulking surgery plus adjuvant chemo-immunotherapy, despite evidence of effector T cell activation that should be strong enough to overcome tumour growth. Adjuvant immunotherapies can be used to eradicate distant micro metastases or cancer cells that remain after surgery, but have limited success. This could be due to 'immune brakes' that continue to operate, suppressing the anti-tumour response. This is particularly true for mesothelioma, metastatic melanoma and colorectal cancer, which are the main focus of this project. Tumour-induced immune suppression may be caused by suppressive immune cells such as regulatory T cells (Tregs) and myeloid derived suppressor cells (MDSCs). Both of these cellular populations suppress the anti-tumour effector T cell responses including the effectiveness of cytolytic CD8+ T cells both systemically and locally. This project will use a combined approach to alleviate immune suppression in combination with debulking surgery through the targeted removal of suppressive Treg and MDSC subsets. This project aimed to improve the response seen with debulking surgery by removing tumour-associated immune suppression. The hypothesis was that removing these 'brakes' on the anti-tumour immune response would release a stronger, lasting anti-tumour response elicited by adjuvant immunotherapy after surgical debulking. Thus, the results from this study may direct future clinical trials and potentially allow partial debulking surgery to remain a valid treatment option for these patients, especially if followed with the appropriate immunotherapy regimens.


In the paper, we propose a class of efficient momentum-based policy gradient methods for the model-free reinforcement learning, which use adaptive learning rates and do not require any large batches. Specifically, we propose a fast important-sampling momentum-based policy gradient (IS-MBPG) method based on a new momentum-based variance reduced technique and the importance sampling technique. We also propose a fast Hessian-aided momentum-based policy gradient (HA-MBPG) method based on the momentum-based variance reduced technique and the Hessian-aided technique. Moreover, we prove that both the IS-MBPG and HA-MBPG methods reach the best known sample complexity of $O(\epsilon^{-3})$ for finding an $\epsilon$-stationary point of the non-concave performance function, which only require one trajectory at each iteration. In particular, we present a non-adaptive version of IS-MBPG method, i.e., IS-MBPG*, which also reaches the best known sample complexity of $O(\epsilon^{-3})$ without any large batches. In the experiments, we apply four benchmark tasks to demonstrate the effectiveness of our algorithms.


Objective. Humans systematically make poor decisions because of cognitive biases. Can digital games train people to avoid cognitive biases? The goal of this study is to investigate the affordance of different educational media in training people about cognitive biases and to mitigate cognitive biases within their decision-making processes. Method. A between-subject experiment was conducted to compare a digital game, a traditional slideshow, and a combined condition in mitigating two types of cognitive biases: anchoring bias and representativeness bias. We measured both immediate effects and delayed effects after four weeks. Results. The digital game and slideshow conditions were effective in mitigating cognitive biases immediately after the training, but the effects decayed after four weeks. By providing the basic knowledge through the slideshow, then allowing learners to practice bias-mitigation techniques in the digital game, the combined condition was most effective at mitigating the cognitive biases both immediately and after four weeks.


The purpose of this thesis is to investigate new instrument technology to enhance the capabilities of 8-m telescopes. This thesis first describes the theory, design, construction, and testing of an immersed grating. Immersed gratings can be used to provide R≥ 10(^4) with a multi-object and/or integral field spectrograph on an 8-m telescope. Immersed gratings allow high resolution to be achieved whilst maintaining the required pupil size at a level similar to that on 4-m telescopes. This thesis describes laboratory tests which verify that immersed gratings provide high resolution. The throughput penalty in using an immersed grating is shown to be small with losses due to air-glass reflections, which can be eliminated with antireflection coatings, and metal-dielectric losses. This work demonstrates that immersed gratings provide a good method to reach R=10(^4) (and above) with a multi-aperture spectrograph on an 8-m telescope. The second part of this thesis describes the construction of a microlens-fibre based integral field unit (IFU): the SMIRFS-IFU. This instrument provides a unique J and H-band integral field capability for use with the CGS4 spectrograph at UKIRT. The optical design, assembly, laboratory testing, and telescope commissioning of the SMIRFS-IFU are described. The microlens arrays for use with SMIRFS-IFU were tested in detail and found to provide excellent image quality but with some scattered light. The assembly of the SMIRFS-IFU was achieved with high precision. The overall performance of the SMIRFS-IFU was found to be high and close to theoretical expectations. This instrument demonstrates that the technology of microlenses linked to fibres does provide a means of constructing high performance (i.e. high throughput, high spatial and spectral resolution) IFUs. Integral field spectroscopy is even more important for 8-m telescopes to take advantage of their enormous fight gathering power. The SMIRFS-IFU is an important upgrade to CGS4 to perform high spatial resolution integral field spectroscopy.


The abilities to deliver siRNA to its intended action site and assess the delivery efficiency are challenges for current RNAi therapy, where effective siRNA delivery will join force with patient genetic profiling to achieve optimal treatment outcome. Imaging could become a critical enabler to maximize RNAi efficacy in the context of tracking siRNA delivery, rational dosimetry and treatment planning. Several imaging modalities have been used to visualize nanoparticle-based siRNA delivery but rarely did they guide treatment planning. We report a multimodal theranostic lipid-nanoparticle, HPPS(NIR)-chol-siRNA, which has a near-infrared (NIR) fluorescent core, enveloped by phospholipid monolayer, intercalated with siRNA payloads, and constrained by apoA-I mimetic peptides to give ultra-small particle size (<30 nm). Using fluorescence imaging, we demonstrated its cytosolic delivery capability for both NIR-core and dye-labeled siRNAs and its structural integrity in mice through intravenous administration, validating the usefulness of NIR-core as imaging surrogate for non-labeled therapeutic siRNAs. Next, we validated the targeting specificity of HPPS(NIR)-chol-siRNA to orthotopic tumor using sequential four-steps (in vivo, in situ, ex vivo and frozen-tissue) fluorescence imaging. The image co-registration of computed tomography and fluorescence molecular tomography enabled non-invasive assessment and treatment planning of siRNA delivery into the orthotopic tumor, achieving efficacious RNAi therapy.


The pattern of late Weichselian (ca. 20 ka) ice flow in the northern Barents Sea is not well known, due mainly to a lack of marine data east of Svalbard. Several years with little summer sea ice have allowed acquisition of swath-bathymetric imagery of well-preserved subglacial landforms characterizing late Weichselian ice-flow directions over ∼150,000 km2 of the northwestern Barents Sea. We show that a major ice dome was located on easternmost Spitsbergen or southern Hinlopen Strait, at least 500 km west of its previously inferred position in the northern Barents Sea. This dome controlled the regional flow pattern; ice flowed eastward around Kong Karls Land into Franz Victoria Trough and north through Hinlopen Strait. An ice dome west of Kong Karls Land is required to explain the observed ice-flow pattern, but does not preclude an additional ice dome to the southeast. Discrepancies with earlier ice-sheet reconstructions reflect the lack of previous seafloor observations, with evidence limited mainly to past ice loading and postglacial rebound. The new pattern of ice-flow directions shows predominantly eastward rather than northward flow, with Franz Victoria Trough a major drainage pathway with a full-glacial balance flux of >40 km3 yr−1.


The muscle-specific basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) protein myogenin activates muscle transcription by binding to target sequences in muscle-specific promoters and enhancers as a heterodimer with ubiquitous bHLH proteins, such as the E2A gene products E12 and E47. We show that dimerization with E2A products potentiates phosphorylation of myogenin at sites within its amino- and carboxyl-terminal transcription activation domains. Phosphorylation of myogenin at these sites was mediated by the bHLH region of E2A products and was dependent on dimerization but not on DNA binding. Mutations of the dimerization-dependent phosphorylation sites resulted in enhanced transcriptional activity of myogenin, suggesting that their phosphorylation diminishes myogenin's transcriptional activity. The ability of E2A products to potentiate myogenin phosphorylation suggests that dimerization induces a conformational change in myogenin that unmasks otherwise cryptic phosphorylation sites or that E2A proteins recruit a kinase for which myogenin is a substrate. That phosphorylation of these dimerization-dependent sites diminished myogenin's transcriptional activity suggests that these sites are targets for a kinase that interferes with muscle-specific gene expression.


Background  This exploratory study investigated the relationships between illness beliefs and treatment acceptability among parents of children with a developmental disability living at home who had sleep onset or maintenance problems.

Materials and Methods  A within-subject correlational design was employed. The parents of 58 children each completed questionnaires assessing their beliefs and attributions towards the sleep problem and the acceptability of two common treatments (behavioural and melatonin).

Results  Parents believed sleep problems to be chronic, to have negative consequences, yet to be potentially curable/controllable. They rated behavioural treatment and melatonin similarly in terms of acceptability. Behavioural treatment acceptability was related to how long parents believed the sleep problem would last and to a number of causal attributions. The acceptability of melatonin was related to how severe the consequences of the sleep problem were believed to be and to a specific causal attribution. Parents who preferred melatonin to behavioural treatment believed that their child's sleep problem had more negative consequences on their child's life.

Conclusions  Specific beliefs held by parents about their child's sleep problems might influence treatment acceptability and treatment choice. Parents are split between those who would prefer behavioural treatment and those who would prefer melatonin. However, as the sleep problem becomes more severe, it seems more likely that parents would choose the pharmacological treatment.


In The New Left, National Identity, and the Break-Up of Britain Wade Matthews offers an intellectual history of the New Left, with a focus on the nexus between socialism and national identity in the work of key New Left thinkers.


Multi-wavelength observations of the black widow binary system 2FGL J2339.6-0532 are reported. The Fermi gamma-ray source 2FGL J2339.6-0532 was recently categorized as a black widow in which a recycled millisecond pulsar (MSP) is evaporating the companion star with its powerful pulsar wind. Our optical observations show clear sinusoidal light curves due to the asymmetric temperature distribution of the companion star. Assuming a simple geometry, we constrained the range of the inclination angle of the binary system to 52 ° < i < 59 ° ?> , which enables us to discuss the interaction between the pulsar wind and the companion in detail. The X-ray spectrum consists of two components: a soft, steady component that seems to originate from the surface of the MSP, and a hard, variable component from the wind-termination shock near the companion star. The measured X-ray luminosity is comparable to the bolometric luminosity of the companion, meaning that the heating efficiency is less than 0.5. In the companion orbit, 1011 cm from the pulsar, the pulsar wind is already in the particle-dominant stage with a magnetization parameter of &sgr; < 0.1 ?> . In addition, we precisely investigated the time variations of the X-ray periodograms and detected a weakening of the orbital modulation. The observed phenomenon may be related to unstable pulsar wind activity or weak mass accretion, both of which can result in the temporal extinction of the radio pulse.


The paper looks at social and psychological changes in Russian society during Putin's third presidency. This period is unique for Post-Soviet transformation of the Russian state. It differs from the previous political development in many ways. First of all we deal with an old, but new leader with his newly obtained experience of the premiership. Second, Russian society is not the same as in his previous presidencies. Third, tremendous changes have occurred in internal political context not to mention global context of Putin's third term. The paper is based on two largescale empirical studies undertaken by the Sociology and Psychology of politics chair in Department of Politics, Lomonosov Moscow University under author's guidance. The first study focuses on the images of Russian politics, political values and concepts reflected in the minds of Russian citizens in current electoral cycle. In particular, special attention is paid to the way, citizens perceive power, political institutions, state, parliament and leaders. The paper discusses recent trends in political perception of Russian society. The second study is devoted to the analysis of Russian political elites. Acting deputies of Duma, governors, leaders of 4 parliamentary political parties and ministers of the government were studied in this project from the point of view of their biographical trajectories, political views, values, concepts, motives and other social psychological characteristics. Both projects use new original methods that permit to reveal and describe a "human dimension" of politics.


We present an attempt at using 3rd party observer gaze to get a measure of how appropriate each segment in a dialogue is for a speaker change. The method is a step away from the current dependency of speaker turns or talkspurts towards a more general view of speaker changes. We show that 3rd party observers do indeed largely look at the same thing (the speaker), and how this can be captured and utilized to provide insights into human communication. In addition, the results also suggest that there might be differences in the distribution of 3rd party observer gaze depending on how information-rich an utterance is.


Accurate estimations of population size and space-use are critical issues, for assessing population trends and extinction risk. In this study, we applied spatially explicit capture-recapture (SECR) modelling customized for linear habitats to a three-year Capture-Mark-Recapture (CMR) monitoring of three populations of stream-dwelling Pyrenean brook newt (Calotriton asper), an endemic species of the Pyrenean mountain range. Our aim was to explore (1) spatial and temporal variation in population densities, home range size and individual detection probability during breeding season between populations and years, and (2) the influence of water temperature and flow on activity of newts. Estimates of population density range from 3044 to 4641 individuals/km of stream across the three years of the study. Linear home range along the stream was estimated to be 13.31 m from the home range centre on average over the three years. All detection probability estimates were similar, both between years and between sites, with a mean probability of 0.09, except in Fougax in 2020 where detection probability was 0.03. Activity of the Pyrenean brook newt was influenced by water temperature and flow, but these factors acted at different time scales. Overall, population densities are locally high in both populations but home range of the Pyrenean brook newt during breeding season is very small indicating a strong site attachment. The importance of water temperature and flow on activity emphasizes the sensitivity of the species to these factors that are forecasted to change in coming decades.


Although Bayesian analysis has been in use since Laplace, the Bayesian method of model-comparison has only recently been developed in depth. In this paper, the Bayesian approach to regularization and model-comparison is demonstrated by studying the inference problem of interpolating noisy data. The concepts and methods described are quite general and can be applied to many other data modeling problems. Regularizing constants are set by examining their posterior probability distribution. Alternative regularizers (priors) and alternative basis sets are objectively compared by evaluating the evidence for them. Occam's razor is automatically embodied by this process. The way in which Bayes infers the values of regularizing constants and noise levels has an elegant interpretation in terms of the effective number of parameters determined by the data set. This framework is due to Gull and Skilling.


Gravity waves play the key role in the dynamics of the middle atmosphere.
Among different gravity wave sources, convection has been long accepted as one
of the most prominent ones. However, due to the broad spectrum of convective
gravity waves and limitations of current observation techniques, the contribution
of these waves to atmospheric dynamics is still an open issue. Moreover, due
to the same reasons, the horizontal and temporal scales of gravity waves forced
by convection are not well known. These scales are usually treated in current
convective gravity wave parameterizations as free parameters and they are defined
by assuming typical scales of convective systems. In this study, we addressed
these issues using a unique approach of combining modeling and measurements.
In order to determine the scales of convective gravity waves, instead of assuming
typical scales of convective systems, a systematic survey varying the spatial and
temporal scales as free parameters of the Yonsei convective gravity wave source
(CGWS) scheme is performed. Gravity waves are generated using this CGWS
scheme and propagated upward using the Gravity wave Regional Or Global RAy
Tracer (GROGRAT). Gravity wave momentum flux spectra in terms of horizontal
and vertical wave numbers are calculated from simulations and compared with
the respective spectrum observed by the High Resolution Dynamics Limb Sounder
(HIRDLS). Based on this comparison, combinations of scale sets which reproduce
the observed gravity wave spectrum are selected.
    HIRDLS can only see a limited portion of the gravity wave spectrum due to
visibility effects and observation geometry. To allow for a meaningful comparison
of simulated gravity waves to observations a comprehensive filter that mimics the
instrument limitations is applied to the simulated waves. This comprehensive
observational filter takes into account both instrument visibility due to radiative
transfer and retrieval as well as the complex observation geometry.
    In order to analyze the contribution of convective gravity waves to the atmospheric
dynamics, the zonal momentum balance is considered in vertical cross
sections of gravity wave momentum flux (GWMF) and gravity wave drag (GWD),
and consistency between model results and HIRDLS observations is found. Global
maps of the horizontal distribution of GWMF are considered and good agreement
in the structure as well as the magnitude between simulated results and HIRDLS
observations is found. In particular, main convection hot spots are well reproduced.
In addition, the latitude dependence of the zonal phase speed spectrum
of GWMF and its change with altitude is shown. The latitude dependences for
different climate conditions and different altitudes show a main peak in the tropics
and summer subtropics associated with eastward phase speeds between several
m/s and about 30 m/s.
    The current study is unique in two aspects: the complexity and comprehensiveness
of the observational filter and the fact that the model spectral distribution
is determined merely from observed spectral distributions. In advance to previous
studies, the spatial distribution is used only afterwards for validation. Due to the
limitation of HIRDLS instrument, only long horizontal wavelength waves are addressed
in the current approach. However, the momentum flux of these waves are
found to be significant and relevant for the driving of the Quasi-Biennial Oscillation
(QBO). Findings of the current study therefore provide the key information
for estimating relative contributions of different convective gravity wave scales to
the whole convective gravity wave spectrum.


Packed with instructions for techniques used by professional illustrators, this book walks the reader step-by-step through the methodology of drawing fashion. It demonstrates the best ways to create detailed fashion illustrations in a variety of media, teaching the reader about drawing, rendering and following logical steps in depicting fabric surface textures and folds that follow the form of drawn figures. This will be an essential coursebook for all student illustrators and fashion design students.


Abstract A new scaling parameter is developed for the circulation shed by a rigid, rectangular panel pitching periodically about its leading edge. This parameter is the product of a kinematic and a geometric component. The kinematic component describes the relationship between the mean vorticity flux from the panel surface and the panel motion. The geometric component depends on the ratio of pitching amplitude to the span of the panel. The kinematic component is developed based on the connection between the surface pressure distribution and the resulting surface vorticity flux, which are supported in a stroke-averaged sense by pressure measurements on the surface of the panel. The parameter gives a robust scaling for the total spanwise circulation shed in a half-cycle by the panel. It provides a useful predictive tool, in that it can be either complementary to the formation number or provide an alternative scaling parameter when vortex saturation and pinch-off do not occur.


The author takes a rather more measured view of the role played by translators in international courts and tribunals than Norman Birkett, who once described them as "a race apart – touchy, vain, unaccountable, full of vagaries, puffed up with self-importance of the most explosive kind, inexpressibly egotistical, and, as a rule, violent opponents of soap and sunlight". Article by Patricia Wheeler (United Nations legal committees). Published in Amicus Curiae - Journal of the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies and its Society for Advanced Legal Studies. The Journal is produced by the Society for Advanced Legal Studies at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, University of London.


Conversational Agents and Natural Language Interaction: Techniques and Effective Practices is a reference guide for researchers entering the promising field of conversational agents. It provides an introduction to fundamental concepts in the field, collects experiences of researchers working on conversational agents, and reviews techniques for the design and application of conversational agents. The book discusses the successes of and challenges faced by researchers, designers, and programmers who want to use conversational agents for e-commerce, help desks, website navigation, personalized service, and training or education applications.


The focus of this thesis was to capture and measure carbon dioxide concentrations upon exhalation to determine if an apnea event is occurring. Research in the fields of respiratory physiology and apnea built the foundation for the design of the standoff infant apnea monitor. The monitor is designed to track infant respiration using carbon dioxide and sound signatures of breath without touching the infant. Each detection system, audio and carbon dioxide, were designed separately and brought together for a final proof-of-concept device. The software was developed using LabView and run on a Netbook. Testing was conducted on healthy adults to fine tune the carbon dioxide sensor and measure its response during simulated apnea events. Overnight testing showed that the combined system detected fewer false alarms than either system alone. Infant testing was conducted to determine if the proof-of-concept standoff monitor could detect infant breath at specified distance. The results showed that both detection systems can detect infant breath consistently at distances less than one foot from the infant and poorly at distances exceeding one foot. Finally, conclusions were drawn and interpreted to aid in the design of future generations of the standoff infant apnea monitor. Other research avenues where this technology may be useful were also discussed. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS


This article reviews the new Horizontal Merger Guidelines released on August 19, 2010, by the United States Department of Justice, through its Antitrust Division, and the Federal Trade Commission. The United States' New Horizontal Merger Guidelines converge towards and closely mimic their European counterparts. Indeed, the New Guidelines differ dramatically from their 1992 predecessors, and signal an American competition theory counterrevolution. First, they reveal a commitment towards more aggressive horizontal merger enforcement driven by a renewed emphasis on the incipiency standard. Second, they set out a less formulaic and rigid review methodology, which the Agencies hope will prove to be more litigation friendly, as they pursue enforcement cases in American courts. And third, they indicate heightened concerns about potential unilateral effects, including exclusionary conduct, and impacts on non-price competition such as quality, variety, and innovation. When the New Guidelines are systematically compared side by side to the EC's, the resemblances are striking. Indeed, the New Guidelines more closely resemble the EC's than they do their 1992 predecessors. It can be fairly concluded that the New Guidelines' drafters were heavily influenced by, and paid close attention to, the EC's guidelines. However, it is unclear whether the New Guidelines will survive a conservative administration, or how they will be accepted and interpreted by the American courts.


Emoji have grown to become one of the most important forms of communication on the web. With its widespread use, measuring the similarity of emoji has become an important problem for contemporary text processing since it lies at the heart of sentiment analysis, search, and interface design tasks. This paper presents a comprehensive analysis of the semantic similarity of emoji through embedding models that are learned over machine-readable emoji meanings in the EmojiNet knowledge base. Using emoji descriptions, emoji sense labels and emoji sense definitions, and with different training corpora obtained from Twitter and Google News, we develop and test multiple embedding models to measure emoji similarity. To evaluate our work, we create a new dataset called EmoSim508, which assigns human-annotated semantic similarity scores to a set of 508 carefully selected emoji pairs. After validation with EmoSim508, we present a real-world use-case of our emoji embedding models using a sentiment analysis task and show that our models outperform the previous best-performing emoji embedding model on this task. The EmoSim508 dataset and our emoji embedding models are publicly released with this paper and can be downloaded from http://emojinet.knoesis.org/.


Consider the following two fundamental open problems in complexity theory: 1) Does a hard-on-average language in NP imply the existence of one-way functions? 2) Does a hard-on-average language in NP imply a hard problem in TFNP (i.e., the class of total NP search problem)? We show that the answer to (at least) one of these questions is yes. In other words, in Impagliazzo's Pessiland (where NP is hard-on-average, but one-way functions do not exist), TFNP is unconditionally hard (on average). This result follows from a more general theory of interactive average-case complexity, and in particular, a novel round-collapse theorem for computationally-sound protocols, analogous to Babai-Moran's celebrated round-collapse theorem for information-theoretically sound protocols. As another consequence of this treatment, we show that the existence of O(1)-round public-coin non-trivial arguments (i.e., argument systems that are not proofs) imply the existence of a hard-on-average problem in NP/poly.


OF DISSERTATION TRANSNATIONAL POLICY ARTICULATIONS: INDIA, AGRICULTURE, AND THE WTO Agriculture remains one of the most contentious issues in the ongoing negotiations of the World Trade Organization, with serious implications for food security and the livelihood of farmers in the developing world. This dissertation examines the formation of agricultural trade policy and the politics and arguments surrounding it within the context of India's position in the World Trade Organization (WTO). The research has two components. A set of archival documents relating to India's participation in a WTO institution called the Trade Policy Review (TPR) was analyzed. In addition, semi-structured interviews were undertaken with a number of Indian experts and officials involved in agricultural trade policy. This project suggests a number of tentative conclusions with implications for political geography and particularly for the literature on policy transfer, neoliberalism, and Neo-Gramscian models of international relations. First, it finds that the WTO Secretariat plays a key role in promoting neoliberal ideas within the TPR institution and that the forms of argumentation used here can help to explain the resiliency of neoliberalism in the face of policy failure. Second, it shows that the Indian government has not accepted neoliberal policy models wholesale, but has exercised autonomy, selectivity, and adaptation in its liberalization programs. Third, it demonstrates that neoliberal ideas do not always favor the positions of developed countries. Finally, it supports the narrative of increasing developing country bargaining in the WTO and shows that the Indian representatives bolster their arguments by articulating them as being in the interest of the developing world in general.


Thomas Jerome Newton is an extraterrestrial from the planet Anthea, which has been devastated by a series of nuclear wars, and whose inhabitants are twice as intelligent as human beings. When he lands on Earth - in Kentucky, disguised as a human - it's with the intention of saving his own people from extinction. Newton patents some very advanced Anthean technology, which he uses to amass a fortune. He begins to build a spaceship to help the last 300 Antheans migrate to Earth. Meanwhile, Nathan Bryce, a chemistry professor in Iowa, is intrigued by some of the new products Newton's company brings to the market, and already suspects Newton of being an alien. As Bryce and the FBI close in, Newton finds his own clarity and sense of purpose diminishing.


In the brilliant fourth book from Andy McDermott, Nina Wilde must battle the Covenant of Genesis if she is to find the world's greatest archaeological treasure...Off the coast of Indonesia, archaeologist Nina Wilde makes an explosive find: evidence of a settlement that existed over a hundred thousand years before any previously known civilisation. But when her ship is attacked, it becomes clear that the clandestine religious group calling itself the Covenant of Genesis will stop at nothing to prevent her from revealing this knowledge. With her fiance Eddie Chase, Nina embarks upon a dangerous worldwide search to expose the Covenant of Genesis - and the incredible secret they will kill to conceal. Is she about to discover the greatest legend of all time?


Aim&Objective: The increasing prevalence of asthma is a global phenomenon. Prolonged hyperventilation causes a resetting of the body's acceptable level of carbon dioxide&allowing the respiratory system to maintain chronic over breathing. This larger volume of breathing is the primary element in producing asthma symptoms. Therefore, shallow breathing exercise, in the form of Buteyko Breathing Technique in asthmatic patients may be helpful in reversing hyperventilation&reducing symptoms.. So this study is design to evaluate the role of Buteyko breathing technique in improving the lung function, and relieve dyspnea in asthmatic subjects. Methodology: This experimental study is based on the sample of 30 subjects with mean age of 30 years&diagnosed as having asthma. Patients with known causes of COPD and others respiratory problems were excluded. They were randomly divided into two groups. Group - A, comprising of 15 subjects were treated with Buteyko Therapy and 15 subjects of Group - B were treated with Diaphragmatic Exercise (DE) and Pursed Lip Breathing Exercise (PLBE). Both groups were given treatment 6 days a week for 6 weeks. Parameters were recorded before commencement of treatment and subsequently at completion of 2nd week, 4th week and 6th week of treatment by PFT&dyspnea scale . Data Analysis: Data was analyzed by using SPSS ver.14.0.Comparision between groups is done with help of 't' test. The level of significance was set at p ? 0.05. Result: Group - Buteyko Breathing Technique (BBT) group-A showed significant improvement in the FEV1 and PEFR, and a significant decrease in the levels of dyspnea, where PLBE with DE Group - B showed no significant changes in any of the three measurements. Discussion&Conclusion: Butyeko Breathing Technique has given a logical treatment for reversing hyperventilation disorders which is responsible for recurrent asthmatic attack, So it can be concluded that Buteyko Breathing exercise when done regularly and properly can stop or reverse the decline in the lung function and reduce dyspnea in asthmatic patients.


Presented herein is an operationally simple and reliable approach to the determination of comonomer reactivity ratios using continuous flow. The benefits of continuous-flow chemistry include the precise control of reaction time, heat transfer, and the ability to dynamically alter continuous variables within a single experiment. The flow system produces nine samples reacted to low conversions with systematically varied comonomer compositions in under one hour. The polymer compositions were fit to a model of terminal copolymerization resulting in point estimates for comonomer reactivity ratios. The continuous-flow system was validated by the determination of five comonomer reactivity ratios that provided good agreement with literature values. The method is demonstrated to streamline the determination of especially challenging comonomer systems, such as those with fast kinetics or disparate reactivity. Using sustainably-derived lignin-based methacrylates, our continuous-flow approach enabled the determination of reactivity ratios for three comonomer pairs that have not been previously reported. We envision the continuous-flow method will catalyze the further exploration of statistical copolymers in both batch and continuous flow.


Service user involvement in health and social care education is progressively
accepted as good practice with legislation, policy and professional standards
requiring evidence of involvement (NHS Centre for Involvement 2007).
This presentation will report on the findings of a small scale study undertaken to
evaluate the involvement of service users & carers in the selection process for adult
and child nursing.
The aim of the research was to elicit the views of the three major stakeholders
involved in the process; prospective students, academics and service users/carers.
A questionnaire was distributed to candidates and focus groups were held with
academics and service users/carers.
The findings suggest that service user involvement in the selection process was
overall viewed positively. This was particularly valued by the candidates as it helped
them understand what would be expected of them in practice with the view that
service users were qualified to participate in the recruitment process due to their
experiences. There was general agreement amongst the academics that user
involvement was 'a good thing' however a number of issues were raised around the
complexities involved in the process. Service users were very positive feeling truly
involved and welcomed the opportunity to have some say on who is admitted to
nursing programmes.


Purpose: This paper aims at defining the value creation mechanism and income distribution strategies of product-service integration in order to promote product-service integration of a firm. Design/methodology/approach: This paper conducts researches quantitatively on the coordination mechanism of product-service integration by using game theory, and uses the methods of Shapley value and Equal growth rate to further discuss income distribution strategies of product-service integration. Findings: Product-service integration increases the total income of a firm and the added value of the income decreases as the unit price demand variation coefficient of products and services increases, while decreases as the marginal cost of products increases, decreases as the marginal cost of services increases. Moreover, the findings suggest that both income distribution strategies of product-service integration based on Shapley value method and Equal growth rate method can make the product department and service department of a firm win-win and realize the pareto improvement. The choice of what kind of distribution strategy to coordinate the actions between departments depends on the department playing dominant role in the firm. Generally speaking, for a firm at the center of market, when the product department is the main contributor to firm income, the service department will choose the income distribution strategy of product-service integration based on Shapley value method; when the service department is the main contributor to firm income, the service department will choose the income distribution strategy of product-service integration based on Equal growth rate method. Research limitations/implications: This paper makes some strict assumptions such as complete information, risk neutral, linear cost function and so on and the discussion is limited to the simple relationship between product department and service department. Practical implications: Product-service integration enables a firm to improve its total income. A firm should take appropriate income distribution strategies in order to promote the its product-service integration. Originality/value: This paper introduces game theory into the research of product-service integration for the first time and it has reached some valuable conclusions, which has opened up a new field of study in the product-service area.


The configuration spaces of modern software systems are too large to test exhaustively. Combinatorial interaction testing (CIT) approaches, such as covering arrays, systematically sample the configuration space and test only the selected configurations by using a battery of test cases. Traditional covering arrays, while taking system-wide interoption constraints into account, do not provide a systematic way of handling test case-specific interoption constraints. The basic justification for $(t)$-way covering arrays is that they can cost effectively exercise all system behaviors caused by the settings of $(t)$ or fewer options. In this paper, we hypothesize, however, that in the presence of test case-specific interoption constraints, many such behaviors may not be tested due to masking effects caused by the overlooked test case-specific constraints. For example, if a test case refuses to run in a configuration due to an unsatisfied test case-specific constraint, none of the valid option setting combinations appearing in the configuration will be tested by that test case. To account for test case-specific constraints, we introduce a new combinatorial object, called a test case-aware covering array. A $(t)$-way test case-aware covering array is not just a set of configurations, as is the case in traditional covering arrays, but a set of configurations, each of which is associated with a set of test cases such that all test case-specific constraints are satisfied and that, for each test case, each valid combination of option settings for every combination of $(t)$ options appears at least once in the set of configurations that the test case is associated with. We furthermore present three algorithms to compute test case-aware covering arrays. Two of the algorithms aim to minimize the number of configurations required (one is fast, but produces larger arrays, the other is slower, but produces smaller arrays), whereas the remaining algorithm aims to minimize the number of test runs required. The results of our empirical studies conducted on two widely used highly configurable software systems suggest that test case-specific constraints do exist in practice, that traditional covering arrays suffer from masking effects caused by ignorance of such constraints, and that test case-aware covering arrays are better than other approaches in handling test case-specific constraints, thus avoiding masking effects.


A little more than four years after enactment of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 ("ACA"), daily headlines still abound on newspapers and websites across the country highlighting both successes and failures of the ACA. In analyzing those successes and failures, especially in the context of care delivery, it is important to take a step back to consider the stated goals of the ACA, which goals have their origins in a premise first proposed by Dr. Donald M. Berwick and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement ("IHI") in 2006 referred to as the "Triple Aim." The Triple Aim is a framework for healthcare that, at its origin, was intended to "optimize population health, care experience, and cost." It was with this Triple Aim in mind that legislators and policy makers established the framework for accountable care organizations ("ACOs") and the Medicare Shared Savings Program ("MSSP"). This article examines the origins of the Triple Aim and its impact on the development of ACOs under the ACA. It then analyzes why academic medical centers and other integrated delivery systems such as the Mayo Clinic, which entities are leaders in research, innovation, and quality care, are opting out of a model of care in the ACO structure that was designed with the goal of functioning more like these entities. With that in mind, it examines the potential risks of maintaining an ACO structure that is not open, available, and accessible to academic medical centers such as the Mayo Clinic, suggesting that such a structure that does not encourage participation by entities such as the Mayo Clinic will be unable to achieve the goals of the Triple Aim that the ACA set out to accomplish. Finally, the article will offer some suggestions for amendments to the ACO model that might make ACO participation possible for the Mayo Clinic and entities like the Mayo Clinic and move the U.S. healthcare delivery system closer to its goals of achieving the Triple Aim.


The federal preemption of state law has emerged as a prominent field of study for legal scholars and political scientists. This rise to prominence of a technical and often dull field of jurisprudence is due to a number of developments-increasingly frequent federal statutory preemptions; the states' unprecedented aggressiveness in regulating business transactions, the expansion of corporate liability under state common law and the increased resort of corporate defendants to federal preemption defenses; and, not least, the Rehnquist Court's discovery of federalism and states' rights. Unfortunately, the preemption debate has been marred by misperceptions and a lack of reliable data. Extravagant attention has been lavished on a few landmark cases, which may not be a reliable guide to the preemption universe. Studies of judicial behavior in this area have relied on an inadequate empirical foundation. This Article presents an empirical overview and a preliminary analysis of the Rehnquist Court's preemption decisions. Part II describes the case universe and the outcomes. Part III discusses the role of the Supreme Court-more precisely, the Court's perception of its own role-in preemption litigation. Part IV suggests that outcomes in preemption cases may be most readily explained as judicial responses to certain signals or "cues." Two signals in particular prove significant: the presence of a state as a party to a preemption dispute, and the position of the Solicitor General. State amicus briefs and the partisan affiliation of the Solicitor General (Democrat or Republican) may also affect preemption case outcomes; however, we cannot show either variable to be statistically significant. Part V examines the justices' votes in preemption cases and addresses the discontinuity between the Rehnquist Court's federalism cases and its preemption decisions. The Court's federalism decisions have, until very recently, worked a major doctrinal shift in federal-state relations, in favor of the states. That shift has been the work of a stable bloc of five conservative justices, who have carried the federalism banner against a bloc of four liberal justices. In preemption cases, in contrast, liberals often vote against preemption (and thus "for the states"), whereas conservative justices often flip-flop in the opposite direction. We find substantial evidence to but-tress the impression of preemption cases as a mirror image of pure federalism cases. Unlike federalism law, however, preemption law shows no clear decisional trend. Moreover, we find no firm voting blocs and no swing vote. The concluding Part VI re-examines the perceived discontinuity between the Rehnquist Court's federalism and preemption decisions in light of the evidence and argues that a satisfactory explanation of that phenomenon is bound to be more complicated than a simple "attitudinal" model of judicial behavior would suggest.


For many purposes the Wien radiation law is a sufficiently close approximation to the Planck equation. When it is not, the subtraction in the denominator of the Planck equation interferes with logarithmic calculation. It has been found possible to construct a table which can be entered with the negative of the exponent of the Wien equation, expressed in terms of common (Briggsian) logarithms: c2 lge/(λT), to get the logarithmic correction to four significant figures. Moreover, the same table can be used if successive approximations are necessary.


Joining dissimilar metals with superior quality is important to provide tailored, lightweight, and cost-efficient components. Expensive and durable materials are exceptionally used where the cheaper material would not withstand the requirements. With laser beam welding, dissimilar metals can already be joined with high precision, low heat input, and a customizable mixing degree. Introducing ultrasonic excitation into the weld pool is a promising approach for further improvements like customizing the solidification morphology and avoiding weld defects. The experiments are carried out with round bars of 30 mm diameter made of 1.4301 steel alloy and 2.4856 nickel base alloy. Ultrasonic-assisted laser beam butt welding is conducted on rotating specimens with a laser beam power of 7.75 kW and a welding speed of 0.95 m/min. The specimens are evaluated by metallographic cross sections, hardness measurements, and energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDX). The ultrasound is used to excite an eigenmode of the sample and the weld position is varied at stress- and displacement-nodes. Two different mechanisms of acoustic grain refinement are revealed. Heterogeneous nucleation is fostered in weld seams that are positioned in stress-nodes, and the fragmentation of dendrites is fostered in displacement-nodes. The welds' chemical compositions correspond to the change of solidification morphology.


Abstract Depending on the difficulty of the task in terms of movement duration and the number of elements forming the sequence, recent research has shown that movement sequences are coded in visual-spatial coordinates or motor coordinates. An interesting question that arises is how a specific manner of performance without a change in such functional difficulties affects the representation of movement sequences. Accordingly, the present study investigated how the way in which a movement sequence is performed affects the transfer of timing properties (absolute and relative timing) from the practised to unpractised hand under mirror (same motor commands as those used in practice) and non-mirror (the same visual-spatial coordinates as those present during practice) conditions in two experiments each with segment movement time goals that were arranged differently. The study showed that after a limited amount of practice, the pattern of results obtained for relative timing differed between the two experiments. In the first experiment, there was no difference between retention and non-mirror transfer, but performance on these tasks was significantly better than that for mirror transfer, whereas in the second experiment, there was no difference between the mirror and non-mirror transfer. For total errors, no significant difference was found between the retention and transfer tests in both experiments. It was concluded that the way in which a sequence is performed could affect the representation of the task and the transfer of relative timing, while absolute timing could purposefully be maintained if necessary.


PURPOSE
To prospectively compare the image quality, sensitivity, and specificity of three-dimensional gadolinium-enhanced magnetic resonance (MR) angiography accelerated by parallel acquisition (ie, fast MR angiography) with MR angiography not accelerated by parallel acquisition (ie, conventional MR angiography) for assessment of aortoiliac and renal arteries, with digital subtraction angiography (DSA) as the reference standard.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
The study was approved by the institutional review board; informed consent was obtained from all patients. Forty consecutive patients (33 men, seven women; mean age, 63 years) suspected of having aortoiliac and renal arterial stenoses and thus examined with DSA underwent both fast (mean imaging time, 17 seconds) and conventional (mean imaging time, 29 seconds) MR angiography. The arterial tree was divided into segments for image analysis. Two readers independently evaluated all MR angiograms for image quality, presence of arterial stenosis, and renal arterial variants. Image quality, sensitivity, and specificity were analyzed on per-patient and per-segment bases for multiple comparisons (with Bonferroni correction) and for dependencies between segments (with patient as the primary sample unit). Interobserver agreement was evaluated by using kappa statistics.

RESULTS
Overall, the image quality with fast MR angiography was significantly better (P=.001) than that with conventional MR angiography. At per-segment analysis, the image quality of fast MR angiograms of the distal renal artery tended to be better than that of conventional MR angiograms of these vessels. Differences in sensitivity for the detection of arterial stenosis between the two MR angiography techniques were not significant for either reader. Interobserver agreement in the detection of variant renal artery anatomy was excellent with both conventional and fast MR angiography (kappa=1.00).

CONCLUSION
Fast MR angiography and conventional MR angiography do not differ significantly in terms of arterial stenosis grading or renal arterial variant detection.


Goods and Services Tax (GST) is an indirect tax reform. The decision to implement GST was made on 1 April 2015. The Malaysian business communities are concerned that Goods and Service Tax (GST) would affect their business. In order to comply with the new system, GST, Malaysian citizen need to have a positive attitude toward the GST. The rational is that taxpayers need to be positive in attitude for voluntarily compliance. By determining what factors could possibly influence attitude towards GST by business community and consequently could improve the compliance rate indirectly. Thus, this study is attempts to identify the determinants of attitude towards the proposed GST implementation in Malaysia. A total of 521 usable questionnaires from business community in 2014 were analyzed using multiple regressions. The results revealed and supported that awareness; understanding, and preparedness were significantly in influencing the attitude towards proposed GST implementation in Malaysia among the business communities. Suggestions to the tax authority and limitation of the study were also discussed.


Intelligent mobile robots have recently become able to operate autonomously in large-scale indoor environments for extended periods of time. In this process, mobile robots need the capabilities of both task and motion planning. Task planning in such environments involves sequencing the robot's high-level goals and subgoals, and typically requires reasoning about the locations of people, rooms, and objects in the environment, and their interactions to achieve a goal. One of the prerequisites for optimal task planning that is often overlooked is having an accurate estimate of the actual distance (or time) a robot needs to navigate from one location to another. State-of-the-art motion planning algorithms, though often computationally complex, are designed exactly for this purpose of finding routes through constrained spaces.
In this article, we focus on integrating task and motion planning (TMP) to achieve task-level-optimal planning for robot navigation while maintaining manageable computational efficiency. To this end, we introduce TMP algorithm PETLON (Planning Efficiently for Task-Level-Optimal Navigation), including two configurations with different trade-offs over computational expenses between task and motion planning, for everyday service tasks using a mobile robot. Experiments have been conducted both in simulation and on a mobile robot using object delivery tasks in an indoor office environment. The key observation from the results is that PETLON is more efficient than a baseline approach that pre-computes motion costs of all possible navigation actions, while still producing plans that are optimal at the task level. We provide results with two different task planning paradigms in the implementation of PETLON, and offer TMP practitioners guidelines for the selection of task planners from an engineering perspective.


Analyzing data from the 2013 US American Community Survey, this report considers the demographic, economic, and geographic characteristics of same-sex couples (married and unmarried), especially those raising children, in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee. Comparisons are made with their different-sex counterparts. In Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee, as of 2013, there are an estimated 55,902 same-sex couples. Nearly 11% of these couples report being married, meaning that there were nearly 6,100 married same-sex couples in these states in 2013. An estimated 11,000 same-sex couples (married and unmarried) are raising children under age 18 in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee. In these states, the median annual household income of these couples is more than 30% lower than the median annual household income of married different-sex couples raising children ($56,000 versus $79,000). More than a third of children being raised by same-sex couples (35%) live in poverty compared to 10% of children being raised by different-sex married parents.


The work presented here is an approach to Sentiment Analy-
sis from a rule-based, compositional perspective. The proposed approach is characterized by three major points: (a) rules are automatically learned from annotated corpora using Inductive Logic Programming and represented as Prolog sets of clauses, (b) the focus is on the noun-phrase (NP) level, and (c) learning is performed on deep-parsed structures. We describe the process of annotating a collection of some 3000 German NPs of medium to quite complex structure, as well as the empirical evaluation of
our implementation, in comparison with commonly used classifiers and a handcrafted rule-based system.


Interdisciplinary studies have long provided fertile ground for solving old problems, framing new ideas, and even generating new disciplines. Yet there can be no doubting the persistence of old disciplinary boundaries, or the tendency of these bold new interdisciplinary approaches to metastasize into conventional disciplinary formations. This paper will begin with a personal story – a scenario that I am sure is familiar to most academics – of an encounter with a colleague who felt that my attempted interdisciplinarity in a conference paper was in fact an outrageous abuse of material more proper to his discipline than to mine. What I will then seek to do is explain this persistence of disciplinary boundaries and proprietary protocols using, as seems to me to be appropriate for this purpose, a blend of phenomenological and psychoanalytic theory. I will argue that the stakes in disciplinary turf wars may be more than academic reputations or even the prospect of retaining a job. At stake in protecting a body of thought may well be the academic body itself, understood within a context of the mind-body integrity of the thinker as a being capable of existing within the world. To think, I suggest, is to be bounded, so thought of a world without boundaries is to imagine a world without a body of thought.


This study attempts to discern the effects of a new industry on a small, isolated, coral atoll in the central Pacific: pearl farming in the lagoon of Manihiki, in the Northern Group of the Cook Islands. Through a combination of archival research, interviews and participant observation, I discuss the historical development of the cultured-pearl industry as a precursor to analysing the contemporary situation. The research design utilised in the study reflects the position of the researcher as a member of the researched community. A rudimentary theoretical framework is proposed, based on the need for a multi-disciplinary approach to studying the Pacific, by combining Development Theory with other relevant approaches, e.g., Mirab, Smallness. Political control of the industry lies with the Manihiki Island Council, whose view of development has conflicted with that of central government and has disturbed the relationship between Manihiki and Rarotonga. As the industry continues to develop, Manihiki will become more dependent on Rarotonga, and control of the industry will probably return to central government. Socially, the industry has caused an occupational change from gathering wild shell to farming. Families remain the main economic unit of production, but alterations to their income structure and labour allocation result from their level of involvement with farming. A reversal of migration and remittance patterns appears to be occurring, as migrants are attracted back to Manihiki by the development of farming and more money flows out of Manihiki than in. These results suggest that some ideas on Pacific Island dependence need to be reconsidered.


Intelligent Computer tutoring Group (ICTG) has developed several constraint-based tutors. We adopted and enhanced Constraint-Based Modeling (CBM), a student modeling approach proposed by Ohlsson (1994). In this interactive demo, we will present our three database tutors, which have also been commercialized on the Addison-Wesley's DatabasePlace Web portal (http://www.awbc.com/databaseplace/). All our ITSs are Web-enabled, and their typical architecture is shown in Figure 1. The session manager is responsible for taking care of student sessions, and logging their actions. The student communicates with the ITS through an interface served in a Web browser. Student models are generated and maintained by a student modeller. The student's solution is diagnosed by matching it to the constraints describing the domain principles. The pedagogical module determines the timing and content of pedagogical actions. The optional components involve the problem solver, the group modeller and modules supporting open student models and metacognitive skills. We have performed more than 30 studies in real classrooms since 1998. Our database tutors have proved to be very effective in supporting deep learning, and are well liked by students.


This article explores the Heidelberg Catechism in the memory of the Dutch Reformed Church (DRC) between 1862 and 1937, with specific focus on the events of 1862. By making the Heidelberg Catechism the point of focus the article's contribution is not by way of answering the "what happened"-questions related to the period, but rather in terms of an analysis of how "what happened" had been remembered over a period of seventy five years by the DRC. In order to do so, the first two sections of the article deals with the theory of memory, the development of memory culture in communities, and the significance of such an analysis for historical thinking. The third part provides four sets of examples of Heidelberg Catechism recollections as a contribution to analyses of the memory culture of the DRC in the late 19 th and early 20 th centuries.


The interfacial region between surface-modified semiconducting nanoparticles and polymers remains difficult to characterize experimentally in atomic resolution and contributes to the limited efficiency of hybrid photovoltaic cells and luminescent devices. Therefore, molecular dynamics simulation was employed to investigate the structure of cadmium sulfide nanoparticles capped with 3-mercaptopropyltrimethoxysilane (MPS) in contact with four substituted poly(phenyleneethynylene)s using a new force field for CdS and the polymer consistent force field. The results show that polymers with long alkyl side chains tend to wrap around the nanoparticles, and reduce backbone bending as well as polymer diffusion. The absence of alkyl side chains decreases the distance of conjugated backbones from the surface. Differences in the preferred location of functional groups of the polymers on the nanoparticle surface and of covalent versus non-covalent bonding were also monitored. Polymers containing terminal hydroxyl groups on alkyl side chains approach the surfactant corona and the core of the CdS-MPS nanoparticles. Close contact supports the formation of silyl ether cross-links although the interfacial structure upon bond formation remains similar to that of the non-covalently attached polymers. Ester groups bound to aromatic rings in the poly(phenyleneethynylene) backbone did not closely approach the nanoparticle surface. The results are the first step to understand nanoparticle–polymer interfaces at length scales of 10 nm and explore correlations with photovoltaic performance.


The story of Beowulf and his hard-fought victory over the monster Grendel has captured the imagination of readers and listeners for a millennium. The heroic Anglo-Saxon story survives to the world in one eleventh-century manuscript that was badly burned in 1731, and in two eighteenth-century transcriptions of the manuscripts.Kevin S. Kiernan, one of the world's foremost "Beowulf "scholars, has studied the manuscript extensively with the most up-to-date methods, including fiber-optic backlighting and computer digitization. This volume reprints Kiernan's earlier study of the manuscript, in which he presented his novel conclusions about the date of "Beowulf. "It also offers a new Introduction in which the author describes the value of electronic study of "Beowulf, "and a new Appendix that lists all the letters and parts of letters revealed by backlighting.This important volume will be a must-read not only for the scholar of early English history and literature, but for all those who are interested in practical applications of the new technologies.


In this paper, we propose a web-based management system for international academic symposiums. This system supports organizers in their tasks for general events such as management of participants and registration at the desk. Since the system is accessed via web browsers, we can use it on various platforms; PCs, smartphones, tablets, and so forth. In the system, we have focused on international academic symposiums in which several tasks differs from usual events. Also, we adopt Microsoft Excel files as database unlike conventional database system such as MySQL for ease of use. The proposed system has been used practically in an international symposium.


Abstract Myths and geology are related in several ways. Some myths are the result of man's attempts to explain noteworthy features of his environment, such as striking landforms or unusual smaller features, whereas others try to account for conspicuous natural processes, such as earthquakes, volcanic phenomena, and floods. Local myths have sometimes proved helpful in solving geological problems, and even the geological nomenclature is indebted to mythology. Examples of each kind of relationship are given.


MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small RNAs that regulate gene expression posttranscriptionally. To block all miRNA formation in zebrafish, we generated maternal-zygotic dicer (MZdicer) mutants that disrupt the Dicer ribonuclease III and double-stranded RNA-binding domains. Mutant embryos do not process precursor miRNAs into mature miRNAs, but injection of preprocessed miRNAs restores gene silencing, indicating that the disrupted domains are dispensable for later steps in silencing. MZdicer mutants undergo axis formation and differentiate multiple cell types but display abnormal morphogenesis during gastrulation, brain formation, somitogenesis, and heart development. Injection of miR-430 miRNAs rescues the brain defects in MZdicer mutants, revealing essential roles for miRNAs during morphogenesis.


From early development until the completion of metamorphosis, fat snook (Centropomus parallelus) larvae are commonly fed the rotifers Brachionus spp. and Artemia spp. nauplii. In this study, cultivated copepods Acartia tonsa were evaluated as feed for 15-to 45-day-old larvae. Two experiments were performed using twelve 30-L tanks stocked with 3.3 fat snook larvae L-1. Their initial mean weight and length were 1.35 ± 0.01 mg (mean ± standard deviation) and 3.83 ± 0.33 mm for 15-day-old larvae and 2.79 ± 1.2 mg and 6.99 ± 0.88 mm for 31-day-old larvae. Three dietary treatments were carried out in four replicates, including Rotifer (R), Artemia (A) and/or Copepod (C). Experiment 1 included Diet RA (control), Diet RC and Diet RCA; while experiment 2 included Diet A (control), Diet C and Diet AC. The survival and growth of larvae fed the Diet RCA in experiment 1 were significantly higher than the others. In experiment 2, the inclusion of copepods in the diet did not improve survival and growth, however, larvae fed Diet C had the highest DHA/EPA ratio. We conclude that the copepod Acartia tonsa provides an important nutritional benefit to fat snook larvae undergoing metamorphosis.


The life of George Johnston, author of the best-selling My Brother Jack, was in many ways symbolic of Australian post-war cultural life. He was a complex character, dogged by feelings of mediocrity, betrayal and failure that he ultimately transformed though the writing of his brilliant trilogy My Brother Jack, Clean Straw for Nothing and A Cartload of Clay. In this award-winning biography, Garry Kinnane examines the process by which Johnston selected people, places and events for this creative transformation. In doing so, he reveals the reality that lay behind the glamorous outer facade of the life of Johnston and his wife, the writer Charmian Clift.


In the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, more than a thousand pirates poured from the Atlantic into the Indian Ocean. There, according to Kevin P. McDonald, they helped launch an informal trade network that spanned the Atlantic and Indian Ocean worlds, connecting the North American colonies with the rich markets of the East Indies. Rather than conducting their commerce through chartered companies based in London or Lisbon, colonial merchants in New York entered into an alliance with Euro-American pirates based in Madagascar. Pirates, Merchants, Settlers, and Slaves explores the resulting global trade network located on the peripheries of world empires and shows the illicit ways American colonists met the consumer demand for slaves and East India goods. The book reveals that pirates played a significant yet misunderstood role in this period and that seafaring slaves were both commodities and essential components in the Indo-Atlantic maritime networks. Enlivened by stories of Indo-Atlantic sailors and cargoes that included textiles, spices, jewels and precious metals, chinaware, alcohol, and drugs, this book links previously isolated themes of piracy, colonialism, slavery, transoceanic networks, and cross-cultural interactions and extends the boundaries of traditional Atlantic, national, world, and colonial histories.


Background In this paper we call for studying school leadership and its relationship to instruction and learning through approaches that highlight the role of configurations of multiple organizational supports. A configuration-focused approach to studying leadership and other essential supports provides a valuable addition to existing tools in school organizational analysis and is particularly useful in examining equifinality and causal asymmetry. Equifinality is the idea that more than one pathway can result in a desired outcome whereas causal asymmetry suggests that the set of conditions that lead to the presence of an outcome need not be the same as the conditions that lead to its absence. Focus of Study This study uses a configurational approach to examine how school leadership and other organizational supports are related to an important aspect of instruction—students' classroom participation. Research Design We apply fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) to administrative and survey data of high schools from a large urban school district to examine combinations of organizational supports that are associated with classroom participation. Conclusions The study draws attention to the utility of applying configurational approaches to investigate the influence of complex combinations of organizational supports on school outcomes. We compare this approach to more traditional methods that focus on the effects of isolated factors, controlling for each other. Our results show that leadership is associated with students' classroom participation via multiple configurations of organizational supports. These configurations are different from the set of organizational supports that are related to an absence of classroom participation.


The author in this research has tried to link the Alexander pattern language theory, which is based on human oriented and spatial factors, to landscape design, which could come to a cyclic model of "A Pattern Language for Landscape Design" in Iranian schools of architecture. So, a landscape design process based on the value of Human-Oriented approach, which is extracted from other values, and the theoretical crisis in this area is discussed in this paper. The author has called this the "Socio-Cultural" approach. Many researchers such as Alexander (1977), Hillier & Hanson (1984), Norberg- Schulz (1984), Rapoport (1998) and Fathy (2000) have debated on the position and the value of human (Socio-Cultural approach) during design activity and thinking. The purpose of this research is to achieve an academic design process for "Landscape Design" in Iran, based on Pattern Language theory. In fact, achieving such a design model seemed impossible, if no relationship was found between the mentioned theory and Landscape Design. In the end, using a comparative study, some models were achieved. The research method is a survey implemented to collect data from 129 master students of landscape architecture, studying at various schools of architecture in Tehran. The sampling method was based on the stratified random sampling. A 49-itemed questionnaire was used to collect data, where the reliability of all subscales was more than 0.80, estimated from Cronbach alpha test. Hierarchical Confirmatory Factor Analysis was used to analyze data by the LISREL 8.72 software. Results of the analysis statistically confirmed the model of "A Pattern Language for Landscape Design".


High-aggregate bandwidth switches are those whose port count multiplied by the operating line rate is very high; for example, a 30 port switch operating at 40 Gbps or a 1000 port switch operating at 1 Gbps. Designing high-performance schedulers for such switches is challenging for the following reasons: (i) high performance requires finding good matchings; (ii) good matchings take time to find; (iii) in high-aggregate bandwidth switches there is either too little time (due to high line rates) or there is too much work to do (due to a high port count). We exploit the following features of the switching problem to devise simple-to-implement, high-performance schedulers: (a) the state of the switch (carried in the lengths of its queues) changes slowly with time, implying that heavy matchings will likely stay heavy over a period of time; (b) observing arriving packets conveys useful information about the state of the switch. These features are exploited using hardware parallelism and randomization to yield three scheduling algorithms for IQ (input-queued) switches - APSARA, LAURA and SERENA. These algorithms are shown to achieve 100% throughput and simulations show that their delay performance is quite competitive with respect to the maximum weight matching. The stability proof involves a derandomization procedure and uses methods which may have wider applicability.