Abstract Previous research has indicated that nightmares might be a common problem for people with psychotic symptoms. Furthermore, more distressing nightmares have been associated with higher levels of delusional severity, depression, anxiety, stress and working memory. However no known research has investigated the use of nightmare treatments in those with symptoms of psychosis. This study aimed to assess the acceptability and feasibility of using imagery rehearsal (IR) therapy as a treatment of nightmares for those presenting with co-morbid psychotic symptoms. Six participants presenting with frequent distressing nightmares and psychotic symptoms were recruited. Five participants attended 4–6 sessions of IR. Measures of nightmares, sleep quality, psychotic and affective symptoms were completed at baseline and immediately following the intervention. It was feasible to adapt IR for those experiencing psychotic symptoms. Descriptive improvements were noted on measures of nightmare-related distress, vividness and intensity. Positive post-session feedback endorsed the acceptability of IR. Nightmare frequency did not reduce following IR; however, participants described a change in emotional response. IR was an acceptable and feasible intervention for this small sample. A larger study powered to detect group changes, with an additional control is warranted to test the efficacy of the intervention for those with psychosis.


Diabetes is a serious public health issue that is increasingly undermining the health and well-being of individuals world-wide. The disease particularly burdens low and middle-income countries, where spending and resources for treatment and prevention are scarce. To address the inadequacies in diabetes care, the Life for a Child Program (LFAC) has been established for youth diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes in many low and middle-income countries, including Rwanda. The LFAC program works throughout all of Rwanda alongside the Association Rwandaise des Diabetiques (ARD) to provide specialized care to youth in order for them to successfully manage their diabetes and prevent complications or even death. However, given that Rwanda is a low-income country, food insecurity is widespread, which presents a challenge to youth with type 1 diabetes, as diet is a vital component in diabetes management. Specifically, the timing, frequency, and content of meals is important as individuals must coordinate their insulin dosage with food intake to prevent hyperglycemia or hypoglycemia, which will help them achieve glycemic control. This paper examines the role of the dietary patterns of youth diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes in Rwanda to assess whether specific dietary patterns are associated with better glycemic control.


SPHU 1010 Intro To Public Health (3) Students are introduced to the concepts and practice of public health in the U.S. and internationally by tracing its historical evolution. Classic public health problems and their resolution will be discussed in the context of the broader contemporary social environment. The latter part of the course is focused on public health practice in both the U.S. and developing countries, with a consideration of the structure, function, and financing of public health organizations. The many different roles for public health professionals in these organizations also are described.


Faraday cups are widely utilized to characterize ion and electrons beams. Owing to the secondary electron emission (SEE) induced by the collision of beams with collectors, wrong measurements could emerge from these detectors. To overcome this problem a polarized grid is utilized in front the cup collector at a negative voltage with respect to the collector. Unfortunately, the high voltage connection of the Faraday cups is hard to obtain. Then, in this work we want to study the secondary emission on different Al ion collector designs having tilted surfaces with respect to beam axis. Tests were performed using ion beams accelerated by a power supply up to 40 kV. The results by the modified collector surfaces were compared to the ones performed with a simple flat collector. The results we obtained point out that the secondary electron emission enhanced on incident beam energy and on the angle with respect to the normal direction of the surface. The ratio of the SEE to angle value results constant for the accelerating voltage and the possibility to design an ion collector able to reset the SEE seems not to be reached.


Peer tutoring at the postsecondary level has been studied extensively, particularly over the last twenty years. Peer tutoring programs are common across institutional type and size in the United States (Boylan et al., 1995; Maxwell, 2001) given students' preferences for tutors who share age and status similarity (Cohen, 1996; Marsh, 2001; Maxwell, 1991) as well as the cost-effectiveness for the institution (Beasley, 1997; Boylan et al., 1995; Dvorak, 2004; Lidren & Meier, 1991; MacDonald, 1993; Marsh, 2001; Maxwell, 2001; Riggio, Fantuzzo, Connelly, & Dimeff, 1991). Additionally, peer tutoring has been shown to improve student achievement (House & Wohlt, 1989; McKellar, 1986) and compensate for low grades in traditional lecture environments (Dvorak, 2004). While much has been written about the nature of tutoring conducted by learning center tutors, the instructional strategies applied by academic department peer tutors, the nature of tutoring in this setting, and environmental differences represented significant gaps in the research literature. Consequently, it is critical that comparisons across program variables be conducted to learn more about tutoring behaviors and student learning (Roscoe & Chi, 2007). Moreover, research has shown that students' academic success improves significantly when they receive tutoring from trained staff (Boylan et al., 1997; Schleyer et al., 2005), including: higher exam scores (Fantuzzo et al., 1989), higher course grades (Chadwick & McGuire, 2004), and higher grade point averages (Boylan, Bliss, & Bonham, 1997). However, understanding how tutors select their strategies based on the training received was unclear. This study examined the instructional strategies used by learning center and academic department tutors, how training impacted the selection and use of particular strategies, as well as the resulting scaffolding that occurred for the tutees. Also, this study focused on the impact that environmental differences and the structure of tutoring services had on tutoring sessions conducted by both groups of tutors. Specifically, differences were examined between walk-in tutoring services conducted by the academic department tutors and appointment-based tutoring conducted by the learning center tutors. The researcher used a case study design to compare two academic department tutors and two learning center tutors at a mid-sized, southeastern U. S. university. The data from this case study design included three formal interviews, six to seven non-participant observations, and six to seven debriefing interviews of each tutor. Additional results, implications of these findings, and recommendations for future research are discussed. Overall, this study demonstrated several key findings: (a) while both academic department tutors employed many of the same questioning and instructional techniques that the learning center tutors used, they did so less frequently, did not use as many higher level thinking questions, and relied more on explanations as part of their instructional approach; (b) there were significantly fewer demonstrations of active learning and academic skills instruction among the department tutors; (c) the learning center tutors engaged in relational communication more frequently than the academic department tutors; (d) the academic department tutors experienced greater pressure in finding sufficient time to address each tutee's concerns based on the structure of walk-in tutoring services; and (e) regular attendance enabled the learning center tutors to better understand their tutees' learning styles and academic needs, which facilitated the selection of specific strategies based on tutor training and the tutors' own academic success.


Today, fossil fuels supply about 80% of global primary energy. The consequences are severe for human health from indoor and regional air pollution, acidification due to sulphur and nitrogen oxide emissions and climate change due to rapidly growing greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore, there is a clear need to improve the efficiency and the environmental compatibility of fossil technologies, shift to fossil energy sources with lower environmental impacts such as natural gas, or shift away from fossil energy use to renewable sources and nuclear power. This is an especially challenging prospect for the rapidly developing countries of Asia. Wider use of natural gas and electricity in Asia would help promote higher energy efficiencies, better quality of energy services and substantially lower environmental impacts especially at the level of energy end use. Such a transition would require new continental-scale infrastructures including natural gas and electricity grids and distribution systems.


Prior research has demonstrated the predictive utility of psychosocial maturity in understanding adolescents' decison making regarding antisocial behaviors and other legal decisions. This study investigated the influence of psychosocial maturity on adolescent offenders' self-report of delinquent behaviors over a 12-month time period. A total sample of 136 male and female juvenile offenders were recruited from two juvenile justice settings. Consistent with prior research, results indicated significant correlations between psychosocial maturity variables and self-reported delinquent behavior with the current results revealing a moderating effect of gender on these associations. Separate regression analyses were conducted for male and female juvenile offenders. After controlling for age and setting, the psychosocial maturity variable of temperance consistently predicted self-reported total, violent, and nonviolent delinquency for boys.


Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) transforms frequency-selective channels into multiple low-rate flat-fading subchannels. Carrier frequency offset between transmitter and receiver local oscillators must be estimated and compensated at the receiver to maintain orthogonality of these subchannels. In this paper, we derive the nonlinear least squares (NLS) estimator for carrier frequency synchronization that exploits receiver diversity and known OFDM signal subspace structure due to the placement of unmodulated (virtual) subcarriers. The resulting estimator benefits from the high-resolution subspace method without the computational overhead associated with subspace decomposition. Fundamental estimator performance relationships against parameters such as signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), frequency-selective fading, and diversity branch correlation are derived. In particular, we derive the Cramer-Rao bound (CRB) for the mean square error (MSE) of the carrier frequency offset estimator. Numerical studies are presented to verify the results.


The design of a new aerospace vehicle is a complex, long-term process. At the onset, a set of objectives is identified in the areas of mission, weight, performance, payload, etc., which are specified with a fairly good knowledge of the available design technology and constraints. The designer possesses a fund of accumulated experience and knowledge that he applies, with imagination and intuition, to meet the requirements and constraints he has been given. The knowledge and experience of the designer are more and more frequently being delegated to the computer; intuition and imagination can never be. In spite of the extensive use of computers in portions of the design process, total turnaround times are long; drudgery interrupts and stalls the engineer. The total project data is segmented and scattered throughout the design team to such an extend that accessing, coordinating, and updating become difficult and complex. The team gets the job done, but only after painfully tedious effort.


The study involved three pastures, grazed by geese, goats and fallow deer, and three nearby meadows (control plots) situated in north-central Poland. Samples of 150 cm3 each (6 cm of soil and 3 cm of lower parts of plants) were collected in spring, summer and autumn 2016 and 2017 in 10 replications, 360 samples in total. This material included 22.561 mites, among which Oribatida accounted for 69%, Mesostigmata for 21%, and other mites for 10%. At most study sites, both pastures and meadows, no significant seasonal differences in the abundance of Oribatida and Mesostigmata were seen. Such differences were only observed for the third category of other mites that were the most abundant in spring and usually the least abundant in autumn. Also species diversity of Oribatida differed between the seasons – in all pastures it was the highest in summer and the lowest in spring, while in all meadows it was the highest in spring and decreased towards autumn. Oribatid species were more affected by the habitats than by seasons, as some species were strongly associated with pastures (Platynothrus peltifer), other with meadows (Achipteria coleoptrata, Liebstadia similis, Metabelba pulverosa, Scheloribates laevigatus and Sellnickochthonius immaculatus), and some (Eupelops occultus and Tectocepheus velatus) were abundant in both habitats. Although the effect of seasonality was weaker than that of the habitat, it was still perceptible. Platynothrus peltifer was most associated with autumn, T. velatus with spring, E. occultus with spring and summer and L. similis with summer.


The lexicographic practice was established during a pretheoretical era with the first dictionaries responding to the real needs of real users and not to criteria laid down by theoretical lexicographers. Different types of dictionaries emerged due to the varying needs of a wide variety of potential dictionary users. Throughout the early development of lexicographic practice the work was dominated by a user-driven approach, resulting in dictionaries being compiled to serve as utility instruments. During the first phases of the development of theoretical lexicography much attention was focussed on typological models and to criteria relevant for each dictionary category within the relevant typological model. Unfortunately this often led to dictionaries being compiled according to typological criteria instead of being a response to user needs. This paper focuses on various aspects of the existing typological classifications and on situating these classifications within the context of a general theory of lexicography. Utilising the results of the more recent emphasis on lexicographic functions it is maintained that a less rigid approach is necessary in the classification of dictionaries. Typological classification should rather be done according to lexicographic functions and not only according to established models. A brief discussion of the development of lexicographic theory indicates a shift from a linguistic-based approach to an approach characterised by its emphasis on dictionary structures and eventually to an approach that introduced lexicographic functions. It is shown that the typological classification is still largely dominated by a linguistic bias. Various aspects of the traditional typological classification are discussed, including the proposal from theoretical lexicographers that dictionary classes should not be regarded as isolated compartments. Allowance should be made for an interaction between the different classes with dictionaries displaying features from more than one typological category. The focus in this discussion is on the call to introduce lexicographic functions as a determining factor in the classification of dictionaries. An introduction to some aspects of lexicographic functions is followed by a closer look at different user situations and different user types. The needs and reference skills of a well-identified target user group should determine the functions of any dictionary. These user-based functions should then determine the nature of the dictionary type. Although changes are proposed for the current typological classification, it is not suggested that all existing typological categories should be abandoned or altered. In many cases the same classification should be maintained. It is suggested that a stronger functional approach should lead to the introduction of more unambiguous subtitles, explicating the function of a given dictionary, e.g. Helping with the reading/ writing/ translation of a text. What is regarded as extremely important is that dictionaries should no longer be compiled to obey the criteria of a typological category, isolated from the real situation of dictionary use, and that dictionaries should respond to the needs of users and should realise different communication and cognitive functions. A functional integration of typological features will reflect the needs of the target users rather than the formal criteria of a given typological classification in the planning, compilation and eventual classification of a dictionary.


Oxygen–derived free radicals have been implicated in the pathogenesis of tissue injury after ischaemia–reperfusion. Caffeic acid phenethyl ester (CAPE), an active ingredient of honeybee propolis, has been identified as having potent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. We evaluated the ability of CAPE applied intraperitoneally in reducing tissue injury after ischaemia–reperfusion. To investigate whether treatment with CAPE modifies the concentrations of the endogenous indices of oxidant stress, we examined its effects on a model of flap ischaemia–reperfusion injury in rats. CAPE (10 µmol/kg) was given through the peritoneum before reperfusion. CAPE given intraperitoneally had an inhibitory effect on tissue injury after ischaemia–reperfusion comparable to that of a control group. The anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties of CAPE may contribute to its suppression of tissue injury.


During the lifetime of Guillaume Du Fay (c. 1400–1474) the motet underwent a profound transformation. Because of the protean nature of the motet during this period, problems of definition have always stood in the way of a full understanding of this crucial shift. Through a comprehensive survey of the surviving repertory, Julie Cumming shows that the motet is best understood on the level of the subgenre. She employs new ideas about categories taken from cognitive psychology and evolutionary theory to illuminate the process by which the subgenres of the motet arose and evolved. One important finding is the nature and extent of the crucial role that English music played in the genre's transformation. Cumming provides a close reading of many little-known pieces; she also shows how Du Fay's motets were the product of sophisticated experimentation with generic boundaries.


"How do I apply Lean Six Sigma in my service organization?" This is a question many executives and managers are asking. With all the emphasis on using Lean Six Sigma in manufacturing environments, the need for a clear methodology for implementing these major quality improvement initiatives in service functions has been mainly overlooked - until now. "Lean Six Sigma for Service" provides a service-based approach, explaining how companies of all types can cost-effectively translate manufacturing-oriented Lean Six Sigma tools into the service delivery process. Six Sigma expert Michael George reveals how easy it is to apply relatively simple statistical and Lean tools that will reduce costs and achieve greater speed in service processes. It's no secret that service functions have a harder time applying Lean and Six Sigma principles. The manufacturing roots of these initiatives have made it unclear how to apply these tools to services; this book effortlessly makes that translation.Here, for the first time, you'll read about how classic Lean tools such as "Pull systems" and "setup reduction" are being used in procurement, call centers, surgical suites, government offices, RD become a customer-centered organization; gain control over process complexity Improve response time on signature services; apply value-based management to project selection; clean up your workspace; and develop supplier relationships.For guidance in deploying Lean Six Sigma in service organizations, reducing lead times, streamlining processes, and holding down costs, "Lean Six Sigma for Services" is the most complete, authoritative guide you can own. "Lockheed Martin recognized that our business support processes have as much opportunity for improvement as our design and build areas. By applying Lean process speed and Six Sigma quality tools to marketing, legal, contract administration, procurement, etc. we have created a competitive advantage...The lessons learned and practical case studies contained in "Lean Six Sigma for Service" provide a road map which can create great value for customers, employees and shareholders." - Mike Joyce, Vice President, Lockheed Martin. For operational excellence deploy Lean Six Sigma in your service organization.Would you like to: reduce your company's service costs by 30 to 60 percent? Improve service delivery time by 50 percent? Expand capacity by 20 percent - without adding staff? If you answered yes - and who wouldn't - then this is the book for you. "Lean Six Sigma for Services" reveals how to bring the miracle of Lean Six Sigma improvement out of manufacturing and into service functions.Michael George describes the basic elements of successful deployment, including insights from corporate leaders who have already "walked the talk" to accelerate your own journey. Filled with case studies detailing dramatic service improvements in organizations from Lockheed Martin to Stanford University Hospital, this bottom-line book provides executives and managers with the knowledge necessary to blend Lean and Six Sigma to optimize services. You'll see how Lean Six Sigma can cut costs by reducing complexity; how to utilize its tools to provide better quality service; and how you can use shareholder value to drive project selection - without needing an MBA.


We study how ownership similarity between two firms affects the likelihood of an acquisition between them. Assortative matching arguments suggest that similarity between acquiring and target firms can encourage acquisition behavior since more similar partners can better understand one another and combine resources in a more efficient way. Previous research has confirmed this expectation focusing on traits related to industry, strategy and technology. We contribute to this literature by examining similarity in the type of dominant owner. We hypothesize and find evidence in a sample of 14,000 Italian companies that acquisitions are more likely to occur among firms with similar owners.


Fish use the lateral line to sense changes in pressure and water movements that may signal the arrival of food or predators. Nechiporuk and Raible now use genetics, cell transplantation, and live imaging to study lateral line development in zebrafish. In zebrafish, the lateral line develops from front to back, with a migrating zone of progenitor cells laying down repeated clusters of hair cells in its wake. Fibroblast growth factor signaling is involved in several aspects of the process--migration, deposition of a primordium, and differentiation. A. Nechiporuk, D. W. Raible, FGF-dependent mechanosensory organ patterning in zebrafish. Science 320, 1774-1777 (2008). [Abstract] [Full Text]


The performance of portland cement concrete mixes with higher flexural strength, higher cement content, and with Hard-Cem additive and carpet drag finish will be evaluated over a period of five years to determine if they are more resistant to studded tire wear. Special sections of each mix will be tested over a five year period to determine the rate of studded tire wear as compared to the WSDOT standard 650 psi flexural strength mix and tined finish. In addition, the carpet drag finish will be compared to transverse tining with regard to providing adequate friction resistance over time and reducing tire/pavement noise.


The ParkourBot climbs in a planar reduced-gravity vertical chute by leaping back and forth between the chute's two parallel walls. The ParkourBot is comprised of a body with two springy legs and its controls consist of leg angles at touchdown and the energy stored in them. During flight, the robot stores elastic potential energy in its springy legs and then converts this potential energy in to kinetic energy at touchdown, when it "kicks off" a wall. This paper describes the ParkourBot's mechanical design, modeling, and open-loop climbing experiments. The mechanical design makes use of the BowLeg, previously used for hopping on a flat ground. We introduce two models of the BowLeg ParkourBot: one is based on a nonzero stance duration using the spring-loaded inverted pendulum model, and the other is a simplified model (the simplest parkour model, or SPM) obtained as the leg stiffness approaches infinity and the stance time approaches zero. The SPM approximation provides the advantage of closed-form calculations. Finally, predictions of the models are validated by experiments in open-loop climbing in a reduced-gravity planar environment provided by an air table.


Definition of biogeographic provinces, patterns of species distributions on local and regional scales, species richness, and relative abundances are all basic ecological measures, yet they are largely unknown for deep-sea hydrothermal vent ecosystems. Without an appreciation of biogeographic and biodiversity patterns, it is difficult to understand the evolutionary and ecological processes that underlie species distributions. To begin to address these issues, species composition, species richness, diversity, abundance, and recruitment patterns were studied within mussel beds at 3 remote hydrothermal fields on the southern East Pacific Rise (SEPR). Two closely spaced fields (within 1 km) were hydrothermally active and shared the most abundant taxa. The mussel bed com- munities at these fields could be differentiated primarily by the relative abundances of species rather than by species composition. A third field was in a waning stage of hydrothermal activity. Productiv- ity, biomass, and abundance of invertebrates associated with mussel beds at this third field were low, and the species list was a small subset of that found at the active fields, subsidized by several non- vent deep-sea taxa. Based on abundances of smallest size classes, recruitment of mussels and of sev- eral other dominant invertebrate species was high at the active sites. At the waning vent field, no recruitment was observed, except within the population of ophiuroids. Most of the species found within the SEPR mussel beds belong to species previously described from vent sites north of the equator, indicating that there is a single hydrothermal biogeographic province extending along the East Pacific Rise for more than 30 degrees of latitude. There were no shared species between SEPR mussel beds and a Mid-Atlantic Ridge (MAR) vent mussel bed and species richness was more than twice as high at the active SEPR mussel beds than at the Mid-Atlantic Ridge mussel beds. As biogeographic provinces are defined and robust measures of species diversity accumulate for vent habitats on the East Pacific Rise and Mid-Atlantic Ridge, vent ecologists will be able to place the biogeography and biodiversity of vent faunas within the context of the regional and global bio- geographic and diversity patterns observed in terrestrial and other marine ecosystems.


Since the physics of air entrainment is not yet clearly understood, most of the fire plume expressions reported in the literature were derived empirically. Experiments with different fire geometry, fuels, and ambient conditions would be difficult when trying to derive comprehensive plume temperature and velocity fields from existing theories. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD), a practical engineering tool in fire engineering, might give a better understanding of the plume behavior. This technique can eliminate factors which are difficult to control in experiments, but would affect the plume movement. Aerodynamics for thermally induced plumes is studied by CFD in this article. Three types of thermal plumes such as axisymmetric plume, balcony spill plume, and door plume are considered. Four axisymmetric plume equations and three balcony spill plume models are assessed by comparing with the CFD results. For door plumes, qualitative results of the mass entrainment rate are obtained. Investigations in this article are useful for fire engineers in designing smoke management systems in an affordable fashion. This is a critical point in implementing an engineering performance-based fire code.


We introduce novel online Bayesian methods for the identification of a family of noisy recurrent neural networks (RNNs). We present Bayesian active learning techniques for stimulus selection given past experiences. In particular, we consider the unknown parameters as stochastic variables and use A-optimality and D-optimality principles to choose optimal stimuli. We derive myopic cost functions in order to maximize the information gain concerning network parameters at each time step. We also derive the A-optimal and D-optimal estimations of the additive noise that perturbs the dynamical system of the RNN. Here we investigate myopic as well as non-myopic estimations, and study the problem of simultaneous estimation of both the system parameters and the noise. Employing conjugate priors our derivations remain approximation-free and give rise to simple update rules for the online learning of the parameters. The efficiency of our method is demonstrated for a number of selected cases, including the task of controlled independent component analysis.


Planck has observed the entire sky from 30 GHz to 857 GHz. The observed foreground emission contains contributions from different phases
of the interstellar medium (ISM). We have separated the observed Galactic emission into the different gaseous components (atomic, molecular
and ionised) in each of a number of Galactocentric rings. This technique provides the necessary information to study dust properties (emissivity,
temperature, etc.), as well as other emission mechanisms as a function of Galactic radius. Templates are created for various Galactocentric radii
using velocity information from atomic (neutral hydrogen) and molecular (12CO) observations. The ionised template is assumed to be traced by
free-free emission as observed by WMAP, while 408 MHz emission is used to trace the synchrotron component. Gas emission not traced by the
above templates, namely "dark gas", as evidenced using Planck data, is included as an additional template, the first time such a component has
been used in this way. These templates are then correlated with each of the Planck frequency bands, as well as with higher frequency data from
IRAS and DIRBE along with radio data at 1.4 GHz. The emission per column density of the gas templates allows us to create distinct spectral
energy distributions (SEDs) per Galactocentric ring and in each of the gaseous tracers from 1.4 GHz to 25 THz (12 μm). The resulting SEDs
allow us to explore the contribution of various emission mechanisms to the Planck signal. Apart from the thermal dust and free-free emission, we
have probed the Galaxy for anomalous (e.g., spinning) dust as well as synchrotron emission. We find the dust opacity in the solar neighbourhood,
τ/NH = 0.92±0.05×10−25 cm2 at 250 μm, with no significant variation with Galactic radius, even though the dust temperature is seen to vary from
over 25 K to under 14 K. Furthermore, we show that anomalous dust emission is present in the atomic, molecular and dark gas phases throughout
the Galactic disk. Anomalous emission is not clearly detected in the ionised phase, as free-free emission is seen to dominate. The derived dust
propeties associated with the dark gas phase are derived but do not allow us to reveal the nature of this phase. For all environments, the anomalous
emission is consistent with rotation from polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and, according to our simple model, accounts for (25 ± 5)%
(statistical) of the total emission at 30 GHz.


Written specially for the World Book Day Quick Reads promotion. "My dad used to say to me, 'Try to keep a cool head and a warm heart'. At least I think it was my dad. I don't really remember him." Gravy worked in the graveyard - hence the name. He was having a normal day until his friend Benjy turned up in a car Gravy didn't recognise. Benjy had a bullet hole in his chest, but lived just long enough to ask Gravy to hide him and look after his gun. Gravy had looked after things for Benjy before, but never a gun. When Gravy looked in the car he found blood, a balaclava and a bag stuffed with money. Gravy's not too bright but he wants to help his friend. So Gravy finds himself caught up in the middle of a robbery gone wrong, a woman who witnessed a murder, and some very unpleasant men who will do anything to get back the money Benjy stole...


This paper reports on the use of action research in a case study involving two iterations of an online workshop implemented at two universities in late 2007 and early 2009 to prepare teaching staff for using wikis for student group work and assessment.Workshop participants were immersed in the experience of collaborating in a wiki as learners and then reflected on this experience as teachers. Experience of the pilot workshop suggested a need for more orientation, potentially by introducing a blended learning design. The second iteration highlighted a need to develop the orientation session further and increase support strategies throughout the workshop, suggesting the value of offering it at faculty or department level if no ''reward'' is available for participation. Outcomes from the two cycles illustrate the value of action research for iterative improvement of this staff development model and for implementing the scholarship of teaching and learning to develop and share professional knowledge in this emerging area. This paper outlines a staff development approach involving Web 2.0 applications on which others can build. Keywords: action research; scholarship of teaching and learning; staff development; social software; Web 2.0 (Published: 21 March 2012) Citation: Research in Learning Technology 2012, 20 : 16149 - DOI: 10.3402/rlt.v20i0.16149


Improving Off-line and On-line Supercritical Fluid Extraction Techniques by Elevating the Post-Restrictor Pressure Mark Adam Stone The high flow rate that results as fluid decompresses through the restrictor is arguably the single greatest problem with supercritical fluid extraction techniques. As a result of these high flow rates, solvent trapping is not efficient in many cases, and the more complicated sorbent trapping technique must be used. In addition, loss of the collection solvent may occur during the process making it difficult to work with small volumes, which are desirable from the standpoint of sensitivity, cost, and environmental concerns. Similarly, these high decompressed flows have made it difficult to directly interface supercritical fluid extraction methods with separation techniques. This is unfortunate as supercritical extractions are ideal for on-line coupling in other respects, such as the fact that the fluid becomes gaseous upon depressurization and that supercritical fluids generally extract less contaminant material. In this thesis we have shown that, by elevating the post-restrictor pressure, the decompressed flow rate can be reduced, and these problems can be minimized, considerably. Off-line trapping becomes much simpler when working at elevated pressures as the need for sorbent trapping is virtually eliminated and solvent trapping may be conducted with much less difficulty. Elevated post-restrictor pressures were found to be very beneficial for on-line work as well. SFE/GC was carried out with complete transfer of the extraction effluent to a capillary GC column, which has not previously been demonstrated. Likewise the use of an open-tubular column interface, maintained at moderately elevated pressures, allowed SFE/HPLC to be conducted with quantitative analyte transfer, even in the presence of 10% modifier. In all cases but especially for the on-line methods more practical extraction parameters were possible, including extraction vessel volume, extraction flow rate, and dynamic extraction time. Another benefit of elevating the post-restrictor pressure is that higher extraction flow rates will generally be possible. The benefits of this were not evaluated in the research presented here, however, the effect that the extraction flow rate can have on extraction time is considered, from a theoretical standpoint, in Chapter five.


Wireless is now common for access to multimedia services, with many different devices and choice of access technology. Access methods have become varied and with more types of services, which requires more consideration for coordinating existing protocols and quality of service (QoS). Increasingly, new wireless access technologies co-exist on the same devices, for example, smartphones already have third-generation cellular and WiFi. Devices with multiple links are described under the umbrella term 'heterogeneous environments'. A trend towards heterogeneous wireless environments and varied types of media services requires that QoS and user satisfaction are prominent in next-generation networks. The problems in next-generation heterogeneous wireless environments include many levels of complexity; from link coexistence to user-centric policies and contexts. This thesis explores the issue of QoS in interface selection for devices with more than one wireless access link. A solution that provides link selection for QoS policy is investigated using analytical and simulation techniques.
Different wireless networks have capabilities and limitations, determined by radio technology and network conditions. The research focused on an approach to improve QoS by leveraging the differences in wireless networks. However, it is complicated by issues such as: different protocols, physical device co-existence, mobility, and application QoS requirements. Following a review of artificial intelligence (AI) techniques, finite-state machines (FSMs) and fuzzy decision-making (FDM) are proposed as a solution approach. An agent-based prototype is used to combine FSMs and FDM for automating link selection, determined by user and QoS policy.
Prototype evaluation was performed using sensitivity analysis for FDM, and discrete-event simulation for generating QoS metrics in wireless environments. The results are comparisons of FDM prototypes using different parameters; different agent prototypes were run with different QoS conditions for comparing points of handover between UMTS and WLAN networks for one service type. The research has shown an agent model can reduce the complexity for a user in wireless interface selection, while including QoS metrics and user preferences into the decision process. Core decision-making techniques in the design are relevant for emerging standardisation frameworks such as 802.21, and the next-generation of wireless networks to support heterogeneous access.


Pierce, Tamora. Mastiff: Beka Cooper Book 3 . New York: Random House, 2011. Print. The final book in the Beka Cooper trilogy begins three years after the close of the previous book, Bloodhound, at the funeral of Beka's fiance. Instead of grief, Beka is relieved to be free of this unhappy relationship; enthusiastically, she begins a new hunt for the King's abducted son, along with her supernatural cat, Pounce; her scenthound, Achoo;  and her partner, Tunstall. Soon joined by the deceptively capable mage, Farmer, and the lady knight, Sabine, the group follows the heir's trail through noble houses, discovering corruption in all levels of the government. Pierce is known for her strong female protagonists, and Beka is no different. Fiercely loyal and honest, Beka is an upstanding member of the Tortall police force who believes in protecting the poor. When she discovers that the prince is being held by slave traders, she becomes even more determined to rescue him. Her relationships with her friends are tested by a shocking betrayal that causes innocents to die. The story is fast-paced and includes a growing relationship between Beka and Farmer that provides a satisfying conclusion to the trilogy. Although it could be read as a standalone novel, some elements of the narrative are explained in the previous books. Recommended: 3 out of 4 stars Reviewer: Kristine Moruzi Kristine Moruzi is a Grant Notley Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of English and Film Studies at the University of Alberta, where she is examining representations of girlhood in Canadian children's literature between 1840 and 1940.


This massive book of Soviet propaganda posters, many rare and never before published, is at once a revealing historical document and a sublime example of graphic art at its best. Dating from 1917 to the beginning of the Cold War, the posters in this book feature the work of such major Russian ground-breaking avant-garde designers as El Lissitzky and Alexander Rodchenko as well as extraordinary works by anonymous artists. Presented in full color, the 250 posters gathered here range in themes from warnings about the dangers of alcohol abuse and the creeping Nazi menace to illustrations of utopian harmony and the Soviet industrial machine. A brief illustrated introduction offers a chronological overview of the period that produced such eloquent art, which has long been a major source of inspiration to artists and designers.


Normal 0 0 1 485 2768 Chapman University/GEMS:GabrieleEducMatlsSys 23 5 3399 11.773 0 0 0 This paper outlines a new theory and a new practice with the goal of improved descriptions of and prescription for schools and social systems. The theory, gleaned out of Boulding's nine-level typology of system complexity, is named TPO for the three key domains of schools ( technical, personal and organizational) . Informative for instructional designers and school and organization change efforts, it is also a theory for non-specialists ( things, people, and outcomes ). The need for such a theory is great, given the variety of decision-makers, and the failure of well-intentioned reform efforts. Things, people, and outcomes, the key parts of a social system, have very different properties. First, things (technical) in a social system are of three kinds--Level 1: frameworks (e.g., buildings, books and equipment); Level 2: clockworks (e.g., school routines, schedules and calendars); and Level 3: thermostat-like systems (e.g., school goals which people--students and educators--self-regulate to attain.) The skillful design of Level 3 systems results is adjustment capacities. Level 1, 2, and 3 things are predictable and designable.  Second, people (personal) in a social system are not designable. While things like thermostats self-regulate to externally prescribed criteria, living systems self-regulate to internally prescribed criteria (Level 4: open; e.g., cell). Living systems (Levels 4-7) act to meet their own basic needs first, then, in people, higher needs—generally predictable by Maslow's hierarchy of human needs: survival, safety, belonging, achievement, self-actualization and transcendence. People's behavior decreases in predictability due to inherent individual differences (Level 5: blueprint; e.g., plant); differing immediate perceptions from among competing stimuli (Level 6: image-aware; e.g., animal), and their own long term reflections, prior knowledge, choices, and abilities (Level 7: symbol processing; e.g., human).  The third part of a social system is labeled outcomes (organizational). Outcomes depend on people's behavior. If things (T) of the systems are designed and arranged to allow people (P) to easily meet their basic needs, outcomes (O) will be desirable. This principle is not a question of ethics, but a question of physics. It is natural, biological, and scientific law that people will behave to meet their individual and personal needs (Level 7: human) before their social system or organization's needs (Levels 8 and 9). Level 8 systems (social) are optional. Level 7 functioning is mandatory. A person can transfer schools (Level 8), but cannot transfer bodies (Level 7). The new practice, observed in the ISSS Morning RoundTable over the last ten years, corresponds to the goals of systemic renewal and the TPO theory. The ISSS RoundTable is a version of the GEMS RoundTable, which has been formally studied in 4 th Grade classrooms. Two of these teachers continue with it today. The RoundTable is an excellent example of a TPO practice because of its effective design, arrangement and use of things (T), to maximize opportunities for learning for the participants or people (P). Furthermore, the result is a system with the excellent adjustment capacities needed for best outcomes (O).


Self-supervised learning (SSL) in speech involves training a speech representation network on a large-scale unannotated speech corpus, and then applying the learned representations to downstream tasks. Since the majority of the downstream tasks of SSL learning in speech largely fo-cus on the content information in speech, the most desirable speech representations should be able to disentangle unwanted variations, such as speaker variations, from the content. However, disentangling speakers is very challenging, because removing the speaker information could easily result in a loss of content as well, and the damage of the latter usually far outweighs the benefit of the for-mer. In this paper, we propose a new SSL method that can achieve speaker disentanglement without severe loss of content. Our approach is adapted from the HuBERT framework, and incorporates disentangling mechanisms to regularize both the teachers (masked prediction labels) and the students (learned representations). We evaluate the benefit of speaker disentanglement on a set of content-related downstream tasks, and observe a consistent and notable performance advantage of our speaker-disentangled representations.


Generic delimitation within the Trichilieae (Meliaceae) is considered, with particular reference to the Trichilia P. Browne - Heynea Roxb. ex Sims - Walsura Roxb. complex. Original investigations of leaf-surface micromorphology, palynology and fruit anatomy are made of species of each genus of the tribe and an isoenzyme study is made of species of Trichilia. Heynea and Walsura . The accounts of these studies are extensively illustrated with photographs, scanning-electron-micrographs and annotated drawings. Seed dispersal systems are briefly considered including original field observations of a species of Walsura . In the light of the data revealed by these studies, inter-generic relationships are discussed. The Indo-Malesian genus Walsura is taxonomically revised and the closely related new genus Pseudoclausena is segregated from it and described. Within Walsura . a new section (Ruswala) and three new species ( W. dehiscens. W. pachycaulon and W. sarawakensis ) are described and one new combination is made ( W. trifoliolata ssp. acuminata ). The new genus consists of one new species ( P. chrysogyne W. chrysogyne (Miq.) Bakh.f, and W. velutina Ridley is reduced to a new forma of it. Keys are given for the identification of all taxa and the species are illustrated by drawings and (in some cases) by photographs. A cladistic analysis is made of all the species of Walsura. Pseudoclausena and Heynea . taking Trichilia as the outgroup. This, together with the findings of the above studies and published data indicate that Heynea should be considered a distinct genus in the alliance of Walsura . A key for the identification of these four genera is given. The other genera of the tribe are briefly considered and all are maintained as distinct. The great diversity of fruit structures within the tribe provides particularly good characters for the segregation of these genera.


Devoted to a diverse group of solid state scientists, the book has two objectives, both relating to structural chemistry: (i) a progressive analytic familiarization with the main parameters that govern the organization of crystallized matter and related crystal structures, (ii) a study of what are the various ways to 'read' a structure far beyond its representation in scientific articles. Hence, the reader will, from numerous examples illustrated in color, analyze what are the main characteristics of these structures, from their geometric characteristics, their coordination polyhedra, their connections with the resulting dimensionalities of these solids, including also the defects they exhibit, before looking at possibilities to classify structures, within which recurrence laws can emerge.Chemists are required to understand the potentials of a new structure for becoming future materials scientists. The first part of the book is by no means a database for known structures, but facilitates a progressive understanding of the organization of the solid state. With these tools in hand, the reader is invited in the later part of the book to analyze new structures, and to also use new concepts for viewing structures in a more synthetic way for the future. Such new vision is already leading to the creation of completely new solids with outstanding characteristics that find applications in societal problems concerning energy, energy savings, environment and health.The contents is not exclusively academic but relates to the creation of innovative materials, through a more physical approach, that might condition the future of materials.


Randomly mutating well-formed program inputs or simply fuzzing, is a highly effective and widely used strategy to find bugs in software. Other than showing fuzzers find bugs, there has been little systematic effort in understanding the science of how to fuzz properly. In this paper, we focus on how to mathematically formulate and reason about one critical aspect in fuzzing: how best to pick seed files to maximize the total number of bugs found during a fuzz campaign. We design and evaluate six different algorithms using over 650 CPU days on Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) to provide ground truth data. Overall, we find 240 bugs in 8 applications and show that the choice of algorithm can greatly increase the number of bugs found. We also show that current seed selection strategies as found in Peach may fare no better than picking seeds at random. We make our data set and code publicly available.


We argue that social capital as proxied by trust increases aggregate productivity by affecting the organization of firms. To do this we collect new data on the decentralization of investment, hiring, production, and sales decisions from Corporate Headquarters to local plant managers in almost 4,000 firms in the United States, Europe, and Asia. We find that firms headquartered in high trust regions are more likely to decentralize, with trust accounting for about half of the variation in decentralization in our data. To help identify causal effects, we look within multinational firms, and show that higher levels of bilateral trust between the multinational's country of origin and subsidiary's country of location increases decentralization, even after instrumenting trust using religious and ethnic similarities between the countries. Trust raises aggregate productivity through two channels: (1) trust facilitates reallocation between firms by allowing more efficient firms to grow as CEOs can decentralize more decisions and (2) trust complements the adoption of new technologies, thereby increasing productivity within firms during times of rapid technological change.


This paper presents an analysis of the essential characteristics of the TQM philosophy by comparing the work of five notable authors in the field. A framework is produced which gather the identified TQM enablers under the well-known operations management dimensions of process, business and people. These enablers are linked with sustainable development via balance scorecard type economic and non-economic measures. In order to capture a picture of Libyan Company's efforts to implement the TQM, a questionnaire survey is designed and implemented. Results of the survey are presented showing the main differentiating factors between the sample companies, and a way of assessing the difference between the theoretical underpinning and the practitioners' undertakings. Survey results indicate that companies are experiencing much difficulty in translating TQM theory into practice. Only a few companies have successfully adopted a holistic approach to TQM philosophy, and most of these put relatively high emphasis on hard elements compared with soft issues of TQM. However, where companies can realise the economic outputs, non-economic benefits such as workflow management, skills development and team learning are not realised. In addition, overall, non-economic measures have secured low weightings compared with the economic measures. We believe that the framework presented in this paper can help a company to concentrate its TQM implementation efforts in terms of process, system and people management dimensions.


The article deals with the investigation of legal and regulatory aspects for the development of transboundary oil and gas fields by Russia and Norway. A detailed analysis has been conducted on the Treaty between the Russian Federation and the Kingdom of Norway concerning maritime delimitation and cooperation in the Barents Sea and the Arctic Ocean in terms of its contents, legal obligations of the parties, and terms in use. The conceptual framework has been studied; Russian and Norwegian experience of development of different kinds of transboundary production fields has been described. A review on Russian and Norwegian legislation regarding the development of such fields has been presented. As a result, conclusions have been made and recommendations have been given on improvement of the legislation of the Russian Federation when developing transboundary hydrocarbon fields taking into account Russian and Norwegian experience.


Summary 1. In Panama, abandoned agricultural lands that supported tropical rain forest are invaded by the exotic invasive grass Saccharum spontaneum , which precludes native forest regeneration. This study aimed to evaluate the importance of several barriers to forest regeneration and highlight mitigation opportunities. 2. We examined four barriers to natural regeneration: Saccharum competition, seed dispersal limitation, fire and soil nutrient deficiency. Tree and shrub regeneration was measured in a factorial experiment combining Saccharum cutting treatments, distances from adjacent forest and a prescribed burn to assess the first three barriers, respectively. We compared soil nutrients in Saccharum plots with those from adjacent forest. Additionally, we determined the importance of distance to remnant vegetation (large-leaved monocots, shrubs and isolated trees) on forest regeneration. 3. Fire significantly decreased plant species richness of forest regeneration. Fire inhibited the germination of most species; the effect was exacerbated by cutting the Saccharum . 4. Grass competition significantly decreased seedling growth, while soil nutrient deficiency did not affect forest regeneration. 5. Seed dispersal limitation affected density and species richness. Significantly more species (3 × ) regenerated at 10 m compared with 35 m from the forest. Mean seedling densities were, respectively, four, three and two times higher under large-leaved monocots, isolated trees and shrubs than in open Saccharum . When seed input was experimentally equalized, large-seeded species had the highest establishment rate, suggesting that if their propagules were dispersed to the site they would regenerate in high proportions. However, under natural conditions they regenerated poorly and represented the most dispersal-limited species group. 6. Synthesis and applications . Our results suggest that facilitation of natural regeneration may be a feasible, low-cost management option for restoring native forest cover to large areas. Firebreaks must be established to promote biodiversity of forest regeneration. We do not recommend Saccharum cutting or fertilization as site treatments. Shading effectively eliminates Saccharum . Planting a variety of tree species in clumps throughout the Saccharum may overcome dispersal limitations and catalyse natural regeneration. Trees that attract different frugivores are recommended, especially largeseeded forest species.


A preliminary 2-D crustal modelling has been realized by a joint interpretation of kinematic seismic data and Bouguer anomalies relative to the M25, M26, M28, M39 profiles, carried out in Sicily by the wide-angle seismic recording technique. It was generally possible to constrain the patterns relative to the shallowest structures with a high degree of accuracy, using results of previous seismic surveys and further geologic information. Fewer and less accurate constraints resulting from previous geophysical studies could, on the other hand, be introduced on deeper structures. Processing techniques optimized on purpose allowed a correlation of the main seismic phases on sections previously characterized by a low signal to noise ratio. After joining the investigated profiles with a three-dimensional model relative to the Sicilian crust, obtained from a synthesis of all geophysical data available in the area (Quarta et alii, 1998), some assumptions could be made about the possible relations between the crustal structures of the basins studied and Sicily.


The district which forms the subject of the present memoir, comprehends the whole of Southern Pembrokeshire. It deserves the attention of the geologist, not only from its including the western extremity of the great coal-basin of South Wales, and exhibiting along the boundaries of that basin, within a narrow compass, the mutual and diversified relations of the carboniferous and transition systems of rocks; but also from its presenting in both those systems striking instances of disturbance and contortion, and displaying perhaps in a more remarkable manner than any other district in England the real character of those varieties of trap which so commonly occur associated with transition formations †.. The long series of natural sections presented by the tortuous coast which extends from St. Bride's Bay on the west to Caermarthen Bay on the east, and by the shores of Milford Haven which traverses the centre of the district, afford remarkable facilities for investigating the structure of the country. The surface of the district, in general, is exceedingly undulated: few of the ranges, however, are striking, nor are there any of very considerable height. The country near the shores of Milford Haven is often well wooded; but in other parts it is almost bare of timber, and particularly to the north-west of Haverfordwest. Of the formations occurring within the district I shall treat in the following order: 1. Trap*. 2. Greywacké. 3. Old red Sandstone. 4. Carboniferous, or Mountain Limestone. 5. Coal-measures. § 1.—Trap. The rocks which I mean


Incorporating test and fault diagnosis as critical design requirements is necessary to achieve high-quality, cost-effective multichip systems. However, evaluating where and when to test, and deciding upon the best test method and level, take considerable study. The authors explore the trade-offs between various MCM test and rework strategies, then analyze the impact of cost, yield, and test effectiveness of the final cost and quality. This analysis of the trade-offs associated with test strategies for complex multichip systems and modules clearly indicate that incorporating DFT and BIST with varying degrees at the chip or MCM levels is economically justifiable. These methods result in cost reduction as well as quality improvement, and indicate that the MCM cost could vary by about 10% to 20%, depending on the test strategy used. However, proper determination of where and how to test, and whether to employ DFT and BIST at the IC or MCM levels, require an evaluation of the economics of the various solutions and the payback. This process is highly dependent on the design under consideration and the parameters associated with the available manufacturing environments.<<ETX>>


Introduction A study of government service agencies and nonprofit agencies was performed to assess the array of services provided within Lake County, Indiana, to assess the information technology availability of human services providers throughout the specified area, the potential of incorporating data integration with the collaborative service providers, and to provide recommendations on alternatives for an integrated human service data system. This paper will focus on the technical aspects of integrating client and vendor data with multiple providers of services to the indigent. Overview, a Four Phase Process The project involved a joint venture of Purdue University Calumet and Indiana University Northwest in collaboration with Workforce Development Services of Lake County, Indiana and the Lake Area United Way. The investigators and their project team utilized a four-phase approach to complete their charge. Phase one required interviewing 87 human service providers to include government Township Trustees. The result of this phase enabled the team to identify who the providers of services are and what services they provide. During phase two, an analysis of the information system capacity of human service providers across the county was performed, as well as an assessment of providers of state and local human service data systems. In phase three, the investigators sifted through the information collected by the state and local human service providers to propose a minimal common dataset for potential use by all agencies in the County. This common dataset may satisfy a common intake protocol for all agencies. Finally, in phase four, the delineation of a set of specifications for an integrated human service data system for those agencies surveyed was made. The specifications are based on Internet based technologies for use in the collection, sharing, and analysis of human services data. Specifics of Phase I One-hour interviews were held with 87 executive administrators and/or Information Technology (IT) officers within Lake County, Indiana. Over half of the agencies are classified as non-profit nonreligious organizations, with the rest being a representative sample (governmental, non-profit religious, and for profit) entities in Lake County. The following are approximate percents of the top ten areas of service by these agencies: 69% provide some form of case management, 30% provide some form of education and/or training, 25% provide an array of inpatient and/or outpatient mental health services, 21% provide services targeted to youth, 18% provide some form of emergency assistance, 16% provide medical or health related services, 13% provide shelter services and/or substance abuse services and recreation services, and 12% provide determination and eligibility assistance. Most providers indicated that they do share information with other agencies, after having their client/recipient sign a proper release of information form. Specifics of Phase II Assessing state and local information technology capacity and infrastructure determined that approximately 40% of the respondents indicated they had compiled an IT plan. Approximately 20% of providers indicated they had a dedicated IT staff. However 75% of the agencies that don't have a dedicated IT staff, indicated that they do have at least one person who spends some of their time on computer related functions. In addition, over 50% of the responding agencies indicated that they have Internet access, a Website, and an E-mail account. Client and demographic data analysis is performed by 77% of the reporting agencies. Their primary reason for this reporting is to conform to funding requirements, not for assessing client needs or improving program performance. Even though there is some preliminary documentation related to the proposed integration of IT systems, the State of Indiana has no formal plan in place for the integration of IT systems, using Internet-based technologies. …


Background Bacteria play a role in the onset and perpetuation of intestinal inflammation in IBD. Compositional alterations may also change the metabolic capacities of the gut bacteria. Objective To examine the metabolic activity of the microbiota of patients with Crohn's disease (CD), UC or pouchitis compared with healthy controls (HC) and determine whether eventual differences might be related to the pathogenesis of the disease. Methods Faecal samples were obtained from 40 HC, 83 patients with CD, 68 with UC and 13 with pouchitis. Disease activity was assessed in CD using the Harvey–Bradshaw Index, in UC using the UC Disease Activity Index and in pouchitis using the Pouchitis Disease Activity Index. Metabolite profiles were analysed using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. Results The number of metabolites identified in HC (54) was significantly higher than in patients with CD (44, p<0.001), UC (47, p=0.042) and pouchitis (43, p=0.036). Multivariate discriminant analysis predicted HC, CD, UC and pouchitis group membership with high sensitivity and specificity. The levels of medium-chain fatty acids (MCFAs: pentanoate, hexanoate, heptanoate, octanoate and nonanoate), and of some protein fermentation metabolites, were significantly decreased in patients with CD, UC and pouchitis. Hexanoate levels were inversely correlated to disease activity in CD (correlation coefficient=−0.157, p=0.046), whereas a significant positive correlation was found between styrene levels and disease activity in UC (correlation coefficient=0.338, p=0.001). Conclusions Faecal metabolic profiling in patients with IBD relative to healthy controls identified MCFAs as important metabolic biomarkers of disease-related changes. Trial Registration No: NCT 01666717.


Ploughshares editor-in-chief Ladette Randolph and poetry editor John Skoyles compile this Winter issue, which features the work of several distinguished writers as well as the winners of the Emerging Writer's Contest. The issue features fiction about the Bei Piao, the aimless twenty-somethings who wander modern Beijing ("Days of Being Mild," by Xuan Juliana Wang), the legacy of anti-Semitism in Belgium ("Strawberries," by Karl Taro Greenfeld), an essay about a painful high school production of The Miracle Worker ("Heather, 1984," by Kate Flaherty), and poetry by Carl Dennis, Barbara Hamby, Ellen Bass, Afaa Michael Weaver, and many more.


Controversies surrounding the practice of hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," have engaged the nation in a heated and broad ranging conversation about energy development and environmental protection in America. The debate over who should regulate fracking — the federal government or the States — has been front and center. This Article argues that a theoretical federalism analysis favors shared federal-state regulation of potential impacts on underground drinking water supplies and of hazardous waste management, and federal regulation of information disclosure, under the existing regimes created by our environmental laws. The Article makes at least four contributions to the literature on environmental federalism, in general, and on federalism and fracking, in particular. First, it sets forth a detailed theoretical argument in favor of federal regulation of fracking, and refutes theoretical arguments in favor of State regulation. Second, it provides a unique and extensive examination of the language, structure, and purposes of the Safe Drinking Water Act, along with its legislative history; this act of statutory interpretation provides much needed substance to what is too often an essentially political argument about who should regulate fracking's potential to contaminate drinking water supplies. Third, it analyzes current state and federal regulation and prospective next steps through a federalism lens. Finally, the Article examines the issue of the appropriate scale of governance in light of the political science literature on policy diffusion. Ultimately, while the idea of the States serving as "laboratories for democracy" is an important one, it is not living up to its potential here, and federal intervention is the only way to achieve appropriate regulation of fracking's environmental impacts.


In cognitive radio, cooperative detection through optimization can improve the performance of spectrum sensing. In this paper, the optimal selection of cognitive radios including threshold optimization and cognitive radio's selection optimization is proposed, and the sensing mechanism including sensing period optimization and sensing time optimization is also analyzed. The proposed optimization algorithm can minimize the error detection probability and maximize the average throughout. Simulations show the error detection probability of the proposed algorithm is lower than that of the cooperative detection algorithm with the settled threshold, and the cognitive radios with low SNR, which bring the negative effect to detection, can be removed, and it is also showed that the optimal sensing period and sensing time exists to decrease the detection spending time and improve the average throughout.


BACKGROUND
Observational studies suggest that people who consume more fruits and vegetables containing beta carotene have somewhat lower risks of cancer and cardiovascular disease, and earlier basic research suggested plausible mechanisms. Because large randomized trials of long duration were necessary to test this hypothesis directly, we conducted a trial of beta carotene supplementation.

METHODS
In a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of beta carotene (50 mg on alternate days), we enrolled 22,071 male physicians, 40 to 84 years of age, in the United States; 11 percent were current smokers and 39 percent were former smokers at the beginning of the study in 1982. By December 31, 1995, the scheduled end of the study, fewer than 1 percent had been lost to follow-up, and compliance was 78 percent in the group that received beta carotene.

RESULTS
Among 11,036 physicians randomly assigned to receive beta carotene and 11,035 assigned to receive placebo, there were virtually no early or late differences in the overall incidence of malignant neoplasms or cardiovascular disease, or in overall mortality. In the beta carotene group, 1273 men had any malignant neoplasm (except nonmelanoma skin cancer), as compared with 1293 in the placebo group (relative risk, 0.98; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.91 to 1.06). There were also no significant differences in the number of cases of lung cancer (82 in the beta carotene group vs. 88 in the placebo group); the number of deaths from cancer (386 vs. 380), deaths from any cause (979 vs. 968), or deaths from cardiovascular disease (338 vs. 313); the number of men with myocardial infarction (468 vs. 489); the number with stroke (367 vs. 382); or the number with any one of the previous three end points (967 vs. 972). Among current and former smokers, there were also no significant early or late differences in any of these end points.

CONCLUSIONS
In this trial among healthy men, 12 years of supplementation with beta carotene produced neither benefit nor harm in terms of the incidence of malignant neoplasms, cardiovascular disease, or death from all causes.


The "equal sovereignty" principle the Supreme Court majority relied on in Shelby County v. Holder to strike down the coverage formula in Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act is rooted in the jurisprudence of slavery. In the infamous 1857 case of Dred Scott v. Sandford, Chief Justice Roger Taney held that black Americans, slave or free, were not members of the sovereign people and could never be "citizens" within the meaning of the Constitution. Otherwise, he said, blacks would be entitled to all the fundamental rights of citizenship guaranteed by the Privileges and Immunities Clause of Article IV, Section 2, including the right to vote, a result that would violate the equal sovereignty of the slave states. Black people, Chief Justice Taney wrote, could only enjoy those rights the sovereign people of each state chose to give them. The Dred Scott decision was one of the provocations that led to the Civil War and to the adoption of the Reconstruction amendments to the Constitution. Section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment, ratified in 1868, overruled Dred Scott's holding that freedmen and their descendants were not citizens, and it prohibited the states from abridging "the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States." Section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment gave Congress the power to enforce the Privileges or Immunities Clause. But black voting rights were unpopular in the northern states, as well as in the South. Referendums on black suffrage had been defeated in many northern states in 1867, including Ohio, Kansas, and Minnesota. So the drafters of the Privileges or Immunities Clause had to concede, at least for the time being, that it did not guarantee the franchise. Instead, they placed in Section 2 of the Fourteenth Amendment a threat to reduce Congressional representation for states who denied the franchise to any of its "male inhabitants." The Reconstruction Republicans forced the former Confederate states, still under military rule, to enfranchise blacks as a condition for being readmitted to Congress. Then in 1870 they adopted the Fifteenth Amendment, which prohibited denying or abridging the right to vote on account of race. The door was left open, however, for a future Congress to give the Privileges or Immunities Clause its plain meaning by enforcing the right to vote of every American citizen.The Supreme Court moved immediately to close the door to such future Congressional action by judicially neutering the Privileges or Immunities Clause. The 1873 Slaughter-House Cases reaffirmed Dred Scott's holding that power to define the fundamental rights of citizenship belonged to the states, not to the federal government. A year later, in Minor v. Happersett, the Court rejected the claim of women suffragists that the Fourteenth Amendment Privileges or Immunities Clause guaranteed them the franchise. The Constitution does not give anyone the right to vote, the Court said.The former slave states wasted little time taking the Court's cue. By the turn of the century they had disfranchised their black citizens and had openly established regimes of white supremacy that racially segregated nearly all aspects of life in the South, without fear of penalty by a Congress engaged in reconciling whites North and South. In a 1903 opinion written by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, the Supreme Court told blacks in Alabama the federal courts were powerless to restore their right to vote.African Americans remained disfranchised in the South until, through generations of bloody sacrifice, they finally got Congress to use its power to enforce the anti-discrimination provision of the Fifteenth Amendment and pass the Voting Rights Act of 1965. At first the Supreme Court upheld Congress' authority to enact and to re-enact the Voting Rights Act, but eventually it began to push back. Now, in Shelby County, a five-four majority has struck down the coverage formula in the 2006 amendments to the Voting Rights Act, relieving the Southern states from having to obtain federal preclearance before implementing changes in their voting practices. But, by invoking the unwritten doctrine of "equal sovereignty," Chief Justice John Roberts' opinion for the Court forces us to revisit the racially discriminatory origins of that doctrine and its role in undermining the Privileges or Immunities Clause.The authors argue that the appropriate response by Congress to Shelby County would be reasserting its explicit constitutional authority to interpret the Privileges or Immunities Clause. Adoption of the Fifteenth, Nineteenth, Twenty-Fourth, and Twenty-Sixth Amendments and the Court's repeated acknowledgment of a constitutional right to vote have effectively overruled the Slaughter-House Cases and Minor v. Happersett. The American people of the twenty-first century should demand that Congress enact statutes expressly proclaiming what no one today can deny, that the right to vote is the paramount privilege or immunity of citizenship in the United States. Congress should exercise its Fourteenth Amendment power to enforce the Privileges or Immunities Clause and begin establishing uniform national standards for the administration of all elections, federal, state, and local, that guarantee full access to the franchise for all American citizens.The 2006 Voting Rights Act had special constitutional stature; it was the first voting rights law in American history passed with the participation of African-American members of Congress from every one of the former Confederate states. Its re-enactment based on Congressional authority to enforce the right to vote under the Privileges or Immunities Clause, rather than on the anti-discrimination provisions of the Equal Protection Clause and the Fifteenth Amendment, would render irrelevant the Supreme Court's call for comparing the states' current records of voting discrimination. It would emphatically repudiate the racially tainted equal sovereignty principle relied on in Shelby County and finally renounce the legacy of Dred Scott by proclaiming African-American citizens' full membership in the sovereign people of the United States.


Object recognition has made great strides recently. However, the best methods, such as those based on kernel-SVMs are highly computationally intensive. The problem of how to accelerate the evaluation process without decreasing accuracy is thus of current interest. In this paper, we deal with this problem by using the idea of ranking. We propose a cascaded architecture which using the ranking SVM generates an ordered set of proposals for windows containing object instances. The top ranking windows may then be fed to a more complex detector. Our experiments demonstrate that our approach is robust, achieving higher overlap-recall values using fewer output proposals than the state-of-the-art. Our use of simple gradient features and linear convolution indicates that our method is also faster than the state-of-the-art.


The importance of newly formed sea ice in spring is likely to increase with formation of leads in a more dynamic Arctic icescape. We followed the ice algal species succession in young ice (≤0.27 m) in spring at high temporal resolution (sampling every second day for one month in May–June 2015) in the Arctic Ocean north of Svalbard. We document the early development of the ice algal community based on species abundance and chemotaxonomic marker pigments, and relate the young-ice algal community to the communities in the under-ice water column and the surrounding older ice. The seeding source seemed to vary between algal groups. Dinoflagellates were concluded to originate from the water column and diatoms from the surrounding older ice, which emphasizes the importance of older ice as a seeding source over deep oceanic regions and in early spring when algal abundance in the water column is low. In total, 120 taxa (80 identified to species or genus level) were recorded in the young ice. The protist community developed over the study period from a ciliate, flagellate and dinoflagellate dominated community to one dominated by pennate diatoms. Environmental variables such as light were not a strong driver for the community composition, based on statistical analysis and comparison to the surrounding thicker ice with low light transmission. The photoprotective carotenoids to Chl a ratio increased over time to levels found in other high-light habitats, which shows that the algae were able to acclimate to the light levels of the thin ice. The development into a pennate diatom-dominated community, similar to the older ice, suggests that successional patterns tend towards ice-associated algae fairly independent of environmental conditions like light availability, season or ice type, and that biological traits, including morphological and physiological specialization to the sea ice habitat, play an important role in colonization of the sea ice environment. However, recruitment of ice-associated algae could be negatively affected by the ongoing loss of older ice, which acts as a seeding repository.


Objective: To establish the prevalence and pattern of ocular disorders in psychiatric patients admitted in Mathari Hospital. Design: Hospital based cross sectional study. Setting: Mathari Hospital wards from November 2006 to February 2007. Subjects: Three hundred patients admitted in Mathari Hospital wards that scored >22 marks on the mini mental state exam (MMSE) and gave consent. Results: A total of 300 patients were seen. The prevalence of ocular disorders in this group of patients was 41.3%. The commonest disorders were lens and corneal deposits which contributed 42.7%, refractive errors 25.8%, cataracts 5.6%, glaucoma 4.8%, while other conditions contributed 21.1%. There were no reported cases of self-infl icted ocular injuries. Fifty four patients had ocular side effects commonly associated with antipsychotic drugs (lens and corneal deposits and retinal pigmentary changes) and hence the prevalence of ocular side effects of antipsychotic drugs was 18%. Conclusions: There is a relatively high prevalence of ocular disorders in this group of patients (41.3%). The prevalence of ocular side effects for antipsychotic drugs was relatively high at 18%.


Grey Light came from between the bedroom curtains, like the light of an old black and white film. In it she could see boys and girls in coats. They were carrying packages, and some had bags over their shoulders. Who are these children? Where are they going? Are they real, or is Elise seeing ghosts from the past? And why did her father bring her to this little French village? What secrets does it hide?


We propose a personalized mobile search engine (PMSE) that captures the users' preferences in the form of concepts by mining their clickthrough data. Due to the importance of location information in mobile search, PMSE classifies these concepts into content concepts and location concepts. In addition, users' locations (positioned by GPS) are used to supplement the location concepts in PMSE. The user preferences are organized in an ontology-based, multifacet user profile, which are used to adapt a personalized ranking function for rank adaptation of future search results. To characterize the diversity of the concepts associated with a query and their relevances to the user's need, four entropies are introduced to balance the weights between the content and location facets. Based on the client-server model, we also present a detailed architecture and design for implementation of PMSE. In our design, the client collects and stores locally the clickthrough data to protect privacy, whereas heavy tasks such as concept extraction, training, and reranking are performed at the PMSE server. Moreover, we address the privacy issue by restricting the information in the user profile exposed to the PMSE server with two privacy parameters. We prototype PMSE on the Google Android platform. Experimental results show that PMSE significantly improves the precision comparing to the baseline.


The economics of taxes and tax behaviour has generally been a focal point of tax literature and property tax literature has been no exception. A subset of property tax literature investigates the benefits of land value taxation and its revenue earning potential. Research has generally, focused on the potential and performance of land value taxation. However, the implications of this tax in developing countries have been ignored. Likewise, research into the relationship between the tax structure, its governance and tax payer behaviour has also been side-lined. Given the fact that land value taxation is regarded as the most efficient property tax but is only utilised in four countries and has been replaced by capital value taxation in several developed countries, is an indication that there are innate characteristics of the tax that affect its performance. Of equal importance, is the mechanism by which the tax operates.Since 1957, Jamaica has been utilising land value taxation as its property tax and since its implementation, there has consistently been an issue of (relatively) low compliance rates. According to the current Minister of Local Government, Noel Arscott (2013) cited by McIntosh (2013), the payment of property taxes has been woefully inadequate. This view was supported by Matalon (2012) cited in Dunkley (2012) who described Jamaica's property tax compliance rate as a "national disgrace."Given the island's current economic structural reform programme with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the anticipated launch of the property tax reform programme in FY 2016/17, research on the property tax system is critical to improving compliance rates. As a result, this research will investigate how Jamaica's property tax system shapes compliance by exploring the relationship between the structure of the system, its role in socialising the system's actors and taxpayer behaviour. A taxpayer's tax liability is a function of three things – the tax rate, land value and a person's ability to pay. Thus, in order to understand the system, the relation between all three must be investigated. This paper therefore seeks to answer the following questions:1.What are the implications of land value taxation for Jamaica and other developing countries?2.What is the role of planning in land value taxation?3.How does Jamaica's tax system encourage or discourage property tax compliance?4.To what extent is land value taxation regressive/progressive?


Climate change is the greatest challenge that the world has ever faced. In this groundbreaking new book, Alastair McIntosh summarises the science of what is happening to the planet - both globally and using Scotland as a local case study. He moves on, controversially, to suggest that politics alone is not enough to tackle the scale and depth of the problem. At root is our addictive consumer mentality. Wants have replaced needs and consumption drives our very identity. In a fascinating journey through early texts that speak to climate change - including the ancient Sumerian Epic of "Gilgamesh", Plato's myth of "Atlantis", and Shakespeare's "Macbeth" - McIntosh reveals the psychohistory of modern consumerism.He shows how we have fallen prey to a numbing culture of violence and the motivational manipulation of marketing. To start to resolve what has become of the human condition we must get more real in facing up to despair and death. Only then will we discover the spiritual meaning of these our troubled times. Only then can magic, new meaning, and all that gives life, start to mend a broken world.


The massive growth of connected devices, including sensors and machines, is revolutionizing every aspect of human life. The socioeconomic impacts are significant and have already transformed many industries. In this article, we discuss some of the challenges of the explosion of devices and exponential growth in personal digital content and machine generated data. The centralized cloud architecture adopted in the early days of mobile Internet was designed primarily to allow access to data stored on the worldwide web. Today, use cases have evolved significantly. Humans and devices are now producing most of the data consumed on the Internet. As a result, the existing centralized cloud infrastructure is no longer efficient or sustainable. There is significant waste of network bandwidth to send terabytes of data to server farms that may be hundreds of kilometers away from the source and/or destination of data. The prevalent centralized cloud architecture does not adequately leverage massive amounts of computing resources on smart devices, which are idle most of the time. Moreover, despite all the efforts to reduce network latencies, communication to server farms is a major bottleneck for latency in many applications. We introduce a novel architectural approach to cloud decentralization called hybrid edge cloud (HEC) that minimizes network bandwidth usage, reduces communication latencies, and leverages resources on smart devices to reduce the burden on server farms and other centralized computing resources. HEC combines the benefits of new network technologies such as 5G and WiFi 6 in private and public clouds to leverage computing resources on smart devices to build a sustainable decentralized infrastructure for the hyper-connected world.


We present a cooperation scheme for distributed intrusion detection taking into account security-related properties of each individual participating node. This leads to a security overlay network named CIMD (Collaborative Intrusion and Malware Detection1) enabling participants to state objectives for cooperation and find groups for the exchange of security-related data, like monitoring or detection results, accordingly; to these groups we refer as detection groups. Our contribution is twofold: First we present and discuss a tree-oriented taxonomy for the representation of nodes within the cooperation model. Second, we introduce and evaluate an algorithm for the formation of the detection groups. These two concepts create the core of an overlay architecture dedicated to intrusion detection and response measures and show the impact of CIMD by providing two different scenarios where the collaboration is advantageous compared to the non-collaborative approach. We evaluate the benefit of CIMD in a novel packetlevel simulation environment called NeSSi2, the Network Security Simulator. Furthermore, we analyze the vulnerabilities of the system itself and possible attack scenarios against it. 1This work was funded by Deutsche Telekom AG. 2NeSSi, the Network Security Simulator is part of the project Malware Filtering funded by by Deutsche Telekom AG.


Some aquatic species are able to learn to recognize chemical cues from predators through classical conditioning. In previous tests, laboratory-reared larval hellbenders (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis) showed weak antipredator responses to introduced predators (trout) compared to responses to their native predators, such as bass and sculpin. However, hellbender larvae that were conditioned with conspecific alarm cues at six months of age learned to recognize trout odour, but the responses of younger larvae to alarm cues have not been tested and the ontogeny of learning abilities is not known. In this study, we successfully trained younger larval hellbenders (4 months old) to recognize trout. Moreover, we found that the learned responses of younger hellbenders (decreased activity) are different from those of the older hellbenders (increased activity) in the previous study. This ontogenetic shift in behaviour may result from larvae increasing locomotor and sensory abilities and becoming more visible during the 4-6 month time period.


This paper discusses parasynthesis, also known as circumfixation, in Degema. It highlights the fact that circumfixes are controversial not only because of the possibility to analyze them as discontinuous units consisting of prefix-like and suffix-like formatives that apply to the stem simultaneously or as units formed in two stages beginning with suffixation and ending with prefixation but also because they are considered rare or non-existent in the world's languages, and are ruled out as impossible in some theories even in principle. Circumfixation in Degema is examined against the traditional view of parasynthesis and in the light of Generative Grammar. The paper notes that circumfixation is a very common and productive way of forming agentive and gerundive nominals and state nouns in Degema, despite claims of its rarity. It also notes that a traditional or theoretical analysis notwithstanding, there is a high degree of morpho-semantic bonding between both parts of the circumfix used in forming deverbal nouns in the language – a bonding that prohibits the optionality of any of the parts of the circumfix in spite of their noncontiguity. Degema provides evidence that the two parts of the circumfix constitute a single morphological unit and express a single meaning, which cannot be realized if the two parts are regarded as cases of "normal" prefixes and suffixes. Furthermore, the paper demonstrates that circumfixation is not impossible as a word formation process, like prefixation, suffixation and infixation. In the light of Generative Grammar, the paper concludes that circumfixation in Degema is a case of suffixation and concomitant prefixation rather than one of simultaneous affixation.


In this collection of essays and lectures. Alan Garner shows how his thinking and writing have developed over the years and demonstrates the wide range or his concerns and scholarship, encompassing such diverse topics as language, literature, education, mental health, anthropology, archaeology, myth, the spiritual quest, philosophy, music, and film.Running throughout is Garner's relentless emphasis on excellence, innovation, and humor, priorities derived from his childhood in a rural, working-class family of craftsmen. He has combined their standards with his own education as a classicist and his involvement with the academic world. The whole volume is a poetic autobiography, from the story of when he heard himself declared dead at the age of six to his description of the inevitability of Strandloper, his most recent novel. In the final essay, from which the book takes its title, he describes how Strandloper came to be written and shows the ways in which his many skills were demanded in bringing that work about.


Abstract: Three Pleistocene giant slope failures are observed in high-resolution bathymetric and seismic reflection data off Southern Chile, two of which extend across the full width of the continental slope from the shelf break to the trench. With mobilized volumes between 253 km3 and 472 km3, these slides are among the largest submarine landslides documented at active continental margins so far. Deposits of each of the slides are imaged as chaotic sequences in seismic reflection lines buried beneath well-stratified sediments in the Chile Trench. The ages of the three slides are about 0.25, 0.41 and >0.56 Ma. The main preconditioning factor for the slope instabilities seems to be local uplift of the continental slope that results in peculiarly high slope angles of up to 30°. Uplift of the marine and continental forearc of the study area is the result of shortening across upper plate faults and therefore a long-term continuous process. Slope instability seems to be an iterative process and failure is likely to recur.


Abstract. Deoxygenation in the Baltic Sea endangers fish yields and favours noxious algal blooms. Yet, vertical transport processes ventilating the oxygen-deprived waters at depth and replenishing nutrient-deprived surface waters (thereby fuelling export of organic matter to depth) are not comprehensively understood. Here, we investigate the effects of the interaction between surface currents and winds on upwelling in an eddy-rich general ocean circulation model of the Baltic Sea. Contrary to expectations we find that accounting for current–wind effects inhibits the overall vertical exchange between oxygenated surface waters and oxygen-deprived water at depth. At major upwelling sites, however (e.g. off the southern coast of Sweden and Finland) the reverse holds: the interaction between topographically steered surface currents with winds blowing over the sea results in a climatological sea surface temperature cooling of 0.5 K. This implies that current–wind effects drive substantial local upwelling of cold and nutrient-replete waters.