In order to gain a deeper understanding of the mindfulness construct and the mental health benefits associated with mindfulness-based programmes, the relation between mindfulness and its proposed core component attention was studied. Buddhist and Western mindfulness meditators were compared with non-meditators on tasks of sustained (SART) and executive (the Stroop Task) attention. Relations between self-reported mindfulness (FFMQ) and sustained and executive attention were also analysed. No significant differences were found between meditators and non-meditators either in sustained or executive attention. High scores on the FFMQ total scale and on Describe were related to fewer SART errors. High scores on Describe were also related to low Stroop interference. Mindfulness meditators may have an increased awareness of internal processes and the ability to quickly attend to them but this type of refined attentional ability does not seem to be related to performance on attention tests requiring responses to external targets.


Title of dissertation: STATES' RESPONDING BEHAVIOR IN CONFLICT: ASYMMETRIC RESPONSE AND STRATEGIC CONFLICT AVOIDANCE Ho Youn Koh, Doctor of Philosophy, 2016 Dissertation directed by: Professor Scott Kastner Department of Government and Politics State responses to external threats and aggression are studied with focus on two different rationales: (1) to make credible deterrent threats to avoid being exploited, and (2) to minimize the risk of escalation to unwanted war. Given external aggression, the target state's responding behavior has three possibilities: concession (under-response), reciprocation, and escalation. This study focuses on the first two possibilities and investigates how the strategic nature of crisis interaction can explain the intentional choice of concession or avoidance of retaliation. I build a two-level bargaining model that accounts for the domestic bargaining situation between the leader and the challenger for each state. The model's equilibrium shows that the responding behavior is determined not only by inter-state level variables (e.g. balance of power between two states, or cost of war that each state is supposed to pay), but also the domestic variables of both states. Next, the strategic interaction is rationally explained by the model: as the responding state believes that the initiating state has strong domestic challenges and, hence, the aggression is believed to be initiated for domestic political purposes (a rally-around-the-flag effect), the response tends to decrease. The concession is also predicted if the target state leader has strong bargaining power against her domestic challengers and she believes that the initiating leader suffers from weak domestic standing. To test the model's prediction, I conduct a lab experiment and case studies. The experimental result shows that under an incentivized bargaining situation, individual actors are observed to react to hostile action as the model predicts: if the opponent is believed to suffer from internally driven difficulties, the subject will not punish hostile behavior of the other player as severely as she would without such a belief. The experiment also provides supporting evidence for the choice of concession: when the player finds herself in a favorable situation while the other has disadvantages, the player is more likely to make concessions in the controlled dictator game. Two cases are examined to discuss how the model can explain the choice of either reciprocation or concession. From personal interviews and fieldwork in South Korea, I find that South Korea's reciprocating behavior during the 2010 Yeonpyeong Island incident is explained by a combination of 'low domestic power of initiating leader (Kim Jong-il)' and 'low domestic power of responding leader (Lee Myung-bak).' On the other hand, the case of EC-121 is understood as a nonresponse or concession outcome. Declassified documents show that Nixon and his key advisors interpreted the attack as a result of North Korea's domestic political instabilities (low domestic power of initiating leader) and that Nixon did not have difficulties at domestic politics during the first few months of his presidency (high domestic power of responding leader). STATES' RESPONDING BEHAVIOR IN CONFLICT: ASYMMETRIC RESPONSE AND STRATEGIC CONFLICT AVOIDANCE


A set of 24 monoclonal antibodies (MABs) was produced against an outer envelope preparation from Leptospira interrogans serovar copenhageni. The MABs reacted in enzyme immunoassay with species-specific determinants of an antigen in the leptospiral outer envelope (OE) of pathogenic but not of saprophytic species of Leptospira. The MABs did not agglutinate whole leptospires, nor could they opsonise homologous leptospires for phagocytosis by mouse macrophages or protect new-born guinea-pigs against lethal infection. The MABs reacted by Western blotting with a 35 x 10(3)-mol-wt band in OE separated on SDS-polyacrylamide gels, and also reacted with other bands to a lesser extent. The determinants to which the MABs were directed were localised in the leptospiral OE by immunogold labelling techniques.


Humanitarian and Security Law: A Compendium of International and European Instruments presents a comprehensive and easily accessible compilation of the most important legal instruments that pertain to armed conflicts and security threats and which are of use and interest to practitioners and researchers working in the areas of international and European humanitarian and security law. It is the first compendium that methodically compiles all relevant instruments both at the international and the European level.


We present the results of two Deepwater field trials to assess the feasibility of using smaller airgun sources for low-cost 4D imaging and reservoir surveillance. The first trial was conducted at a field instrumented with an Ocean Bottom Cable (OBC) Permanent Reservoir Monitoring system. Two nearly identical full shot-patch 4D surveys were acquired with different sized airguns, allowing side-by-side comparison of the resulting images. The second trial was conducted at a different field with Distributed Acoustic Sensing Vertical Seismic Profiles (DAS-VSP). A small shotbox was acquired over a period of 8 days with four different source sizes, one of which was repeated for zero-time 4D. Both field trials demonstrated that the small sources performed well, and may provide adequate data quality for monitoring large-scale changes in a reservoir. Smaller airgun sources may reduce costs of seismic surveys by allowing smaller vessels to be used, and could be a critical element of a frequent but minimal monitoring program at applicable fields. A valuation analysis is developed to understand the impact of the reduced cost and potentially reduced data quality when using smaller sources on the overall value to the reservoir surveillance program.


This paper proposes a new target detection method in low contrast forward looking infrared (FLIR) images. Automatic detection of small targets in remotely sensed images is a difficult and challenging work. The goal is to find out target locations with low false alarms in a thermal infrared scene of battlefield. The interesting targets are military vehicles such as battle tanks and armored personal carriers in ground-to-ground scenarios. The proposed method consists of three following stages. First, center-surround difference is proposed in order to find salient areas in an input image. Second, local thresholding for a region of interest (ROI) is proposed. The ROI is selected on the basis of a salient region that is the result of first step. Third, the shape of extracted binary images is compared with binary target templates using size and affinity to remove clutters. In the experiments, the proposed method is compared with morphology method using many natural infrared images with high variability. The result demonstrates that our method is superior to the morphological method in terms of receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and average computation time.


The 2011 Arctic stratospheric final warming was characterized by a large‐scale frozen‐in anticyclone (FrIAC) that rapidly displaced the winter polar vortex, establishing unusually strong polar easterlies. A comprehensive overview of the 2011 FrIAC is provided using meteorological analyses, Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) N2O observations, and N2O simulations from the Global Modeling Initiative (GMI) 3‐D chemistry and transport model and the Van Leer Icosahedral Triangular Advection (VITA) 2‐D (latitude × longitude) isentropic transport model. A vortex edge diagnostic is used to determine the FrIAC boundary, allowing quantification of several FrIAC properties. The 2011 FrIAC originated over North Africa in late March and traveled eastward and poleward over 2 weeks, forming a strong anticyclone that extended from ~580–2100 K potential temperature (~25–50 km). Low potential vorticity (PV) was transported to the pole with the FrIAC in early April; during May, most of the PV signature decayed due to diabatic processes. A small remnant negative PV anomaly persisted near the pole until mid‐June. Tracer equivalent latitude was low initially and remained low throughout the summer. GMI, VITA, and MLS showed elevated N2O in the FrIAC, although the peak value was smaller in GMI due to a subtropical low bias. The high‐resolution (~20 km) VITA filamentary structure quantitatively matched most of the features observed by MLS when smoothed to match the MLS resolution. The high‐N2O anomaly persisted in the middle stratosphere over 4 months until late August, when it was destroyed by horizontal and vertical shearing, combined with photochemical processes.


This review examines empirical articles from 1996 to 2007 regarding the effect of victimization through relational aggression as defined by Crick and colleagues (1995). Also included are two European studies that evaluated the impact of a related construct (i.e. relational bullying). Researchers investigated the unique contribution of relational victimization beyond other forms of peer maltreatment (i.e. overt victimization, physical victimization). Overall, findings show that the inclusion of relational victimization in the assessment of peer victimization contributes to previous literature regarding adjustment difficulties experienced by school-aged children and adolescents. The review concludes with a summary of school-based prevention and intervention programs recommended to specifically reduce relational aggression. Relational Victimization 3


Most mainstream strategy research does not define the concept of bounded rationality as Herbert Simon originally intended. Instead, the major theories in strategy research rely on the simplified operationalization of bounded rationality as the inability to know every possible contingency or outcome. However, Simon's conceptualization of bounded rationality was much more complex, incorporating all potential cognitive deficits that limit rational behavior, including framing effects, heuristics, influence of prior expectations, and emotions. In this paper, we suggest that the field of strategy could greatly benefit by expanding its definition of bounded rationality to incorporate all of the elements originally specified by Simon. With a more complex definition of bounded rationality, strategy researchers can ask new questions in areas that have already been well explored, thus enhancing our understanding of these topics even further. Additionally, firms that understand how certain elements of bounded rationality predictably impact decisions can build a capability based in decision-making that can positively impact firm performance, as well as intra-firm and inter-firm relationships.


We study front-running by high-frequency traders (HFTs) in a limit order model with continuous trading. The model describes an evolutionary equilibrium of low-frequency traders who compete in portfolio management services by offering investment styles. The introduction of front-runners inflicts heavy losses on speculators, while leaving passive investors relatively unscathed. This encourages investment in the market portfolio and markedly reduces overall turnover. Speculative trading persists despite its lower profitability. By most measures, market quality is not affected to any significant extent by front-running HFTs.


Dynamic Parallel Schedules (DPS) is a high-level framework for developing parallel applications on distributed memory computers (e.g. clusters of PC). Its model relies on compositional customizable split-compute-merge graphs of operations (directed acyclic flow graphs). The graphs and the mapping of operations to processing nodes are specified dynamically at runtime. DPS applications are pipelined and multithreaded by construction, ensuring a maximal overlap of computations and communications. DPS applications can call parallel services exposed by other DPS applications, enabling the creation of reusable parallel components. The DPS framework relies on a C++ class library. Thanks to its dynamic nature, DPS offers new perspectives for the creation and deployment of parallel applications running on server clusters.


Background: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of etching time using 9% hydrofluoric acid on Fracture Load (FL) and surface properties, such as Surface Free Energy (SFE) and Surface Roughness (SR) of three CAD/CAM glass-ceramics. Methods: Following glass-ceramics were investigated: EMP (IPS Empress CAD), KLE (KLEMA CAD/CAM glass-ceramic) and EMC (IPS e.max CAD). For FL, standardized crowns for maxillary canines (N=270, n=90) were milled. Each material group was divided into six subgroups (n=15) and etched for 0, 30, 60, 90, 120, and 150s. Crowns were adhesively cemented to metal abutments and subsequently loaded until fracture. For surface property investigations, 55 specimens per material were fabricated, divided into 11 groups (n=5) and etched for: 0, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 75, 90, 105, 120, and 150s. SFE using contact angle measurements, SR using profilometer and surface topography with scanning electron microscopy were determined. Data were analyzed using linear covariance analyses/regressions, and two/one-way ANOVA with post-hoc Scheffé test (p<0.05). Results: Unetched EMP crowns showed lower FL than etched for 150s. Unetched and etched for 150s KLE crowns presented lower FL than those etched for 90s. Within EMC, no effect of etching time was observed. The highest SFE was detected for EMC, the lowest for KLE. The highest SR showed KLE, the lowest EMC. KLE and EMP showed no impact of etching time on SFE. EMC increased in SFE with increase of etching time. EMC showed higher SR than KLE and EMP. EMC showed lower SR than KLE. All materials showed an increase of SR dependent on the etching time. Conclusion: General recommendations on etching time cannot be made as etching time showed different effects on fracture load and surface properties.


Researchers investigated the efficacy and safety of nicotine patches in pregnant women who smoked. A randomised placebo controlled trial was performed. The intervention consisted of the administration of 16 hour nicotine patches until the time of delivery. Participants were pregnant women over 18 years who smoked at least five cigarettes a day and whose babies were between 12 and 20 weeks' gestation. In total, 402 women were recruited from 23 maternity wards throughout France and randomly allocated to the intervention (n=203) or placebo patches (n=199).1

The primary outcome measures were achievement of complete abstinence until delivery and birth weight. The proportion of women who achieved complete abstinence was higher in the nicotine patch group than in the placebo group, although the difference was not significant (5.5% (n=11) v 5.1% (n=10); P=0.87). The mean birth weight was higher in the nicotine patch group, although the difference was not significant (3065 (standard error 44 g) v 3015 g (44 g); P=0.41). The incidence of serious adverse events (including stillbirth, late miscarriage, and newborn death at birth) was similar between the treatment groups. Non-serious adverse reactions, mainly affecting the skin, were more common in the nicotine patch group than in the placebo patch group. In particular, skin reactions at the patch site were reported by 23 (11.33%) women in the intervention group compared with 8 (4.02%) in the placebo patch group (number need to harm 13.7; 95% confidence interval 8.0 to 46.1). It was concluded that the nicotine patch did not increase the smoking cessation rate or birth weight, although it increased the frequency of non-serious adverse reactions, mainly those affecting the skin.

Which of the following statements, if any, are true?


Consolidation of multiple workloads, encapsulated in virtual machines (VMs), can significantly improve efficiency in cloud infrastructures. But consolidation also introduces contention in shared resources such as the memory hierarchy, leading to degraded VM performance. To avoid such degradation, the current practice is to not pack VMs tightly and leave a large fraction of server resource unused. This is wasteful. We present a performance preserving VM consolidation system that selectively places those VMs together that are likely to have the least contention. This drastically reduces the amount of wasted resources. While the problem of selecting the most suitable VM combinations is NP-Complete, our system employs a practical method that performs provably close to the optimal. In some scenarios resource efficiency may trump performance and our system also implements techniques for this case. Experimental results show that the proposed system realizes over 30% savings in energy costs and up to 52% reduction in performance degradation compared to consolidation algorithms that do not consider degradation.


The paper addresses the problem of estimating missing observations in linear, possibly nonstationary, stochastic processes when the model is known. The general case of any possible distribution of missing observations in the time series is considered, and analytical expressions for the optimal estimators and their associated mean squared errors are obtained. These expressions involve solely the elements of the inverse or dual autocorrelation function of the series. This optimal estimator -the conditional expectation of the missing observations given the available ones-is equal oto the estimator that results from filling the missing values in the series with arbitrary numbers, treating these numbers as additive outliers, and removing the outlier effects from the invented numbers using intervention analysis.


We study self- and cross-excitation of shocks in the Eurozone sovereign CDS market. We adopt a multivariate setting with credit default intensities driven by mutually exciting jump processes, to capture the salient features observed in the data, in particular, the clustering of high default probabilities both in time (over days) and in space (across countries). The feedback between jump events and the intensity of these jumps is the key element of the model. We derive closed-form formulae for CDS prices, and estimate the model by matching theoretical prices to their empirical counterparts. We find evidence of self-excitation and asymmetric cross-excitation. Using impulse-response analysis, we assess the impact of shocks and a potential policy intervention not just on a single country under scrutiny but also, through the effect on cross-excitation risk which generates systemic sovereign risk, on other interconnected countries.


A novel approach for fibre distributed sensing is proposed, conceived to match as closely as possible to an ideally responding distributed sensor. It is demonstrated that it can be actually realized using fibre Bragg gratings of extremely low index contrast and continuously printed over the entire fibre length. The concept is experimentally validated over a restricted distance range that proves the huge potentialities of the technique in terms of response and precision.

https://infoscience.epfl.ch/record/200237/files/OFS23 Novel technique based on faint long gratings (FLOGs) 91576W.pdf


October 2014 Syria, Iraq, Ebola, Gaza, Mali – there has been a huge increase in the number of tragic crises in recent months... The humanitarian sector is under enormous pressure. This litany of tragedies is further cause for us to focus on the quality of assistance and protection operations for civilians. It also raises questions about the capacity and role of a sector which remains vital, but is increasingly in danger. This situation has led to a relatively eclectic issue of Humanitarian Aid on the Move, which covers a broad range of issues. Understanding the importance of IHL, the complexity of situations, and the "turbulence to come" all depends on collective intelligence. Major health risks have emerged in the last ten years. The Ebola crisis shows how our societies have become more vulnerable, but also more reactive. Faced with the risk that it will spread to the rest of the world, our collective capacities will be put to the test. How do we control this turbulence and violence which seem to be key factors of the future? How do we make societies more resilient, with the redefinition of the Hyogo Framework for Action (Sendai, March 2015) and the COP21 (Paris 2015), where we hope to see a global agreement on the climate? How do we rethink the humanitarian sector of the future, as the World Humanitarian Summit of 2016 invites us to do? The following articles, written by humanitarians and operational researchers, aim to contribute to these global discussions based on field practices and analysis. Francois Grunewald Editorial Humanitarian Aid on the move


This work is an experimental study of applying an impedance-based health monitoring technique to complex structures. The work is presented in three parts. In the first part we consider effects of the following three factors on damage detection abilities: actuator excitation level, test wire length and ambient conditions (temperature, structural loading and vibration). It was concluded that increasing the applied voltage improves the signal to noise ratio and damage detection abilities. Test wire lengths under 30m do not affect damage detection abilities. The technique is able to distinguish and detect damage even with variations in temperature, structural loading and vibration. In the second part we apply our health monitoring technique to a complex truss structure and a massive steel steam header. We discovered that with multiplexing (acquiring a single signal from distributed actuators) the actuators on the truss structure we could detect damage but with less location information. Damage detection on the steel pipe ended in inconclusive results. The use of this technique on massive structures needs further investigation. Finally, we conducted a detailed experimental study of monitoring the integrity of composite-reinforced masonry structures. We developed a software package which enables even a casual user to determine if significant damage has occurred in these structures. The technique was successfully applied to detect damage (particularly due to delamination) in these composite-concrete structures. Most significantly, the technique was also able to detect damage well in advance of actual failure. This work relies mainly on frequency response plots and damage metric charts to present the data and to arrive at any conclusions. While frequency response plots give a qualitative approach to the analysis, damage metric charts attempt to quantify the data. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS


For any positive integers $l$ and $m$ , a set of integers is said to be (weakly) $l$ -sum-free modulo $m$ if it contains no (pairwise distinct) elements $x_1,x_2,\ldots,x_l,y$ satisfying the congruence $x_1+\ldots+x_l\equiv y\bmod{m}$ . It is proved that, for any positive integers $k$ and $l$ , there exists a largest integer $n$ for which the set of the first $n$ positive integers $\{1,2,\ldots,n\}$ admits a partition into $k$ (weakly) $l$ -sum-free sets modulo $m$ . This number is called the generalized (weak) Schur number modulo $m$ , associated with $k$ and $l$ . In this paper, for all positive integers $k$ and $l$ , the exact value of these modular Schur numbers are determined for $m=1$ , $2$ and $3$ .


This paper examines the responses of individuals to marginal tax rates in their reporting of income, using the 2009 individual tax return data for Greece. The method of regression quantiles is employed to provide evidence on behavioral responses at different points of the income distribution. The results reveal significant differences in the marginal tax rate reporting responses across income classes and for different occupational groups; whereas high income taxpayers have a very elastic response. As particular groups of taxpayers have more flexibility in misreporting tax liability also depends on the government's effectiveness to control tax avoidance. Evaluation of the 2010 tax reform further reveals that misreporting of the occupational groups Rental Income and Wages & Salaries appears to be the highest. Policy recommendations regarding tax reforms should therefore take into account the reported income distribution involved and the selected policy objectives.


FM-to-AM conversion is an important issue that could prevent fusion ignition with high-power lasers, such as the Laser MegaJoule (LMJ). We first overview the whole problem of FM-to-AM conversion in high-power lasers and we explain why AM spectral content of FM-to-AM conversion is important, although this information was not used in previous studies. We then propose simple analytical models to simulate FM-to-AM conversion in the LMJ frequency conversion system. We succeed in isolating every cause of spectrum distortion and give, for each of them, FM-to-AM predictions that are in very good agreement with simulations of a complex propagation code. Finally, we show how the last grating filters most of the FM-to-AM conversion. We conclude that the FM-to-AM conversion distortion criterion will be, on LMJ, below 40% in the last optics and 10% on the target.


Recently, pinched hysteresis has been found in the electrical modelling of regular plant tissues. Usually, the biological tissues are characterized in the frequency domain using bio-impedance analyzers without investigating the time domain, which would show the pinched hysteresis. In this paper, the current-voltage analysis of some of the widely known electrical bio-impedance models is studied. The investigated models are the single dispersion Cole-impedance model, the double dispersion Cole-impedance model and the fractional-order simplified Hayden model to prove that these models can not exhibit pinched hysteresis. It is proved mathematically in this paper that there are no pinch-off points that would exist in these models. These results are verified with numerical simulations of three different plants: tomato, carrot and banana, concluding that the bioimpedance modelling needs a nonlinear element to model the pinched hysteresis in the current-voltage behaviour of these tissues.


The word mark taxonomy established in Abercrombie is a longstanding tenet of doctrinal orthodoxy. Lawmakers have so oft restated the Abercrombie classes and so consistently rehearsed the theoretical grounds that undergird them that it no longer occurs to us to question their premises. But there are good reasons - both pragmatic and theoretical ones - to question the Abercrombie system. At the practical level, it should be noted that the perceived objectivity and predictability of the Abercrombie classification system are a mirage. The law is incessantly and understandably searching for fixed lodestars to guide and cabin judicial and administrative decision-making. Abercrombie offers the appearance of such a lodestar at the threshold stage of evaluating trademark distinctiveness - in the form of a five-level classification system that channels the availability, timing, and degree of trademark protection. Yet although some of those classifications turn on bright-line, objective criteria, that cannot be said of the classification that matters most - of the line between the "suggestive" and the "merely descriptive." Courts and commentators have long lamented the subjectivity and arbitrariness of sorting word marks between these two classifications, and that pragmatic problem gives substantial grounds for an agnostic skepticism toward the Abercrombie orthodoxy. In terms of theory, trademark law is ripe for a thorough reevaluation in the light of the tools employed in the scholarly study of consumer psychology and behavior. The law's reflexive restatement of the grounds for its treatment of "merely descriptive" word marks - that they are unlikely to be perceived by consumers as indicators of source - is a glaring reminder that the law in this field turns on questions well beyond the competence of those trained in the art of legal analysis and interpretation. Where (as here) the law depends on answers to questions that are the focus of an entire field of scholarly study, we cannot afford to proceed in arrogant ignorance of the insights offered by such a field of expertise. In this case, the field of consumer psychology has much to offer the law of trademark distinctiveness. Perceptual schema theory provides ample grounds for doubting the law's myopic focus on the semantic meaning of a descriptive word mark. A consumer who encounters a descriptive word mark in its "trademark use" context may well perceive it as a source indicator on the basis of the mark's non-linguistic cues or indicators of meaning. Those non-linguistic indicators will be provided in large part by the consumer's perceptual models and expectations of a typical brand or source indicator in commercial context. If the descriptive word mark is presented in a spatial layout, size, and placement that matches the consumer's general schematic mental model of what a brand looks like, the word may be perceived as a source indicator even if its semantic meaning is "merely descriptive." Our theoretical model provides grounds for skepticism of Abercrombie; our empirical study completely undermines it. In other words, perceptual schema theory offers a reason to wonder whether and to what extent non-linguistic signs may overwhelm the linguistic signs credited by the law-to consider the possibility that even "merely descriptive" word marks might nonetheless be perceived as source indicators when the non-linguistic markers that accompany their trademark use overshadow their semantic meaning. But empirical analysis can - and does - provide concrete answers to the question of the relative impact of the linguistic and non-linguistic indicators of distinctiveness. Our empirical studies show that Abercrombie rests on an erroneous assumption about the predominant impact of semantic word meaning. So long as the word is used in an "average" trademark use context, a word mark's semantic meaning is shown to be overshadowed by the non-linguistic, contextual markers that establish its distinctiveness as a source indicator.


This paper reports the follow-up research of "Challenges and Possibilities for the Household Medicine Lease (HML) System Viewed in light of CRM," presented in Conf-IRM 2009. With the ongoing insufficiency of medical services, the traditional Japanese business model of household medicine lease (HML) system has now been successfully implemented in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. However, because of the rapidly aging population, Japan has currently been suffering from difficulties in coping with the rapidly increasing demand for medical services. Our study aims to design a system of everyday healthcare in combination with the HML system and medical monitoring system based on international standard and provides an interoperable platform that meets various conformity requirements. This study presents features of the self-medication system based on data from monitoring devices certified by Continua Health Alliance, and then presents the concept and challenges of community-based self-medication designed to suppress increase in nationwide healthcare costs.


In this paper we consider an elementary, and largely unexplored, combinatorial problem in low-dimensional topology. Consider a real 2-dimensional compact surface $S$, and fix a number of points $F$ on its boundary. We ask: how many configurations of disjoint arcs are there on $S$ whose boundary is $F$?
We find that this enumerative problem, counting curves on surfaces, has a rich structure. For instance, we show that the curve counts obey an effective recursion, in the general framework of topological recursion. Moreover, they exhibit quasi-polynomial behaviour.
This "elementary curve-counting" is in fact related to a more advanced notion of "curve-counting" from algebraic geometry or symplectic geometry. The asymptotics of this enumerative problem are closely related to the asymptotics of volumes of moduli spaces of curves, and the quasi-polynomials governing the enumerative problem encode intersection numbers on moduli spaces.
Furthermore, among several other results, we show that generating functions and differential forms for these curve counts exhibit structure that is reminiscent of the mathematical physics of free energies, partition functions, topological recursion, and quantum curves.


Back ground & aim: Glycyrrhiza glabra (Licorice) is a native medicinal plant of Iran which its rhizome has been traditionally used for treatment of bowel spasm and diarrhea. Accordingly, the present study aimed to determine the effect of the hydro-alcoholic extract of licorice rhizome on mechanical activity of isolated colon of male rats. Methods: In the present experimental study, the colon tissue of 10 adult male rats were dissected and divided into two groups: experimental and control. Each group consisted of 10 strips of tissue. Then, the mechanical activity of tissue strips were recorded by power lab A-D instrument in basal condition, and after administration of phenylephrine and epinephrine and propranolol in the presence and absence of licorice rhizome extract (with effective dose 0.036 mg/ml). Moreover, the mechanical activity of control group strips were recorded at the same condition with extract solvent (ethanol %70). Data were analyzed statistically with using the SPSS software version 19 using Independent-Samples t-test. Result: The mechanical activity of tissue in presence of extract and epinephrine significantly decreased (p≤0.05) compared to the control group. While the mechanical activity in the presence of extract and propranolol significantly increased (p≤0.05) compared to the control group. However, no significant modification was observed in the mechanical activity of the tissue in the presence of phenylephrine and extract compared to the control group. Conclusion: According to the present study, it could be concluded that hydro-alcoholic extract of licorice maybe has modifying effect on colon motility via synergist effect with beta adrenergic receptors and independent of the alpha adrenergic receptors.


The field of plant taxonomy has transformed rapidly over the past fifteen years, especially with regard to improvements in cladistic analysis and the use of new molecular data. The second edition of this popular resource reflects these far-reaching and dramatic developments with more than 3,000 new references and many new figures. Synthesizing current research and trends, Plant Taxonomy now provides the most up-to-date overview in relation to monographic, biodiversity, and evolutionary studies, and continues to be an essential resource for students and scholars.This text is divided into two parts: Part 1 explains the principles of taxonomy, including the importance of systematics, characters, concepts of categories, and different approaches to biological classification. Part 2 outlines the different types of data used in plant taxonomic studies with suggestions on their efficacy and modes of presentation and evaluation. This section also lists the equipment and financial resources required for gathering each type of data. References throughout the book illuminate the historical development of taxonomic terminology and philosophy while citations offer further study. Plant Taxonomy is also a personal story of what it means to be a practicing taxonomist and to view these activities within a meaningful conceptual framework. Tod F. Stuessy recalls the progression of his own work and shares his belief that the most creative taxonomy is done by those who have a strong conceptual grasp of their own research.


We propose hashing to facilitate efficient kernels. This generalizes previous work using sampling and we show a principled way to compute the kernel matrix for data streams and sparse feature spaces. Moreover, we give deviation bounds from the exact kernel matrix. This has applications to estimation on strings and graphs.


We report on the design of ultraviolet (UV) emitting persistent (PersL) materials. Understanding the luminescence mechanism of Bi3+ ions, the occupation rules of sites, the density functional theory (DFT) calculations and an empirical energy level scheme guided us to select the most appropriate emitters, host and traps. Finally, the NaLuGeO4:Bi3+,Eu3+ phosphor was successfully designed. The experimental results indicated that the NaLuGeO4:Bi3+,Eu3+ material is indeed able to emit excellent UV PersL, which can be recorded for more than 63 h. This exciting result is sufficiently encouraging for the initiation of a more thorough investigation. Accordingly, the excitation temperature-dependent and fading thermoluminescence experiments were conducted, and the trap properties were deeply studied by the initial rising method. The results reveal the PersL mechanism and the significant role of Eu3+ codopants as foreign traps. On the basis of this work, the UV PersL of the as-designed NaLuGeO4:Bi3+,Eu3+ material is certainly promising for some potential multifunctional applications, and the design concepts of this work are indeed effective and feasible for the design of PersL materials.


Abstract. Benthic foraminifera have been used as proxies for various paleoenvironmental variables such as food availability, carbon flux from surface waters, microhabitats, and indirectly water depth. Estimating assemblage composition based on morphotypes, as opposed to genus- or species-level identification, potentially loses important ecological information but opens the way to the study of ancient time periods. However, the ability to accurately constrain benthic foraminiferal assemblages has been questioned when the most abundant foraminifera are fragile agglutinated forms, particularly prone to fragmentation. Here we test an alternate method for accurately estimating the composition of fragmented assemblages. The cumulated area per morphotype method is assessed, i.e., the sum of the area of all tests or fragments of a given morphotype in a sample. The percentage of each morphotype is calculated as a portion of the total cumulated area. Percentages of different morphotypes based on counting and cumulated area methods are compared one by one and analyzed using principal component analyses, a co-inertia analysis, and Shannon diversity indices. Morphotype percentages are further compared to an estimate of water depth based on microfacies description. Percentages of the morphotypes are not related to water depth. In all cases, counting and cumulated area methods deliver highly similar results, suggesting that the less time-consuming traditional counting method may provide robust estimates of assemblages. The size of each morphotype may deliver paleobiological information, for instance regarding biomass, but should be considered carefully due to the pervasive issue of fragmentation.


Background: Herbal based hair dyes are being preferred on large scale; due to the vast number of advantages it exerts to overcome the ill-effects of a chemical based hair dye. We have attempted to prepare and standardize this preparation to ensure its quality as well as stability aspects. Objective: The current research was aimed at the preparation of herbal hair dye and the evaluation of its various parameters as Organoleptic, physico-chemical, phytoconstituents, rheological aspects, patch test and stability testing for its efficacy and shelf life. Materials and Methods: The herbal dye was prepared in-house according to the proposed composition, using all the natural ingredients. The dye was evaluated for its organoleptic, physico-chemical and stability parameters. Results: The parameters were found to be comparable and sufficient for the evaluation of herbal dye. The values of different evaluations justified the usage of the hair dye. Conclusion: Herbal based hair dye has been prepared and evaluated using the various parameters. It offers a natural alternate, which can be used, irrespective of any side effects. The results can be incorporated while developing the pharmacopoeial standards.


In cryptography, encryption is the process of transforming information referred to as plaintext using an algorithm (called a cipher) to make it unreadable to anyone except those possessing special knowledge, usually referred to as a key. The result of the process is information which is, referred to as ciphertext. Stream ciphers are used to encrypt individual bits. This is achieved by adding a bit from a key stream to a plaintext bit.Generating the key stream is the therefore important. In this paper a soft computing based approach is proposed for generating keys to design a stream cipher for text encryption. Optimal weights for the sender and receiver used for the synchronization on the Tree Parity Machine(TPM) neural network, are generated using a Genetic Algorithm(GA).


Nest predation is a primary cause of nesting mortality for many bird species, particularly passerines. Nest location can affect predation, and it has also been demonstrated that predation risk can alter nest site selection. Birds can limit predation risk by selecting specific habitat characteristics; by changing nest site characteristics between attempts; and by dispersing between nesting events. Here we report breeding data from a population of Orange-breasted Sunbirds Anthobaphes violacea (L.), for a single breeding season in the Jonkershoek Nature Reserve, South Africa. Neither shrub type nor nest height was found to affect the outcome of a nest. For subsequent breeding attempts, birds were not more likely to change the type of shrub in which they nested after a predation event than when the attempt was successful, nor did they change the height of their nest. However, we found that the distance between a nest and the subsequent one was significantly shorter after a successful nest than after an unsuccessful one. We interpret this as an adaptive strategy to avoid predation.


The Lower Proterozoic sedimentary succession of the Farramunga Group,
Northern Territory, Australia is composed essentially of shales, gre~rackes
and conglomerates with minor haematite shales and cherts having an estimate
total thickness of 25,000 feet. At Tennant Creek, the lower part of the
succession contains conformable horizons, discontinuous lenses, dykes and
other isolated bodies of porphyroidal rocks. The rocks show varying
degrees of recrystallization and deformation due to an incipient greenschist
facies regional metamorphism.
Two porphyroidal bodies have been studied in detail and are generally
similar with respect to petrography, mineralogy and chemistry. They
contain between 28% and 45% of megacrysts of quartz, potassium feldspar,
plagioclase and minor biotite set in recrystallized, dominantly quartzofeldspathic
groundmasses in which relict textural patterns indicate the
former presence of close-packed shards, perlitic cracks and possible
amygdaloidal patches and identify the porphyroids as volcanic pyroclastics.
The Great Western Porphyroid forms a grossly conformable, perhaps composite,
horizon at least twelve miles in length and up to 1,500 feet thick and is
of ash-flow origin. The Creek Bed Porphyroid is half a mile long, several
tens of feet thick and appears to be a dyke.
The shape of the embayments and cavities, extensively developed in
the quartz and potassium feldspar megacrysts, appear different from the
more regular skeletal or dendritic patterns which are known to result from
irregular growth. The close association between curved grain perimeters
and embayments suggests that the two are genetically connected and is consistent
with weak magmatic corrosion of euhedral grain habits resulting the embayments and cavities. The presence of Carlsbad and Baveno twinning
in the potassium feldspar further supports an igneous derivation for these
mineral grains.
Optical and X-ray data indicate that both the potassium feldspar and
plagioclase are in a highly-ordered structural condition. In conformity
with their structural states, the compositions of the potassium feldspar
and plagioclase are consistent with recrystallization at temperatures
typical of greenschist facies metamorphic, rather than magmatic, condition.
The major element compositions of the porphyroids are similar to
those of calc-alkaline rhyolites apart from a variable alkali ratio and a
low CaO content due to the redistribution of K, Na and Ca, probably as a
result of hydrothermal alteration.
The petrographic, mineralogical and chemical similarity of the
porphyroids to high-level granites (and selected enclaves) of the neighbouring
Tennant Creek Complex suggests a genetic association.
Compositional and structural data on the feldspars are compared
throughout the various environments of porphyroid, granite and enclave.
The major element composition of the potassium feldspar and the structural
states of both the potassium feldspar and the plagioclase are generally
similar in the different rock types. This is a result of secondary process of hydrothermal alteration and/or metamorphic recrystallization,which make it impossible to correlate primary order-disorder and compositional feature
with environment of occurrence. Delicate, oscillatory zoning preserved in
the andesine from the different rock types reveals that the similar plagioclase
composition is an original magmatic characteristic. It is concluded that the close similarity of the Rb, Sr and Ba abundances in the potassium
feldspar from the various environments is a consequence mainly of the
generally similar abundances of these elements in the porphyroid, granite
and enclave bulk compositions.


A new cirrus detection algorithm for the Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infra-Red Imager (SEVIRI) aboard the geostationary Meteosat Second Generation (MSG), MeCiDA, is presented. The algorithm uses the seven infrared channels of SEVIRI and thus provides a consistent scheme for cirrus detection at day and night. MeCiDA combines morphological and multi-spectral threshold tests and detects optically thick and thin ice clouds. The thresholds were determined by a comprehensive theoretical study using radiative transfer simulations for various atmospheric situations as well as by manually evaluating actual satellite observations. The cirrus detection has been optimized for midand high latitudes but it could be adapted to other regions as well. The retrieved cirrus masks have been validated by comparison with the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Cirrus Reflection Flag. To study possible seasonal variations in the performance of the algorithm, one scene per month of the year 2004 was randomly selected and compared with the MODIS flag. 81% of the pixels were classified identically by both algorithms. In a comparison of monthly mean values for Europe and the North-Atlantic MeCiDA detected 29.3% cirrus coverage, while the MODIS SWIR cirrus coverage was 38.1%. A lower detection efficiency is to be expected for MeCiDA, as the spatial resolution of MODIS is considerably better and as we used only the thermal infrared channels in contrast to the MODIS algorithm which uses infrared and visible radiances. The advantage of MeCiDA compared to retrievals for polar orbiting instruments or previous geostationary satellites is that it permits the derivation of quantitative data every 15 min, 24 h a day. This high temporal resolution allows the study of diurnal variations and life cycle aspects. MeCiDA is fast enough for near real-time applications. Correspondence to: B. Mayer (email@example.com)


We used shrimp shells as a novel and green source of precursors to produce calcium oxide nano-plates ranging from 40 to 130 nm (in length) and 30 to 100 nm (in width). These nanoparticles were found to possess effective antimicrobial activity against gram positive and gram-negative bacteria. The percentage yield of the calcium oxide nano-plates (8%) enables this method to become a highly effective industrial technique.


Complex software offers power for experts, yet overwhelms new users. Novices often do not know how to execute tasks, what they want to achieve, or even what is possible. To address this, we introduce the DiscoverySpace interface for executable action suggestions. DiscoverySpace is a prototype extension panel for Adobe Photoshop that suggests task-level action macros to apply to photographs based on visual features. DiscoverySpace harvests these one-click actions from the online Photoshop user community. A between-subjects study indicated that action suggestions may help novices maintain confidence, accomplish tasks, and discover features. This work demonstrates how interfaces can leverage user-generated content to help novices navigate complex software.


Background Retinopathy of prematurity ROP is a leading cause of blindness affecting ∼50 000 children worldwide. The incidence of the disease varies among different countries, it is influenced by the level of perinatal care, the existence of screening programs for early diagnosis. Low birth weight BW, small gestational age GA, other antenatal, postnatal risk factors have been identified with their relation to the severity of the disease. Aim The aim of this research was to study the incidence and risk factors of ROP in preterm babies at neonatal intensive care units, Mansoura city. Patients and methods This study included 402 preterm infants admitted to neonatal intensive care units in Mansoura city in the period from March 2013 to March 2015. Fundus examination was done using indirect ophthalmoscopy and a 28 D lens, and fundus images were captured using wide-field digital fundus camera (Retcam 3). Results Out of the 402 screened preterm babies, 237 (59%) cases had ROP, among whom 101 (42.6%) had stage 1, 114 (48.1%) had stage 2, 12 (5.1%) had stage 3, 10 (4.2%) had aggressive posterior retinopathy, and 24 (10.1%) presented with plus disease. GA, BW, oxygen therapy, sepsis, multiple birth, and cesarean section were factors found to be significantly associated with the disease. Conclusion ROP occurred in 59% of all screened preterm babies. The main risk factors for the development of ROP were GA, BW, oxygen therapy, sepsis, multiple birth, and cesarean section.


The total synthesis of sapinofuranones A,B and ent-sapinofuranones A,B and L-factor has been described. A series of novel 1,2,3-triazole-sapinofuranone hybrids were efficiently synthesized employing a click chemistry approach. These sapinofuranones and 1,2,3-triazole-sapinofuranone hybrids were further evaluated for their cytotoxic activity against four human cancer cell lines (A549, MDA-MB-231, DU145 and HepG2). Most of them revealed cytotoxic effects against cancer cells at the micromolar range. From a structure–activity relationship (SAR) perspective, it was noticed that the combination of triazole moiety to the lactone ring is playing modest role in exhibiting the cytotoxic effect. This is the first report on the synthesis and in vitro cytotoxic evaluation of 1,2,3-triazole-sapinofuranone hybrids.


Theoretical investigations have been carried out to analyze and compare the link power budget and power dissipation of non-return-to-zero (NRZ), pulse amplitude modulation-4 (PAM-4), carrierless amplitude and phase modulation-16 (CAP-16) and 16-quadrature amplitude modulation-orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (16-QAM-OFDM) systems for data center interconnect scenarios. It is shown that for multimode fiber (MMF) links, NRZ modulation schemes with electronic equalization offer the best link power budget margins with the least power dissipation for short transmission distances up to 200 m; while OOFDM is the only scheme which can support a distance of 300 m albeit with power dissipation as high as 4 times that of NRZ. For short single mode fiber (SMF) links, all the modulation schemes offer similar link power budget margins for fiber lengths up to 15 km, but NRZ and PAM-4 are preferable due to their system simplicity and low power consumption. For lengths of up to 30 km, CAP-16 and OOFDM are required although the schemes consume 2 and 4 times as much power respectively compared to that of NRZ. OOFDM alone allows link operation up to 35 km distances.


Maintaining drinking water quality and quantity is a resource management challenge worldwide. In the United States, there are federal, state and local laws to further drinking water quality protection, but few regulations that address water quantity. The first part of this article summarizes existing water protection laws, especially the division of water quality protection and local land use regulation between federal and state government. The second part assesses current water quality and quantity trends. The third part concludes the article with a discussion of drinking water case studies in the United States, to give a snapshot of current use and protection trends, highlighting planning tools, best management practices and solutions. Given the current status of water protection laws and policies in the U.S., this discussion of best management practices is targeted towards municipalities, with the aim of linking it to sustainable development policies.


This chapter examines Article 13 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), which represents the first expression of a stand-alone right to access justice in international human rights law. It explores how the drafters drew on concepts like the right to an effective remedy and the right to a fair hearing in other UN human rights treaties, to develop a unique treaty provision on access to justice for persons with disabilities in the CRPD. It further considers how this right has been interpreted by the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in its Concluding Observations to date. Further, the chapter explores the extent to which the article has been interpreted and applied in domestic and regional courts. Finally, it highlights individual complaints made under the Optional Protocol concerning the interpretation of Article 13 and any references to this provision by other treaty bodies and independent mechanisms within the UN system.


A European Union-wide baseline survey on Campylobacter in broiler batches and on Campylobacter and Salmonella on broiler carcasses was carried out in 2008. A total of 10,132 broiler batches were sampled from 561 slaughterhouses in 26 European Union Member States and two countries not belonging to the European Union. From each randomly selected batch the caecal contents of 10 slaughtered broilers were collected, pooled and examined for Campylobacter. From the same batch one carcass was collected after chilling and the neck skin together with the breast skin was examined for the presence of Campylobacter and Salmonella, in addition to the determination of the Campylobacter counts. Campylobacter was detected in pooled caecal contents of broilers and on broiler carcasses in all participating countries. At Community level the prevalence of Campylobacter-colonised broiler batches was 71.2% and that of Campylobacter-contaminated broiler carcasses was 75.8%. The Member State prevalence varied from 2.0% to 100.0% and from 4.9% to 100.0%, for caecal contents and carcasses, respectively. The results of the counts of Campylobacter on broiler carcasses showed substantial variation among the countries in contamination levels. About two-thirds of the Campylobacter isolates from the pooled caecal contents as well as from the broiler carcasses were identified as Campylobacter jejuni, while one-third was Campylobacter coli. Twenty-two Member States and one non-Member State isolated Salmonella on the broiler carcasses, with a Community prevalence of 15.7%. This prevalence varied widely among the Member States, from 0.0% to 26.6%. However, one Member State had an exceptionally high prevalence of 85.6% with the majority of isolates being S. Infantis. The Community prevalence of Salmonella Enteritidis or Salmonella Typhimurium-contaminated broiler carcasses was 3.6%. Salmonella Infantis and Salmonella Enteritidis were the two most frequently isolated serovars on broiler carcasses in the EU and accounted for about onethird and one-sixth of the Salmonella isolates, respectively.


Here it is! This is the All-New Amazon Fire TV User Manual that should have come in the box! BONUS - Sign up to our free monthly newsletter and never miss news, views, tips and tricks of your favorite streaming media devices, including the Amazon Fire TV. From the Number 1 Best Selling authors in Computers and Technology, this clear and concise guide will show you how to get the very best from your All-New 2nd Generation Amazon Fire TV Streaming Media Player, now with 4K Ultra HD and Alexa. Step by step instructions will take you from newbie to expert in just one hour! About the Authors: Tom and Jenna Edwards are the Amazon Tech authors behind the Number 1 Best-selling e-books 250+ Best Kindle Fire HD Apps for the New Kindle Fire Owner and All-New Fire 7 User Guide: Newbie to Expert in 2 Hours!


As people around the world continue to have their voices, desires, and movements restricted, and their pasts and futures told on their behalf, we are interested in the critical project of decolonizing, which involves contesting dominant narratives and hegemonic representations. Ignacio Martin-Baro called these the "collective lies" told about people and politics. This essay reflects within and across two sites of injustice, located in Israel/Palestine and in South Africa, to excavate the circuits of structural violence, internalized colonization and possible reworking of those toward resistance that can be revealed within the stubborn particulars of place, history, and culture. The projects presented here are locally rooted, site-specific inquiries into contexts that bear the brunt of colonialism, dispossession, and occupation. Using visual research methodologies such as embroideries that produce counter-narratives and counter-maps that divulge the complexity of land-struggles, we search for fitting research practices that amplify unheard voices and excavate the social psychological soil that grows critical analysis and resistance. We discuss here the practices and dilemmas of doing decolonial research and highlight the need for research that excavates the specifics of a historical material context and produces evidence of previously silenced narratives.


Odor naming is difficult for people, but recent cross-cultural research suggests this difficulty is culture-specific. Jahai speakers (hunter-gatherers from the Malay Peninsula) name odors as consistently as colors, and much better than English speakers (Majid & Burenhult, 2014). In Jahai the linguistic advantage for smells correlates with a cultural interest in odors. Here we ask whether sub-cultures in the West with odor expertise also show superior odor naming. We tested wine and coffee experts (who have specialized odor training) in an odor naming task. Both wine and coffee experts were no more accurate or consistent than novices when naming odors. Although there were small differences in naming strategies, experts and non-experts alike relied overwhelmingly on source-based descriptions. So the specific language experts speak continues to constrain their ability to express odors. This suggests expertise alone is not sufficient to overcome the limits of language in the domain of smell.


Deirdre McCloskey's trilogy on the Bourgeois Era has set a new intellectual standard in discussing the "Great Fact" of human history. McCloskey's answer is it is not technological, it is not even institutional, it is ideological and without that ideological component you cannot explain the rise of the Western World. Our contribution to this symposium is to emphasize the role of "two-tiered" entrepreneurship in explaining this "Great Fact." We argue that entrepreneurship on an institutional, or "higher-tier," of analysis reduces the transaction costs of adopting wealth-creating institutions. By utilizing their specialized knowledge of informal institutions, which shape the beliefs and expectations of individuals, institutional entrepreneurs generate economic growth as an unintended consequence of their ability to facilitate the adoption of wealth-creating institutions in a manner that conforms to the beliefs and expectations of individuals within a particular society. When the ideas, institutions and practices align as a "combustible combination," the Great Fact emerges, liberty expands, and well-being drastically improves for humanity.


This article focusses on the career of Ben Burns, a white Jewish radical who came to play a central role in Chicago's black press during the mid-twentieth century. As an editor for periodicals such as the Chicago Defender, Negro Digest and Ebony, Burns helped to edit and develop some of the nation's most influential black publications. However, many of his readers remained oblivious to his racial identity – something which was both implicitly and explicitly obscured by his employers, and which was influenced by and manifested itself through the spatial politics of the workplace and the Chicago South Side. Drawing on a range of archival and biographical material, personal correspondence, and newspaper and magazine articles, this paper reconsiders Burns's literal movement through the terrain of Chicago's black press to assess his broader influence as a white editor in black journalism. Complicating depictions of Burns as a racial interloper, this article situates his contributions within a broader history of white participation in black print production. Furthermore, it demonstrates how the parameters of his role were heavily framed by the complex racial and spatial politics of the editorial room and Chicago's urban politics at mid-century.


[from the Introduction] This work examines the social and military development of the 1/8th Battalion, The Royal Warwickshire Regiment, in the Great War. It covers the period from the unitâ€TMs formation, in 1908, to the end of the war and will embrace both a sociological analysis of the unitâ€TMs members and an operational analysis of its tactical evolution. Extensive use has been made of both archival and published sources. The former include letters and diaries held in public collections, as well as the war diaries, medal rolls and service papers held at the Public Record Office (PRO), Kew. Local newspapers have also been widely consulted.


Background and Purpose: Communication has become a core topic in nursing care and investigations on this topic could have a significant impact on increasing nursing quality services. The present study aims to evaluate the communication skills and nursing staff component focusing on emotional management, others' perception and self-expression. Methods: This is a cross-sectional descriptive-analytical study to determine the communication skills of military nursing staffs in Tehran, elected in 2013. 340 staff nurses working at internal medicine, surgery, intensive care unit (ICU) and emergency were enrolled. Data were gathered using a designed questionnaire and by using SPSS 18 and Chi-square analysis. Validity and reliability testing using alpha- Cronbach has been obtained 0.66. Results: 52.1% of the participants were women. The mean age was 35.29 (±7.5) and the mean score of communication skill was 116.14 (±9.43). Between communication skills & the variables of age, education, nursing responsibilities, there was a significant correlation (P< 0.05). The relationship between communication skill and components (emotional management, others' perception, self expression) was positive and significant (p< 0.001). Conclusion: The communication score in this study was average. Therefore, in order to promote efficiency and improv e care quality, encouraging the employees to utilize these skills and monitoring this execution and also developing short term courses with the subjects as emotional management, others' perception, and self-expression, in the communicative skills are recommended.


Using nationally-representative household survey data and confidential geo-coded data on violence, we examine the linkages between conflict, food insecurity, and food price shocks in Afghanistan. Spatial mappings of the raw data reveal large variations in levels of food insecurity and conflict across the country; surprisingly, food insecurity is not higher in conflict areas. In a multivariate regression framework, we exploit the 2008 spike in wheat flour prices to estimate differential effects on household food security – measured by calorie intake and the real value of food consumed – based on the level of conflict in the province where the household is located. We find robust evidence that households in provinces with higher levels of conflict experience larger declines in food security than households in provinces with lower levels of conflict. Therefore while conflict may not be the driving factor in overall levels of food insecurity in Afghanistan, it may limit the coping mechanisms available to households in the face of rising food prices. Gaining a better understanding of such linkages and knowing the spatial distribution of food insecurity can serve to inform policymakers interested in targeting scarce resources to vulnerable populations, for example, through the placement of strategic grain reserves or targeted food assistance programs.


This paper examines the problems of the single currency in light of the organization of labour relations in the member-states and their interaction with monetary policies. Continental (western) Europe consists of two very different systems of employment and labour relations, roughly coinciding with 'coordinated market economies' (CME) in the north-west of the continent, and 'Mixed Market Economies' in the south. These differences in employment relations and wage-setting systems implied that, against the background of a relatively restrictive one-size-fits-all monetary policy in place since 1999, the north-west of the continent systematically improved its competitiveness, while the south lost competitiveness in parallel. Small differences between the two groups of countries at the start of EMU thus were accentuated and, against the background of low growth and an almost closed E(M)U economy, the northern CMEs accumulated current account surpluses while the GIIPS ran into severe balance of payments problems in 2010 and 2011. The sovereign debt crises of 2010-11, which threatened the survival of the Euro-zone itself in November and December 2011, simply reflected these structural imbalances: current account deficits are financed through debt, private and public. The problem with EMU, in other words, is one of current accounts, not fiscal deficits. The paper reconstructs the construction and emergence of this system through an examination of the development of wage-setting systems against the background of monetary integration in Europe since the second oil shock.


BACKGROUND
Valid and reliable self-report measures of physical activity (PA) are needed to evaluate the impact of interventions aimed at increasing the levels of PA. However, few valid measures for assessing PA in Latino populations exist.

OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study is to determine whether the GPAQ is a valid measure of PA among Latinas and to examine its sensitivity to intervention change. Intervention attendance was also examined.

METHODS
Baseline and postintervention data were collected from 72 Latinas (mean age = 43.01; SD = 9.05) who participated in Caminando con Fe/Walking with Faith, a multilevel intervention promoting PA among church-going Latinas. Participants completed the GPAQ and were asked to wear the accelerometer for 7 consecutive days at baseline and again 6 months later. Accelerometer data were aggregated into 5 levels of activity intensity (sedentary, light, moderate, moderate-vigorous, and vigorous) and correlated to self-reported mean minutes of PA across several domains (leisure time, work, commute and household chores).

RESULTS
There were significant correlations at postintervention between self-reported minutes per week of vigorous LTPA and accelerometer measured vigorous PA (r = .404, P < .001) as well as significant correlations of sensitivity to intervention change (post intervention minus baseline) between self-reported vigorous LTPA and accelerometer-measured vigorous PA (r = .383, P < .003) and self-reported total vigorous PA and accelerometer measured vigorous PA (r = .363, P < .003).

CONCLUSIONS
The findings from this study suggest that the GPAQ may be useful for evaluating the effectiveness of programs aimed at increasing vigorous levels of PA among Latinas.


While debates rage over the relevance and worth of school history, history has been one of the five compulsory subjects up to Ordinary Level in Zimbabwe. However, far away from the corridors of power, it is essential that research be conducted on what school history is for and what represents that which the learner of school history acquires through at least eleven years of school history studies in Zimbabwe. Using the concept of historical literacy as its framework, this study is an analysis of three Ordinary Level history textbooks in Zimbabwe to explore how historical literacy manifests itself in Zimbabwean school history textbooks. In a context of increased government concern over what and how school history should be taught, the study explains how the textbooks that were produced more than ten years ago can still be turned into resources for the propagation of patriotic history, which emerged in the last decade. While conceptualisations of historical literacy continue, I argue for multiple historical literacies, that is, historical literacy which actually takes different forms in different times, spaces and contexts. Thus, what is represented as historical literacy in Zimbabwean history textbooks is not necessarily what historical literacy is elsewhere. This research is a qualitative textual analysis which was conducted in an interpretivist paradigm. I employed historical discourse analysis, question analysis and visual analysis as the analysis methods. The analysis was conducted through an instrument created from the benchmarks of the conceptual framework. The study concluded that despite attempt to push for an activitybased curriculum, historical knowledge, especially the nationalist narrative, is still the dominant benchmark of historical literacy in Zimbabwean textbooks. As a result, the current textbooks can be used, not only for a state sanitised version of historical literacy, but also a version of political literacy.


IT governance is crucial for managers to regulate the decision rights and responsibilities that the desired IT behaviors and business objectives are aligned with each other. Additionally, culture in national, organizational or group level can play a role in IT governance and this role is rarely explored in academic research. This paper provides a literature review investigating the impact of culture on IT governance. It is aimed to find the linkage between these two concepts and to promote this area for future research. The literature review was done systematically and the findings are categorized by using an IT governance framework which includes three main components: structures, processes and relational mechanisms. The results indicate there is an influence from national and organizational culture on IT governance, especially on relational mechanisms. However, the number of studies is very few and there is still a lack of knowledge on how culture can influence IT governance.


Cascadia subduction zone earthquakes dropped tidal marshes and low-lying forests to tidal flat elevations 12 times in the last 6700 cal yr B.P. at the Coquille River estuary in southwestern Oregon. The youngest buried soil, preserved in tidal marsh deposits near the estuary mouth, records the A.D. 1700 earthquake that ruptured the entire Cascadia margin. Eleven other buried marsh and upland soils found in tributary valleys of the estuary provide repeated evidence for rapid, lasting relative sea-level rise interpreted as coseismic subsidence. Additional stratigraphic criteria supporting a coseismic origin for soil burial include: lateral soil correlation over hundreds of meters, fossil diatom assemblages that indicate a maximum of 1.2‐3.0 m of submergence, and sand deposits overlying buried soils consistent with earthquakeinduced tsunamis that traveled 10 km up the estuary. Twelve earthquakes occurred in the last 6500‐6720 cal yr B.P., recurring on average every 570‐590 yr. Intervals between earthquakes varied from a few hundred years to over 1000. Comparisons of the Coquille record to earthquake histories from adjacent sites in Oregon, southwestern Washington, and northwestern California suggest that at least two earthquakes in the last 4000 yr did not rupture the entire length of the subduction zone. An earthquake 760‐1140 cal yr B.P. in southwestern Washington may have ruptured as far south as Coos Bay but probably stopped before it reached the Coquille estuary because no buried soil records the event, and tidal marsh conditions were set to record an earthquake. An earthquake limited to a southern segment of the Cascadia margin 1940‐2130 cal yr B.P. probably did not rupture north of the Coquille estuary. An analysis of relative sea-level histories from either side of the Coquille fault failed to find conclusive evidence for late Holocene vertical deformation. However, we cannot preclude recent upper-plate faulting. If the fault is active, as geomorphic features suggest, then constraints on the highest possible elevation of mean tide level allow a maximum vertical slip rate of 0.2‐ 0.4 mm/yr in the past 6200‐6310 cal yr B.P.


Pulsar magnetospheres are composed of electron-positron plasmas characterised by broadband electromagnetic emission, the source of which remains elusive. This paper investigates one possible emission mechanism in which electrostatic oscillations are coupled to propagating electromagnetic waves by the magnetic field inhomogeneity, thus creating a source of radiation in the pulsar magnetosphere. The full nonlinear equations in cylindrical geometry for a streaming cold electron-positron plasma are solved numerically, together with Maxwell's equations, using a Finite-Difference Time Domain method. Electrostatic oscillations are induced in a streaming plasma in the presence of a non-uniform magnetic field, and the resulting electromagnetic waves are modelled self-consistently. Also presented is the linear perturbation analysis of these model equations perturbed from a dynamical equilibrium in order to probe the fundamental modes present in the system. These simulations successfully exhibit the coupling mechanism and the nonlinear interaction between electromagnetic waves and independent plasma oscillations, confirming the importance of coherent plasma effects and collective plasma processes in the pulsar magnetosphere.


Recently, graphics processing units (GPUs) have been increasingly leveraged in a variety of scientific computing applications. However, architectural differences between CPUs and GPUs necessitate the development of algorithms that take advantage of GPU hardware. As sparse matrix vector (SPMV) multiplication operations are commonly used in finite element analysis, a new SPMV algorithm and several variations are developed for unstructured finite element meshes on GPUs. The effective bandwidth of current GPU algorithms and the newly proposed algorithms are measured and analyzed for 15 sparse matrices of varying sizes and varying sparsity structures. The effects of optimization and differences between the new GPU algorithm and its variants are then subsequently studied. Lastly, both new and current SPMV GPU algorithms are utilized in the GPU CG solver in GPU finite element simulations of the heart. These results are then compared against parallel PETSc finite element implementation results. The effective bandwidth tests indicate that the new algorithms compare very favorably with current algorithms for a wide variety of sparse matrices and can yield very notable benefits. GPU finite element simulation results demonstrate the benefit of using GPUs for finite element analysis and also show that the proposed algorithms can yield speedup factors up to 12‐fold for real finite element applications. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Title of thesis: QUASI-ONE-DIMENSIONAL MODELING OF AN ADIABATIC-COMPRESSION PREHEATED LUDWIEG TUBE Joseph Chung, Master of Science, 2015 Thesis directed by: Professor Stuart Laurence Department of Aerospace Engineering A novel hypersonic facility is proposed that will reproduce the high pressures and temperatures necessary for the accurate simulation of hypersonic flight conditions. It will provide sufficient test times for investigating unsteady, transient flow effects while maintaining high flow quality due to the absence of vitiation contaminants and shocks in the generating flow. An electrically preheated Ludwieg tube provides the initial means of heating while the piston-compression is used to further increase the pressure and temperature. Preliminary constraints on the design space for optimal operation are presented through the method of characteristics (MOC). Further characterization is performed with quasi-one-dimensional Euler computations. The MOC approach shows the optimal operating condition constrains the compression ratio and Ludwieg tube to nozzle exit diameter ratio, assuming proper simulation of flight conditions. The unsteady Euler computations predict the presence of pressure oscillations generated during the piston-compression process. Methods are investigated to mitigate these oscillations. QUASI-ONE-DIMENSIONAL MODELING OF AN ADIABATIC-COMPRESSION PREHEATED LUDWIEG TUBE


This dissertation explores party discipline and its policy consequences in two East Asian democracies: Japan and South Korea. Despite personalistic electoral competition, ideological diversity inside the ruling parties, frequent party splits and mergers and switching, and intraparty factional struggles, the leadership in the two countries has been able to maintain the high levels of party unity inside the legislatures and achieve collective goods of stable rule and legislation. In order to solve this puzzling phenomenon, I develop a theory to argue that, in order to achieve high productivity in the legislature, the leadership in the two countries strategically distributes office perks, or various types of privileges available in the government or the party: cabinet minister posts, heads of state-owned corporations and agencies, and pork subsidies. I further argue that the contrasting patterns of allocation of office perks following from the constitutional difference - parliamentarism versus presidentialism - cause divergent consequences in party unity. In order to support this theoretical claim, I utilize original datasets on legislators' roll call votes on the legislative floors and on fiscal spending in Japan and South Korea. First, data on roll call votes confirm that access to office perks is a significant factor in maintaining party unity: in Japan, when the leadership broke down the existing norm to sustain party unity, a group of backbenchers defected; and in Korea, ruling party members affiliated with the president tend to show higher unity, but such unity tends to decrease over time. Second, analysis at fiscal spending shows that pork is strategically used by the leadership to maintain party unity: in Japan, when the leadership incorporates intra- party factions into the cabinet, upward pressures on pork- related budget items are found; and in Korea, the president greases the wheels by allocating more money to presidential supporters when the ruling party has a majority in the legislature.


"2020 and Beyond" is announced by the International Telecommunication Union to be the era of the next mobile network generation. After Long-Term Evolution (LTE)/fourth generation, fifth generation (5G) is promising to be a major evolution in the communication domain, not simply due to the acceleration of the data rate, but rather due to the new applications. The challenging objectives such as minimum user-plane latency, uninterruptable connectivity, high quality of service, high data rate communications, and network capacity, while dealing with ubiquitous and heterogeneous network access, call for a major overhaul of the whole mobile network architecture. The limitations of today's mobile systems, derived from their dependency on hardware-based designs, led to inflexible and limited architectures. It is essential to have dynamic and flexible management systems at several levels, starting from the radio access network (RAN), passing by the Evolved Packet Core (EPC), up to the application interfaces. These future demands and the requirement for a self-adaptive system can be realized by adopting the software-defined-networking (SDN) paradigm, which leads to the integration of SDN in the network components of the upcoming 5G technology. Benefiting from software flexibility on one hand and control and management centralization on the other hand, SDN has its positive impact in the communication world from several aspects. SDN will provide 5G with a smooth transition and unified management among various wireless standards and among different RANs and wired core networks. Furthermore, SDN can optimally orchestrate the interference between cells, handovers, roaming process, routing, and signaling between access and core networks, management of the gateways, and even the management of user data. Furthermore, the new bandwidth and latency requirements, and the ability to support the innovative 5G applications, cannot be satisfied by centralizing the data in the cloud. Pushing the data to the user's proximity will be vital for some time-critical applications, which is a requirement supported by edge computing. Therefore, the geo-distribution of data requires an optimal networking design for these edges. On top of this distributed data layer, the network function virtualization coupled with SDN promises easier management of such an infrastructure. In this chapter, we investigate how SDN can be integrated into the 5G network architecture at different levels (RAN, EPC, security, etc.) and highlight the solutions, challenges, and benefits resulting from such integration. Also, we present the mobile edge computing concept, its integration with SDN, and its implications on 5G. We review the designs and architectures that have been proposed in this area and others that are under development, including the innovative applications and use cases that will be enabled by the SDN-5G combination. Our work will be concluded by proposing an architecture for SDN-5G for telecom operators.


Toll-like receptors (TLRs) are an ancient class of proteins used in antimicrobial defense (see the review by O'Neill). Mammalian TLRs can respond to microbial products by activating immune response genes, including those for cytokines and costimulatory molecules. Unlike Toll receptors from insects, however, a direct anti-microbial function has not been demonstrated for mammalian TLR. Thoma-Uszynski et al. observed that macrophages from humans and mice could directly kill the intracellular bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis after stimulation through TLR-2. However, whereas antimicrobial activity in mice was achieved by induction of nitric oxide (NO), killing by human macrophages was mediated by a mechanism independent of NO. L. A. J. O'Neill, The interleukin-1 receptor/toll-like receptor superfamily: Signal transduction during inflammation and host defense. Science's STKE (2000), http://stke.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/OC_sigtrans;2000/44/re1. [Abstract] [Full Text] S. Thoma-Uszynski, S. Stenger, O. Takeuchi, M. T. Ochoa, M. Engele, P. A. Sieling, P. F. Barnes, M. Röllinghoff, P. L. Bölcskei, M. Wagner, S. Akira, M. V. Norgard, J. T. Belisle, P. J. Godowski, B. R. Bloom, R. L. Modlin, Induction of direct antimicrobial activity through mammalian Toll-like receptors. Science 291, 1544-1547 (2001). [Abstract] [Full Text]


Jean-Djiqui Keita

Jean-Djiqui Keita was born in Mali and educated in France. He was Chief of the Soils Conservation Division, Forestry Directorate and then Director of Forestry, Fisheries and Wildlife in Mali. Since 1978 he has been the FAO Senior

Regional Forestry Officer for Africa based in Accra, Ghana.

The need for wood as a source of domestic fuel is now a serious cause of the accelerating process of desertification in the Sahel-Sudan regions of Africa. Rapid population growth, particularly among the urban poor, has increased pressure on limited forestry resources. However, the possibility of the wide-spread adoption of alternative energy sources seems limited, to say the least, because of the inherent economic and social problems.

Obviously, therefore, those countries which are threatened by desertification, will, together with aid and development organizations, initiate projects to conserve firewood, which is why schemes for improved burning systems have mushroomed in the Sahel

The use of charcoal has come in for considerable criticism in the campaign against wastage of wood. Charcoal-making often wastes more than 60%, especially when there is only patchy carbonization, as is usually the case in Africa. However, in everyday use charcoal wastes less energy than wood. In traditional wood-burning firestoves wood can release only about 8% of its potential energy, and this is so particularly of the three-stone stove which gives out only 5%. For every kilo of wood only 280 kcals are used. Traditional charcoal-burning stoves have an average output of 28% of the available energy. Thus one kilo of wood turned into charcoal will give 420 kcals in a domestic stove. These calculations demonstrate that charcoal wins as far as energy economy is concerned. But there are numerous variables, and one can project figures with different carbon/stove ratios, the calorific power of wood, and so on.

The Stove Improvements Scheme's own research shows that it is difficult to get a 20% return from woodburning stoves. Charcoal-burning stoves, however, will achieve 40% yields, and if one includes improved carbonization return of 16% to 30% then it will be seen that 25% of the total energy will be utilized. Woodburning would become viable if output from wood-burning stoves rose beyond 20-25%

The use of charcoal in towns has even more advantages in terms of energy conservation -- in the field of transport. If the radius of the supply of fuel wood exceeds 150-200 km from the town, then more energy from fossil fuels will have been consumed than has been transported. Charcoal, on the other hand, can be transported more than 2000 km.

It is vital, however, to take into account the following facts in the formulation of an energy policy based on forestry concerns. Charcoal allows energy sources to be situated farther afield. Energy development policy must therefore consider separately urban and rural problems. Firewood for rural. communities must, where possible, be produced in the immediate vicinity. In contrast, charcoal for urban use, can come from areas further away which are more suited to forestry development. The basic problem here is one of transferring energy sources and this must not be seen solely as the task of forestry administrations. It might even perhaps be considered, as an international commercial vensure.

The most pressing problem for forestry in sub-Saharan Africa is the supply of domestic energy to the majority of the population -- a problem which may be expected to continue for a long time. It goes without saying that every saving of energy has an immediate effect on both forests and the environment, particularly in large towns where the concentration of population inevitably involves over-exploitation of forests. Furthermore, if the use of charcoal means that energy can be brought in from further afield, it will help ease the pressure on forests near the towns.

If the decision to promote the use of charcoal instead of wood in towns is taken, there will be certain implications for both forestry policy and development:

- priority must be given to husbanding existing resources. These will be used to meet the fuel needs of the urban populations, wherever they may be;

- transport of these resources must assume a prime position in forestry policy in countries where there are both wood-growing and nonwood-growing areas

- in considering reforestation in relation to the energy needs of large towns, the prevailing climatic and edaphic conditions must carry more weight than the proximity of the consumer. Thus greater flexibility will be achieved, allowing block plantation in favourable zones. Plantations under these conditions must therefore be considered as economically viable enterprises;

- the perfection and distribution of charcoal-burning stoves: any policy aimed at saving energy must start with a reduced consumption of resources. This is where the impact will be most felt;

- improvement of carbonization: this is the second most important element in fuel economy. Rapid results can be expected in this field since it is relatively easy to train the small number of people involved. Forestry administrations must make training a priority.

In the interests of both energy conservation and environmental protection, accelerating urbanization must bring with it a concerted effort towards promoting the use of charcoal against wood. In this way charcoal will become a highly marketable product that can take its place in lone-distance trade.

The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily those of CTA.


A thermodynamic model, the Gibbs Free-Energy Minimization model (GFEMN), was used to simulate the partitioning of PM2.5 nitrate aerosol and nitric acid using highly time-resolved inorganic measurements collected at the Pittsburgh Air Quality Study during July 2001 and January 2002. Model results were evaluated using independent, high time resolution measurements of aerosol nitrate. The mean observed concentration in July was 0.6 mug/m(3) and 2.1 mug/m(3) in January. Model predictions were in agreement with the observations within 0.5 mug/m(3) on average, with measurement uncertainties often accounting for these discrepancies. The simulations were run assuming particles were liquid in July for all relative humidities (RHs) and solid below 60% RH in January. For both seasons the assumed physical state did not influence considerably the overall agreement with observations. The assumption of particle mixing state did appear to influence model error; however, assuming that particles were externally mixed during low RH periods in July improved agreement significantly. The exceptional sensitivity of predicted aerosol nitrate to ammonia in western Pennsylvania suggests that reductions in PM2.5 may be assisted by reductions in ammonia emissions.


The increase in the complexity of brains in evolution is accompanied by a surprisingly small number of new synaptic proteins, in particular when considering the remarkably wider range of behavioral responses a primate shows in comparison with a roundworm. However, a few vertebrate-specific synaptic proteins arose. These proteins may convey specialization and complexity to vertebrate nervous systems, for example by increasing vesicle reloading speed, and maintaining or eliminating a synapse. Vertebrate-specific proteins, together with more elaborate circuits, could bridge the gap between simple and complex behaviors. But intricate machineries lead to complicated maintenance and, as a result, malfunctions occur. One of these vertebrate-specific proteins, Synuclein, is involved in Parkinson's disease. Another one, called Mover, is strongly upregulated in schizophrenia.
Mover is a synaptic vesicle-attached phosphoprotein, regulated by activity, and binds the conserved Calmodulin and the vertebrate-specific active zone protein Bassoon. Mover is differentially expressed at subsets of synapses. Knockdown of Mover in the calyx of Held leads to an acceleration of vesicle reloading after synaptic depression and to an increased calcium sensitivity of release.
In this study, I have used a Mover knockout mouse line to investigate the role of Mover in the hippocampal mossy fiber to CA3 pyramidal cell synapse and Schaffer collateral to CA1 synapse through extra- and intracellular electrophysiological recordings. While Schaffer collateral synapses were unchanged by the knockout, the mossy fibers showed strongly increased facilitation. The effect of Mover knockout in facilitation was both calcium- and age-dependent, having a stronger effect at higher calcium concentrations and in younger animals. Increasing cAMP levels by forskolin potentiated equally both wildtype and knockout mossy fiber synapses, but occluded the increased facilitation observed in the knockout. Blockade of Kainate receptors also occluded most of the increased facilitation observed in the absence of Mover.
These discoveries suggest that a) Mover has distinct roles at different synapses; b) generally acts to dampen the extent of presynaptic events; c) acts as a brake that can be released during low activity. I suggest a model in which Mover inhibits the Kainate receptor/cAMP pathway, which explains the observed results and supports the proposed role of Mover dynamically buffering synaptic strength. The results presented here are discussed in light of a possible role of this vertebrate-specific protein in scenarios such as schizophrenia, epilepsy, superpriming, synaptic plasticity and memory formation.


Does the criminal prosecution of a corporation affect the CEO? Or do criminal actions directed at the organization itself pose few consequences for the individuals at the top, and the CEO in particular? While CEOs are rarely themselves prosecuted, organizations could discipline CEOs through paycuts or outright replacing the CEO in response to a criminal prosecution. We sought to examine whether and how that occurs. We focus our analysis on a dataset of public companies that settled criminal cases brought by federal prosecutors from 2000-2014. We compared those companies to the larger set of companies in the Execucomp database of S&P 1500 firms, focusing on CEO compensation and turnover during the same time period. We examined the time period before and after prosecution, and the year that the company resolved the criminal charges against the company. We found that in the year that the company settled its prosecution, through a guilty plea or a deferred or non-prosecution agreement, there was a significantly higher level of CEO turnover. However, we do not find evidence of CEO pay cut. Second, for the prosecuted firms that did not have CEO turnover after prosecution, there is no evidence of a reduction in compensation. Indeed, we observed a spike in CEO bonuses in the year of prosecution—confirming concerns expressed by judges, prosecutors, lawmakers, and academics that corporate prosecutions do not sufficiently impact high-level decision-makers like CEOs. For the prosecuted firms that did have CEO turnover after prosecution, there is some evidence of a pay cut, both to salary and bonus, prior to the replacement of the CEO. These results raise larger questions whether federal prosecutors targeting the most serious corporate crimes sufficiently incentivize accountability at the top.


In this paper, a novel current inversion algorithm from X-band marine radar images is proposed. The routine, for which deep water is assumed, begins with 3-D FFT of the radar image sequence, followed by the extraction of the dispersion shell from the 3-D image spectrum. Next, the dispersion shell is converted to a polar current shell (PCS) using a polar coordinate transformation. After removing outliers along each radial direction of the PCS, a robust sinusoidal curve fitting is applied to the data points along each circumferential direction of the PCS. The angle corresponding to the maximum of the estimated sinusoid function is determined to be the current direction, and the amplitude of this sinusoidal function is the current speed. For validation, the algorithm is tested against both simulated radar images and field data collected by a vertically-polarized X-band system and ground-truthed with measurements from an acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP). From the field data, it is observed that when the current speed is less than 0.5 m/s, the root mean square differences between the radar-derived and the ADCP-measured current speed and direction are 7.3 cm/s and 32.7°, respectively. The results indicate that the proposed procedure, unlike most existing current inversion schemes, is not susceptible to high current speeds and circumvents the need to consider aliasing. Meanwhile, the relatively low computational cost makes it an excellent choice in practical marine applications.