How did liberal movements reshape the modern world? "Origins of Liberal Dominance" offers a revealing account of how states, churches, and parties joined together in France, Belgium, Switzerland, and Germany to produce fundamentally new forms of organization that have shaped contemporary politics.Modern political life emerged when liberal movements sought to establish elections, constitutions, free markets, and religious liberty. Yet liberalism even at its height faced strong and often successful opposition from conservatives. What explains why liberals overcame their opponents in some countries but not in others? This book compares successful and unsuccessful attempts to build liberal political parties and establish liberal regimes in France, Belgium, Switzerland, and Germany from 1815 to World War I.Andrew Gould argues that relations between states and churches set powerful conditions on any attempt at liberalization. Liberal movements that enhanced religious authority while reforming the state won clerical support and successfully built liberal institutions of government. Furthermore, liberal movements that organized peasant backing around religious issues founded or sustained mass movements to support liberal regimes."Origins of Liberal Dominance" offers striking new insights into the emergence of modern states and regimes. It will be of interest to political scientists, sociologists, comparative historians, and those interested in comparative politics, regime change and state-building, democratization, religion and politics, and European politics.Andrew C. Gould is Assistant Professor of Government and Kellogg Institute Fellow, University of Notre Dame.


An improved LS-DYNA model of ¾-in. (19-mm) diameter 3x7 wire rope commonly used in roadside cable guardrail installations has been developed. A Belytschko-Schwer beam element was selected along with material *MAT_166. Numerical noise was reduced using part stiffness damping with a coefficient of 2%, and frequency range damping with a coefficient of 12%. The optimum element length based on timestep, accuracy, and computational cost was determined to be between 0.4 and 0.8 in. (10-20 mm). Dynamic component tests were conducted on wire rope to determine material properties. These tests were simulated and the results compared to the physical tests. The new proposed wire rope model more accurately simulated the wire rope tension and bogie vehicle motion than other previously-developed wire rope models. The wire rope was also modeled in full-scale crash test models using a Chevrolet C2500 pickup model, consistent with NCHRP Report No. 350 TL-3 impact conditions. Results of the crash test and simulation were compared, and the wire rope response was determined to be accurate. Therefore the new wire rope model was determined to be an improvement over existing models of wire rope and is recommended for use in cable guardrail simulations.


Critics from a variety of camps have argued that bioethics has suffered an indifference to "difference." Cases have been described as thin and the selves inhabiting them hollow. This criticism has been driven at least in part by a reworked conception of the self. The rational and autonomous self that once dominated bioethics discourse has been replaced with a more "textured" self, a self embedded in stories, relationships, families, communities, cultures, and other "thick" particularity—such as race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion, and experience generally. The import of such a self is not simply descriptive accuracy; these contextual details—these differences—matter. They matter because they figure importantly into our ethical analyses of cases, affecting, for example, how we interact with and treat patients. And with this shift has come increasing attention to the processes of moral inquiry that enable inquirers to gather all of this moral information and find their way from complex cases to context-sensitive responses.


We consider a signaling format where information is modulated via a superposition of independent data streams. Each data stream is formed by replication and permutation of encoded information bits. The relations between data bits and modulation symbols transmitted over the channel can be represented in the form of a sparse graph. The modulated streams are transmitted with a time offset enabling spatial coupling of the sparse modulation graphs. We prove that a two-stage demodulation/decoding method, in which iterative demodulation based on symbol estimation and interference cancellation is followed by parallel error correction decoding, achieves capacity on the additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel.


In this interview, Bob Jessop, not only talks about the theoretical and political factors that motivated him as an intellectual and made him focus particularly on the State, but also refers his new concerns related with the new social, economic and political transformations that are brought about by economic globalisation. Showing an outstanding relational capacity and in a quite coherent [and notably] way Jessop, digs over intricate dichotomies such as state vs. society, the economic vs. the political, agency vs. structure, and the logic of capital vs. class struggle. Expressing explicitly some of his major influences � Gramsci, Althusser Bourdieu, Polanyi, � Jessop, among many issues, explains, not only the tensions between the market and society, deals with the possibility of having a social market or a free market within a socialist system, challenges distinctions such as �First World- Third World�, identifies the complicities between Thatcherism, Majorism and Blairism, the transformations on the European Left and the need for a new posture, denounces that there is no single logic to globalisation [�it is the complex resultant of many different processes on many different scales�], but also deals with the concept of governance as an ensemble of spatio-temporal practices and forms, and understands socio political movements like the Zapatistas as important and original contributions to the overall development of the struggle against the dominant neo-liberal forms of globalisation.


Abstract : A model of profile analysis is proposed in which a spectral profile is assumed to be represented by a weighted sum of sinusoidally modulated spectra (ripples). The analysis is performed by a bank of bandpass filters, each tuned to a particular ripple frequency and ripple phase. The parameters of the model are estimated using data from ripple detection experiments in [Green, 1986; Hillier, 1991]. Detection thresholds are computed from the filter outputs and compared with perceptual thresholds, for profile detection experiments with step, single component increment, and the alternating profiles. The model accounts well for the measured thresholds in these experiments. Physiological and psychophysical evidences from the auditory and visual systems in support of this type of a model are also reviewed. The implications of this model for pitch and timbre perception are briefly discussed.


Abstract. The last decade has seen considerable research on conversation and grammar, influenced by the conversation-analytic research of Sacks et al. (1974). Inspired by that line of research, some Korean linguists have examined conversation by adopting the assumptions and methodology of conversation analysis (CA) into discourse analysis. This study introduces basic assumptions and research topics relating to CA, and explores the possibility of adopting CA methodology into dis-course analysis in Korean linguistics. This paper first provides a brief overview of basic assumptions, methodology, and major research topics of CA and the development of conversation-analytic dis-course studies. Then it provides a brief overview of some major findings and research topics in the interaction-based studies which have dealt with conversational data in Korean linguistics in terms of: (i) turn-taking, turn-constructional units, and turn increments, (ii) interactional functions of certain clausal connectives and sentence-ending suffixes, and (iii) other interaction-based studies on such topics as repair, demonstratives, reported speech, and so on. This research discusses how interaction-based research can provide a new way of viewing language functions; it explores: (i) turn-taking and co-construction; (ii) word-order variability, turn increments, repair, and retroactive elaboration; (iii) a conversation-analytic approach to the clausal connective -nuntey, and (iv) an interactional ap-proach to the verbal affixes -ese and -nikka in conversation, among others. Overall, this paper shows what has been, and needs to be, studied regarding the relationship between conversation, social action, and grammar in conversation in Korean linguistics.


Wilensky's seminal article on professionals mentions three identifying characteristics besides the familiar specialized knowledge, autonomy and professional ideology. These are the referral principle, which states that professionals should refer clients to a colleague with a different specialty if necessary, the principle of sloughing off, which dictates that professionals allocate less rewarding parts of their job to lesser paid assistants, and the principle of impersonal service delivery, which admonishes professionals to treat clients equally. A changing clientele in health care and social care warrants a reappraisal of these three principles. Population ageing necessitates a reappraisal in health care. The deinstitutionalization of people with psychiatric or mental disabilities necessitates a reappraisal in social care. Referral, sloughing off and impersonal service delivery are professional characteristics that concur with managerial or political objectives. Managers and politicians are partly responsible for their widespread application. Hence, professionals need their help to fight this "enemy within professionalism."


In this article, we estimate and compare the effects of two value dimensions taken from the theory of basic human values—namely, self-transcendence and conservation—on attitudes toward immigration in 19 countries. Data from the first wave (2002–03) of the European Social Survey (ESS) is utilized for the analyses. This cross-national survey measures basic human values with a new 21-item instrument. Attitudes toward immigration are operationalized using two dimensions: willingness to allow immigrants into the country and rejection of conditions to allow them. Effects of the value dimensions on immigration attitudes are compared across 19 nations using multiple-group multiple-indicators structural equation modelling (MGSEM). We hypothesize that these effects are equal across countries. The critical statistical legitimacy for comparing these effects across countries is discussed in detail, and partial measurement invariance is evidenced. The MGSEM provides strong support for our hypotheses in 17 countries: self-transcendence displays a positive effect on support for immigration, and conservation a negative effect. This result is robust also after accounting for several individual and contextual variables. Effects are found to differ a little across countries. It is shown that clusters of countries with equal effect sizes can be distinguished, and possible explanations for effect size differences are discussed.


Abstract. Plankton communities form the basis of aquatic ecosystems and elucidating their role in increasingly important environmental issues is a constantly present research question. The concealed plankton community dynamics reflect changes in environmental forcing, growth traits of competing species, and multiple food web interactions. Recent technological advances have led to the possibility of collecting real-time big data opening new horizons for testing core hypotheses in planktonic systems, derived from macroscopic realms, in community ecology, biodiversity research, and ecosystem functioning. Analyzing the big data calls for computer vision and machine learning methods capable of producing interoperable data across platforms and systems. In this paper we apply convolutional neural networks (CNN) to classify a brackish-water phytoplankton community in the Baltic Sea. For solving the classification task, we utilize compact CNN architectures requiring less computational capacity and creating an opportunity to quickly train the network. This makes it possible to (1) test various modifications to the classification method, and (2) repeat each experiment multiple times with different training and test set combinations to obtain reliable results. We further analyze the effect of large class imbalance to the CNN performance, and test relevant data augmentation techniques to improve the performance. Finally, we address the practical implications of the classification performance to aquatic research by analyzing the confused classes and their effect on the reliability of the automatic plankton recognition system, to guide further development of plankton recognition research. Our results show that it is possible to obtain good classification accuracy with relatively shallow architectures and a small amount of training data when using effective data augmentation methods even with a very unbalanced dataset.


Millions of poor and vulnerable people face hunger and poverty this year and next because of record global temperatures, droughts and erratic rains in 2014 and 2015, followed by the development of possibly the most powerful El Nino on record. This briefing makes the case to urgently scale up humanitarian response in countries already in crisis. It also draws on the experience of the super El Nino in 1997–98, and the inadequate response to the Horn of Africa drought of 2011, to push for early action to save livelihoods elsewhere.  Long-term approaches to reduce food insecurity must be found, and climate change, which is super-charging the effects of El Nino, must be tackled at the UN climate conference in Paris and beyond.


From a large options data set on major equity indexes across the world, the authors find that worldwide, implied volatilities of options on equity indexes exhibit strikingly similar behaviors. When plotted against moneyness, implied volatilities show a heavily skewed smirk pattern, implying that out–of–the–money put options are more expensive than the corresponding out–of–the–money call options and that the risk–neutral return distribution for these indexes is heavily negatively skewed. Furthermore, as the option maturity increases from one month to five years, the implied volatility smirk does not flatten out but steepens, indicating that the risk–neutral distribution of equity index returns becomes even more negatively skewed at longer horizons. The average term structure of the implied volatility level is relatively flat, and the standard deviation of the implied volatility declines as maturity increases. Although fairly persistent, the implied volatility series are stationary. Finally, principal component analysis reveals that equity index volatility movements across the world share one global component.


Great advances in the subfield of non-fullerene acceptors have been achieved in the last few years. Perylene diimides are among the most investigated due to their excellent electron mobility, high electron affinity and feasible chemical modification. In this review, we summarize reports of small molecule acceptors based on perylene diimides in recent years and highlight the effect of molecular structure on their performance in bulk heterojunction organic solar cells with the hope of providing criteria for designing acceptors based on perylene diimides.


This thesis begins by describing the regulatory regimes of takeovers in the UK and US, and maps the litigation landscapes of both jurisdictions. In order to first map or describe the litigation landscapes, data was collected to reveal the extent of the UK's propensity to litigate during takeovers. Although data ascertaining takeover litigation levels existed in the US no current study had yet established the levels in the UK. It is revealed that in the US 87 percent of takeovers are subject to litigation, whilst in the UK the figure is less than one percent. Current literature has not yet attempted to explain exactly why the US and UK differ so widely, considering their very similar market systems. The focus of this thesis is then to explain this difference and debunk some of the more obvious presumed explanations (i.e. "the US is just more aggressively litigious") and identify some lesser known reasons. As the main instigators of US litigation are target shareholders alleging their directors have breached a fiduciary duty a number of explanations inevitably arise from this particular scenario. A simplistic uni-causal explanation is therefore rejected and instead this thesis offers four candidates for explaining the disparity. These are, firstly, that US shareholders benefit from more extensive "causes of action." The second explanation encompasses the different "forms of action" that are available to shareholders in the UK and US to pursue these causes of action; in the US the class action is the favoured form whereas in the UK shareholders are limited to the derivative claim. The third explanation concerns the role played by the existence of the Code, and its administration by the Panel. It is argued that these UK institutions do much to suppress takeover litigation in general. The fourth and final explanation is the rather amorphous concept of "litigation culture." Finally, the impacts of the diverging propensities to litigate on factors such as cost and speed on the takeover process are then evaluated.


The world has been discussing the Finnish educational system for over a decade now. This paradigm shift in education in Finland has brought about tremendous changes that the world is discussing. To find out how Finland has reached such a high level of student achievement, Principal Mussarut Jabeen, who had long planned to visit Finland, and Dr. Seema Imam, professor at National Louis University, participated in a book study and tour of Finland to experience firsthand their educational system. Members of the book club visited the Department of Education, university teacher education programs, and numerous schools in three cities. This paper discusses an Islamic school's efforts toward a paradigm shift in education. It takes a look at Finland's societal values and their best practices, many of which can be implemented in Islamic schools.


Abstract: In the tropical Indian Ocean, the Maldive Islands lack surface freshwater, so are unsuitable for dragonfly reproduction. Nevertheless, millions of dragonflies (Insecta, Odonata; mostly globe skimmer, Pantala flavescens) appear suddenly every year starting in October. Arrival dates in the Maldives and India demonstrate that the dragonflies travel from southern India, a distance of some 500–1000 km. Dates of arrival and occurrence coincide with the southward passage of the Inter-tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ). Circumstantial evidence suggests that the dragonflies fly with north-easterly tail winds, within and behind the ITCZ, at altitudes over 1000 m. It is proposed that this massive movement of dragonflies is part of an annual migration across the western Indian Ocean from India to East Africa. Arrival dates in the Seychelles support this hypothesis. Dragonflies also appear (in smaller numbers) in the Maldives in May, with the onset of the southwest monsoon, suggesting a possible return migration from Africa. These proposed migrations of dragonflies, regularly crossing 3500 km or more of open ocean, were previously unknown. It is known that these dragonflies exploit ephemeral rain pools for reproduction; the monsoons and ITCZ bring not only alternating, seasonal rains to India and Africa, but also appropriate winds for dragonflies to follow those rains. Several bird species migrate from India across the western Indian Ocean to wintering grounds in Africa. They do so at the same time as the dragonflies, presumably taking advantage of the same seasonal tail winds. Many of these birds also eat dragonflies; the possible significance of this was not previously appreciated.


This study aims to investigate online brand creation with respect to specific features of the media industry. The data were gathered from subscribers of the websites of news agencies, and the findings were achieved using the structural equation modeling. The findings maintain the conceptual model of the study, and the results indicated that brand personality, online content, interactivity, and website-attribute along with the online reader motivation, influence the online brand creation for news agencies. Results also confirmed that there is mediation effect on the online reader motivation from online content, interactivity and website-attributes towards the online brand creation for the news agencies.


Taking inspiration from some analytical paths in a recent book by Agop Manoukian—Presenza Armena in Italia. 1915-2000, Milano, Guerini e Associati, 2014)—the author traces some significant moments of the Armenian diaspora in Italy during the 20th century including its complex relations with socio-political Italy, in context with Middle Eastern and international relations, which during the World Wars also involves the United States. In particular, the author considers the relations of the Italian Armenian diaspora with the kingdom of Italy in the first instance and then with the fascist regime, during the period when racial laws involved the small Armenian community. Then the author focuses on the new realities of Republican Italy and the Socialist Republic of Armenia and the debate that developed during the second half of last century, between those who believed it possible to preserve the Armenian identity and those in the diaspora who supported a political initiative in favour of the re-conquest of Armenia's historic lands. Particular attention is reserved for the genocide of 1915 and the new entity of the Republic of Armenia.


Although lower income is associated with overweight (and obesity), such an association is explained by a number of other confounding effects such as omitted variables (e.g., time preferences) explaining that income effect on overweight. We study the effect of unearned income shocks resulting from a lottery win (windfall income) on both overweight (alongside obesity and body mass index) distribution. We draw upon longitudinal data from the United Kingdom, a country where about half of a population plays the lottery. Our results suggest no evidence of contemporaneous effects of income on overweight, but a significant lagged effect. We find a reduction in overweight 12 months after a lottery win. A 10,000-sterling win reduces overweight by 2-3 percentage points. Furthermore, we document a nonlinear effect up to 36 months after the lottery win, suggesting that small wins increase overweight and large wins reduce it. The effect of a lottery win varies depending on an individual's working hours and educational attainment. A lottery win among low education individuals decreases the risk of overweight.


Natural sand from estuary and coastal land is one of South Africa's most valuable resources. However, there has recently been a drastic increase in uncontrolled and unauthorised sand mining activities in rivers, valleys and estuaries throughout the country. The frameworks governing small-scale sand mining in South Africa lack the necessary financial and human resource capacities to support better environmental compliance, and the enforcement mechanisms to successfully deter illegal activities are weak. Consequently, there has been a flurry of new entrants to the sector, creating a system fraught with social, environmental, legislative and structural challenges. Although the cumulative impact of these illegal activities is yet to be fully determined, existing policy and management responses do not have the urgency required to prevent the irreversible destruction of riverbeds and associated estuarine zones.


Description

Neuroepidemiology in Tropical Health covers major neurological diseases of relevance in tropical settings and examines the specificities of epidemiology of neurological diseases in the context of tropical countries that face many challenges when compared to the developed world. Part One focuses on methods and their eventual specificities, and how such methods, like sampling, can be adapted for specific scenarios. Parts Two and Three discuss environmental factors and their consequences for neurology in the tropical world, as well as large geographical areas and their specificities. Finally, Part Four presents relevant neurological diseases in in-depth chapters.

This invaluable information will help readers recognize the various neurological conditions presented, with the inclusion of their aetiologies and treatment in tropical areas. The book therefore fills a gap in the neuroepidemiology literature, with chapters written by an international collection of experienced authors in the field.
Key Features

 Highlights differences and similarities between neuroepidemiology in tropical areas and temperate zones with a focus on methods and underlying factors
 Covers environmental factors in the tropical world and their consequences for neurology
 Chapters include references (key articles, books, protocols) for additional detailed study
 Includes wide topics of neurological disease in the tropics, not only infectious diseases, but also nutrition and public health


Herbal and Magical Medicine draws on perspectives from folklore, anthropology, psychology, medicine, and botany to describe the traditional medical beliefs and practices among Native, Anglo- and African Americans in eastern North Carolina and Virginia. In documenting the vitality of such seemingly unusual healing traditions as talking the fire out of burns, wart-curing, blood-stopping, herbal healing, and rootwork, the contributors to this volume demonstrate how the region's folk medical systems operate in tandem with scientific biomedicine.

The authors provide illuminating commentary on the major forms of naturopathic and magico-religious medicine practiced in the United States. Other essays explain the persistence of these traditions in our modern technological society and address the bases of folk medical concepts of illness and treatment and the efficacy of particular pratices. The collection suggests a model for collaborative research on traditional medicine that can be replicated in other parts of the country. An extensive bibliography reveals the scope and variety of research in the field.

Contributors. Karen Baldwin, Richard Blaustein, Linda Camino, Edward M. Croom Jr., David Hufford, James W. Kirland, Peter Lichstein, Holly F. Mathews, Robert Sammons, C. W. Sullivan III


ABSTRACT The impact of snow cover on seasonal ground frost and freeze-thaw processes is not yet fully understood. The authors therefore examined how snow cover affects seasonal ground frost in a coastal setting in northern Sweden. Air and soil temperatures were recorded in a paired-plot experiment, both with and without snow cover, during the frost season 2012–2013. The frequency, duration, and intensity of the freeze-thaw cycles during the frost season were calculated. The results showed that the freeze-thaw frequency was 57% higher at the soil surface and the intensity 10 °C colder in the spring of 2013, when the ground lacked snow cover. Furthermore, the duration of the seasonal freeze-thaw cycle was 30 days longer on average in cases where there was natural snow accumulation. The correlation between air and ground surface temperatures weakened with increased snow-cover depth. The authors conclude that continued increases in air temperature and decreases in snow in coastal northern Sweden might alter freeze-thaw cycles and thus affect natural and human systems such as geomorphology, ecology, spatial planning, transport, and forestry.


The Real Silent Majority" offers a new assessment of late-twentieth century U.S. political realignment, overturning previous explanations focused on the supposed death of liberalism and rise of the New Right. Instead, it traces the emergence of a pragmatic, self-interested, and only weakly partisan "quality of life" politics in America's metropolitan areas from the late-1960s onwards. A case study of Denver, Colorado, and its surrounding metropolitan region, my study is a political and spatial history that incorporates perspectives from cultural, intellectual, and policy history as well as the interdisciplinary fields of metropolitan and urban studies. In examining the new definitions of citizenship and democracy that emerged in places like Denver, my dissertation promises a thorough re-conceptualization of a pivotal period in U.S. history that has profound implications for American politics and government today. The transformation in Coloradans' political attitudes and behavior were symptomatic of a broad, national political realignment. This shift was not away from Democrats and towards Republicans, as is often described, but rather away from the party system and conventional notions of liberal or conservative ideology altogether. On issues ranging from school desegregation and metropolitan growth to taxes and gay rights, Coloradans asserted their rights as tax-paying citizens to direct control over democratic decision-making. Moreover, they began to define "quality of life," an amorphous category encompassing everything from the protection of public parkland to the location of public housing and the content of school curricula, as a fundamental right of American citizenship. I emphasize both the constitutional and democratic means by which citizens sought to institutionalize their new political culture at the state and local levels, examining grassroots efforts to pass constitutional amendments and elect sympathetic candidates. These local battles, fought in the rapidly shifting physical, demographic, and cultural landscapes of growing metropolises, had broad implications. I show how the "quality of life" politics reverberated upwards over a forty-year period to influence the politics and policy of both the Republican and, especially, Democratic parties. The project is organized in two parts. Part I uses local case studies of issues such as school desegregation and regional governance to trace the emergence of a grassroots quality of life politics that was, in the late-1960s and early-1970s, largely off the radar of both major parties. It culminates in 1974 with the election of a cadre of reform candidates, showing how the new ethos that had been percolating at the grassroots both shaped and was transformed by formal politics at the state and national levels. At the same time, it shows how black and Hispanic Coloradans engaged with this increasingly dominant political discourse. Part II examines issues including anti-tax politics and family values that are generally viewed as unambiguous parts of America's conservative turn, showing instead how the new politics inflected these debates in complex and surprising ways. In 1992, Coloradans' support of both the Taxpayers Bill of Rights (TABOR) and anti-gay Amendment 2 led observers to view Colorado as part of a national conservative vanguard. Yet that same year, Coloradans decisively rejected George Bush and the GOP's unabashedly conservative "family values" platform, making Bill Clinton their first Democratic pick for president in thirty years. Exploring the deep history of TABOR and Amendment 2, I reveal the predominance of market-oriented and quality of life ideas—not a burgeoning cultural conservatism—in shaping public responses to both issues. This insight has important implications, calling into question the pervasive understanding of Newt Gingrich's 1994 Republican Revolution as a popular rebuke to the Democrats and a culturally conservative mandate for Republicans. Indeed, far from representing opposing impulses in American politics, I argue, Clinton's election This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1749 and the Contract with America two years later together marked the fullest expression of the new market paradigm in American politics. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group History First Advisor Thomas J. Sugrue


Event-triggered real-time systems are desirable to use in environments where the arrival of events are hard to predict. The semantics of an event-triggered system is well mapped to the behaviour of an active database management system (ADBMS), specified using event-condition-action (ECA) rules. The benefits of using an active database, such as persistent data storage, concurrency control, timely response to event occurrences etc. highlights the need for a development method for event-triggered real-time systems using active databases.However, there are problems left to be solved before an ADBMS can be used with confidence in real-time environments. The behaviour of a real-time system must be predictable, which implies a thorough analysed specification with e.g. specified worst case execution times. The predictability requirement is an obstacle for specifying real-time systems as ECA rules, since the rules may affect each other in many intricate ways which makes them hard to analyse. The interaction between the rules implies that it is not enough to verify the correctness of single rules; an analysis must consider the behaviour of the entire rule set.In this dissertation, an approach for developing active applications is presented. A method is examined which starts with an analysed high-level timed automaton specification and transforms the specified behaviour into an implicitly analysed rule set. For this method to be useful, the transformation from timed automata to rules must preserve the exact behaviour of the high level specification. Hence, the aim of this dissertation is to verify transformations between timed automaton specifications and ECA rules.The contribution of this project is a structured set of general transformations between timed automata specifications and ECA rules. The transformations include both transformations of small timed automata constructs for deterministic environments and formally verified timed automata patterns specifying the behaviour of composite events in recent and chronicle context.


Negative outcomes of coronary bypass operations not only have an important impact on the patient and family, but also have an influence on the cardiac surgeon on many levels. Within a specific surgical context and from a tradition of faith, interwoven narratives present the possibility of an interdisciplinary conversation between medical science and theology. By following an auto-ethnographic approach, an invitation is offered to participate in sharing the surgeon's database as a new hermeneutic text. Fellow cardiac surgeons on a national level are involved by way of a Delphi research model, providing for a collective tracing of God's involvement in surgical outcomes. In a process of a reinterpretation of negative surgical outcomes, Henri Nouwen's three poles of a spiritual movement can lead to spiritual transformation. Bearing physiological barriers and lifestyles in mind, as well as God's involvement, the patient and surgeon can in a new manner reflect on possible negative outcomes following operative procedures.


Droughts are serious extreme events that have adverse effects on the physical environment and water resource systems in both developed and developing countries. Consequently, there is need for adequate measures for responding to and mitigating various impacts arising from drought occurrence. The design and implementation of drought mitigation and response strategies requires an understanding of the various indices that are used to examine drought both at single site and in an area. In the case of water resources management during critical drought periods for instance, a means of objectively identifying drought events in terms time and duration of occurrence, magnitude and severity is required. This is possible only using various indices to characterize drought. In this paper, some of the key drought indices are reviewed and their strengths and weaknesses identified. Keywords: drought, index, severity, mitigation


Electrochemical Machining (ECM) is a relatively important method of removing metal by anodic dissolution. In this research the ECM was used to remove the metals from the internal hole of the workpiece.The tool used was made from brass. This research focuses on the parameters of the change in gap size, the change in current density, and the change of the tool roughness on the Material Removal Rate (MRR), and Surface Roughness of the workpiece. The Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) software was used to predict the results. It was found that for the surface roughness the coefficient of determination of the prediction was (0.982) and the accuracy of prediction (97.15%). For the Material Removal Rate in (g/sec) units the coefficient of determination of predicts was (0.991) with accuracy of prediction (98.29%).


The world is on the precipice of a new arms race in outer space, as China, Russia, the United States,
and others undertake dramatic new initiatives in anti-satellite weaponry. These accelerated competitive
efforts at space control are highly destabilizing because developed societies have come to depend so heavily
upon satellite services to support the entire civilian economy and the modern military apparatus; any
significant threat or disruption in the availability of space assets would be massively, and possibly permanently,
disruptive.
International law regarding outer space developed with remarkable rapidity in the early years of the
Space Age, but the process of formulating additional treaties and norms for space has broken down over the
past several decades; no additional legal instruments have emerged that could cope with today's rising
threats. This Article therefore proposes three initiatives. Although none of them can suffice to solve the
emerging problems, they could, perhaps, provide additional diplomacy, reinvigorating the prospects for
rapprochement in space. Importantly, each of these three ideas has deep roots in other sectors of arms control,
where they have served both to restore a measure of stability and to catalyze even more ambitious agreements
in the longer term.
The first proposal is for a declaratory regime of "no first use" of specified space weapons; this would do
little to directly alter states' capabilities for space warfare, but could serve as a "confidence-building
measure," to temper their most provocative rhetoric and practices. The second concept is a "limited test
ban," to interdict the most dangerous debris-creating developmental tests of new space weapons. Third is a
suggestion for shared "space situational awareness," which would create an international apparatus enabling
all participants to enjoy the benefits of greater transparency, reducing the possibilities for secret
malign or negligent behavior. In each instance, the Article describes the proposal and its variations,
assesses its possible contributions to space security, and displays the key precedents from other arms-control
successes.
The Article concludes by calling for additional, further-reaching space diplomacy, in the hope that these
relatively modest initial measures could provoke more robust subsequent negotiations.


Consumer bankruptcy filing rates have soared during the past 25 years. From 225,000 filings in 1979, consumer bankruptcies topped 1.5 million during 2004. This relentless upward trend is striking in light of the generally high prosperity, low interest rates, and low unemployment during that period. In response to this anomaly of ever-upward bankruptcy filing rates during a period of economic prosperity, Congress passed the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 ("BAPCPA"), which fundamentally rebalances the consumer bankruptcy system by creating new safeguards against fraudulent and abusive filings. Although BAPCPA drew broad bipartisan support on Capitol Hill, it is controversial within the academy. Critics have argued that these reforms are unnecessary and punitive, and that private market adjustments such as higher interest rates and more restrictive credit rationing are adequate policy responses to the problem of rising bankruptcy filings without the need for legislative reform. These criticisms are misplaced, and fail to appreciate the causes of the consumer bankruptcy crisis and the appropriate responses to it. Scholars have previously identified two models of the consumer bankruptcy process, the "traditional" or distress model and the economic incentives model. Neither model, however, can explain the observed bankruptcy filing patterns of recent decades. This article offers a new model of consumer bankruptcy rooted in New Institutional Economics that explains the rise in consumer bankruptcy filings as reflecting changes in the institutions, incentives, and constraints surrounding the consumer bankruptcy filing decision. It is argued that this new model of consumer bankruptcy is both theoretically and empirically superior to the traditional model. The demise of the traditional model, which has dominated bankruptcy scholarship for a century, has created a need for a new theory of consumer bankruptcy filings that can better explain the observed data. The model offered here fills that gap. This article identifies three institutional factors that can explain the observed rise in bankruptcy filings over the past several decades: (1) A change in the relative economic costs and benefits associated with filing bankruptcy; (2) A change in social norms regarding bankruptcy; and (3) Changes in the nature of consumer credit, toward more national and impersonal forms of consumer credit. All of these factors have tended to increase the incentives and opportunity for filing bankruptcy or reduce the constraints imposed on filing bankruptcy. In contrast to the traditional distress model, which purports to focus on changes in underlying household financial condition as the cause of rising bankruptcies, this model presented here examines the economic demand for bankruptcy itself, focusing on the incentives and institutions that condition consumer bankruptcy filings. The result of all of these changes has been to increase the equilibrium level of bankruptcy filings in America. In light of these changes, the article briefly discusses some policy implications of accepting this new model of consumer bankruptcy. In particular, the model described here explains the economic logic of BAPCPA, showing its key provisions to be consistent with the logic of the new model of consumer bankruptcy presented here. In addition, the article also addresses more far-reaching proposals, such efforts to reverse changes in social norms or proposals to allow contracting-around the mandatory discharge provision of current law.


Global and national agendas for quality education have led to reforms in Papua New Guinea's (PNG) elementary education, but criticism of the learner-centred, Western pedagogies has emerged. One key influence on quality teacher education relates to perspectives of teaching. Existing research shows teachers' beliefs and perceptions of teaching influence their practice, however to date little research has investigated perspectives of teaching for elementary education in PNG. This single exploratory case study investigated the perspectives of teaching for eighteen elementary teacher trainers as they studied for a Bachelor of Early Childhood (Teacher Education). The study, drawing on an interpretivist paradigm, analysed journals and course planning documents using a thematic approach. The findings revealed that while the trainers' perspectives of teaching children tended to reflect a learning-centred perspective (focused on what the teacher does), their perspectives of teaching adults were both learning-centred and learner-centred (what the learner does). Based on these findings, a culturally connected perspective of teaching is advocated for PNG elementary teacher education. This perspective enables the co-existence of both the learning-centred and learner-centred perspectives of teaching in the PNG cultural context and has implications for teacher education and the communities involved in elementary education in general.


In 2005, the Government of Sudan and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement / Army concluded a peace agreement, formally ending the 22-year-old civil war. Following a referendum, South Sudan seceded; donors put billions toward the new state and Sudan's recovery, supporting – among other things – the development of new state institutions for both countries. However, in December 2013, war broke out again in South Sudan. Prevalent approaches to state building – such as those employed in Sudan and South Sudan from 2005 to 2013 – focused mainly on infrastructure and bureaucracy, based on the underlying assumption that service delivery fosters state legitimacy. Recent research, however, questions this assumption, arguing that it ignores the role that political structures, ideas and history play in legitimization or de-legitimization of the state. This report uses South Sudan as an example to interrogate people's perceptions of the state, asking what – if not service delivery – fosters state legitimacy. This research was conducted under the Secure Livelihoods Research Consortium (SLRC), a six-year, eight-country research study, led by the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) in London. SLRC investigates livelihoods, access to basic services, and social protection in fragile and conflict-affected situations. The research is funded by the UK Department for International Development (DfID), Irish Aid, and the European Community (EC). The Feinstein International Center leads SLRC research in South Sudan and Uganda in addition to its participation in the Sierra Leone research.


We use hybrid photodetectors endowed with partial photon-number resolution to characterize the photon-number distribution of twin-beam states produced at different intensity regimes up to pump depletion. To match the detectors' dynamics, the light of signal and idler is strongly attenuated by neutral-density filters. Since the filters do not modify the nature of any classical-light statistics, we find that signal and idler are described by a multimode thermal distribution at any pump power. The number of modes decreases at increasing pump power until pump depletion, when the number starts increasing again. The effect is qualitatively interpreted as a selective mode amplification induced by the high-gain parametric process.


Recent studies on human embryonic and fetal lungs show that the pulmonary arteries form by vasculogenesis. Little is known of the early development of the pulmonary veins. Using immunohistochemical techniques and serial reconstruction, we studied 18 fetal and neonatal lungs. Sections were stained with antibodies specific for endothelium (CD31, von Willebrand factor) and smooth muscle (alpha and gamma smooth muscle actin, smooth muscle myosin, calponin, caldesmon, and desmin) and antibodies specific for the matrix glycoprotein tenascin, the receptor protein tyrosine kinase EphB4, and its ligand ephrinB2. Kiel University-raised antibody number 67 (Ki67) expression allowed qualitative assessment of cell replication. By 34 d gestation, there was continuity between the aortic sac, pulmonary arteries, capillaries, pulmonary veins, and atrium. The pulmonary veins formed by vasculogenesis in the mesenchyme surrounding the terminal buds during the pseudoglandular period and probably by angiogenesis in the canalicular and alveolar stages. EphB4 and ephrinB2 did not distinguish between presumptive venous and arterial endothelium as they do in mouse. All venous smooth muscle cells derived directly from the mesenchyme, gradually acquiring smooth muscle specific proteins from 56 d gestation. Thus, both pulmonary arteries and veins arise by vasculogenesis, but the origins of their smooth muscle cells and their cytoskeletal protein content are different.


This article describes the design and operation of a dye sensitized solar cell with an all carbon counter electrode and plastic electrolyte. For the construction of the counter electrode, the conventional thin platinum catalytic layer was replaced by a novel large-effective-surface-area polyaromatic hydrocarbon (LPAH) film, and the fluorine doped tin oxide substrate was replaced by a graphite film. In this way the internal resistance of the cell was substantially reduced and the cell efficiency can reach nearly 9% using the masked frame measurement technique. To achieve such an efficiency, a series of experiments was carried out to assure that the LPAH layer possesses superior catalytic activity and energy efficiency compared to the commonly used carbon black. To this end a unique LPAH layer synthesis technique was developed. It involved the production of LPAH from a hydrogen arc along with the use of an amphiphilic triblock copolymer (P123) to improve the suspendability of LPAH to form a homogeneous catalytic layer. This layer was then attached to a graphite film to form the counter electrode for the dye sensitized solar cell. Details of the properties of the LAPH and the newly designed solar cell are reported herein.


The Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) which is a doublestranded helix of nucleotides consists of: Adenine (A), Cytosine (C), Guanine (G) and Thymine (T). In this work, we convert this genetic code into an equivalent digital signal representation. Applying a wavelet transform, such as Haar wavelet, we will be able to extract details that are not so clear in the original genetic code. We compare between different organisms using the results of the Haar wavelet Transform. This is achieved by using the trend part of the signal since the trend part bears the most energy of the digital signal representation. Consequently, we will be able to quantitatively reconstruct different biological families. Keywords—Digital Signal, DNA, Fluctuation part, Haar wavelet, Nucleotides, Trend part.


The magnetism of a metallic two-dimensional triangular antiferromagnetic (AF) compound, Ag2CrO2, has been investigated by muon-spin rotation and relaxation (mu+SR) using a powder sample in the temperature range between 1.8 and 40 K. Below T-N = 24 K, a muon-spin precession signal was clearly observed in the zero-field spectrum, indicating the formation of static AF order. It was also found that the internal field is temperature independent except for in the vicinity of T-N, as in the case for the susceptibility versus temperature curve. This suggests that the AF transition is induced by a first-order structural phase transition at T-N. Combining the mu+SR result with the prediction for muon sites in the lattice by first-principles calculations, a partially disordered AF state was found to be the most reasonable spin structure for Ag2CrO2.


This dissertation explores relational communication of
in-laws in multi-religious families of American Orthodox Christians
and represents an interpretive analysis of collected personal
narratives. These narratives describe American Orthodox Christian
identity in in-law relationships that is directly tied to ethnic
identity. Thus, the presented research is built on the findings
about multi-religious and multiethnic family relationships in the
fields of relational communication, family therapy, and religious
studies. I argue that religion and ethnicity are fundamental bases
for the formation of family identity and family culture. Therefore,
this dissertation focuses on how religious differences impact the
relational health and quality of communication among the in- laws.
The theoretical framework of the study is Relational Dialectic
Theory; I focus on its two major premises: (1) relationships are
products of cultures in which they develop and (2) the broader
cultures offer a variety of meanings that we attach to our
relationships, many of them are oppositional to each other. To
explain relational dialectics in in-law relationships, I used the
concept family culture and adopted the critical perspective on
acculturation. I argue that there exists a natural connection
between acculturation and relational dialectical tensions: people
find themselves in constant push towards and pull away from a
non-native family culture. (For example, identified in my research
dialectical tensions of integration – separation,
closedness – openness, which constitute discursive
oppositions of wanting to preserve old family culture –
wanting to develop independent new family culture and stigmatized
–iiiiv stigmatizing Orthodox identity, provide support
for my argument.) The combination ofthese theoretical frameworks
allowed me to offer another perspective on existing research of
in-law relationships. Particularly, I provide a critique to Morr
Serewicz' in- law love triangle and argue that it is an
amorphous structure in which the composition of its relationships
perpetually changes in the relational contexts defined by
constantly fluctuating dialectical tensions. In addition, this
dissertation focuses on the intersections of religious, ethnic, and
gender identities in in-law relationships. The attention to these
intersections helped to reveal that the meanings participants
attach to their faith are influenced by the larger political
discourses about ethnicity, faith, and gender.


During routine dissection, an uncommon variation was found in the renal vessels of a male cadaver.a Each kidney was found to have two renal veins and the branches of the renal artery lie outside the hilum. In the present scenario, it has become imperative for the surgeons understand the abnormalities of renal vasculature, as the utility of laparoscopic renal surgeries grew considerably. Otherwise such surgeries may be hampered by these anatomical variations. The presence of these abnormalities is also accountable in radiological Imagings, renal transplant, selective segmental clamping during partial Nephrectomy. Hence, this case report will throw light in the understanding of renal vasculature and its anatomical, embryological variations.


Fairness is essential for human society, contributing to stability and productivity. Similarly, fairness is also the key for many multi-agent systems. Taking fairness into multi-agent learning could help multi-agent systems become both efficient and stable. However, learning efficiency and fairness simultaneously is a complex, multi-objective, joint-policy optimization. To tackle these difficulties, we propose FEN, a novel hierarchical reinforcement learning model. We first decompose fairness for each agent and propose fair-efficient reward that each agent learns its own policy to optimize. To avoid multi-objective conflict, we design a hierarchy consisting of a controller and several sub-policies, where the controller maximizes the fair-efficient reward by switching among the sub-policies that provides diverse behaviors to interact with the environment. FEN can be trained in a fully decentralized way, making it easy to be deployed in real-world applications. Empirically, we show that FEN easily learns both fairness and efficiency and significantly outperforms baselines in a variety of multi-agent scenarios.


Ontology has been a subject of many studies carried out in artificial intelligence (AI) and information system communities. Ontology has become an important component of the semantic web, covering a variety of knowledge domains. Although building domain ontologies still remains a big challenge with regard to its designing and implementation, there are still many areas that need to create ontologies. Information Science (IS) is one of these areas that need a unified ontology model to facilitate information access among the heterogeneous data resources and share a common understanding of the domain knowledge. The objective of this study is to develop a generic model of ontology that serves as a foundation of knowledge modelling for applications and aggregation with other ontologies to facilitate information exchanging between different systems. This model will be a metadata for a knowledge base system to be used in different purposes of interest, such as education applications to support educational needs for teachers and students and information system developers, and enhancing the index tool in libraries to facilitate access to information collections. This thesis describes the process of modelling the domain knowledge of Information Science IS.

The building process of the ontology of Information Science (OIS) is preceded by developing taxonomies and thesauruses of IS. This research adopts the Methontology to develop ontology of Information Science OIS. This choice of method relies on the research motivations and aims, with analysis of some development ontology methodologies and IEEE 1074-2006 standards for developing software project life cycle processes as criteria. The methodology mainly consisted of; specification, conceptualization, formalization, implementation, maintenance and evaluation. The knowledge model was formalized using Protege to generate the ontology code. During the development process the model has been designed and evaluated. This research presents the following contributions to the present state of the art on ontology construction;

- The main achievement of the study is in constructing a new model of Information Science ontology OIS. The OIS ontology is a generic model that contains only the key objects and associated attributes with relationships. The model has defined 706 concepts which will be widely used in Information Science applications. It provides the standard definitions for domain terms used in annotation databases for the domain terms, and avoids the consistency problems caused by various ontologies which will have the potential of development by different groups and institutions in the IS domain area.

- It provides a framework for analyzing the IS knowledge to obtain a classification based on facet classification. The ontology modelling approach is based on topdown and bottom–up. The top-down begins with an abstract of the domain view. While the bottom-up method starts with description of the domain to gain a hierarchal taxonomy.

- Designing Ontocop system a novel method presented to support the developing process as specific virtual community of IS. The Ontocop consists of a number of experts in the subject area around the world. Their feedback and assessment improve the ontology development during the creating process.

The findings of the research revealed that overall feedback from the IS community has been positive and that the model met the ontology quality criteria. It was appropriate to provide consistency and clear understanding of the subject area. OIS ontology unifies information science, which is composed of library science, computer science and archival science, by creating the theoretical base useful for further practical systems. Developing ontology of information science (OIS) is not an easy task, due to the complex nature of the field. It needs to be integrated with other ontologies such as social science, cognitive science, philosophy, law management and mathematics, to provide a basic knowledge for the semantic web and also to leverage information retrieval.


This qualitative narrative study presents the interpreted experiences of seventeen female ROTC student-cadets enrolled in one of five traditional universities (as opposed to military institutions) located in the southeast U.S. I create a theoretical framework of four metaphors to represent university students and ROTC young women student-cadets; namely: minimalist, traditionalist, enthusiast, and reflective. My metaphors suggest the expression of social identity roles and characteristic communication and behavioral patterns of students and student-cadets in the university classroom and in their ROTC experience. I look at the multiple and competing ways these student-cadets navigate their ROTC role and their social identities between the competing forces of the of the distinctly patriarchal military culture marked by order, discipline, loyalty, and duty while engaging in a post-secondary educational environment marked by ideals of freedom, choice and fluidity. I chose narrative research to allow me to ask the broad open-ended question of "tell me the story of your life" and to listen to the silences, observe the omissions, accept the selectivity, and catch the slippages in the young women's interpretive language (Casey, 1993). In my final chapter, my research-to-pedagogy provides three classroom strategies utilizing technology, service and communication to provide students and student-cadets multiple ways of analyzing their personal and professional choices and their communication with selves and others. The goal is to bridge the gaps among each of the metaphoric representations of students with the goal of leading students and student-cadets to a reflective classroom environment.


BACKGROUND
In an outbred pig model of total bowel transplantation, we previously showed that simultaneous donor-specific bone marrow infusion (DSBMI), rather than promoting engraftment, sensitizes recipients and causes rejection; it also aggravates the risk of generalized graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) and infection, and tends to reduce recipient and graft survival. Small and large animal models of bone marrow-induced transplant tolerance suggest that some form of recipient preconditioning (RPC) may facilitate engraftment of co-transplanted bone marrow cells and fully expose their tolerogenic potential.

METHODS
In a preclinical model, we prospectively studied the effect of RPC on simultaneous DSBMI and total (i.e., small and large) bowel transplantation. RPC consisted of whole body irradiation with 400 R (day 0); some recipients additionally received horse anti-pig antithymocyte globulin (days -2, -1, and 0). We studied six groups of outbred pigs, all of which underwent at least a total bowel transplant: group 1, nonimmunosuppressed control pigs (n=5); group 2, nonimmunosuppressed DSBMI pigs (n=13); group 3, tacrolimus pigs (n=7); group 4, DSBMI+tacrolimus pigs (n=15); group 5, RPC+nonimmunosuppressed DSBMI pigs (n=11); and group 6, RPC+DSBMI+tacrolimus pigs (n=14).

RESULTS
RPC did not prolong overall survival at 7, 14, 21, and 28 days after transplant. Survival rates were 100%, 100%, 86%, and 71% in group 3; 71%, 43%, 29%, and 29% in group 6; 55%, 9%, 0%, and 0% in group 5; and 60%, 0%, 0%, and 0% in Group 1. Moreover, RPC (groups 5 and 6) increased the incidence of death from rejection, GVHD, and infection when compared with group 3. Survival was significantly higher for RPC+DSBMI+tacrolimus pigs (group 6), compared with RPC+nonimmunosuppressed DSBMI pigs (group 5). Survival greater than 28 days was noted only in pigs that received tacrolimus after transplant: 71% in group 3 versus 29% in group 6. With both RPC and DSBMI (groups 5 and 6), rejection, GVHD, and infection were not mutually exclusive events. In groups 5 and 6, at autopsy, the incidence of rejection and GVHD was 17%; rejection and infection, 17%; and GVHD and infection, 45%. A combination of all three immunologic events was noted in 14%.

CONCLUSIONS
RPC, combined with DSBMI, and with or without posttransplant immunosuppression, does not prolong survival after total bowel transplantation. Rather, it increases the incidence of death from rejection, GVHD, infection, or a combination of these three immunologic events. According to this preclinical study, RPC and unmodified DSBMI do not improve patient and graft outcome after total bowel transplantation and need to be refined before being applied clinically.


Social and economic impacts of the arts and culture are a recurring topic in the literature of last two decades or more. Scepticism, in various extents, about their measurability coexists with an increasing accountability demand. In many cases, efforts to reporting cultural impacts appear disembodied from any planning frame of reference. It is so in many ex post evaluations, aimed at recollecting unplanned and unintended outcomes and spillovers of cultural projects of various nature. The European Capital of Culture Programme has increasingly developed a praxis for planning, monitoring and short term and medium term evaluating the desired impacts of the cultural investments, activities, events, etc. for candidate and selected cities. This paper investigates the impact and result indicators provided in the six Italian shortlisted cities Bidbooks in the selection process resulted in the adoption of Matera as European Capital of culture for 2019.


The present paper extends the traditional Dixit and Stiglitz set-up by introducing consumers'/workers' heterogeneity into a general equilibrium model of monopolistic competition. The model obtains a closed-form solution for a symmetric equilibrium and shows how the market outcome depends on the joint distribution of consumers'/workers' taste and labor productivities. In contrast to the traditional framework, our model predicts that the short-run equilibrium price may vary with the number of firms, demonstrating both anti- and pro-competitive behavior, which is in accordance with economic intuition and empirical evidence. Proposed approach is also capable to explain variability of the long-run equilibrium markups, which is observed empirically. Unlike the standard CES model, where markups are constant, in our setting the equilibrium markups depend on the covariance of tastes and productivity.


This thesis is an ethnographic study of the 'work' ideologies inherent in a remote Australian Aboriginal community; Ngukurr in South East Arnhem Land of the Northern Territory. Formerly known as the Roper River Mission and established in 1908, it is today home to approximately 1000 Aboriginal inhabitants. Fieldwork for this project was conducted in three phases between 2006 and 2007 totalling seven months. The aim of this research was to gain an insight into the meaning and value of 'work' for Aboriginal people in Ngukurr. First, this involved acknowledging the centrality of paid employment to mainstream western 'work' ideology and its influence on my own, and other non-Aboriginal peoples, understandings and ways of being in the world. Through this recognition the historical and contemporary relationship between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people in the northern part of Australia, specifically the Roper River region, was found to be fundamentally shaped by labour relations and dominant western 'work' ideology. The influence of this 'work' ideology on Aboriginal people, expressed through the policies and practices of both Governments and Missions, is explored through an analysis of Aboriginal memories of 'work'. Ambiguity in the meaning and value of 'work' is emphasised and elements of Aboriginal 'work' ideology, as distinct from dominant western work ideology, are explored. The influence of contemporary employment arrangements on Aboriginal understandings of 'work' is investigated and the sometimes problematic relationship between Aboriginal cultural beliefs and practices and those espoused by dominant western work ideology illustrated. In conclusion this research found that Aboriginal people in Ngukurr have a 'work' ideology that is distinct from its western counterpart. Shaped by unique historical, social and cultural phenomena it is not confined to the sphere of paid or formal employment. The multidimensional nature of contemporary Aboriginal 'work' ideology in Ngukurr suggests that overcoming high levels of unemployment in remote communities may not simply be about providing more 'jobs', training or education.


Wine drinking culture in France has traditionally been a source of pride for the French and in an age of concerns about the dangers of 'binge-drinking', a major cause of jealousy for the British. Wine drinking and the culture associated with it are, for many, an essential part of what it means to be French, but they are also part of a national construction. Described by some as a national product, or as a 'totem drink', wine and its attendant cultures supposedly characterise Frenchness in much the same way as being born in France, fighting for liberty or speaking French. Yet this traditional picture is now being challenged by economic, social and political forces that have transformed consumption patterns and led to the fragmentation of wine drinking culture.


Hourly estimates of solar radiation were derived from satellite data for the Yaqui Valley in Mexico, made on a 50 km grid using the GEWEX/SRB algorithm applied with GOES-East data and, on a 4 km grid, using a high-resolution development of the algorithm with GOES-West data. On average, values derived from GOES-East are 18% greater, while those from GOES-West are 9% lower than field measurements. After re-calibration, random differences between hourly satellite estimates and surface observations remained. These were markedly reduced when daily-average values were compared. Root mean square error (RMSE) between the satellite and the surface measurements is lower for the high-resolution satellite estimates than it is for the low-resolution estimates, and there is a noticeable increase in apparent structure with the high-resolution data. Finally, the application of the high-resolution estimates of solar radiation to calculate daily estimates of crop evaporation for wheat and cotton fields is demonstrated.


OBJECTIVE
To assess the feasibility and measurement characteristics of ratings completed by professional associates to evaluate the performance of practicing physicians.

DESIGN
The clinical performance of physicians was evaluated using written questionnaires mailed to professional associates (physicians and nurses). Physician-associates were randomly selected from lists provided by both the subjects and medical supervisors, and detailed information was collected concerning the professional and social relationships between the associate and the subject. Responses were analyzed to determine factors that affect ratings and measurement characteristics of peer ratings.

SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS
Physician-subjects were selected from among practicing internists in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania who received American Board of Internal Medicine certification 5 to 15 years previously.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE
Physician performance as assessed by peers.

RESULTS
Peer ratings are not biased substantially by the method of selection of the peers or the relationship between the rater and the subject. Factor analyses suggest a two-dimensional conceptualization of clinical skills: one factor represents cognitive and clinical management skills and the other factor represents humanistic qualities and management of psychosocial aspects of illness. Ratings from 11 peer physicians are needed to provide a reliable assessment in these two areas.

CONCLUSIONS
These findings suggest that it is feasible to obtain assessments from professional associates of practicing physicians in areas such as clinical skills, humanistic qualities, and communication skills. Using a shorter version of the questionnaire used in this study, peer ratings provide a practical method to assess clinical performance in areas such as humanistic qualities and communication skills that are difficult to assess with other measures.


Chromium, molybdenum and manganese are effective alloying elements suitable for lowalloyed structural steel components. Efficient use of these alloying elements in PM steels will make the PM technology more competitive in high performance applications. This study demonstrates mechanical properties obtained with prealloyed powder grades containing Cr, Mo and Mn after application of different press-sinter process routes. Astaloy CrL (Fe-1.5%Cr0.2%Mo) with 0.7%C obtains tensile strength values of 714/880 MPa combined with elongations of 1.2/1.8% at density levels 7.0/7.2 g/cm after conventional sintering at 1120°C. Corresponding tensile strength and elongation values for two development grades with more ductile property profiles are 632/736 MPa combined with 2.2/3.0% for Fe-1.8%Cr, and 586/662 MPa combined with 3.3/4.0% for Fe-0.8%Cr-0.4%Mn, both with 0.7%C after sintering. Application of higher sintering temperature is beneficial for the mechanical performance of the studied materials. Sintering at 1250°C leads to increased tensile strength values by 15-25% compared to the properties obtained after sintering at 1120°C.


We study the effects of different mechanisms inducing chirp in single-drive Mach-Zehnder modulators (MZM). In particular, we compare the effect of optical power splitting ratio unbalance with radio frequency modulation unbalance on the two interferometer arms. The better transmission performances of optically unbalanced modulators are ascribed to the different shape of time resolved chirp factor. Finally, we demonstrate error-free uncompensated transmission over 130-km fiber span.


We present a new approximate theory of scattering by randomly rough surfaces. The selvedge region is considered to be a layer with fluctuating index. A mean-field theory is used to derive the diffuse intensity. Comparisons with Monte Carlo simulations based on surface integral equations show that the technique can be used for rms heights as large as λ/2 and for any type of slope for a dielectric constant of 2.25. However, the accuracy decreases with increasing dielectric constant.


Identification schemes are public-key cryptographic primitives that allow an entity (called the prover) to prove his or her identity to another entity. An identification scheme is secure if no attacker can impersonate the prover. Digital signature schemes allow an entity to produce a signature on a message; given the message and the signature, another entity can check the identity of the signer and verify that the message was not modified. A secure digital signature scheme is such that an attacker can not produce a forgery, i.e. a false signature. There has been a lot of work aiming at establishing, in a provable manner, the security of such schemes. Given a cryptographic scheme and a security property, one should be able to demonstrate whether the scheme satisfies it or not. The approach is usually the following: when the security property is not satisfied, show it with an efficient attack; when it is satisfied, use a security proof. But even when they are provably secure, cryptographic schemes can be attacked: it can be at the implementation level, or because of a flaw in the proof. The goal of this thesis is to apply these approaches to study the security of several public-key cryptographic schemes. We study the GPS identification scheme and show how some implementations can be broken by an efficient attack. We show how to securely sign long messages with RSA. We break a fair exchange signature scheme based on GPS and RSA. We consider a new problem called fair identification and propose a fair identification scheme.


Title of thesis: CONNECTED LANGUAGE IN PRIMARY PROGRESSIVE APHASIA: TESTING THE UTILITY OF LINGUISTIC MEASURES IN DIFFERENTIALLY DIAGNOSING PPA AND ITS VARIANTS Ashlyn Vander Woude, Master of Arts, 2017 Director of thesis: Professor Yasmeen Faroqi-Shah Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences Difficulty in using language is the primary impairment in Primary Progressive Aphasia (PPA). Individuals with different variants of PPA have been shown to have unequal deficits in various domains of language; however, little research has focused on finding common deficits in PPA that could aid in the differential diagnosis of PPA relative to healthy aging and age-related neurogenerative conditions. The commonality of deficits in variants of PPA was explored in this study by examining the connected speech of 26 individuals with PPA (10 with PPA-G, 9 with PPA-L, 7 with PPA-S), compared to 25 neurologically healthy controls, 20 individuals with Mild Cognitive Impairments (MCI), and 20 individuals with Alzheimer's Dementia (AD). Measures of fluency, word retrieval, and syntax were used to assess linguistic ability in a between-groups comparison, in addition to a within-groups comparison of the same linguistic measures among specific PPA variants. It was found that participants with PPA showed significant deficits on certain measures of fluency, word retrieval, and syntax. These findings support the idea that a brief language sample has clinical utility in contributing to the differential diagnosis of PPA. CONNECTED LANGUAGE IN PRIMARY PROGRESSIVE APHASIA: TESTING THE UTILITY OF LINGUISTIC MEASURES IN DIFFERENTIALLY DIAGNOSING PPA AND ITS VARIANTS


Allografting with immunosuppression is accompanied by chronic rejection and continuing response of the host to infections. Upon first encounter with allogeneic and bacterial antigens the naive T and B cells react within days. Simultaneously cohorts of memory cells are created characterized by rapid response to the second antigenic stimulus. A number of unanswered questions remains as to whether where are the memory cells located, do they persist in the region of the first encounter with antigens or are they mobilized from the bone marrow and spleen, do they react differently to allogeneic and bacterial antigens, are they sensitive to the immunosuppressive drugs? This review cumulates recent data on the subject. Scanty information points to the necessity of more intensive studies on memory cells to allogeneic, bacterial and self-antigens after transplantation in the environment saturated with immunosuppressive drugs.


This article develops a behavioral theory of inchoate offenses - criminal attempt, conspiracy, and solicitation. The theory helps explain why inchoate crimes exist and why they are punished less severely than the underlying offense. The article identifies an important aspect of criminal misconduct (including inchoate crimes) that has been overlooked by commentators: in making a cost-benefit analysis, an offender will take into account not just the net benefits from the crime, but also the value of the "real option" embedded in the decision. The real option derives from three characteristics of criminal misconduct. First, offenders make irreversible (or costly to reverse) decisions when they plan a crime - their investment in time, effort, and out of pocket expenses - and when they execute it - once criminal liability is triggered, it cannot be undone. Second, offenders face uncertainty regarding the returns from a crime, the likelihood of detection, and magnitude of the sanctions. Third, in most instances, offenders have flexibility regarding the timing of a crime. All other things being equal, the greater the uncertainty regarding a crime, the greater the value of the option to delay. The article analyzes the nature of this real option, taking into account the complexity of a crime and the likelihood that the offender will commit the crime too soon or too late due to her uncertainty regarding her future willpower and the extent to which her preferences will change over time - time-inconsistent and projection-bias-induced misconduct, respectively. With this in mind, the article develops three arguments regarding inchoate crimes. First, inchoate crimes increase the overall complexity of planning, executing, and covering up a crime, and as a result they have a greater deterrence effect than what the standard account predicts. Second, inchoate crimes act as a commitment device to deter time-inconsistent misconduct. Third, they help prevent suboptimal, projection-bias-induced misconduct.


Human enterovirus 71 (HEV71) is a member of the Human Enterovirus A species within the Family Picornaviridae. Since 1997, HEV71 has emerged as a major cause of epidemics of hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) associated with severe neurological disease in the Asia-Pacific region. At the present time, little is known about the pathogenesis of acute neurological disease caused by HEV71. The major aim of this study was to generate infectious cDNA clones of HEV71 and use them as tools for investigating the biology of HEV71 and molecular genetics of HEV71 virulence and pathogenesis.
Two infectious cDNA clones of HEV71 clinical isolates, 26M (genotype B3) and 6F (genotype C2) were successfully constructed using a low copy number plasmid vector and an appropriate bacterial host. Transfection of cDNA clones or RNA transcripts derived from these clones produced infectious viruses. Phenotypic characterisation of clone-derived viruses (CDV-26M and CDV-6F) was performed, and CDV-26M and CDV-6F were found to have indistinguishable phenotypes compared to their wild type viruses.
Strains HEV71-26M and HEV71-6F were found to have distinct cell culture growth phenotypes. To identify the genome regions responsible for the growth phenotypes of the two strains a series of chimeric viruses were constructed by exchanging the 5"S untranslated region (5"S UTR), structural protein (P1), and nonstructural protein (P2 and P3) gene regions using infectious cDNA clones of both virus strains. Analysis of reciprocal virus chimeras revealed that the 5"S UTR of both strains were compatible but not responsible for the observed phenotypes. Both the P1 and P2-P3 genome regions influence the HEV71 growth phenotype in cell culture, phenotype expression is dependent on specific P1/P2-P3 combinations and is not reciprocal.
In the previous study, in order to investigate the pathogenesis of HEV71 infection, a mouse HEV71 model was developed using a mouse-adapted variant of HEV71-26M. Mouse-adapted strain MP-26M caused fore- and/or hindlimb paralysis in mice, whereas HEV71-26M-infected mice did not develop clinical signs of infection at any virus dose or route of inoculation tested. In this study, the molecular basis of mouse adaptation by HEV71 was identified. Nucleotide sequence analysis of HEV71-26M and MP-26M revealed three point mutations in the open reading frame, each resulting in an amino acid substitution in the VP1, VP2 and 2C proteins; no mutations were identified in the untranslated regions of the genome. To determine which of the three amino acid mutations were responsible for the adaptation and virulence of HEV71-26M in mice, recombinant cDNA clones containing one, or a combination of two or three mutations, were constructed. Mouse virulence assays of the mutated viruses clearly demonstrated that a non-conservative amino acid substitution (G710"_E) in the capsid protein VP1 alone was sufficient to confer the mouse virulence phenotype on HEV71.
In addition, a mouse oral infection model was established in this study. Oral inoculation with the mouse-adapted HEV71 virus, MP-26M, induced fore-or hindlimb paralysis in newborn mice in an age- and dose-dependent manner. As oral transmission is the natural route of HEV71 infection, this murine HEV71 oral infection model will provide a suitable tool for studying HEV71 pathogenesis, for defining neurological determinants, and for testing vaccine efficacy and immunogenicity in the future.


Quasiparticle excitations and associated phenomena of energy and momentum transfer rates have been calculated in terms of the drag and the diffusion coefficients exposing clearly the dominance of the magnetic interaction over its electric counterpart. The results have been compared with the finite temperature results highlighting the similarities and dissimilarities in the two extreme regimes of temperature and density. Non-Fermi-liquid behavior of various physical quantities like neutrino mean free path and thermal relaxation time due to the inclusion of magnetic interaction has clearly been revealed. All the results presented in the current review are pertinent to the degenerate and ultradegenerate plasma.


In this contribution, optical emission spectroscopy is evaluated and thoroughly analysed as a diagnostic to characterize plasmas in and in contact with liquids. One of the specific properties of plasmas in and in contact with liquids is the strong emission of OH(A–X) and of hydrogen lines. As an example a 600 ns pulsed dc excited discharge in Ar, He and O2 bubbles in water is investigated by time resolved optical emission spectroscopy. It is shown that the production processes of excited species and the plasma kinetics strongly influence the emission spectrum. This complicates the interpretation of the spectra but provides the opportunity to derive production mechanisms from the time resolved emission. The importance of recombination processes compared with direct electron excitation processes in the production of excited states of the water fragments in plasmas with high electron densities is shown. The OH(A–X) emission spectrum illustrates that even in these highly collisional atmospheric pressure discharges the rotational population distribution deviates from equilibrium. A two-temperature fit of the OH rotational population distribution leads to realistic gas temperatures for the temperature parameter corresponding to small rotational numbers. The Hα and Hβ lines are fitted with two component profiles corresponding to two different electron densities. The obtained electron density is in the range 1021–1023 m−3. Possible complications in the interpretation of obtained temperatures and electron densities are discussed.


AIM: To describe the management of idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) in South Africa. METHODS: A prospective survey was sent to 410 doctors in the country, including 4 different scenarios in children newly diagnosed with ITP, concerning the diagnosis and management. RESULTS: Steroids were the first line of choice in treating ITP. Anti-D immunoglobulin was not considered in the management and most of the practitioners would perform a bone marrow aspiration even if no treatment with steroids will be given. The vast majority of the patients will be treated in the hospital. CONCLUSIONS: This study is the first study done in South Africa (and in Africa) and it shows a great variation in the management practice of children with newly diagnosed ITP. Prospective studies in developing countries where various constraints to health care delivery exist are required to produce evidence based recommendations for this patient group. South African Journal of Child Health Vol. 2 (1) 2008: pp. 15-18


The subject of this research is the concept of sobornost in the philosophy of Nikolai Berdyaev. On the basis of the dialectical method, such stages of the development of sobornost are distinguished as being, essence, concept. The actualization of sobornost arises in the church community, the secular community, the church-secular community. The thesis in the formation of the category of sobornost at the level of its beingness is the church community in the maxims of salvation. The essential stage in the formation of sobornost is the secular community, where sobornost is revealed as a collection, collectivity, ideas of creativity develop, and a split and disunity are characteristic. The resolution of the Divine Trinity, human and cosmic community in freedom and love – this is the state of the conceptual level of sobornost in the church-secular community, where salvation and creativity are united. It can be concluded that sobornost is present in all designated types of community, being in dialectical development.


Abstract
This research explores how skill proficiencies are distributed between low-income and not-in low-income groups using the results of a highly complex survey of the information-processing skills of Canadians between the ages of 16 and 65. We find that having measures of skills enhances our understanding of the correlates of low income. Skills have an independent effect, even when controlling for other known correlates of low income, and their inclusion reduces the independent effect of education and immigrant status. This result is relevant for public policy development as the knowledge of the skills profile of the low-income population can inform the design of efficient and effective programmes.


Cadmium (Cd) is a toxic heavy metal which has detrimental effects both in plants and human. There is a lack of knowledge on the molecular mechanisms of Cd toxicity in crop plants. The objective of this study was to identify and clone expressed Cd-responsive genes from two Triticum durum cvs. Balcah-85 and Balcah-2000 using mRNA differential display technique. We identified 10 cDNA clones whose level of expression significantly changed upon Cd exposure and thus isolated for further characterization. Differential expression patterns of cDNA clones were verified by Northern blot and Real-Time PCR analyses. Analysis of putative protein sequences of these clones revealed that B02 encodes an HCBT-hke defense response protein, and B04 encodes NADH dehydrogenase, which is known to be involved in stress mechanism in plant systems. Four of these cDNA clones, B05, B06, B08, and BO10, showed significant homology to the receptor kinase proteins. Identification of receptor kinase proteins to an abiotic stress factor, Cd stress, is noted to be the first in literature. One of the cDNA clones, BOH, found to have significant homology to PsaC gene, encoding a photosysteml 8 kDa subunit. This result is in well agreement with the previous physiological studies indicating that Cd has detrimental effects on photosysteml and II in plants. The cDNA clones B03, B07, and B09 found to be novel sequences for which sequence comparison showed no homology in GenBank. These results suggest that Cd has various effects on gene expression and alters expression of different genes. Our findings also demonstrate that mRNA differential display technique is useful to understand molecular mechanisms affected by Cd.


The hi-tech industries in the Science Park at southern Taiwan were heavily damaged by a strong earthquake early 2016. The financial loss in this event was attributed primarily to the automated stocker system handling fully processed products, and recovery of the automated stocker system from the aftermath proved to contribute major lead time. Therefore, development of effective means for protection of stockers against earthquakes has become the highest priority for risk minimization and business continuity. This study proposes to mitigate the seismic response of the stockers by introducing viscous fluid dampers in between the ceiling and the top of the stockers. The stocker is expected to vibrate less violently with a passive control force on top. Linear damper is considered in this application with an optimal damping coefficient determined from a preliminary parametric study. The damper is small in size in comparison with those adopted for building or bridge applications. Component test of the dampers has been carried out to make sure they meet the design requirement. Shake table tests have been further conducted to verify the proposed scheme under realistic earthquake conditions. Encouraging results have been achieved by effectively reducing the seismic responses of up to 60% and preventing the FOUPs from falling off the shelves that would otherwise be the case if left unprotected. Effectiveness of adopting a viscous fluid damper for seismic control of the stocker on top against the ceiling has been confirmed. This technique has been adopted by Macronix International Co., LTD for seismic retrofit of existing stockers. Demonstrative projects on the application of the proposed technique are planned underway for other companies in the display industry as well. Keywords—Hi-tech industries, seismic protection, automated stocker system, viscous fluid damper.


We present a generalization of independent component analysis (ICA), where instead of looking for a linear transform that makes the data components independent, we look for a transform that makes the data components well fit by a tree-structured graphical model. Treating the problem as a semiparametric statistical problem, we show that the optimal transform is found by minimizing a contrast function based on mutual information, a function that directly extends the contrast function used for classical ICA. We provide two approximations of this contrast function, one using kernel density estimation, and another using kernel generalized variance. This tree-dependent component analysis framework leads naturally to an efficient general multivariate density estimation technique where only bivariate density estimation needs to be performed.


The combination of data, semantics, and the Web has led to an ever growing and increasingly complex body of semantic data. Accessing such structured data requires learning formal query languages, such as SPARQL, which poses significant difficulties for non-expert users. Many existing interfaces for querying Ontologies are based on approaches that rely on predefined templates and require expensive customization. To avoid the pitfalls of existing approaches, while at the same time retaining the ability to capture users' complex information needs, we have developed a simple keyword-based search interface to the Semantic Web. In this demonstration, we will present ASQFor, a systematic framework for automated SPARQL query formulation and execution over RDF repository using simple concept-based search primitives. Allowing end-users to express simple queries based on a list of "key-value" pairs that are then translated on-the-fly into SPARQL queries is a hard problem. In this demonstration, we will discuss the challenges that we have addressed to bring ASQFor to real practice, and also the difficult problems that remain to be solved in future work. During our demonstration, we will show how ASQFor can be used for decision support as well as an intelligent Q/A System.


BACKGROUND
Interpretation of risk for periodontitis is critical for treatment planning. How periodontists assess risk for periodontitis is unclear.

PURPOSE
To study (1) what factors periodontists use when assessing the risks for worsening periodontal conditions anticipating that no treatment would be provided, and (2) if risk assessment is consistent and independent of specialty background training.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
Medical history, clinical dental data, full-mouth intra-oral radiographs, and slide pictures were obtained from each of 51 subjects, and the information was provided to 23 examiners.

RESULTS
The mean age of the study subjects was 51.5 years (SD +/- 17.7, range 23-81), with 28 women included. In 10 of the subjects, only gingivitis was identified, while 22 subjects had advanced chronic periodontitis. Risk scores assigned for 2 and 4 years differed significantly between European- and US-trained periodontists (p < 0.001) and between graduate students in training and periodontists from either the US or Europe (p < 0.01) (Wilcoxon n-pair test), with European periodontists scoring the lowest risks. Risk scores were correlated between groups (p < 0.01 with rho range 0.82-0.89) (Spearman's rank correlation). The best-fit model (r2 = 0.86) to assess perceived risk for worsening periodontal conditions based on data from all examiners combined included the following variables: (1) overall horizontal alveolar bone loss (p < 0.000), (2) age-adjusted proportional radiographic bone height score for the worst site (p < 0.000), and (3) proportion of pocket probing depths > or = 6.0 mm.

CONCLUSIONS
Differences exist on the scale of risk values based on specialty training. Consistency in scoring patterns exists. The examiners based their assigned risk scores almost exclusively on measures of existing disease severity, including radiographic bone loss and numbers of periodontal pockets > or = 6.0 mm, and excluding most known risk factors such as smoking, diabetes, and poor oral hygiene.


Analysis of conventional germ-line or tissue-specific gene manipulation in vivo is potentially confounded by developmental adaptation of animal physiology. We aimed to adapt the technique of in vivo electrotransfer (IVE) to alter local gene expression in skeletal muscle of rodents as a means of investigating the role of specific proteins in glucose metabolism in vivo. We utilized a square-wave electroporator to induce intracellular electrotransfer of DNA constructs injected into rat or mouse muscles and investigated the downstream effects. In initial studies, expression of green fluorescent protein reporter was induced in 53 +/- 10% of muscle fibers peaking at 7 days, and importantly, the electrotransfer procedure itself did not impact upon the expression of stress proteins or our ability to detect a reduction in 2-deoxyglucose tracer uptake by electroporated muscle of high-fat-fed rats during hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic clamp. To demonstrate functional effects of electrotransfer of constructs targeting glucose transporters, we administered vectors encoding GLUT-1 cDNA and GLUT-4 short hairpin RNAs (shRNAs) to rodent muscles. IVE of the GLUT-1 gene resulted in a 57% increase in GLUT-1 protein, accompanied by a proportionate increase in basal 2-deoxyglucose tracer uptake into muscles of starved rats. IVE of vectors expressing two shRNAs for GLUT-4 demonstrated to reduce specific protein expression and 2-deoxyglucose tracer uptake in 3T3-L1 adipocytes into mouse muscle caused a 51% reduction in GLUT-4 protein, associated with attenuated clearance of tracer to muscle after a glucose load. These results confirm that glucose transporter expression is largely rate limiting for glucose uptake in vivo and highlight the utility of IVE for the acute manipulation of muscle gene expression in the study of the role of specific proteins in glucose metabolism.