The acronym NIMBY, known to stand for 'Not‐In‐My‐Back‐Yard', generally describes resistance to siting specific projects close to one's area of residence while exhibiting acceptance of similar projects elsewhere. As wind energy continues to be recognized as a successful technology for meeting renewable energy targets and decreasing carbon dioxide emissions, the siting of wind turbines is a growing challenge that policy makers, facility planners, and wind developers face. The most often cited motivations for public support and opposition are reviewed here with a focus on wind energy developments in the United States. The purpose is to present the existing state of research on community responses to wind energy and to answer the following questions: What motivates support and opposition to facility siting, and in particular to wind energy facilities? Does the literature provide substantial evidence that NIMBYism is the determining motivation for opposition in the United States and, by extension, does the term's widespread use help to explain opposition? What mechanisms have been proposed for 'overcoming' NIMBYism, if it is present? This paper, following the recommendations of other social scientists, provides a collective call for a significant course shift: rather than proposing strategies to 'overcome' opposition, research should focus on proposing how to make siting successful. Drawing on a review of the relevant literature, the 'ENUF' framework—which stands for 'Engage, Never use NIMBY, Understand, and Facilitate'—is introduced as a step in that direction. WIREs Clim Change 2013, 4:575–601. doi: 10.1002/wcc.250


A least-squares method of transforming interferograms into spectra is compared with the traditional fast Fourier transform (FFT) for varying degree of point-spacing unevenness. A Gaussian distribution is assumed for the deviations from even spacing. FFT gives inferior spectra quality above a critical unevenness, which decreases as more interferograms are averaged.


The normal height H * is the height above the quasi-geoid, which coincides with the geoid in the ocean but slightly deviates from the geoid in terrestrial areas. In Mainland China, the height datum system is based on the quasi-geoid. The GPS technique provides the geodetic coordinates of an arbitrary point P on the ground with an accuracy of better than 1 cm. Hence, if the quasi-geoid is given, the normal height can subsequently be determined. In this study, we focus on the determination of the quasi-geoid of the Xinjiang and Tibet areas with a spatial resolution of 5' × 5' as well as the normal height of Mt. Everest based on a newly released gravity field model EGM2008, which is complete to a degree and order of 2159. We determine the quasigeoid of Xinjiang and Tibet areas using the digital elevation model of the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM), and determine the normal height of Mt. Everest using its geodetic coordinates provided by the Chinese State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping. Based upon the framework of Molodensky theory and EGM2008, we determined the 5' × 5' quasi-geoid of the Xinjiang and Tibet areas and the normal height of Mt. Everest. Our results show that: (1) the accuracy of the determined 5' × 5' quasi-geoid of Xinjiang and Tibet areas is around 0.2 m compared with 21 GPS leveling points distributed quite separately in the Xinjiang area (in the Tibet area the GPS/leveling data are not available except for the point at Mt. Everest); (2) the normal height of Mt. Everest is 8847.20 m, which is very close to the value provided by the fourth geodetic surveying campaign on Mt. Everest by the Chinese State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping (the difference is 0.1 m).


The decentralized structure of the Federal Reserve System is evaluated as a mechanism for generating and processing new ideas on monetary and financial policy. The role of the Reserve Banks starting in the 1960s is emphasized. The introduction of monetarism in the 1960s, rational expectations in the 1970s, credibility in the 1980s, transparency, and other monetary policy ideas by Reserve Banks into the Federal Reserve System is documented. Contributions by Reserve Banks to policy on bank structure, bank regulation, and lender of last resort are also discussed. We argue that the Reserve Banks were willing to support and develop new ideas due to internal reforms to the FOMC that Chairman William McChesney Martin implemented in the 1950s. Furthermore, the Reserve Banks were able to succeed at this because of their private-public governance structure, a structure set up in 1913 for a highly decentralized Federal Reserve System, but which survived the centralization of the System in the Banking Act of 1935. We argue that this role of the Reserve Banks is an important benefit of the Federal Reserve's decentralized structure and contributes to better policy by allowing for more competition in ideas and reducing groupthink.


R eceiving five serious reviews in this symposium is gratifying and confirms our belief that research design should be a priority for our discipline. We are pleased that our five distinguished reviewers appear to agree with our unified approach to the logic of inference in the social sciences, and with our fundamental point: that good quantitative and good qualitative research designs are based fundamentally on the same logic of inference. The reviewers also raised virtually no objections to the main practical contribution of our book-our many specific procedures for avoiding bias, getting the most out of qualitative data, and making reliable inferences. However, the reviews make clear that although our book may be the latest word on research design in political science, it is surely not the last. We are taxed for failing to include important issues in our analysis and for dealing inadequately with some of what we included. Before responding to the reviewers' most direct criticisms, let us explain what we emphasize in Designing Social Inquiry and how it relates to some of the points raised by the reviewers.


The Southern African Development Community (SADC) has evolved in 1992 from the former Southern African Development Coordination Conference (SADCC) existing since 1980. The SADC aims at regional integration, sustainable growth and alleviation of poverty in the member countries. Fourteen countries make up the Southern African Development Community (SADC): Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Biofuels production represents an opportunity for the region to increase energy supply security and to give a boost to rural economies by opening markets for agricultural surpluses, creating jobs and encouraging mechanization of agricultural practices. However, climatic, agronomic, ecological and policy factors can hamper the industry development in the region. In that sense, a clear definition of objectives and a careful implementation that takes into account sustainability as well as socio-economic aspects are much needed from policy makers.


People with transradial hand amputations can have control capabilities of prosthetic hands via surface electromyography (sEMG) but the control systems are limited and usually not natural. In the scientific literature, the application of pattern recognition techniques to classify hand movements in sEMG led to remarkable results but the evaluations are usually far from real life applications with all uncertainties and noise. Therefore, there is a need to improve the movement classification accuracy in real settings. Smoothing the signal with a low pass filter is a common pre– processing procedure to remove high–frequency noise. However, the filtering frequency modifies the signal strongly and can therefore affect the classification results. In this paper we analyze the dependence of the classification accuracy on the pre–processing low–pass filtering frequency in 3 hand amputated subjects performing 50 different movements. The results highlight two main interesting aspects. First, the filtering frequency strongly affects the classification accuracy, and choosing the right frequency between 1Hz–5Hz can improve the accuracy up to 5%. Second, different subjects obtain the best classification performance at different frequencies. Theoretically these facts could affect all the similar classification procedures reducing the classification uncertainity. Therefore, they contribute to set the field closer to real life applications, which could deeply change the life of hand amputated subjects.


This article provides an analysis of attempts to conceal white culpability in the enslavement of Afrikan people, in service of white world terror domination as perpetrated by Henry Louis "Skip" Gates, Jr. and John Thornton. Thus, the white terrorist/anti-Afrikan/anti-Black integrationist imperative is examined in Gates' "Wonders of the African World" (1999) and Thornton's Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World, 1400-1800 (1998), and in earlier historical appropriations and subversions implemented by white terrorists of various types, with or without the assistance of their anti-Afrikan/anti-Black collaborators.


Abstract A detailed field study to determine quantitatively the distribution of K-feldspar megacrysts, mafic microgranular enclaves (MME) and metasedimentary xenoliths has been carried out in the Monte Capanne pluton (Elba, Italy) with a view to evaluating the utility of this approach to petrogenetic investigations. Mafic microgranular enclaves are inferred to result from interactions between mafic and felsic magmas, while xenoliths attest to crustal assimilation occurring in the Monte Capanne magma chamber. In particular, we emphasize, based on our field data, that both processes are intimately linked, such that xenolith dissolution during assimilation was triggered by replenishment with hot mafic magma. It is suggested that the previously defined 'San Piero' and 'San Francesco' facies do not differ substantially, and are thus amalgamated and renamed as the 'Pomonte' facies. Results also indicate that the abundance of K-feldspar megacrysts is positively correlated with the volumetric abundance of MME in the Sant' Andrea facies, which we link to a recharging, mingling and textural coarsening event that occurred at a rather late stage of magma-chamber evolution prior to emplacement. This study demonstrates how petrogenetic processes can be deciphered by detailed field quantitative analyses of granite-forming components, thus complementing geochemical investigations.


The growth of the Internet of Things and the trends to deploy more sensors everywhere has led to search for cost effective ways to connect the devices to the Internet. In the most common network architecture for home IoT, the devices use low-power wireless or WiFi to connect to an AP and access the Internet backend. We present a study on the feasibility and efficiency of an alternate network architecture for home IoT. In the proposed architecture, sensors and devices are directly attached to WiFi access points and utilize the computing resources of WiFi APs. We design and implement several sensing applications based on the proposed architecture and report on the performance and limitations of the approach. We find that the proposed architecture allows WiFi APs to become the computational, networking, and storage host for sensing applications without degrading the AP's primary function of providing Internet access to the home users.


Purpose: Neuroimaging techniques hold many promises to detect Alzheimer Disease (AD) at early stages before clinical symptoms fully develop, suggesting decreased regional Cerebral Blood Flow (CBF). Perfusion deficiencies are present from very early clinical phases of AD, i.e. Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) and persist well into the latest stages, demonstrating a pattern of increased hypo-perfusion with the disease development. Accurate quantification such as quantification model and noise reduction method is necessary to achievement of good results in insufficient Post Labeling Delay (PLD) time. Materials and Methods: Arterial Spin Labeling (ASL) is a non-invasive MRI technique to extract brain regional CBF, which in recent years gained wide acceptance for its value in clinical and neuroscience applications. In the present work, 44 participants in 2 groups were imaged (normal control and MCI) using single-Post Label Delay (single-PLD) model-fitting ASL Perfusion at 1.5T. Images were de-noised with Independent Component Analysis (ICA) algorithm and then preprocessing such as motion correction, distortion correction, normalization, and tissue segmentation analyzed with SPM12. Calibration image that needed to calculate absolute perfusion was estimated from the data by fitting a curve to the control images in the dataset. Absolute CBF values were finally extracted from the kinetic model quantification. Results: Perfusion decreases in the right precuneus (28%), right inferior partial cortex (22%) and right middle frontal cortex (20%) cortex in MCI subjects. Conclusion: According to the results, ASL-MRI is able to calculate perfusion changes associated with MCI.


Wilms tumor (WT), a tumor composed of three histological components – blastema (BL), epithelia and stroma – is considered an appropriate model system to study the biological relationship between differentiation and tumorigenesis. To investigate molecular associations between nephrogenesis and WT, the gene expression pattern of individual cellular components was analyzed, using a customized platform containing 4,608 genes. WT gene expression patterns were compared to genes regulated during kidney differentiation. BL had a closer gene expression pattern to the earliest stage of normal renal development. The BL gene expression pattern was compared to that of fetal kidney (FK) and also between FK and mature kidney, identifying 25 common deregulated genes supposedly involved in the earliest events of WT onset. Quantitative RT-PCR was performed, confirming the difference in expression levels for 13 of 16 genes (81.2%) in the initial set and 8 of 13 (61.5%) in an independent set of samples. An overrepresentation of genes belonging to the Wnt signaling pathway was identified, namely PLCG2, ROCK2 and adenomatous polyposis coli (APC). Activation of the Wnt pathway was confirmed in WT, using APC at protein level and PLCG2 at mRNA and protein level. APC showed positive nuclear immunostaining for an independent set of WT samples, similarly to the FK in week 11. Lack of PLCG2 expression was confirmed in WT and in FK until week 18. Taken together, these results provided molecular evidence of the recapitulation of the embryonic kidney by WT as well as involvement of the Wnt pathway in the earliest events of WT onset.


Middle-income countries need a rational and cost-effective approach to optimise management of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). There is a paucity of data from such countries on the extent of hypoglycaemia and its consequences for their healthcare systems. This review provides the context for health policy change and evaluates available data on diabetes complications, focusing on hypoglycaemia in T2DM patients in non-Western countries. Suitable guidelines are suggested for these communities, which are in transition from poverty to affluence and in transition from an environment where infectious diseases predominate to one where non-communicable diseases are predominant.


Managing digital information in construction is commonly described through Building Information Modelling (BIM), which advocates seamless chains of information, increased coordination between different actors and a life-cycle perspective on information management. However, low adoption outside the design phase entails that handling information in production is in many cases manual and paper-based, which increases vulnerability for upstream errors materialising downstream in production. Furthermore, issues with interoperability surround many areas when managing digital information. For industrialised house-builders, the transmitter and receiver of information are in many cases integrated within the same company or based on long-term collaboration. This affects their ability to manage information and utilise design information, which implies that their strategy for digital information management (DIM) might benefit from being addressed differently compared to more traditional BIM-based approaches. In this paper, we describe and discuss an implemented DIM-solution at an industrialised house-builder in order to address the benefits and challenges with DIM when managing information from design to production. The results imply that in order for several different functions within the company to reap benefits, a customised DIM-solution adapted after the company's specific needs is a well-suited approach forward to avoid sacrificing functionality when utilising design


Cottus dzungaricus is an indigenous and infrequent cold-water sculpin in Irtysh River China, the classification status was still controversial. In this study, a total of 16,530 bp circular and double-stranded Cottus dzungaricus complete mitochondrial genome was sequenced. The average nucleotide composition showed a slightly higher AT content and strong anti-G bias. Selective pressure tests of 13 protein-coding genes revealed only Cyt b gene experienced the positive selection. The mean genetic distances (0.0180.123) showed various interspecific divergences within genus Cottus. The NJ phylogenetic tree based on K2-P model fell into two major lineages, one of which was further divided into two sublineages. These three clusters of cottoid fishes might respectively represent different salinity adaption types. Combined with their geographical distribution pattern, we speculated that genus Cottus originated in the Far East and C. dzungaricus was a transitional or intermediate species during the population dispersion. The controversial classification status of C. dzungaricus was also discussed by reconstructing a dendrogram based on mtDNA control region. The conclusions will lay the foundation for clarifying the classification relationship of genus Cottus.


This article examines how the biomedical industrial complex has ensnared social work within a foreign conceptual and practice model that distracts clinical social workers from the special assistance that they can provide for people with mental distress and misbehavior. We discuss (1) social work's assimilation of psychiatric perspectives and practices during its pursuit of professional status, (2) the persistence of psychiatric hospitalization despite its coercive methods, high cost, and doubtful efficacy, (3) the increasing reliance on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders despite its widely acknowledged scientific frailty, and (4) the questionable contributions of psychoactive drugs to clinical mental health outcomes and their vast profits for the pharmaceutical industry, using antipsychotic drugs as a case example. We review a number of promising social work interventions overshadowed by the biomedical approach. We urge social work and other helping professions to exercise intellectual independence from the reigning paternalistic drug‐centered biomedical ideology in mental health and to rededicate themselves to the supportive, educative, and problem‐solving methods unique to their disciplines.


The organization within the descending sympathetic pathways on the surface of the dorsolateral funiculus of the spinal cord was investigated in anesthetized dogs. Changes in heart rate and carotid, renal, and femoral resistances were calculated during electrical stimulation of the descending spinal sympathetic pathways; the location within the pathway of the maximum change in each of these parameters was then determined. Blood pressure increased at each stimulation point with the maximum increase at 3–3.5 mm ventrolateral to the dorsolateral sulcus (DLS). The maximum increases in carotid, renal, and femoral resistances occurred with stimulation at 0.5–1.5, 2, and 3 mm ventrolateral to the DLS, respectively. Maximum heart rate responses were elicited by stimulation 2 mm ventrolateral to the sulcus. These data demonstrate that the pathway is organized in a dorsal-to-ventral manner, with the most rostral parts of the body being represented most dorsally and the more caudal parts being represented more ventrally.


This paper provided a new industrial nonpoint source reallocation method, a NPS method, based on blue-roof industrial buildings based on satellite imagery. The results indicate using the NPS method will improve the model performance compared with the conventional method of using population density. In general, the paper is clearly organized and easy to follow, and provided a new spatial allocation emission data for the Greater Bay Area (GBA) area. However, the authors mainly compared this method with the regional emission inventories using top-down spatial allocation methods. Currently, the high-resolution emission inventories of most key regions in China adopt point-source processing based on "bottom-up" method. I encouraged the authors to expand the scope of the paper and to discuss more with the point-based high-resolution emission inventory development. Some more detailed information should also be provided and discussed, before the paper can be accepted for final publication. Details follow.


Active defense is a popular defense technique based on systems that hinder an attacker's progress by design, rather than reactively responding to an attack only after its detection. Well-known active defense systems are honeypots. Honeypots are fake systems, designed to look like real production systems, aimed at trapping an attacker, and analyzing his attack strategy and goals. These types of systems suffer from a major weakness: it is extremely hard to design them in such a way that an attacker cannot distinguish them from a real production system. In this paper, we advocate that, instead of adding additional fake systems in the corporate network, the production systems themselves should be instrumented to provide active defense capabilities. This perspective to active defense allows containing costs and complexity, while at the same time provides the attacker with a more realistic-looking target, and gives the Incident Response Team more time to identify the attacker. The proposed proof-of-concept prototype system can be used to implement active defense in any corporate production network, with little upfront work, and little maintenance.


The aim of this article is to analyse life conditions for families with children and young people with disabilities. Special focus is on: legislation, management and organisations, social support and service, housing, education, work and daily activities and leisure activities. The method used is a case study including interviews with parents and professionals. The study also includes an analysis of documents and regulations. The study shows that the support system is transparent and accessible. At the same time managers in the municipalities' social care services interpret their responsibility in different ways thus affecting the support and service for the families. Even though the families have legal rights to a wide range of support and service, the parents have to work to gain access to these and for user influence to be exerted.


Foreword. Introduction. Chapter 1 Understanding Email Marketing Today. How We Got Here. What Email Means to Your Audience. The Five Types of Email . Understanding the Economic Impact of Email. Test Your Knowledge. Chapter 2 The Five Critical Elements of Every Email You Create. Creating Brand Impact.Adding Intelligence to Your Design. Driving the Purchase. Creating Transactional/Service Messages. Adding Viral Marketing Elements. Test Your Knowledge. Chapter 3 Getting Ready to Build Your Email Marketing Efforts. Aligning Your Strategy with Your Tools. Evaluating Vendors. Organizational Readiness: Resources Required for Success. Budgeting for the Future. Justification: Selling Your Boss on the Return on Investing in Email. Test Your Knowledge. Chapter 4 What Happens Once You Send Your Email. Defining the Analytics Framework. What to Do If Something Goes Wrong. Revisiting Your Budget. The Email Marketing Database and Future Multichannel Efforts. The Top Five Ways You Can Mess Things Up If You Are Not Really Careful. Test Your Knowledge. Chapter 5 Eight Key Drivers of Your Email Campaign 77 Key Driver 1: Email Address Acquisition. Key Driver 2: Creative/Copy. Key Driver 3: Making the Data Work. Key Driver 4: Multichannel Integration. Key Driver 5: Technology (Delivery, Deployment, and Design). Key Driver 6: Reporting/Analytics. Key Driver 7: Privacy/Governmental Control. Key Driver 8: Reactivation. Test Your Knowledge. Chapter 6 Preparing Your Email Marketing Strategy. Week 1: Preparing Your Resource Arsenal. Week 2: Building the Blueprint for Success. Week 3: Counting Down to "Go Time". Week 4: Testing Your Way to the First Campaign. Test Your Knowledge. Chapter 7 Month 2: Ensuring Success as You Launch Your Campaign. Week 1: Sending Your First Campaign. Week 2: Creating a Plan to Optimize Your Results. Week 3: Measuring Email's Impact on Other Channels. Week 4: Promoting Your Email Results Within Your Organization. Test Your Knowledge. Chapter 8 Month 3: Adding Bells and Whistles. Week 1: Using Email as a Feedback Tool. Week 2: Creating Video- and Audio-Enabled Emails. Week 3: Creating Mobile Email. Week 4: Creating Social Email. Test Your Knowledge. Chapter 9 Getting Ready for Year 2 and Beyond. Iterative Financial Analysis: Analytics Over Time. ESP Refresh: Evaluating Your ESP and Technology Partners. Assessing Future Trends. Journey On. Appendix A Vendor Resource List. Associations, Events, and Publications. Email Service Providers. Delivery Service Providers and Reputation and Accreditation Management Services. Market Research, Agencies, and Consultants. Technology Vendors. Web Analytics Vendors. Appendix B Email Checklists. Email Design. Code QA Testing. Glossary. Index.


Seven new organyltellurium(IV) complexes with monobasic ON bidentate Schiff base ligand have been synthesized. The Schiff base ligand (3-APY-{o-VanH}) was prepared by condensation of o-vanillin with 3-aminopyridine. The newly synthesized organyltellurium(IV) complexes and Schiff base have been characterized by elemental analyses, conductivity measurements, FT-IR and 1H NMR spectral studies. The structure of the complexes obtained was confirmed by FT-IR and proton NMR which exhibited pentacoordinated tellurium centre having Ψ-trigonal bipyramidal geometry. Schiff base as well as their organyltellurium(IV) complexes were also evaluated for their antimicrobial activities in vitro against Gram-positive bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus pyogenes), Gram-negative bacteria (Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Escherichia coli) and fungii Candida albicans, Aspergillus niger and Aspergillus


We estimate the critical slip-weakening distance on earthquake faults by using a new approach, which is independent of the estimate of fracture energy or radiated seismic energy. The approach is to find a physically based relation between the breakdown time of shear stress Tb, the time of peak slip-velocity Tpv, and the slip-weakening distance Dc, from the time histories of shear stress, slip, and slip velocity at each point on the fault, which can be obtained from dynamic rupture calculations using a simple slip-weakening friction law. Numerical calculations are carried out for a dynamic shear crack propagating either spontaneously or at a fixed rupture velocity on a vertical fault located in a 3D half-space and a more realistic horizontally layered structure, with finite-difference schemes. The results show that Tpv is well correlated with Tb for faults even with a heterogeneous stress-drop dis- tribution, except at locations near strong barriers and the fault edges. We also inves- tigate this relation for different types of slip-weakening behavior. We have applied the method to two recent, strike-slip earthquakes in western Japan, the 2000 Tottori and the 1995 Kobe events. We integrated the slip-velocity functions on the vertical fault obtained from kinematic waveform inversion of strong- motion and teleseismic records from the arrival time of rupture Tr to the time of the peak-slip velocity Tpv, and we then corrected the slip obtained at Tpv for the errors expected from the dynamic calculations. It was found that the slip-weakening dis- tance D c estimated in the frequency window between 0.05 and 0.5 Hz ranges between 40 and 90 cm on the two earthquake faults. However, if we consider the limited frequency resolution of the observed waveforms, probable time errors in the slip- velocity functions obtained from kinematic inversion, and the uncertainty of the slip- weakening behavior, the above estimates may be those located between the minimum resolvable limit and the upper bound of their real values. The estimated Dc values do not necessarily seem to indicate larger values in the shallower part and smaller values in the deeper part of the fault, but rather a spatially heterogeneous distribution that appears to be dependent on the local maximum slip. This possible dependence might be interpreted by the frictional properties of the fault such as the degree of roughness or the thickness of gouge layers, in addition to stress heterogeneities.


The relationship between ability and reading attitude were studied to determine the correlation between the variables by using a reading attitude survey. Prior research suggests that a positive correlation between attitude and ability. The research hypothesis stated that there would be a positive correlation between attitude and ability. Twenty-nine fifth-grade students from four classrooms were used as the subjects of the study. All were classified into ability subgroups based on two ability variables. First the students were grouped by their identification in the Academically and Intellectually Gifted program at the school. The second set of subgroups was based upon the students previous years end of grade test score. The students were administered the Elementary Reading Attitude Survey (McKenna and Kear, 1990). No correlation between attitude and ability was identified. Therefore, it is tentatively concluded that ability does not have an effect on attitude in this sample.


Nutrient management is a priority of U.S. dairy farms, although specific concerns vary across regions and management systems. To elucidate challenges and opportunities to improving nutrient use efficiencies, the USDA's Dairy Agroecosystems Working Group investigated 10 case studies of confinement (including open lots and free stall housing) and grazing operations in the seven major
U.S. dairy producing states. Simulation modeling was carried out using the Integrated Farm Systems Model over 25 years of historic weather data. Dairies with a preference for importing feed and exporting manure, common for simulated dry lot dairies of the arid west, had lower nutrient use efficiencies at the farm gate than freestall and tie-stall dairies in humid climates. Phosphorus (P) use efficiencies ranged from 33 to 82% of imported P, while N use efficiencies were 25 to 50% of imported N. When viewed from a P budgeting perspective, environmental losses of P were generally negligible, especially from dry lot dairies. Opportunities for greater P use efficiency reside primarily in increasing on-farm feed production and reducing excess P in diets. In contrast with P, environmental losses of nitrogen (N) were 50 to 75% of annual farm N inputs. For dry lot dairies, the greatest potential for N conservation is associated with ammonia (NH3) control from housing, whereas for freestall and tie-stall operations, N conservation opportunities vary with soil and manure management system. Given that fertilizer expenses are equivalent to 2 to 6% of annual farm profits, cost incentives do exist to improve nutrient use efficiencies. However, augmenting on-farm feed production represents an even greater opportunity, especially on large operations with high animal unit densities.


Although the United States provides unpaid maternity and family leave to qualifying workers, it is the only OECD country without a national paid leave policy, making wage replacement a pivotal issue under debate. We use ten years of linked administrative data from California together with a regression kink (RK) design to estimate the causal impacts of benefits in the first state-level paid family leave program for women with earnings near the maximum benefit threshold. We find no evidence that a higher weekly benefit amount (WBA) increases leave duration or leads to adverse future labor market outcomes for mothers in this group. In contrast, we document consistent evidence that an increase in the WBA leads to a small increase in the share of quarters worked one to two years after the leave and a sizeable increase in the likelihood of making a future paid family leave claim across a variety of specifications.


Platforms that connect users to one another have flourished online in domains as diverse as transportation, employment, dating, and housing. When users interact on these platforms, their behavior may be influenced by preexisting biases, including tendencies to discriminate along the lines of race, gender, and other protected characteristics. In aggregate, such user behavior may result in systematic inequities in the treatment of different groups. While there is uncertainty about whether platforms bear legal liability for the discriminatory conduct of their users, platforms necessarily exercise a great deal of control over how users' encounters are structured—including who is matched with whom for various forms of exchange, what information users have about one another during their interactions, and how indicators of reliability and reputation are made salient, among many other features. Platforms cannot divest themselves of this power; even choices made without explicit regard for discrimination can affect how vulnerable users are to bias. This Article analyzes ten categories of design and policy choices through which platforms may make themselves more or less conducive to discrimination by users. In so doing, it offers a comprehensive account of the complex ways platforms' design choices might perpetuate, exacerbate, or alleviate discrimination in the contemporary economy.


OBJECTIVE:The benefits of radiation therapy are generally denied to infants with malignant brain tumors because of the risk of devastating cognitive decline. Efforts to limit this morbidity with radiosurgical techniques have not been feasible for infants because of the dual requirements of rigid head fixation and high precision. We report the radiosurgical treatment of five infants by use of a robotically controlled system without rigid head fixation. METHODS:Five infants with malignant brain tumors received radiosurgical treatment with a robotically driven linear accelerator. Immobilization was aided by general anesthesia, form-fitting head supports, face masks, and body molds. The average marginal dose was 17 ± 2 Gy, and the average treatment volume was 18 ± 22 ml. RESULTS:X-rays obtained during treatment revealed acceptable agreement with preoperative computed tomographic scans in all patients. In one patient, the lesion did not progress, but a distant recurrence occurred 15 months after radiosurgery and also was treated with radiosurgery. In another patient, tumor in the treated region did not progress, but recurrence elsewhere led to death 7 months after treatment. Tumor enlargement occurred in Patient 3 at 3 months posttreatment, leading to death 2 months later. Tumor size was smaller in the remaining two patients at 9 and 11 months after treatment. There has been no toxicity attributed to treatment. CONCLUSION:Radiosurgery with minimal toxicity can be delivered to infants by use of a robotically controlled system that does not require rigid fixation. A formal dose-escalation trial is under way to address dose and toxicity for infants more thoroughly.


Abstract. Reports over the past two decades have documented concern that the growth of regulation on research is reducing scientific productivity. While much of the burden comes from mandated standards, institutions increase the burdens when they add elective rules. This study examines regulatory responses in higher education to the implementation of domestic unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in the United States of America (U.S.). The variance in UAV policies provides insight into regulatory responses to a controversial emerging technology. All higher education institutions share a common mission of education, research, and service, although the amount of attention given to each varies. UAVs create similar risks across institutions. Moreover, all campuses are subject to identical Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulations. For this study, four educational institutions' UAV policies from all fifty U.S. states were examined. The policies were classified from none to highly restrictive. Consistent with expectations, the stringency of UAV regulations is related to the institution's structure and mission. Publicly funded institutions, particularly the land-grant universities with relatively more community outreach, had the most restrictive policies. Institutions in states with local government ordinances restricting UAVs also tend to have stricter policies. More stringent UAV rules exist in research-oriented institutions. Neither organizational size nor the existence of an aviation program affects institutional UAV policies. Because some of the policies adopted in higher education go beyond the rules mandated by the FAA, some may label the elective policies as being excessive "red tape" that thwart the institutional mission and stymie research.


INTRODUCTION Every general election since Sierra Leone became independent of Britain in April 1961 has either been preceded by or held in the aftermath of a major political controversy or some other crisis that significantly altered the nation's political landscape. The promise of free and fair elections at independence dissipated within a few short years, beginning in 1967 when the military intervened to stop the transfer of political power from Prime Minister Albert M. Margai of the Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP) to the leader of the opposition All People's Congress (APC), Siaka P. Stevens. Pre-civil war general elections (1967-86) ended Sierra Leone's fragile parliamentary system of government and was replaced by one-party rule with an imperial presidency. Sharp economic declines, political violence, electoral fraud, and corruption distorted the electoral process. This state of affairs culminated in a brutal civil war (1991-2002), precipitated by Foday Sankoh's Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in an attempt to overthrow President Joseph S. Momoh's APC government. The multiparty Constitution of 1991 ended one-party rule but remained in abeyance as the civil war ground on. The general elections of 1996, held in the midst of the civil war, resulted in the transfer of power from the military junta that overthrew Momoh's government in April 1992, the National Provisional Ruling Council (NPRC), to a civilian government led by Ahmad Tejan Kabbah. The 2002 presidential and parliamentary elections consolidated the shaky peace process and ramped up the political gains Kabbah and the SLPP had made in 1996. The August/September 2007 general elections were the first to be held since the departure of UN peacekeepers (in 2005), deployed to the country at the height of the civil war in 1998. These relatively peaceful and transparent elections resulted in the defeat of the incumbent vice president and the return to power of the APC after a fifteen-year hiatus. The elections also formed pan of the continuum of post-conflict reconstruction, stabilization, and nation-building that began in 1996. One election observer group hailed them as "landmark elections" not only because they effected a civilian-to-civilian transfer of power in contrast to the aborted transfer of power in 1967, but also because they "provided an opportunity to test the ability of Sierra Leone to live peacefully within a system of electoral politics premised on respect for human rights. peace, stability and competitive party politics." (1) Nevertheless, competitive party politics have not yet produced the hoped-for economic recovery that is often the basis of domestic tranquility. The government continues to depend on external funding to overcome mounting poverty, unemployment, and a lack of basic services. (2) In the 2009 Human Development Report, published by the UN Development Program, Sierra Leone ranked 180th among 182 countries (ahead of Afghanistan and Niger) in the human development index. (3) its "weak state" status has led the U.S. Department of State to classify it as a "rebuilding country," meaning one currently emerging from and rebuilding after an internal conflict. (4) Washington's perception that weak states often pose a national security threat became more pronounced after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks; it responded to the challenge by supporting electoral reforms in Sierra Leone and other countries experiencing internal conflicts. (5) This paper critically examines the 2007 parliamentary and presidential elections in Sierra Leone as a model of competitive multiparty politics in a post-conflict state. Governmental legitimacy that gives rulers the right to act on behalf of their citizens derives in part from elections which are the preferred means of electing political leaders. But as the post-independence period has shown, elections became exercises in political futility as more states adopted single-party systems that outlawed opposition parties. …


PMN-dominated airway inflammation is a major component of cystic fibrosis (CF) lung disease. Epithelial cells respond to organisms such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa, the major pathogen in CF, by expressing the leukocyte chemokine IL-8. Experiments were performed using several different types of respiratory epithelial cells that demonstrate that ligation of ceramide-associated receptors on epithelial surfaces by P. aeruginosa pili is a major stimulus for the translocation of transcription factor nuclear factor (NF)-kappaB and initiation of IL-8 expression by epithelial cells. Using electrophoretic mobility shift assays and Western hybridizations, nuclear NF-kappaB was found shortly after epithelial cells were stimulated by either whole organisms, isolated pili, or antibody to the pilin receptor asialoGM1. IB3 cells, which express mutations in cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) (DeltaF508/W1282X), were noted to have significantly greater amounts of endogenous nuclear NF-kappaB, but not the transcription factor C/EBP, than CF cells corrected by episomal copies of normal CFTR (C-38) or IB3 cells grown at a permissive temperature (25 degreesC). Activation of NF-kappaB and subsequent IL-8 expression in epithelial cells can result from activation of at least two pathways: an exogenous signaling cascade that is activated by ligation of ceramide-associated adhesins such as P. aeruginosa pilin, or endogenous stimulation, suggested to be a consequence of cell stress caused by the accumulation of mutant CFTR in the endoplasmic reticulum.


Abstract. In the present study, campholenic aldehyde ozonolysis was performed to investigate pathways leading to specific biogenic secondary organic aerosol (SOA) marker compounds. Campholenic aldehyde, a known α-pinene oxidation product, is suggested to be a key intermediate in the formation of terpenylic acid upon α-pinene ozonolysis. It was reacted with ozone in the presence and absence of an OH radical scavenger, leading to SOA formation with a yield of 0.75 and 0.8, respectively. The resulting oxidation products in the gas and particle phases were investigated employing a denuder/filter sampling combination. Gas-phase oxidation products bearing a carbonyl group, which were collected by the denuder, were derivatised by 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazine (DNPH) followed by liquid chromatography/negative ion electrospray ionisation time-of-flight mass spectrometry analysis and were compared to the gas-phase compounds detected by online proton-transfer-reaction mass spectrometry. Particle-phase products were also analysed, directly or after DNPH derivatisation, to derive information about specific compounds leading to SOA formation. Among the detected compounds, the aldehydic precursor of terpenylic acid was identified and its presence was confirmed in ambient aerosol samples from the DNPH derivatisation, accurate mass data, and additional mass spectrometry (MS 2 and MS 3 fragmentation studies). Furthermore, the present investigation sheds light on a reaction pathway leading to the formation of terpenylic acid, involving α-pinene, α-pinene oxide, campholenic aldehyde, and terpenylic aldehyde. Additionally, the formation of diaterpenylic acid acetate could be connected to campholenic aldehyde oxidation. The present study also provides insights into the source of other highly functionalised oxidation products (e.g. m / z 201, C 9 H 14 O 5 and m / z 215, C 10 H 16 O 5 ), which have been observed in ambient aerosol samples and smog chamber-generated monoterpene SOA. The m / z 201 and 215 compounds were tentatively identified as a C 9 - and C 10 -carbonyl-dicarboxylic acid, respectively, based on reaction mechanisms of campholenic aldehyde and ozone, as well as detailed interpretation of mass spectral data, in conjunction with the formation of corresponding DNPH derivatives.


The fate of fuel nitrogen in the furnace of a full-scale bubbling fluidized bed boiler was studied in an extensive measurement campaign. The study of the fate of the fuel nitrogen is based on measurements in the furnace of a 107 MWth bubbling fluidized bed boiler for 3 days, each day with a different fuel blend. During the first day, the boiler was fired with bark. During the second day, the boiler was fired with a mixture of bark and sludge. During the third day, bark, sludge, and solid recovered fuel (SRF) were co-combusted. The furnace gas composition was measured from the fuel inlet to the furnace exit level, at seven in-furnace measurement ports in total. The main nitrogen species in the lower furnace, under the fuel inlet, were NH3 and NO, but also some HCN was found. Under reducing conditions in the lower furnace, nitrogen was mainly in the form of NH3, while for oxidizing conditions, the main nitrogen species measured were NO and NH3. The highest NH3 concentrations were observed above the fuel inl...


SELECTIVE REMOVAL OF NOx FROM CATALYTIC CRACKING REGENERATOR EFFLUENT USING WET SCRUBBING WITH AQUEOUS SODIUM CHLORITE SOLUTIONS by Pin Gu In most refineries, the flue gas from the regenerator in the fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) unit represents a key source of NOx, SOx, particulate, and CO emissions. Wet scrubbing systems have been used with great success to control particulate and SOx emissions from typical FCC regenerator flue gas. Development of relatively inexpensive and safe additives that can be used in existing scrubbing systems to oxidize and absorb NOx is important in order to increase the industrial options to meet the provisions of the Clean Air Act and recently proposed EPA rules. This paper explores the feasibility of removing NOx from a typical catalytic cracking regenerator effluent gas using a wet scrubbing system with the addition of an oxidizing agent (sodium chlorite). A series of experiments were conducted in a bench-scale packed bed, a bench-scale ejector Venturi scrubber, and a pilot-scale packed bed. Various operating parameters such as gas flow rate, liquid flow rate, pH, operating temperature, gas phase compositions (NO, NO2 , SO2, CO2 and 02), and oxidizing agent concentration, were studied for their effects on NOx oxidation and absorption in the scrubbing systems. Experimental results showed that up to 90% of the NOx and SO2 could be simultaneously removed by the scrubbing systems. Experiments were also conducted using a feed with composition similar to that of a typical effluent from a Thermal DeNOx pretreatment. The low concentration of NOx after the pretreatment can still be removed using this approach. SELECTIVE REMOVAL OF NOx FROM CATALYTIC CRACKING REGENERATOR EFFLUENT USING WET SCRUBBING WITH AQUEOUS SODIUM CHLORITE SOLUTIONS


We summarize the first results from the Gould Belt survey, obtained toward the Aquila Rift and Polaris Flare regions during the 'science demonstration phase' of Herschel. Our 70-500 micron images taken in parallel mode with the SPIRE and PACS cameras reveal a wealth of filamentary structure, as well as numerous dense cores embedded in the filaments. Between ~ 350 and 500 prestellar cores and ~ 45-60 Class 0 protostars can be identified in the Aquila field, while ~ unbound starless cores and no protostars are observed in the Polaris field. The prestellar core mass function (CMF) derived for the Aquila region bears a strong resemblance to the stellar initial mass function (IMF), already confirming the close connection between the CMF and the IMF with much better statistics than earlier studies. Comparing and contrasting our Herschel results in Aquila and Polaris, we propose an observationally-driven scenario for core formation according to which complex networks of long, thin filaments form first within molecular clouds, and then the densest filaments fragment into a number of prestellar cores via gravitational instability.


Vehicle to Vehicle communication (V2V) and Vehicle to Infrastructure communication (V2I) promise to improve road safety and optimize road traffic through cooperative systems applications. A prerequisite for the successful deployment of vehicular communications is to make them secure. The specific operational environment (moving vehicles, sporadic connectivity, etc. ) makes the problem very novel and challenging. Because of the challenges, a research and development road map is needed. We consider SEVECOM [1] to be the first phase of a longer term undertaking. In this first phase, we aim to define a consistent and future-proof solution to the problem of V2V/V2I security. SEVECOM will focus on communications specific to road traffic. This includes messages related to traffic information, anonymous safety-related messages, and liability related messages.


Uncertain Worlds is the definitive presentation of the evolution of world-systems analysis from the point of view of its founder, Immanuel Wallerstein. Few theorists have offered a more systematic theory of what has become known as 'globalisation' than Wallerstein. The book includes a one-of-kind interview with Wallerstein by Carlos Rojas, a conversation between Wallerstein and Lemert about the history of the field as it has come down to the present time, a long essay by Lemert on the uncertainties of the modern world-system, as well as a preface by Rojas and a concluding essay by Wallerstein. No other book lends such biographical, historical, and personal nuance to the biography of world-systems analysis and, thus, to the history of our times. The will be a key reference book for students of global politics, economics and international relations.


OBJECTIVE
To assess the use of magnetic resonance (MR) imaging for identifying subchondral bone damage in the distal limbs of horses.

DESIGN
Retrospective study.

ANIMALS
11 horses.

PROCEDURE
Medical records of horses with lameness and subsequent evidence of subchondral bone damage as determined by MR imaging were reviewed. Severity and duration of lameness, results of diagnostic local anesthesia and diagnostic testing, surgical and necropsy findings, and treatment were recorded. Outcome was determined by follow-up information obtained from the owner or referring veterinarian.

RESULTS
Lameness was localized by physical examination and diagnostic local anesthesia. Lameness was localized to the metacarpophalangeal or metatarsophalangeal joint in 4 horses, distal interphalangeal joint in 5 horses, and tarsocrural joint in 2 horses. The duration of lameness ranged from 2 weeks to 20 months. Magnetic resonance imaging of the affected joints revealed abnormal fluid accumulation within the subchondral bone. None of the abnormalities observed by MR imaging were detected by radiography. Subchondral bone damage was diagnosed in all horses. Arthroscopy of the affected joint was performed in 4 horses. Communication with the articular surface of the affected bone was suspected on the basis of results of MR imaging in 4 horses and was confirmed by arthroscopy in 1 horse and by necropsy in 1 horse.

CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE
Magnetic resonance imaging was useful for providing a diagnosis when other imaging techniques did not definitively identify the cause of lameness. Subchondral bone damage was clearly identified by MR imaging and should be considered as a cause of lameness in horses in which radiographic findings are unremarkable.


It has become impossible to use any of our traditional news media without being told something about how those uses, as well as the media themselves, are being transformed. Information about information-the Information Age, the Information Superhighway, the Information Revolution-is inescapable and, inescapably, contributes to the ways in which those changes are perceived. For journalists and educators, the bombardment hits particularly close to home. As members of the general public, we see stories about business deals made and broken, about shifting communication policies, about the real and potential impacts of technological change. The number of such stories is increasing by exponential leaps and bounds. For example, the term "information superhighway," which appeared in seven news stories in 23 major print and broadcast outlets in January and February 1992, appeared in 1,145 stories in those same media in the first two months of 1994 (Freedom Forum, 1994). Today, two years later, hardly a day goes by that fails to bring some fresh tidbit about yet another innovation in delivering and accessing information. As people in the business of communication themselves, media educators and professionals face additional pressures. Quite aside from the voluminous coverage in the mainstream press, journalists cannot open an industry publication without being told how their own jobs have changed, are changing and will continue to change. Educators, who help shape the ideas and attitudes of those joining the profession, also have begun to be inundated with information about new media technology. Academic exploration of the new media in their first decade was relatively sparse, with articles on "new technology" accounting for just under 10 percent of the articles that were specifically about telecommunications in 15 scholarly journals from 1984 to 1989 (Vincent, 1991). But that pace has picked up considerably in the 1990s. Articles now appear regularly in Journal of Communication,Journalism Quarterlyand Communication Research, along with many more narrowly focused scholarly journals. In light of the increasing attention, this study considers attitudes toward new media among one group of soon-to-be journalists and current journalism professors. It highlights diverse opinions and perceptions that indicate a need for equally wideranging educational approaches in order to successfully prepare students for careers in this rapidly changing world. In general, the study seeks to increase our understanding of concerns that may shape not only journalists ' own decisions to adopt these innovations, but also the way communication about evolving technologies is structured for an audience that includes journalism students, researchers and practitioners, as well as members of the reading and viewing public. It suggests how educators might build on that understanding. Method Journalism and mass communication students and faculty members at a major Midwestern university described their attitudes by Q-sorting statements about new media. Although this report is based on findings from a single program, it is worth noting that the school attracts an unusually diverse group of students. Among graduate students, many of whom have extensive professional experience, only 25 percent come from within the state; the rest are from out-of-state, and a third of those (or 25% of the total) are from other countries. The percentage of in-state undergraduates is higher, but the number of out-of-state residents is still greater than in any other undergraduate program on campus. The faculty is large and comparably diverse, representing a wide range of professional and academic backgrounds. "New media" means different things to different people. For some, cable TV may be seen as a new medium. Others would not think of cable as new but might think of media using hypertext links that way. Still others may not yet have been fully aware of such technologies at the time of this study in 1994. …


The corporate form that developed in the early 20th century created enormous pressure for corporate governance mechanisms to curb the power of corporate managers. Berle and Means, legal pluralists, warned about concentrating economic power in the hands of a small but powerful class of professional managers. They claimed this "new form of absolutism" required governmental oversight and viewed boards of directors as part of management, rather than monitors for shareholders. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposed that corporations establish a special board committee, made up of "nonofficer members" in response to the McKesson & Robbins scandal of the late 1930s. My dissertation examines the evolution of the U.S. corporate audit committee through three specific time periods: (1) 1920-1954; (2) 1955-1986; and (3) 1987 to the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. My purpose is to determine if evolution of the audit committee throughout these periods has been a reform continually couched in symbolism or whether the audit committee concept has evolved into real reform, allowing proper corporate governance and mitigation of unchecked corporate power. My analysis is a traditional empirical analysis, relying on both primary and secondary sources to develop a coherent ordering of facts. I use narrative in a narrow sense as my historical methodology, examining patterns that emerge and interpreting facts to develop a clear understanding of demands for and uses of audit committees. I use a holistic approach in studying the data, using narrative to show how these patterns ensue from the historical data.


What is truly at stake in politics? Nothing less than how we should live, as individuals and as communities. This book goes beyond the surface headlines, the fake news and the hysteria to explore the timeless questions posed and answers offered by a diverse group of the 30 greatest political thinkers who have ever lived. Are we political, economic, or religious animals? Should we live in small city-states, nations, or multinational empires? What values should politics promote? Should wealth be owned privately or in common? Do animals also have rights? There is no idea too radical for this global assortment of thinkers, which includes: Confucius; Plato; Augustine; Machiavelli; Burke; Wollstonecraft; Marx; Nietzsche; Gandhi; Qutb; Arendt; Nussbaum, Naess and Rawls. In each brief chapter, the authors paint a vivid portrait of these often prescient, always compelling political thinkers, showing how their ideas grew out of their own dramatic lives and times and evolved beyond them. Now more than ever we need to be reminded that politics can be a noble, inspiring and civilising art. And if we want to understand today's political world, we need to understand the foundations of politics and its architects. This is the perfect guide to both.


This paper presents a technique to implement real time image segmentation & drowsiness detection with the help of machine learning methodologies. Asa large number of individuals in world, lost their lives due to auto collisions. When all is said in done, the driver exhaustion alone records near by 25 % of the road mishaps and up to 60 % of road mishaps result in death or genuine damage. A fundamental driver of weariness is restlessness or a sleeping disorder. Therefore, a drivers' drowsiness state is a main consideration in serious street mishaps that claims a great many lives each year. In the ongoing years, utilization of wise calculations in autos has grown extensively. These structures use Wireless Sensor Networks to screen & transmit the state of the vehicle and driver. In the proposed research work Support Vector Machine based machine learning method has been implemented for image segmentation and emotion detection using facial expressions. The algorithm has been tested under various illuminance conditions and performed well with optimum visibility.


This study focused on the daily interactions and home environments of 14 families with alcoholic fathers who were beginning primary treatment for their alcoholism. Data were collected by in-depth, face to face interviews with all family members. Social skills questionnaires administered to each child. Two specific family patterns were found to be associated with higher level social skills in children. First, father's frequent presence in the home, coupled with positive family interaction, was associated with children's high range social skills. Even in circumstances where violence existed, if the father was routinely at home and participated in positive family interactions, social skills scores did not fall below the middle range. However, when fathers did not participate in positive family interaction, violence was associated with lower social skills scores. Second, high family income was associated with higher children's social skills scores. These high incomes helped to offset the drain on personal resources produced by living with an alcoholic. High socioeconomic status allowed children to have experiences which were most likely to facilitate the development o f positive social skills and provide positive role models outside the nuclear family. The children from high income families exhibited middle range social skills, despite the fact that some experienced family violence, and none had high levels of positive interaction with their fathers. Implications of these findings suggest that the characteristics which contribute to positive interaction in alcoholic families are the same as those which are necessary for the successful functioning of all families. Despite the existence of paternal alcoholism, these characteristics were present in some of the higher range families in the sample.


Many American communities place a high priority on retaining and attracting innovative industries. However, in most American metropolitan areas, the responsibility for local economic development is fragmented along jurisdictional and institutional lines. The result of this fragmentation is that local economic development is often chaotic with no one individual, agency, or jurisdiction in control, which may inhibit the effectiveness of local economic development efforts. To address these challenges and more effectively utilize resources, there has been greater emphasis recently on regional collaboration in local economic development. The purpose of this paper is to measure the extent of collaboration among local economic development professionals in the Toledo, Ohio Metropolitan Statistical Area and to identify the extent to which these interactions constitute a social network. We believe that the existence of a strong social network among economic development professionals is critical to overcome some of the negative effects of jurisdictional and institutional fragmentation. While there is a core network of relatively dense collaboration in northwest Ohio, that network does not span the entire metropolitan area. A high level of local interactions occurs, but there are few "global pipelines" outside the region. A potential challenge for economic development in the region is to avoid "lock in", which will make it more difficult to attract innovative industries or diversify the economy in order to decrease the traditional dependence on the auto industry.


Until around 10,000 BC art in Europe appears to have been in advance of the rest of the world and throws light on the total history of early man. The great masterpieces of cave-painting at Lascaux are well known, and one tradition of early sculpture is from the first surprizingly classical. With the shelter paintings of the Spanish Levant and the clay modelling and painted pottery of eastern Europe in the fourth and third millennia BC fresh artistic problems were tackled. Later still evolved the high technical accomplishment of the metal-workers, and this study concludes with an account of the new departures of Celtic La Tene art of the last four centuries BC.


This chapter seeks to apply 'new' regulation theory to industrial tribunals, in par-ticular the functions and powers of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission (AIRC) in relation to enterprise bargaining and the making of collec-tive workplace agreements. In a conventional economic sense, industrial tribunals have always been regulatory agencies, with their awards operating as labour standards setting minimum pay and conditions. Since the 1990s, though, the major work and impact of industrial tribunals has changed from making awards to the facilitation and approval of agreements as part of the process of labour market "deregulation." As (at the time of final revision of this paper) it now appears that any powers of the AIRC to supervise agreement-making will shortly and finally be abolished, we are in a position to review the particular ap-proach adopted for the regulation of workplace bargaining over the last decade. If industrial tribunals will no longer have a regulatory role to play in the setting of conditions by agreements, the opportunity also arises for us to consider what new type of institution might now be appropriate for the inevitable regulation which occurs within the labour market.


Laser action has been demonstrated in chalcogenide glass microsphere. A sub millimeter neodymium-doped gallium lanthanum sulphide glass sphere was pumped at 808 nm with a laser diode and single and multimode laser action demonstrated at wavelengths between 1075 and 1086 nm. The gallium lanthanum sulphide family of glass offer higher thermal stability compared to other chalcogenide glasses, and this, along with an optimized Q-factor for the microcavity allowed laser action to be achieved. When varying the pump power, changes in the output spectrum suggest nonlinear and/or thermal effects have a strong effect on laser action.


The diagnoses of serious psychiatric illnesses, such as schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, and bipolar disorder, rely on the subjective recall and interpretation of often overlapping symptoms, and are not based on the objective pathophysiology of the illnesses. The subjectivity of symptom reporting and interpretation contributes to the delay of accurate diagnoses and limits effective treatment of these illnesses. Proteomics, the study of the types and quantities of proteins an organism produces, may offer an objective biological approach to psychiatric diagnosis. For this pilot study, we used the Myriad RBM Discovery Map 250+ platform to quantify 205 serum proteins in subjects with schizophrenia (n=26), schizoaffective disorder (n=20), bipolar disorder (n=16), and healthy controls with no psychiatric illness (n=23). Fifty-seven analytes that differed significantly between groups were used for multivariate modeling with linear discriminant analysis (LDA). Diagnoses generated from these models were compared to SCID-generated clinical diagnoses to determine whether the proteomic markers: 1) distinguished the three disorders from controls, and 2) distinguished between the three disorders. We found that a series of binary classification models including 8-12 analytes produced separation between all subjects and controls, and between each diagnostic group and controls. There was a high degree of accuracy in the separations, with training areas-under-the-curve (AUC) of 0.94-1.0, and cross-validation AUC of 0.94-0.95. Models with 7-14 analytes produced separation between the diagnostic groups, though less robustly, with training AUC of 0.72-1.0 and validation AUC of 0.69-0.89. While based on a small sample size, not adjusted for medication state, these preliminary results support the potential of proteomics as a diagnostic aid in psychiatry. The separation of schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, and bipolar disorder suggests that further work in this area is warranted.


This paper presents a gender identification system to be used for call forwarding in health related communications. The system listens to the caller then using speech synthesis, image processing, and linear support vector machine SVM identifies either he or she is a male or a female. This solution is imperative in a conservative country such as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in order to forward the call to a male or female practitioner. The originality of the approach is that no transcription is used to learn SVM models. To identify the gender of the caller, the trained SVM model of the reference pieces are compared to transcripts of the audio frequency record and are using the Levenshtein distance. For the identification of gender, we obtain an accuracy rate of 94% on a test flow containing 449 pieces of speech clips.


The results of numerous vibratory tests on model piles in clay are presented in this thesis with the purpose of studying the behavior of piles subjected to vibratory loadings. The effects of pile length, time after driving, soil consistency, dynamic force amplitude, and free water surrounding the pile were investigated. The effect of con¬ fining walls on such tests received special attention. Tests were also performed on two model pile groups. The possibility of representing a pile subjected to vibratory excitation by discrete masses and springs and the soil reaction by Kelvin models was studied, and an attempt was made to correlate theoretical results with model results. Finally, a very simplified approach was proposed for determining the maximum amplitude at the natural frequency for a pile subjected to vibratory loading.


Knowledge of the temperature distribution in piston-cylinder assemblies is desirable for equilibrium studies and experiments under transient conditions. The accurate determination of equilibrium properties needs a homogeneous temperature within the sample and transient experiments often require a defined thermal gradient. Knowledge of the temperature difference between the sample and thermocouple is another important constraint for quantitative experiments. To this end, the temperature distribution within various different piston-cylinder assembly designs was modeled with a specially designed 3D-Finite-Difference (3D-FD) program and compared to laboratory observations. For the 3D-FD simulation, the temperature and pressure dependence of the thermal properties of piston-cylinder-assembly materials (NaCl, CaF2, pyrophyllite, Au, graphite, NiCr-alloy) was considered. Furthermore, the T -dependent resistivity of graphite was used to model the local heat generation of the graphite heater. Experimentally determined and modeled temperature distributions are in good agreement. This indicates that the 3D-FD program is useful and an appropriate tool in the design of virtual piston-cylinder assemblies to be used in homogeneous temperature-distribution or defined thermal gradient experiments. The influences of temperature, pressure, assembly design, assembly materials (CaF2, NaCl), stepped versus straight wall heater, and presence versus absence of gold capsules on the temperature distribution within piston-cylinder assemblies are modeled and discussed. Different piston-cylinder configurations are presented, optimized for equilibrium studies and transient experiments, focusing on low and predefined T -gradients, respectively.


Our society relies on energy for most of its activities. One application domain inciding heavily on the energy budget regards the energy consumption in residential and non-residential buildings. The ever increasing needs for energy, resulting from the industrialization of developing countries and from the limited scalability of the traditional technologies for energy production, raises both problems and opportunities. The problems are related to the devastating effects of the greenhouse gases produced by the burning of oil and gas for energy production, and from the dependence of whole countries on companies providing gas and oil. The opportunities are mostly technological, since novel markets are opening for both energy production via renewable sources, and for innovations that can rationalize energy usage. An enticing research effort can be the mixing of these two aspects, by leveraging on ICT technologies to rationalize energy production, acquisition, and consumption. The ENCOURAGE project[1] aims to develop embedded intelligence and integration technologies that will directly optimize energy use in buildings and enable active participation in the future smart grid environment. The primary application domains targeted by the ENCOURAGE project are non-residential buildings (e.g.: campuses) and residential buildings (e.g.: neighborhoods). The goal of the project is to achieve 20% of energy savings through the improved interoperability between various types of energy generation, consumption and storage devices; inter-building energy exchange; and systematic performance monitoring. To reach this goal, the project designed an architecture that is depicted in Figure and whose components are:


Health capacity to work for the elderly is an essential piece of information for designing social policies in an aging society. Here, we assess the health capacity to work of older men in South Korea and provide a cross-country comparison. Following the methodology proposed by Milligan and Wise (2012), which uses the cohort mortality rate as a proxy for overall health status, we quantify the additional employment capacity of current older men in reference to the mortality-employment relationship of a generation ago. Despite the high employment rate of older men in South Korea, we find substantial additional employment capacity among older men (those aged 55 or more) as of 2016 comparable in size to those found in other advanced countries. We also find evidence that older men are not merely capable of working but are also willing to work, and many of them are increasingly combining pension income and work. These findings suggest that labor supply disincentives for older men embedded in public pension systems in South Korea need to be thoroughly reexamined and adjusted accordingly lest they should inhibit the labor supply of older workers.


This thesis consists in six articles and a comprehensive summary. • The pourpose of the summary is to introduce the AGM theory of belief change and to exemplify the diversity and significance of the research that has been inspired by the AGM article in the last 25 years. The research areas associated with AGM was divided in three parts: criticisms, where we discussed some of the more common criticisms of AGM. Extensions where the most common extensions and variations of AGM are presented and applications where we provided an overview of applications and connections with other areas of research. • Article I elaborates on the connection between partial meet contractions [AGM85] and kernel contractions [Han94a] in belief change theory. Also both functions are equivalent in belief sets, there are notequivalent in belief bases. A way to define incision functions (used in kernel contractions) from selection functions (used in partial meet contractions) and vice versa is presented. It is explained under which conditions there are exact correspondences between selection and incision functions so that the same contraction operations can be obtained by using either of them. • Article II proposes an axiomatic characterization for ensconcement-based contraction functions, belief base functions proposed byWilliams and relates this function with other kinds of base contraction functions. • Article III adapts the Ferme and Hansson model of Shielded Contraction [FH01] as well as Hansson et all Credibility-Limited Revision [HFCF01] for belief bases, to join two of the many variations of the AGM model [AGM85], i.e. those in which knowledge is represented through belief bases instead of logic theories, and those in which the object of the epistemic change does not get the priority over the existing information as it is the case in the AGM model. • Article IV introduces revision by comparison a refined method for changing beliefs by specifying constraints on the relative plausibility of propositions. Like the earlier belief revision models, the method proposed is a qualitative one, in the sense that no numbers are needed in order to specify the posterior plausibility of the new information. The method uses reference beliefs in order to determine the degree of entrenchment of the newly accepted piece of information. Two kinds of semantics for this idea are proposed and a logical characterization of the new model is given. • Article V focuses on the extension of AGM that allows change for a belief base by a set of sentences instead of a single sentence. In [FH94], Fuhrmann and Hansson presented an axiomatic for Multiple Contraction and a construction based on the AGM Partial Meet Contraction. This essay proposes for their model another way to construct functions: Multiple Kernel Contraction, that is a modification of Kernel Contraction,proposed by Hansson [Han94a] to construct classical AGM contractions and belief base contractions. • Article VI relates AGM model with the DFT model proposed by Carlos Alchourron [Alc93]. Alchourron devoted his last years to the analysis of the notion of defeasible conditionalization. His definition of the defeasible conditional is given in terms of strict implication operator and a modal operator f which is interpreted as a revision function at the language level. This essay points out that this underlying revision function is more general than AGM revision. In addition, a complete characterization of that more general kind of revision that permits to unify models of revision given by other authors is given.


De Cive (On the Citizen) is the first full exposition of the political thought of Thomas Hobbes, the greatest English political philosopher of all time. Professors Tuck and Silverthorne have undertaken the first complete translation since 1651, a rendition long thought (in error) to be at least sanctioned by Hobbes himself. On the Citizen is written in a clear, straightforward, expository style, and in many ways offers students a more digestible account of Hobbes's political thought than the Leviathan itself. This new translation is both accurate and accessible, and is itself a significant scholarly event: it is accompanied by a full glossary of Latin terms, a chronology, bibliography, and an expository introduction. Throughout the editors have emphasised consistency in the translation and usage of Hobbes's basic conceptual vocabulary, respecting Hobbes's own concern for accurate definition of terms.


Celiac disease (CD) is a digestive disorder resulting from gluten intolerance that leads to damage of the small intestine. The only current available treatment for CD involves adherence to a strict gluten-free diet. Due to the restrictive nature of this treatment diet, and the increasing prevalence of CD in recent years, much research has been conducted examining factors that impact the quality of life (QOL) of individuals with CD. However, there has been a dearth of literature identifying those factors which can be modified within a treatment setting. Thus, a need for further research in this area was identified. Through an extensive literature review, the variables of social problem solving and hedonic eating were identified as factors which have been shown to impact the QOL of individuals with disease states similar to those of CD, namely diabetes mellitus and treatment seeking individuals with obesity. Due to the similarities between these chronic diseases and CD, the present study aimed to identify the relationship between problemsolving ability, relationship to food and perceived QOL in regard to one's psychological health and social relationships in individuals with CD, who are attempting a gluten free diet. A cross-sectional observational design was implemented. Potential participants were recruited through online social media. A snowball sampling method was additionally utilized. Participants completed study questionnaires via Survey Monkey. These measures included: the Dietary Compliance Scale, the Celiac Disease Symptom Questionnaire, the Social Problem Solving Inventory-Revised: Short Form, the Power of Food Scale, the World Health Organization Quality of Life-BREF questionnaire, the Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire, and a Demographic Questionnaire. Findings from this study revealed a relationship between positive and negative problem solving


Microstrip-patch-style antennas that generate monopole radiation patterns similar to those of quarter-wave whip antennas can be designed to have dimensions smaller than those needed heretofore for this purpose, by taking advantage of a feed configuration different from the conventional one. The large sizes necessitated by the conventional feed configuration have, until now, made such antennas impractical for frequencies below about 800 MHz: for example, at 200 MHz, the conventional feed configuration necessitates a patch diameter of about 8 ft (.2.4 m) . too large, for example, for mounting on the roof of an automobile or on a small or medium-size aircraft. By making it possible to reduce diameters to between a tenth and a third of that necessitated by the conventional feed configuration, the modified configuration makes it possible to install such antennas in places where they could not previously be installed and thereby helps to realize the potential advantages (concealment and/or reduction of aerodynamic drag) of microstrip versus whip antennas. In both the conventional approach and the innovative approach, a microstrip-patch (or microstrip-patch-style) antenna for generating a monopole radiation pattern includes an electrically conductive patch or plate separated from an electrically conductive ground plane by a layer of electrically insulating material. In the conventional approach, the electrically insulating layer is typically a printed-circuit board about 1/16 in. (.1.6 mm) thick. Ordinarily, a coaxial cable from a transmitter, receiver, or transceiver is attached at the center on the ground-plane side, the shield of the cable being electrically connected to the ground plane. In the conventional approach, the coaxial cable is mated with a connector mounted on the ground plane. The center pin of this connector connects to the center of the coaxial cable and passes through a hole in the ground plane and a small hole in the insulating layer and then connects with the patch above one-third of the radial distance from the center. The modified feed configuration of the innovative approach is an inductive-short-circuit configuration that provides impedance matching and that has been used for many years on other antennas but not on microstrip-style monopole antennas. In this configuration, the pin is connected to both the conductive patch and the ground plane. As before, the shield of the coaxial cable is connected to the ground plane, but now the central conductor is connected to a point on the pin between the ground plane and the conductive plate (see figure). The location of the connection point on the pin is chosen so that together, the inductive short circuit and the conductive plate or patch act as components of a lumped-element resonant circuit that radiates efficiently at the resonance frequency and, at the resonance frequency, has an impedance that matches that of the coaxial cable. It should be noted that the innovative design entails two significant disadvantages. One disadvantage is that the frequency bandwidth for efficient operation is only about 1/20 to 1/15 that of a whip antenna designed for the same nominal frequency. The other disadvantage is that the estimated gain is between 3-1/2 and 4-1/2 dB below that of the whip antenna. However, if an affected radio-communication system used only a few adjacent frequency channels and the design of the components of the system other than the antenna provided adequate power or gain margin, then these disadvantages could be overcome.


As the migrant workers of the 1960s and 1970s age in place, many countries are facing caring for increasing numbers of older migrants, many of whom have complex health and social care needs. By applying a qualitative case study approach, of a grassroots disability resource center that works with older migrants, this article critically explores the social policy debates that are focused on older migrants in the Black and Minority Ethnic community. A number of themes have emerged, including the impact of changing family structure, difficulties with accessing services, and increased isolation. In addition, there are also examples of older migrants activtly engaged in building communities and supporting others, defying the stereotypes of vulnerable older migrants being a burden on the state. This article argues for politicians and social policy makers to refocus on the new challenges that are emerging in the older migrants of the Black and Minority Ethnic community.


In the tradition of Harvey Penick's classic Little Red Book, golf instructor Mark Steinbauer documents a lifetime of incredible experiences and life lessons from the world of golf. He learned to play the game from longtime mentor and friend Harvey Penick and has since played alongside pros such as Bill Eschenbrenner, Bobby Locke, and Jack Nicklaus. 18 Game-Changing Lessons reveals the strategies and techniques that these pros have shared with Steinbauer throughout his thirty-year career. Each chapter begins with a colorful narrative about a lesson Mark has learned from one of golf's greats and then sums up with instructional pointers for each skill level (the beginner, the mid-handicapper, and the low-handicapper). A perfect gift for a golf enthusiast, this small guide offers a fresh, insightful look at some of the biggest names in golf and what makes them masters of the game.


At sentencing, a judge may foresee that an individual with a major mental disorder will experience serious psychological or physical harm in prison. In light of this reality and offenders' other potential vulnerabilities, a number of jurisdictions currently allow judges to treat undue offender hardship as a mitigating factor at sentencing. In these jurisdictions, vulnerability to harm may militate toward an order of probation or a reduced term of confinement. Since these measures do not affect offenders' day-to-day experience in confinement, these expressions of mitigation fail to protect adequately those vulnerable offenders who must serve time in prison. This article argues that judges should possess the authority to tailor the conditions of vulnerable, disordered offenders' carceral sentences to ensure that sentences are humane, proportionate, and appropriate for serving the intended aims of punishment. To equalize, at least in part, conditions of confinement for this population, judges should consider ordering timely and periodic mental health evaluations by qualified professionals, disqualifying facilities with insufficient mental health or protective resources, specifying the facility or unit where an offender will serve or begin his sentence, and mandating certain treatment in prison. Allowing judges to exercise power over correctional conditions in this way will allow judges to fulfill better their institutional function of meting out appropriate, humane, and proportionate punishments, subject prison conditions to public scrutiny and debate, and help reform the image and reality of the criminal justice system for some of society's most vulnerable individuals.


The financial crisis in agriculture has been a reality for some farm families since early 1980. As with any industry-wide upheaval, it was slow developing. And its origins can be traced back at least a decade. Today we know more about farm financial conditions than at anytime since the crisis began. However, little consensus exists among farmers, policymakers or academics about agriculture's capacity to adjust to financial stress, or the type of public intervention that would be appropriate if existing institutions and markets need to be assisted in making this transition. This paper will be largely descriptive. Hopefully, it will lead to a more fruitful assessment of the policy papers that will be presented later in the conference.


This study aims to assess trends in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) incidence in South Africa, and to assess the extent to which prevention and treatment programmes have reduced HIV incidence. Two models of the South African HIV epidemic, the STI (sexually transmitted infection)–HIV Interaction model and the ASSA2003 AIDS and Demographic model, were adapted. Both models were fitted to age-specific HIV prevalence data from antenatal clinic surveys and household surveys, using a Bayesian approach. Both models suggest that HIV incidence in 15–49 year olds declined significantly between the start of 2000 and the start of 2008: by 27 per cent (95% CI: 21–32%) in the STI–HIV model and by 31 per cent (95% CI: 23–39%) in the ASSA2003 model, when expressed as a percentage of incidence rates in 2000. By 2008, the percentage reduction in incidence owing to increased condom use was 37 per cent (95% CI: 34–41%) in the STI–HIV model and 23 per cent (95% CI: 14–34%) in the ASSA2003 model. Both models also estimated a small reduction in incidence owing to antiretroviral treatment by 2008. Increased condom use therefore appears to be the most significant factor explaining the recent South African HIV incidence decline.


This study evinces the growth of research literature produced by AIIMS (All India Institute of Medical Sciences) for the period of 2007 to 2016. A total of 14410 records were retrieved from the Scopus database. Descriptive statistics for the research publication output revealed mean = 1441, Sd = 318.92, minimum = 1087, maximum = 2141 at 95.0% confidence level. The curve fitting methodology was used to fit the growth of research publication of AIIMS. R square value for exponential growth model is higher (0.908) than the linear growth model (0.849). Journals are identified as most preferred publication pattern (69.42%). The research output of top 20 department aggregates to 57.77% of total productivity. This study also identified the top 20 most preferred journals by the faculties of AIIMS and comparison was made with the previous study revealed Indian Journal of Pediatrics, Indian Journal of Medical Research, and Indian Pediatrics were the most preferred journals among the faculties. The observation of this study exhibits that AIIMS plays a vital role in reducing disease burden of India by means of quantitative and qualitative research publications.


This project explored how Māori understand experiences commonly labelled "schizophrenic" or "psychotic". Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 57 Māori participants who had either personal experiences labelled as "psychosis" or "schizophrenia", or who work with people with such experiences; including tangata whaiora (users of mental health services), tohunga (traditional healers), kaumatua/kuia (elders), Māori clinicians, cultural support workers and students. Kaupapa Māori Theory and Personal Construct Theory guided the research within a qualitative methodology. The research found that participants held multiple explanatory models for experiences commonly labelled "psychotic" or "schizophrenic". The predominant explanations were spiritual and cultural. It seems that cultural beliefs and practices related to mental health within Māori communities remain resilient, despite over a century of contact with mainstream education and health services. Other explanations included psychosocial constructions (interpersonal trauma and drug abuse), historical trauma (colonisation) and biomedical constructions (chemical brain imbalance). Participants (both tangata whaiora and health professionals) reported they were apprehensive about sharing their spiritual/cultural constructions within mainstream mental health settings due to fear of being ignored or pathologised. This study highlights the importance of asking users of mental health services about the meaning they place on their experiences and recognising that individuals can hold multiple explanatory models. Māori may hold both Māori and Pākehā (European) ways of understanding their experiences and meaningful recognition should be afforded to both throughout assessment and treatment planning in mental health services. Clinicians need to be aware that important personal and cultural meanings of experiences labelled psychotic may be withheld due to fear of judgement or stigmatisation.


Translocation is an increasingly popular conservation management activity worldwide, but the success of translocation is often not measured or reported. A population of the endangered Macquarie perch was imperilled by the damming in 1977 of the Queanbeyan River, near Canberra in south-eastern Australia. In November 1980, 66 adult Macquarie perch (309–389-mm total length) individuals were collected from the newlyformed reservoir, and translocated approximately 4 km upstream into the Queanbeyan River past a waterfall (which prevented access to spawning habitat). Five years of post-translocation monitoring at the release sites resulted in the capture of only a single individual in late 1981. Consequently, monitoring ceased because the translocation was assumed to have failed. However, subsequent angler reports and a preliminary survey in 1991 confirmed that some translocated fish had survived, and a small recruiting population had established. More intensive follow-up surveys and subsequent monitoring from 1996 to 2006 demonstrated an established population with consistent recruitment until 2001. However, after 2001, there was no evidence of recruitment and the population is now undetectable, with the prolonged 'millennium drought' (1997–2010) being the most plausible cause. The present study demonstrates the potentially ephemeral nature of assessments of success and failure, and the importance of targeted long-term monitoring programs.


To determine whether a weapon system meets the requirements set for insensitivity, the system is getting exposed for special tests. One of these tests shows how the system reacts when it ends up in a fire. This test is called the "Fast Cook-Off (FCO) Test", called FCO-test, and performed with a Sand Bed Burner (SBB). According to primary testing provision, the fuel for this test is used of jet fuel such as Jet A-1. A project at Bofors Test Center (BTC) is in progress to use an alternative fuel of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG). This fuel is very advantageous compared to jet fuel in terms of environmental impact, work environment and testing costs.The aim of this thesis is to improve the existing test equipment considering fire over the entire surface and solve the problems with dropped gas flow and freezing of gas bottles.SBB works in the sense that the new petrol LPG streams into the SBB and expands in the free space below the sand bed before the gas will diffuse through the bed of sand and the fire engulfs the object.LPG is a condensable gas that requires oxygen. LPG exceed from liquid to gas phase and needs a large lateral surface to take up more energy which results in better evaporationto the phase transfer. Reaction products from complete combustion of LPG are only water vapor and carbon dioxide, the same as in your exhaled air.To solve these problems it was needed to change P11 composite bottles to P45 steel bottles to get a longer evaporation and larger lateral surface. Four flow inlets instead were used of one into SBB for a better stream in the free space under the sand bed. Propane regulators used to get a lower and more constant flow to avoid freezing. Compressed airconnected tothe SBB to geta mix between oxygen and LPG.The result shows in higherheat radiation efficiency even though the flow was settled down to 1/3 with the new propane regulators. In test 2 the value was 37 kW/m2 and in test 7 it was around 57 kW/m2. Because of a smaller flow and bigger steel bottles the freezing disappeared. Smaller grain of sand together with four inlets and compressed air gave a more complete combustion.


We propose to extend database systems by a Skyline operation. This operation filters out a set of interesting points from a potentially large set of data points. A point is interesting if it is not dominated by any other point. For example, a hotel might be interesting for somebody traveling to Nassau if no other hotel is both cheaper and closer to the beach. We show how SQL can be extended to pose Skyline queries, present and evaluate alternative algorithms to implement the Skyline operation and show how this operation can be combined with other database operations (e.g., join and Top N).