Current systems of fine-grained entity typing use distant supervision in conjunction with existing knowledge bases to assign categories (type labels) to entity mentions. However, the type labels so obtained from knowledge bases are often noisy (i.e., incorrect for the entity mention's local context). We define a new task, Label Noise Reduction in Entity Typing (LNR), to be the automatic identification of correct type labels (type-paths) for training examples, given the set of candidate type labels obtained by distant supervision with a given type hierarchy. The unknown type labels for individual entity mentions and the semantic similarity between entity types pose unique challenges for solving the LNR task. We propose a general framework, called PLE, to jointly embed entity mentions, text features and entity types into the same low-dimensional space where, in that space, objects whose types are semantically close have similar representations. Then we estimate the type-path for each training example in a top-down manner using the learned embeddings. We formulate a global objective for learning the embeddings from text corpora and knowledge bases, which adopts a novel margin-based loss that is robust to noisy labels and faithfully models type correlation derived from knowledge bases. Our experiments on three public typing datasets demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of PLE, with an average of 25% improvement in accuracy compared to next best method.


This senior project investigates various methods of packaging polymer LEDs. The polymer LEDs fabricated in the EE 422 Polymer Electronics lab use calcium cathodes. While calcium acts as an excellent low work function electrode, it quickly oxidizes in the presence of oxygen or water. Additionally, the intrusion of water can degrade the OC1C10-PPV electroluminescent polymer and the PEDOT polymer. Therefore, in order to use these devices outside the inert atmosphere of a glove box, we must first apply a passivation layer that inhibits the deterioration of these materials. For this project I will test two packaging methods. The first method involves melting indium over the calcium cathodes, and the second method uses aluminum duct tape to passivate the device. After packaging, I perform shelf-life and operating-life tests to determine the effectiveness of the each passivation scheme.


Based on the research findings, Tanzania has been cognisant of the fact that students can learn better in a language they understand. The government has been issuing policies with the intent to make Kiswahili a medium of instruction at all levels of education but without implementation. The study was conducted using documentary review, semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions to examine government generated documents, namely the Cultural Policy of 1997, Education and Training Policy of 1995 and 2014 on the use of Kiswahili as medium of instruction (MoI). The focus was to examine the government generated documents on the intent to use Kiswahili as a medium of instruction and the implementation of this decision, to analyse stakeholders' views on the appropriate medium of instruction, and to give a critical analysis as to why the proposal to make Kiswahili MoI in the Education and Training Policy could face some challenges in implementation. Previous policies, reports, the perceptions and views of education stakeholders were analysed. The findings indicate that there have been some initiatives to make Kiswahili a medium of instruction at all levels of education but such initiatives have been crippled by lack of a political will and misconceptions by some stakeholders who question the possibility for the learners to use Kiswahili as the MoI and still learn English, the language Tanzania needs for wider communication. The article concludes that although the proposed policy is suitable in Tanzania and actually long overdue, we are sceptical of its implementation. This is based on the previous state of affairs in which the government did not implement the proposed switch to Kiswahili as indicated in the reviewed policies and government pronouncements.


DHEA, prasterone, (3β)-3-hydroxyandrost-5-en-17-one, is a natural secondary metabolite that is, mainly in its sulphated form, present in young humans. After the age of 30 its concentration gradually lowers. When it is supplemented to the elderly people, their well-being and sexual functions grow up together with mental capacity. Alternatively, it may help to cure number of diseases. However, as it is considered to be anabolic androgen, i.e., doping, its use is in the Czech Republic limited on the medical prescription only.
Full text English translation is available in the on-line version.


Within the allied professions of architecture, engineering, and construction, there is an imminent need to creatively hybridize the disparate realms of research, public interest design, and traditional practice. This hybrid has the potential to reinvigorate these professions and shift the relevance of the industry in line with the current and future issues facing the built environment. Snow Kreilich Architects, has begun to combine these disparate realms of practice/inquiry into a hybridized studio model in Minneapolis, Minnesota. This paper will use case study methodology to document and summarize the process of forming such a hybrid. The topics discussed will include: (1) Drawing precedent for research-oriented and purposeoriented organizations and from the fields of medicine, law, and technology. (2) The underpinnings of hybrid design organizations, drawing precedent from the University of Minnesota's Master of Research Practices in Architecture (MS-RP) program (3) evaluate and discuss the successes and shortcomings associated with hybridizing an existing studio-based architectural practice. (4) Discuss the potential benefits of combining these realms from a financial, operational, and relevance point of view. As a case study, Snow Kreilich Architects' existing architectural practice explored how research within the firm has potential to elevate the everyday work we do and also provide design services through alternative means to marginalized topics and populations, both domestically and abroad. Critically, both types of service are arranged logistically to behave in symbiosis. Within this evolving environment at Snow Kreilich Architects, the unlikely combination of research, architectural services, and public interest design agendas found common ground to be pursued through an innovative business model. Identifying alternative, recurring sources of funding was a critical step in forming an operational and budgetary plan for how research and pro bono activities could function alongside the existing structure of the firm. These two modes of practice were already an integral part of the way the studio worked but both research and pro bono projects were treated as entirely philanthropic activities. Leveraging interdisciplinary partnerships under the umbrella of a non-profit status allowed previously anecdotal research and philanthropic design projects to go further and have larger impact backed by calculated research methodology and dedicated research staff. The hybrid studio offers possibilities for the profession to broaden its lens, work with unlikely interdisciplinary partners, and design for segments of the population outside the profession's traditional reach. The hybrid structure piloted and evolving at Snow Kreilich Architects allows the studio the flexibility and capacity to deal with complex problems presented in the world. We see the opportunities for this type of hybrid operational model to expand its application and to grow in importance as the architectural profession, and other professions, are asked to creatively produce thoughtful solutions to urgent issues in the built and unbuilt environments.


Dependability of computer and communication networks is an important aspect of the customer-provider relationship in the telecommunication industry. Considering the increasing interest in Software-Defined Networking (SDN) technologies, as well as unclear understanding of dependability in the context of traffic flows in such networks, it is not clear how to define the related objectives in Service Level Agreements (SLAs), and how to estimate the risk of violation of the included dependability requirements. In this paper, we present a solution to both issues and we evaluate it in different scenarios by simulation. The results show that the proposed method is feasible and may help service providers to select the preferred recovery technique in SDN based on the estimated risk of violation of the SLA dependability requirements and known Service Level Objectives (SLOs).


Medium voltage high-power applications are usually realized using high voltage semiconductors (3.3 kV and above) operated in the hard switching mode with low switching frequencies (several hundreds of hertz). However, for high-power dc-dc converters employing a transformer for galvanic isolation, it is attractive to increase the switching frequency so that the transformer size can be reduced. An increase of the switching frequency implies an increase of the switching losses, and this has to be mitigated somehow, usually by choice of resonant topologies or soft switching techniques. Main focus of the paper is on the operation of the insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) within a high-power dc-dc LLC resonant converter, in order to explore interactions between semiconductor and circuit properties, which both must be simultaneously considered in order to achieve the best utilization of a high voltage power semiconductor operating at higher switching frequencies. For these purposes, switching properties of a standard 6.5 kV IGBT are compared with switching properties of two different optimized versions of a 6.5 kV IGBT. Experimental results are included to support theoretical considerations and findings.


The thesis attempts to explain the emergence of maintained secondary education in Ealing by 1913 and to describe the subsequent development of the maintained secondary schools up to 1944. These developments are set within the context of the community which formed the borough and of the county of Middlesex. They are related to contemporary educational ideas and practices. Contributory demographic, social and political influences on the development of maintained secondary education in Ealing are identified and an assessment of the roles of influential personalities is undertaken. Some appraisal of the success or otherwise of Middlesex and Ealing policy and of the place of this policy within the national framework is offered. An effort has been made to portray adequately the educational experiences of boys and girls at the Ealing County Secondary Schools in the period 1913-1944.The possibility of a thesis first arose with the acquisition of notebooks and documents belonging to the late Mr. E.P.H. Pugh. These were kindly lent by Mrs. Pugh. The notebooks contain copies of documents relating to many aspects of Ealing's history including some relevant to education. The documents in the collection include some annual reports of the Ealing Educational Association and the Ealing Education Committee together with letters and papers concerned with discussions prior to the implementation of the 1944 Education Act in the borough. As such the collection has been a useful springboard from which to launch a study of secondary education in Ealing between 1902 and 1944.other local primary sources consulted are to be found in the Ealing Reference Library and the Greater London Records Office and History Library. They include newspapers, the minutes of various education, borough and county committees, head teachers' reports, the reports of H,M. school inspectors and the texts of various addresses and lectures given during the period by the personalities involved. National primary sources consulted are to be found in the Public Records Office. Attempts were made to contact former pupils and teachers who worked in the Ealing County Schools between 1913 and 194.4,. Those who contributed are listed in the bibliography.


PurposeStructural equation modelling (SEM) has been defined as the combination of latent variables and structural relationships. The partial least squares SEM (PLS-SEM) is used to estimate complex cause-effect relationship models with latent variables as the most salient research methods across a variety of disciplines, including knowledge management (KM). Following the path initiated by different domains in business research, this paper aims to examine how PLS-SEM has been applied in KM research, also providing some new guidelines how to improve PLS-SEM report analysis.Design/methodology/approachTo ensure an objective way to analyse relevant works in the field of KM, this study conducted a systematic literature review of 63 publications in three SSCI-indexed and specific KM journals between 2015 and 2017.FindingsOur results show that over the past three years, a significant amount of KM works has empirically used PLS-SEM. The findings also suggest that in light of recent developments of PLS-SEM reporting, some common misconceptions among KM researchers occurred mainly related to the reasons for using PLS-SEM, the purposes of PLS-SEM analysis, data characteristics, model characteristics and the evaluation of the structural models.Originality/valueThis study contributes to that vast KM literature by documenting the PLS-SEM-related problems and misconceptions. Therefore, it will shed light for better reports in PLS-SEM studies in the KM field.


This essay explores a central question for all those involved in education and sustainability (ESD): What are you really most interested in: educational or social outcomes—what learners learn, or what they do? Although this is hardly a new question, the paper argues that it is one that needs to be emphasised at this time when we see a tightening focus on modifying behaviours, and the conscription of educational institutions and programmes to these ends. The essay takes the promotion of Fairtrade, a contemporary view on how ESD might be conceptualised, and a recent report from the English schools inspectorate, to explore where an appropriate balance might be struck between these. The essay argues that, although both educational and social outcomes are important, when it comes to making judgements about school effectiveness, this needs to be tightly focused on what young people are learning rather than on, say, the amount of energy they have saved or waste they have recycled.


In The Myth of Efficient Breach: New Defenses of the Expectation Interest, Daniel Markovits and Alan Schwartz argue that contractual promises between sophisticated parties are best interpreted as disjunctive promises to perform or pay damages. They further argue that this dual performance hypothesis answers moral critics of the expectation remedy. This comment makes three claims about Markovits and Schwartz's argument. First, although the dual performance hypothesis is supported by Markovits and Schwartz's instrumentalist model, they do not have a good argument that it is empirically correct - that it is the best interpretation of what sophisticated parties actually intend. Such an argument is necessary to fully answer the moral critics. Second, the dual performance hypothesis is still worth taking seriously, as it casts new light on the implications of the theory of efficient breach and the economic model that stands behind it. In particular, the hypothesis helps explain why punitive damages can make sense when breaching parties attempt to evade their obligation to pay damages. Finally, the dual performance hypothesis is not the best answer to moral critics of expectation damages. Rather than reinterpreting the content of contractual promises, we should reject the premise that parties' moral obligations are best understood on the model of promises. We should also reject the assumption that contract law serves morality only if it enforces parties' first-order moral obligations. A contract law might serve morality instead by serving corrective justice or by supporting the social practice of entering into and keeping agreements.


This paper analyses and compares ten institutions that have a mandate to promote productivity-enhancing reforms. The selected bodies include government advisory councils, standing inquiry bodies, and ad hoc, temporary task forces. We find that well-designed pro-productivity institutions can generally improve the quality of the policy process and political debate, and can make a significant contribution to evidence-based policymaking. Our findings also support the view that concentrating knowledge and research on productivity in one independent, highly skilled and reputed body can help create the momentum and the knowledge that are required to embrace the challenging task of promoting long-term productivity growth. We also find evidence that while institutions located outside government have more leeway in promoting reforms that challenge vested interests and produce results over a time span that goes beyond the electoral cycle, the existence of smart government bodies can allow experimental policymaking and a more adaptive, evidence-based policy process. We also find that it is of utmost importance to provide these bodies with sufficient resources, skills, transparency and procedural accountability to fulfil their tasks; a sufficiently broad mission, oriented towards long-term well-being and at both supply-side and demand-side considerations; policy evaluation functions; and the ability to reach out to the general public in a variety of ways, from consultation to advocacy, use of social media, and other forms of communication.


Throughout history, new ideas in medicine or science have met initial resistance by entrenched medical or scientific communities. Barriers to medical innovation fall into six main categories as listed here in order of historical chronology: (1) Theological, (2) Academic, (3) Scientific, (4) Financial, (5) Governmental, and (6) Commercial. Researchers in the field of neuroinflammation often encounter such obstacles that may include denial - ism. Despite these barriers, recognition of the therapeutic potential of targeting neuroin flammation for treatment of stroke, traumatic brain injury, Alzheimer's disease, spinal pain, and a variety of additional brain disorders has accelerated in the past 10 years. Consequently, a paradigm shift in scientific thinking regarding neuroinflammation as a therapeutic target is now underway.


This article offers a critical reading of the Federal Communications Commission's December 23, 2010 Report and Order entitled "Preserving the Open Internet." In the end, the agency failed to produce any evidence of a need for regulatory intervention to "preserve" this robust ecosystem. Nor could it overcome a chorus of criticism from Congress and legal academics, who continued to remind the FCC that it had no authority from Congress to manage engineering practices of broadband access providers. The likelihood is very high that legal challenges will result in a ruling that the rulemaking was beyond the agency's limited jurisdiction. As with any lawmaking involving disruptive technologies, moreover, the risk of unintended consequences is high. In its haste to pass rules before the opening of a new Congress with a Republican-controlled House, the Commission's Democratic majority interfered with the continued evolution of this vital technology. This article dissects several key aspects of the Open Internet Order, including the evolution of what the agency terms its "prophylactic" rules, the perceived market failures that led the agency to issue them, and a number of approved exceptions, caveats, and exemptions that reveal a fundamental misunderstanding by the agency of the meaning of "the Open Internet" in the first place. Additionally, it includes a discussion of the largely unexamined costs of enforcing the rules, as well as the most significant holes in the agency's legal justification for issuing them.


Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) can be used as a way to modernize Legacy Applications (LAs), in particular to provide users with an innovative, state-of-the-art interactive experience. RIAs have the same richness in term of interaction grammar as Client-Server Applications (CSAs) and Desktop Applications (DAs), giving designers the opportunity to exploit the Web infrastructure also in domains where the communication between the user and the application is more complex of a sequence of page requests. In the transition from LAs to RIAs, however, several challenges need to be faced, including fundamental issues affecting user requirements and usability. In this paper we present the preliminary results of a large-scale industrial project, which focused on migrating a complex LA (VB6 + Cobol) to a RIA (JSF + SOA). In this context, we introduce a novel method (Rich-IDM) to transform the design of the User Experience (UX) and the strategy for interactive communication from LAs to RIAs in a graceful and disciplined manner, thus preventing the many flaws that typically are manifested in similar projects. We also show how Rich-IDM originally extends and well integrates into other well-known conceptual tools — the Conallen's UX model and the RUX model — within the OMG's ADM framework.


Background: Snoring, an indicator of sleep-disordered breathing (SDB), associates with all-cause and cardiovascular (CV) mortality in high-risk conditions such as chronic heart failure (HF). Because SDB and HF are exceedingly frequent in end-stage kidney disease (ESKD), we hypothesized that SDB as detected by snoring may impact upon the relationship between chronic HF and all-cause and CV mortality in these patients. Methods: We tested this hypothesis in a cohort of 827 ESKD patients, followed up for 2.3 years. Results: In this population, snoring was a strong modifier of the risk of chronic HF for all-cause and CV death. In fully adjusted Cox models, the hazard ratio (HR) associated to chronic HF for the study outcomes was highest in heavy snorers [all-cause death: HR 2.6 (95% CI 1.6-4.3, p < 0.001); CV death: HR 4.0 (95% CI 2.1-7.6, p < 0.001)], intermediate in moderate snorers [all-cause death: HR 1.6 (95% CI 1.1-2.2, p = 0.01); CV death: HR 1.8 (95% CI 1.2-2.8, p = 0.01)], and lowest and not significant in non-snorers [all-cause death: HR 0.9 (95% CI 0.6-1.6, p = NS); CV death: HR 0.8 (95% CI 0.4-1.6, p = NS)]. Conclusions: Snoring is a strong and independent effect modifier of the relationship between chronic HF and all-cause and CV mortality in ESKD. Since SDB and snoring are in part attributable to reversible pharyngeal oedema, intensified surveillance and treatment of chronic HF snorers on dialysis may translate into better clinical outcomes in this very high-risk population, an issue which remains to be tested in specifically designed clinical trials.


Noncoding RNAs transcribed from DNA repeats in heterochromatin are expressed at surprisingly high levels in tumors. Satellite repeats in heterochromatin are transcribed into noncoding RNAs that have been linked to gene silencing and maintenance of chromosomal integrity. Using digital gene expression analysis, we showed that these transcripts are greatly overexpressed in mouse and human epithelial cancers. In 8 of 10 mouse pancreatic ductal adenocarcinomas (PDACs), pericentromeric satellites accounted for a mean 12% (range 1 to 50%) of all cellular transcripts, a mean 40-fold increase over that in normal tissue. In 15 of 15 human PDACs, alpha satellite transcripts were most abundant and HSATII transcripts were highly specific for cancer. Similar patterns were observed in cancers of the lung, kidney, ovary, colon, and prostate. Derepression of satellite transcripts correlated with overexpression of the long interspersed nuclear element 1 (LINE-1) retrotransposon and with aberrant expression of neuroendocrine-associated genes proximal to LINE-1 insertions. The overexpression of satellite transcripts in cancer may reflect global alterations in heterochromatin silencing and could potentially be useful as a biomarker for cancer detection.


The economies of developed countries have, since 2007, experienced the most significant and persistent period of economic malaise since the 1930s. Domestic economic policies have failed to revive sustained economic growth and, as a result, unemployment remains at levels that voters find difficult to accept. In addition, without tax revenue-enhancing growth, government deficits persist, and borrowing to finance the cumulative deficits has become increasingly difficult for some countries. With domestic policies largely exhausted, but economic growth elusive, policy makers have been considering external policies as a means to stimulate their economies. Trade protectionism and strategic devaluation are potential policies. The lessons of the 1930s regarding the dangers of beggar thy neighbour protectionism appear to retain their currency with policy makers, but the same may not be true for strategic devaluation. The article outlines the likely poor efficacy of strategic devaluation as a politically convenient mechanism to escape the current economic malaise.


The view that American capitalism is in a period of crisis is now all but universal, shared alike by observers of all political and ideological persuasions. The important question is therefore whether it is of a temporary cyclical nature—as, for example, the representatives of the administration in power maintain—or whether it is something deeper and more long-run, as an increasing number of unofficial analysts believe. If the former of these views were correct, we would not need to spend much time on the subject. After all, cyclical crises have characterized the history of capitalism for at least a hundred and fifty years, and most of them have not left any lasting effect. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that most of them have had a beneficial effect in that they have been the means whereby accumulated distortions and disequilibria have been corrected and the system has prepared itself for a new advance.This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website, where most recent articles are published in full.Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.


This paper investigates the cointegrating and long-term causal relationships between the Shanghai A and B-share market, and between these two markets and the Hong Kong, the Taiwanese, the Japanese and the US market of two sub periods between July 1993 and March 2007. On the basis of a new Granger non-causality test procedure developed by Toda-Yamamoto (1995) and Johansen's (1988) cointegration test, my results suggest that a long-term equilibrium relationship measured by cointegration has been merged between the Chinese A-share market and the other markets in greater China region as well as the US market during the post-crisis period which covers the period since Chinese A-share market was opened to the Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors (QFII) in 2002. I also found that the Shanghai A-share market uni-directionally Granger-causes the other regional markets after the Asian financial crisis, while the A-share market and Hong Kong H-share market have had a significant feedback relationship since then. However, I found no evidence there has been cointegrating relationship between Shanghai B-share market and any other market ever since the B-share market was opened to the local retail investors in 2001.


Context. Observations of polarized radio emission show that large-scale (regular) magnetic fields in spiral galaxies are not fully axisymmetric, but generally stronger in interarm regions. In some nearby galaxies such as NGC 6946 they are organized in narrow magnetic arms situated between the material spiral arms. Aims. The phenomenon of magnetic arms and their relation to the optical spiral arms (the material arms) calls for an explanation in the framework of galactic dynamo theory. Several possibilities have been suggested but are not completely satisfactory; here we attempt a consistent investigation. Methods. We use a 2D mean-field dynamo model in the no-z approximation and add injections of small-scale magnetic field, taken to result from supernova explosions, to represent the effects of dynamo action on smaller scales. This injection of small scale field is situated along the spiral arms, where star-formation mostly occurs. Results. A straightforward explanation of magnetic arms as a result of modulation of the dynamo mechanism by material arms struggles to produce pronounced magnetic arms, at least with realistic parameters, without introducing new effects such as a time lag between Coriolis force and α-effect. In contrast, by taking into account explicitly the small-scale magnetic field that is injected into the arms by the action of the star forming regions that are concentrated there, we can obtain dynamo models with magnetic structures of various forms that can be compared with magnetic arms. These are rather variable entities and their shape changes significantly on timescales of a few 100 Myr. Properties of magnetic arms can be controlled by changing the model parameters. In particular, a lower injection rate of small-scale field makes the magnetic configuration smoother and eliminates distinct magnetic arms. Conclusions. We conclude that magnetic arms can be considered as coherent magnetic structures generated by large-scale dynamo action, and associated with spatially modulated small-scale magnetic fluctuations, caused by enhanced star formation rates within the material arms.


In this paper, we design a multi-user ultra-wideband system for indoor wireless communication. The proposed system is useful in multipath radio reception as the full multipath diversity gain is achieved. The system has multiple transmitters and receivers. They use polyphase spreading waveforms which feature low levels of mutual interference and enable each of the channel impulse responses to be measured free from distortion continuously with each data symbol transmission. A key feature of the proposed system is that transmitted waveforms are used which produce outputs from the receiver cross correlators, which are zero on both sides of the main correlation peak, for each radio path. This zero response lasts for a duration in excess of the expected delay spread of the radio channel enabling full Rake processing of the multipath signal. The effects of the low levels of mutual interference are reduced further by using time and frequency hopping, forward error correction and soft decision decoding.


Courts and commentators have struggled hard for many decades to develop rules that separate the lawful conduct of a single firm from the unlawful. That struggle continues today. We trace a bit of the history of this struggle, summarize where the courts are today, and then offer a few suggestions for a path going forward. Particularly, we explain why examining both defendant's conduct and effects on the plaintiff--as modern antitrust analysis does--is appropriate. Because the issue is exclusion, and because the fundamental concern in the raising rivals' costs paradigm is whether a rival can achieve minimum efficient scale, some inquiry into whether the plaintiff can or cannot compete effectively against the tactics in question is essential. Conduct challenged as exclusionary may in fact prevent rivals from constraining the market power of a dominant firm. But the effects of that conduct, almost invariably, are ambiguous: Does the conduct prevent rivals from competing effectively or should it cause rivals to compete more effectively? Distinguishing between these two effects is essential because the one threatens consumer harm while the other yields consumer benefits. There is no one-size-fits-all test for distinguishing exclusionary conduct from aggressive but legitimate competition. But by placing at least some of the focus on whether an efficient rival could meet or defeat the tactics in question, important light is shed on the ultimate question of consumer harm. The law is moving in that direction, and that trend should continue.


In this paper, we address the problem of creating an objective benchmark for comparing SLAM approaches. We propose a framework for analyzing the results of SLAM approaches based on a metric for measuring the error of the corrected trajectory. The metric uses only relative relations between poses and does not rely on a global reference frame. The idea is related to graph-based SLAM approaches, namely to consider the energy that is needed to deform the trajectory estimated by a SLAM approach into the ground truth trajectory. Our method enables us to compare SLAM approaches that use different estimation techniques or different sensor modalities since all computations are made based on the corrected trajectory of the robot. We provide sets of relative relations needed to compute our metric for an extensive set of datasets frequently used in the SLAM community. The relations have been obtained by manually matching laser-range observations to avoid the errors caused by matching algorithms. Our benchmark framework allows the user an easy analysis and objective comparisons between different SLAM approaches.


Spike generation and routing is typically the most energy-demanding operation in neuromorphic hardware built using spiking neurons. Spiking neural networks running on neuromorphic hardware, however, often use rate-coding where the neurons spike rate is treated as the information-carrying quantity. Rate-coding is a highly inefficient coding scheme with minimal information content in each spike, which requires the transmission of a large number of spikes. In this paper, we describe an alternative type of spiking networks based on temporal coding where neuron spiking activity is very sparse and information is encoded in the time of each spike. We implemented the proposed networks on an FPGA platform and we use these sparsely active spiking networks to classify MNIST digits. The network FPGA implementation produces the classification output using only few tens of spikes from the hidden layer, and the classification result is obtained very quickly, typically within 1–3 synaptic time constants. We describe the idealized network dynamics and how these dynamics are adapted to allow an efficient implementation on digital hardware. Our results illustrate the importance of making use of the temporal dynamics in spiking networks in order to maximize the information content of each spike, which ultimately leads to reduced spike counts, improved energy efficiency, and faster response times.


Background: Fine needle is defined as a needle with a diameter of less than 0.21 mm (21 gauge). Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology is a time tested, reliable technique for diagnosis of lesions of various organs. However this has not been yet tested in bone marrow. Objective: Assess the feasibility of Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology in bone marrow. Patients and Methods Setting: Department of Pathology, Azad Jammu and Kashmir Medical College / Sheikh Zayed Bin Khalifa hospital Muzaffarabad Subjects: Fine Needle Aspiration Biopsy was first performed on 30 patients referred for conventional bone marrow aspiration examination to our department with their consent. Procedure was performed using 22 gauge needle and 10 cc syringe. Results: The Fine Needle Aspirate was quiet adequate in 27 cases (90%) revealing normal abnormal hematopoietic cells as well as non-hematopoietic elements. Conclusion: In many cases, Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology of bone marrow has great potential of replacing conventional thicker bone marrow aspiration needle which is much more painful and uncomfortable.


Daily employers, customers, communities and the general public are confronted with individuals and organisations that blatantly refuse to accept any accountability for their actions.
The mayor of a large city who is unwilling to accept accountability for the city's disastrous billing system, the estate agent who is not prepared to admit accountability for the mismanagement of trust accounts, the MEC who escapes accountability when trapped speeding at 235 kilometres per hour or the mining company who does not accept accountability for the untreated and polluted water flowing from its mine into the surrounding water systems.
These examples are symptomatic of how far both individuals and organisations have come to merely blink away their accountability and to what extent society at large is allowing accountability to be trashed.


Vietnamese Australians who arrived in Australia as refugees since the 1970s and later as migrants, have developed complex relationships of remembering, knowing and belonging to environments in Vietnam and Sydney. Water was a frequent point of reference in our interviews with Vietnamese people in Sydney, and their relationships with water are used in this article to explore interviewees' associations with places. The article focuses on cultural knowledge of environments, which people bring with them, such as their connections with rivers and oceans, central to both memories of place and the histories of Vietnam. These memories also change with return visits and experiences between these places. Vietnamese refugees' experiences of escape and trauma coming across oceans from Vietnam also influence subsequent relationships with place. Finally, relationships with Sydney parks and urban waterways are explored by examining popular places for family and community get-togethers along Georges River, located near where many Sydney Vietnamese people live. These have become key places in making Sydney home for Vietnamese people. The article considers how Vietnamese Australian cultural knowledge of place could be shared and acknowledged by park managers and used in park interpretation.


Once understood, behavioral principles and processes can be translated into practices that provide an array of solutions to the challenges people face in managing to maintain livelihoods and the integrity of landscapes. Unlike the infrastructure of a ranch such as corrals, fences, and water development, behavioral solutions cost little to implement and they are not fossil-fuel intensive. They are also easily transferred from one situation to the next. Unfortunately, scientists and managers often ignore the power of behavior to transform systems, despite compelling evidence. The environment, continually interacting with the genome during the growth and development of an organism, creates behavioral responses that in social animals are transferred across generations. Given time, that forms the basis for what it means to be locally adapted to a landscape. Though experiences during development in utero and early in life are especially critical, genome-environment interactions continue throughout life. Thus, the issue is not whether if soils, plants, herbivores, and people are adapting to ongoing changes in biophysical and social environments; they all do so continually. For those willing to understand how these ongoing interactions influence behavior, the potential is unlimited. In the case of grazing, behavioral solutions are increasingly attractive given growing social, economic and ecological concerns with wildfires, herbicides, and mechanical means of rejuvenating landscapes. Behavior-based management offers opportunities, for example, to use understanding of: (i) the relationship between palatability and plant biochemistry to rejuvenate landscapes to benefit wild and domestic animals; (ii) the importance of variety in the diet and daily grazing sequences of livestock to enhance wildlife benefits to land owners, managers, and users; and (iii) the value of biochemical complementarities for developing plant mixes for pastures that provide a full range of benefits - nutrition and health for plants, herbivores, and people - without the unsustainable fossil fuel costs associated with fertilizers, herbicides, insecticides, antibiotics and anthelmintics.


The technical problem addressed in this paper is, given two rule systems for consequence relations X and Y , how to construct Y-approximations of a given X-relation. While an upper Yapproximation can be easily constructed if all Yrules are Horn, the construction of lower Yapproximations is less straightforward. We address the problem by defining the notion of c closure under co-Horn rules, that can be used to remedy violation of certain rules by removing arguments. In particular, we show how the coclosure under Monotonicity can be used to construct the monotonic restriction of a preferential relation. Unlike the more usual closure under the rules of M , this co-closure operator supports the intuition that preferential reasoning is more liberal than monotonic reasoning. The approach is embedded in a general framework for comparing rule systems for consequence relations. A salient feature of this framework is that it is also possible to c mpare rule systems that are not related by metalevel entailment.


In the history of international relations, few events command as much attention as revolution and war. Over the centuries, revolutionary transformations have produced some of the most ruinous and bloody wars. Nevertheless, the breakdown of peace in time of revolution is poorly understood. Patrick Conge offers a groundbreaking study of the relationship between war and revolution.How can we best understand the effect of revolutionary transformations on the politics of war and peace? Conge argues that it is only by bringing in, first, the organizational capacity of revolutionary regimes to extract resources and convert them into military strength and, second, the power of transformative ideas to transcend national boundaries and undermine the ability of opposing regimes to compromise that we are best able to understand the effect of revolution on the origins and persistence of war. By incorporating such key elements, this book provides a new, more comprehensive explanation of the relationship between revolution, war, and peace.Conditions that lead to and sustain wars in general are identified and placed in the light of revolutionary transformations. Once the argument is presented, historical case studies are used to test its plausibility. Conge demonstrates the importance of the effect of revolutionary organization and ideas on the outcome of conflicts.Political scientists, historians, sociologists, and the general reader interested in the politics of war and peace in revolutionary times are given new perspectives on the relationship between revolution and war as well as on the implications of political organization for military power and the process of consolidation of new regimes.Patrick J. Conge is Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Arkansas.


Background: Plasma levels of small, dense low-density lipoprotein (LDL) were reported to increase in chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients on hemodialysis (HD), but most of these patients were hypertriglyceridemic. Plasma levels of small, dense LDL are known to increase in hypertriglyceridemic subjects. Therefore, to investigate the direct effect of CKD on the distribution of LDL subfractions, we investigated the distribution of LDL subfractions in normotriglyceridemic CKD patients on HD. Methods: The levels of plasma lipoprotein subfractions and lecithin:cholesterol acyltransferase (LCAT) and cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP), which markedly influence the distributions of plasma LDL and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) subfractions, were compared between 40 HD patients and 40 normolipidemic controls. Plasma lipoproteins were subfractionated into seven subfractions by ultracentrifugation. Results: Plasma levels of cholesterol (C) in remnant-like particle, which is equivalent to the triglyceride (TG)-rich lipoprotein remnant, were twice as high in HD patients as those in controls with matched TG levels. Plasma levels of C and TG in VLDL and IDL (intermediate density lipoprotein) were slightly higher in HD patients than in controls. The C/TG ratio of VLDL was significantly higher in HD patients than in controls. In comparison with the corresponding values in controls, the C and TG levels in low-density LDL and HDL2 in HD patients were high, whereas those in medium-density LDL, high-density LDL, and HDL3 were low. Plasma LCAT activity and CETP mass were lower in HD patients than in controls. Conclusion: Distribution of LDL and HDL skewed toward less dense fractions in normotriglyceridemic CKD patients on HD. A decrease in reverse C transport likely played an important role in these changes in the patients.


Context: Beckwith–Wiedemann syndrome (BWS) arises by several genetic and epigenetic mechanisms affecting the balance of imprinted gene expression in chromosome 11p15.5. The most frequent alteration associated with BWS is the absence of methylation at the maternal allele of KvDMR1, an intronic CpG island within the KCNQ1 gene. Targeted deletion of KvDMR1 suggests that this locus is an imprinting control region (ICR) that regulates multiple genes in 11p15.5. Cell culture based enhancer blocking assays indicate that KvDMR1 may function as a methylation modulated chromatin insulator and/or silencer. Objective: To determine the potential consequence of loss of methylation (LOM) at KvDMR1 in the development of BWS. Methods: The steady state levels of CDKN1C gene expression in fibroblast cells from normal individuals, and from persons with BWS who have LOM at KvDMR1, was determined by both real time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) and ribonuclease protection assay (RPA). Methylation of the CDKN1C promoter region was assessed by Southern hybridisation using a methylation sensitive restriction endonuclease. Results: Both qPCR and RPA clearly demonstrated a marked decrease (86–93%) in the expression level of the CDKN1C gene in cells derived from patients with BWS, who had LOM at KvDMR1. Southern analysis indicated that downregulation of CDKN1C in these patients was not associated with hypermethylation at the presumptive CDKN1C promoter. Conclusions: An epimutation at KvDMR1, the absence of maternal methylation, causes the aberrant silencing of CDKN1C, some 180 kb away on the maternal chromosome. Similar to mutations at this locus, this silencing may give rise to BWS.


We explored the bacterial diversity of untreated sewage influent samples of a wastewater treatment plant in Tucson, AZ and discovered that Arcobacter cryaerophilus, an emerging human pathogen of animal origin, was the most dominant bacterium. The other highly prevalent bacteria were members of the phyla Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes, which are major constituents of human gut microbiome, indicating that bacteria of human and animal origin intermingle in sewage. By assembling a near-complete genome of A. cryaerophilus, we show that the bacterium has accumulated a large number of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) probably enabling it to thrive in the wastewater. We also determined that a majority of ARGs was being expressed in sewage, suggestive of trace levels of antibiotics or other stresses that could act as a selective force that amplifies multidrug resistant bacteria in municipal sewage. Because all bacteria are not eliminated even after several rounds of wastewater treatment, ARGs in sewage could affect public health due to their potential to contaminate environmental water.


It is possible that many benefits may be found for all concerned in education and child development in understanding how knowledge of the brain and its development can inform early years practice. This article, written by Brenda Peters and Chris Forlin, both from the Hong Kong Institute of Education, reviews literature based on neuroscience to establish potential links with teaching and learning, in an attempt to identify the most appropriate pedagogical support for children with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD). Two key themes have emerged: firstly, neuroscience and education and translation between these disciplines, and secondly, the relevance of these developments for specific groups of learners. This article focuses on early educational intervention and how emerging evidence from neuroscience and collaboration with educators may support future developments for practice for these young learners with ASD.


Many organizations are looking to implement Service Operation Processes as a way to improve the structure and quality of the business. The information found within the book is based on the ITIL Version 3 framework, specifically the Event Management, Incident Management, Request Fulfillment, Problem Management and Access Management processes. The book is designed to answer a lot of the questions about IT Operations Management and provide you with useful guides, templates and essential, but simple to use assessments. The supporting documents and assessments will help you identify the areas within your organization that require the most activity in terms of change and improvement. Presentations can be used to educate or be used as the basis for management presentations or when making business cases for IT Operations Management implementation. The additional information will enable you to improve your organizations methodology knowledge base. This guide serves to act as a starting point. It will give you a clear path to travel. It is designed to be a valuable source of information and activities. The IT Operations Management Guide Flows logically, Is scalable, Provides presentations, templates and documents AND Saves you time.


Adhesins are a group of proteins in enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) that are involved in the attachment or colonization of this pathogen to abiotic (plastic or steel) and biological surfaces, such as those found in bovine and human intestines. This review provides the most up-to-date information on these essential adhesion factors, summarizing important historical discoveries and analyzing the current and future state of this research. In doing so, the proteins intimin and Tir are discussed in depth, especially regarding their role in the development of attaching and effacing lesions and in EHEC virulence. Further, a series of fimbrial proteins (Lpf1, Lpf2, curli, ECP, F9, ELF, Sfp, HCP, and type 1 fimbria) are also described, emphasizing their various contributions to adherence and colonization of different surfaces and their potential use as genetic markers in detection and classification of different EHEC serotypes. This review also discusses the role of several autotransporter proteins (EhaA-D, EspP, Saa and Sab, and Cah), as well as other proteins associated with adherence, such as flagella, EibG, Iha, and OmpA. While these proteins have all been studied to varying degrees, all of the adhesins summarized in this article have been linked to different stages of the EHEC life cycle, making them good targets for the development of more effective diagnostics and therapeutics.


Context: Recurrent and recalcitrant dermatophytosis is a major evolving health problem in India. Histopathology is important in the diagnosis of recurrent and resistant cases, as it is postulated that hair follicle epithelium is affected, acting as the reservoir leading to recurrence and recalcitrance. Aims: This study aims to study histopathology of hair follicle epithelium in patients of recurrent and recalcitrant dermatophytosis. Settings and Design: A diagnostic cross-sectional study was performed at tertiary care hospital and referral center in central India. Materials and Methods: A 3 mm-sized punch skin biopsy was taken from 108 patients of recurrent or recalcitrant dermatophytosis involving hair follicles. Sections were stained by hematoxylin and eosin (H and E) stain in these patients followed by special stains such as periodic acid–Schiff (PAS) stain and Gomori methenamine silver (GMS) stain in 78 individuals where hair follicle was seen on H and E stain. Results: In H and E stain, surface epidermis fungus was observed in 57/108 patients (52.7%). In hair follicle-positive sections (78), surface fungus was seen in 52.6% with H and E stain, 84.6% with PAS stain, and 91% with GMS stain. H and E was 62.12% sensitive and 100% specific to diagnose fungus when compared with PAS stain and 57.7% sensitive and 100% specific when compared with GMS stain. PAS was 91.5% sensitive and 85.7% specific when compared with GMS stain. Ectothrix infection was the most common form of hair infection observed in 87.2% cases with GMS stain. Simultaneous presence of fungus in hair follicle and stratum corneum was observed in 87.3% of patients. Conclusion: Majority of patients showed affection of hair follicles by dermatophytes in clinically chronic, recurrent, and recalcitrant dermatophytic infections. GMS stain is the acceptable gold standard for detection of fungal elements.


The legal and illegal trade in wild animals and their products is a multi-billion dollar industry that threatens the health and well-being of humans and animals alike. The management of the wildlife trade is a crisis-driven area, where decisions are made quickly, and, often, inefficiently. In particular, the regulation and control of the illegal wildlife trade is hampered by a dearth of formal quantitative analysis of the nature of the trade. This thesis represents a preliminary attempt to rectify that knowledge gap. It describes an investigation into the factors that support and promote the trade and is based upon information in two databases: CITES (the legal trade) and HealthMap (the illegal trade). The study 1) quantified the relationship between the illegal wildlife trade and several key factors thought to contribute to the illegal wildlife trade, namely road development, unemployment, and Corruption Perception Index (a score related to the perceived level of corruption); 2) measured the extent to which the product types, origins, destinations, and trade routes in the legal and the illegal wildlife trade are alike; and 3) identified locations to place resources to (a) restrict trade by causing the greatest network destabilization and (b) disseminate an educational message that would cause the greatest impact to the network. Several key factors and the legal trade were associated with the magnitude of various indices of the illegal trade at a country-level, but no generalizable findings can be asserted at this time. With regard to the best placement of regulatory resources, China was key with respect to network disruption and information dissemination targets. This thesis has begun the urgently needed analysis of the complex relationships of the illegal wildlife trade and identified specific ways to bring about change using network science. These findings offer hope for regulatory and enforcement agencies, NGOs, and governments that it will be possible to find more effective ways of combating the illegal wildlife trade and problems it brings with it. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Epidemiology & Biostatistics First Advisor Gary Smith


The world needs to turn away from fossil fuels and use clean, renewable sources of energy as soon as we can. Failure to do so will cause catastrophic climate damage sooner than you might think, leading to loss of biodiversity and economic and political instability. But all is not lost! We still have time to save the planet without resorting to 'miracle' technologies. We need to wave goodbye to outdated technologies, such as natural gas and carbon capture, and repurpose the technologies that we already have at our disposal. We can use existing technologies to harness, store, and transmit energy from wind, water, and solar sources to ensure reliable electricity, heat supplies, and energy security. Find out what you can do to improve the health, climate, and economic state of our planet. Together, we can solve the climate crisis, eliminate air pollution and safely secure energy supplies for everyone.


The unintentional arrival of the cactus moth, Cactoblastis cactorum (Berg), in Florida has raised concerns for the safety of native and rare Opuntia species in the Florida Keys and the potential spread of C . cactorum to the Opuntia -rich areas of the western United States and Mexico. In addition to threatening the biodiversity of these native ecosystems, such non-target effects would generate negative publicity that could heighten public concern over the use of exotic natural enemies and jeopardize future biological control programs against weeds. In this paper we discuss the use of inherited (F 1 ) sterility in Lepidoptera to study, predict, and manage the expanding populations of C . cactorum . Research areas in which the use of F 1 sterility would be most applicable include (1) elucidation of the host range of C . cactorum for key native Opuntia species from across the U.S., (2) prediction of the geographic range of C . cactorum in the U.S. and Mexico, and (3) delineation of the impact of native natural enemies on the spread of C . cactorum . The use of F 1 sterility for control of C . cactorum would be most appropriate for (1) eradication of C . cactorum from areas of new introductions, or from isolated and/or environmentally sensitive areas such as the Florida Keys, (2) establishment of a barrier by means of release of irradiated moths along the leading edge of the C . cactorum geographical range, and (3) provisioning sterile C . cactorum in the field as hosts for released natural enemies to increase their initial survival and establishment.


It is a sad but regrettable fact that those who work in emergency departments (EDs) have to deal with violent and aggressive behaviour, whatever its aetiology. The UK's National Audit Office reports that such behaviour costs the NHS £69 million a year through staff absenteeism, paying for security, and lost productivity. In England alone, there are 56 000 assaults in NHS hospitals annually. Staff morale, retention and productivity are all affected.1

As a response to this problem, and following an earlier pledge from the Prime Minister to adopt a zero tolerance approach, the Department of Health made an interesting announcement in November last year—it asked the Design Council to help find solutions; the premise is that good and intelligent design has significant potential to make EDs safer. This mirrors well-established design principles that aim to reduce anxiety in other areas of a hospital—not just children's wards—for example, theatres, the ceilings and walls of procedural rooms (including the patient's view from a dental chair), as well as the ceilings and walls of CT/MRI …


Decentralized stochastic optimization methods have gained a lot of attention recently, mainly because of their cheap per iteration cost, data locality, and their communication-efficiency. In this paper we introduce a unified convergence analysis that covers a large variety of decentralized SGD methods which so far have required different intuitions, have different applications, and which have been developed separately in various communities.
Our algorithmic framework covers local SGD updates and synchronous and pairwise gossip updates on adaptive network topology. We derive universal convergence rates for smooth (convex and non-convex) problems and the rates interpolate between the heterogeneous (non-identically distributed data) and iid-data settings, recovering linear convergence rates in many special cases, for instance for over-parametrized models. Our proofs rely on weak assumptions (typically improving over prior work in several aspects) and recover (and improve) the best known complexity results for a host of important scenarios, such as for instance coorperative SGD and federated averaging (local SGD).


MYCN amplification is the most common genetic alteration in neuroblastoma and plays a critical role in neuroblastoma tumorigenesis. MYCN regulates neuroblastoma cell differentiation, which is one of the mechanisms underlying its oncogenic function. We recently identified a group of differentiation-inducing microRNAs. Given the demonstrated inter-regulation between MYCN and microRNAs, we speculated that MYCN and the differentiation-inducing microRNAs might form an interaction network to control the differentiation of neuroblastoma cells. In this study, we found that eight of the thirteen differentiation-inducing microRNAs, miR-506-3p, miR-124-3p, miR-449a, miR-34a-5p, miR-449b-5p, miR-103a-3p, miR-2110 and miR-34b-5p, inhibit N-Myc expression by either directly targeting the MYCN 3′UTR or through indirect regulations. Further investigation showed that both MYCN-dependent and MYCN-independent pathways play roles in mediating the differentiation-inducing function of miR-506-3p and miR-449a, two microRNAs that dramatically down-regulate MYCN expression. On the other hand, we found that N-Myc inhibits the expression of multiple differentiation-inducing microRNAs, suggesting that these miRNAs play a role in mediating the function of MYCN. In examining the published dataset collected from clinical neuroblastoma specimens, we found that expressions of two miRNAs, miR-137 and miR-2110, were significantly anti-correlated with MYCN mRNA levels, suggesting their interactions with MYCN play a clinically-relevant role in maintaining the MYCN and miRNA expression levels in neuroblastoma. Our findings altogether suggest that MYCN and differentiation-inducing miRNAs form an interaction network that play an important role in neuroblastoma tumorigenesis through regulating cell differentiation.


The cell is the smallest structural unit of biological life. These microscopic systems perform functions as diverse as energy metabolism, intra- and intercellular signalling by chemical and electrical means, and self-reproduction. Thousands of different biochemical and electrical processes are simultaneously performed with the aid of nanometre-sized proteins and information stored in DNA. Multiple processes interconnect, giving rise to complicated biological phenomena. Therefore measurement of biomolecules in intact live cells provides more relevant knowledge of their physiological function than biochemical assays carried out with purified molecules in test tubes. Several measurement techniques for single-cell analysis, developed in the past decades, have the sensitivity and resolution to monitor a small number of biomolecules within a single cell. For example, with patch clamp and related techniques, one can measure electric current passing through an ion channel to study the behaviour of a single protein molecule. Electrochemical methods such as amperometry and voltammetry allow measurement of about one hundred zepto moles of oxidisable chemicals secreted from a single cell. Various fluorescence techniques reveal the dynamics of intracellular signals such as free Ca2+ in a single cell. Newer application of nanotechnological measurements with high spatio-temporal resolution on single-cell analysis is certainly a promising area of both bionanotechnology and cell biology. In this review we will introduce several experimental approaches that have contributed to our understanding of cell functions.


The need for assistive technology (AT) extends far outside of the countries where users have the financial capacity to buy them, or there is a social welfare infrastructure to subsidize their purchase. In developing countries, where both technology and financial resources are scarce, AT users face tremendous challenges to find high-quality devices that are affordable. This scenario is in part due to organizations who transfer sub-standard AT to these countries by taking a 'something is better than nothing approach' to a clinically and technologically challenging problem. The goal of this work is to develop and demonstrate AT design and technology transfer strategies that take into consideration the clinical and technological needs of the intended user population. Although other projects have and do take these important user-centered factors into consideration, this work represents the first comprehensive attempt from an academic perspective, where hypotheses are proposed and tested, and design goals are described and evaluated with respect to the final product. The main focus of this work is on mobility devices (wheelchairs, specifically) although many of the protocols and techniques could be extended to address AT design and technology transfer to developing countries in general. The first part of this dissertation (Chapters 1 & 2) focuses on the background literature, and proposes a model describing the important factors influencing the success or failure of a wheelchair technology transfer project. The second part of this dissertation provides a case study in the development of an electric powered wheelchair for users in India. First, an analysis of a commercially available low-cost powered wheelchairs were evaluated (Chapter 3). Second, a study to assess the needs of users in India was performed using a modified ethnographic approach (Chapter 4). Third, the design and evaluation of a novel low-cost electric powered wheelchair for Indian users is described (Chapter 5). The final chapter (Chapter 6) discusses the implication of this work and suggests future directions. The entire drawing-set for the second generation prototype developed here is also included, allowing others to build upon the approach and the design developed here.


Scenarios for Evaluating a Semantic Project Management Approach Knowledge regarding closed projects is not sufficiently reused while planning new projects to improve the quality of project management processes. The reason is that current project management systems mainly support the ongoing project phase and do not explicitly consider the initiating and closing phase of a project management life cycle. By implementing semantic technologies within an existing open source project management system, these weaknesses can be improved. This system incorporates and links historical project knowledge that contributes to a more effective setup of upcoming projects. To design, develop and implement such a system we conducted interviews with IT companies regarding the strengths and weaknesses of the project management systems in use. On the basis of the interviews we identified three scenarios, which deal with the most common problems of project management, such as consistent data storage and how to retrieve information. These scenarios, described in this paper, are used as requirements and to evaluate the designed prototype.


The economic and harvest impacts of Marine Recreational Fishing (MRF) in Canakkale Strait were analysed along with fishing policy, sociology and habits of fishers. Data sources included field survey data carried out along the entire length of the Canakkale strait and policy information gathered from published sources. MRF policy is commendable, even in the fishing tourism sector, and is better developed than that in many other European countries. In Canakkale, 9.9% of the population is recreational fishers. Recreational fishers are typically men (90%), primarily those between the ages of 25 and 49 yrs. The occupation of the recreational fishers ranged from self-employed (28%), students (28%), retired persons (22%) and public employees (15%), to currently-unemployed persons (7%). An analysis of diel behaviour showed that most recreational fishers preferred fishing during the day (56.1%), while the evening was the next most preferred time for fishing (18%), followed by the night-time (9.8%), while a substantial number of recreational fishers (16.1%) reported that they fished at any time of day. The most popular type of fishing was shore-based (68%), followed by boat-based (21%), and underwater fishing (11%). The mean daily fishing times were 6.07 h d-1, 6.18 h d-1 4.75 d-1 for boat-based, underwater and shore-based fishing, respectively. Summer and autumn were the preferred seasons for shore-based and underwater fishing, while autumn and winter were preferred for boat-based fishing. The highest Catch per Unit Effort (CPUE) was observed for boat-based fishing (2.77 kg h-1), followed by underwater (0.97 kg h-1) and shore-based fishing (0.81 kg h-1). The catch composition included 51 species, though the catch composition of each fishing type was mostly comprised of only 3 or 4 species. The impact of the MRF harvest was high (30% of commercial fishing), particularly for bluefish ( Pomatomus saltatrix ) and picarel ( Spicara smaris ) species. The economic impact of MRF was highly negative. Several indicators including the following revealed a high percentage of trading catch (47%) being conducted under the guise of a recreational label: annual fishing intensity, total costs, target species, and sales. At present, it is evident that the highly developed recreational fishing policy in Turkey is not sufficient to ensure that recreational fishing is sustainable or to prevent fishing conflicts in Turkey. This study revealed the need for establishing monitoring, control and surveillance programs to ensure the sustainability of fish resources and fisheries including MRF.


Dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) systems are highly attractive in today's communication scenario, since they offer large transmission capacity and also achieve higher spectral efficiency. A scheme to reduce four-wave mixing (FWM) cross talk by using optical spreading code-based channel frequency allocation to a set of unevenly spaced channels is proposed. This assignment scheme provides several advantages over previously proposed schemes. The performance of this scheme for equal and unequal spaced channels of 4- and 16-channel DWDM systems is analyzed for various coding formats, including return to zero, nonreturn to zero, carrier-suppressed return to zero, and vestigial-sideband return to zero. It is observed that unequal channel spacing provides an improvement in the Q factor for all coding formats, and it is also noted that the vestigial-sideband return to zero technique is more tolerant to FWM cross-talk components.


Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) are characterized by significant limitations in three main areas: social relatedness, verbal and nonverbal communication, and extremely restricted behaviors and interests (American Psychiatric Association, 2000; Rutter, 1978). Research has revealed that families who have children diagnosed with an ASD encounter unique stressors and often report a diminished quality of life when compared to families who have children diagnosed with other psychological disorders (Cassidy et al., 2008; Lee, Harrington, Louie, and Newschaffer, 2008; Sivberg, 2002). Such research, however, has traditionally been conducted with Caucasian families while virtually ignoring ethnic minorities. Because South Asians make up one of the largest non-European ethnic origin groups in Canada, it is vital that research be conducted to examine cultural barriers to autism treatment and to identify unique concerns that affect the experience of this population in dealing with an ASD diagnosis. Participants in this study consisted of eight South Asian parents (seven mothers and one father) who were currently raising a child diagnosed with an ASD in British Columbia and Alberta, Canada. Some common barriers to diagnosis and treatment that were reported by parents included inadequate funding from the government, and communication problems between parents and care-providers. Some cultural barriers, specific to the South Asian community, that parents reported included lack of knowledge regarding autism in the South Asian community, South Asian cultural values in general, and feeling judged by others within the community. When asked by the interviewer how these barriers impacted their overall functioning, 75% of parents reported that they did not reveal their child's ASD diagnosis to their friends and their own family members, including their parents and siblings. Results of the Family Needs Survey (Bailey & Simeonsson, 1988) indicated that the most imperative needs reported by the parents were needs for information, with the strongest need for information regarding services their child might receive in the future. Based on these results, it appears that South Asian caregivers of children with ASDs may experience even greater difficulty when compared to the general population of parents of children with ASD diagnoses. Degree Type Thesis Degree Name Master of Science in Clinical Psychology (MSCP) Committee Chair Susan Tinsley Li, Ph.D.


In part II of Hume's Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion Cleanthes maintains that the similarities between the works of nature and those of human contrivance, namely, the presence of means to ends relations and a coherence of parts, are sufficient to enable us to reason analogically to the conclusion that the cause of the design of the world resembles human intelligence. Philo objects to this on a number of grounds. The basis of his objections is to be found in his claim that the world does not bear a 'specific resemblance' to machines of human contrivance, i.e., there are not enough similarities between the world and machines to enable us to classify the world as a machine of a certain type, and therefore we are unable to proceed analogically to a similarity in the causes of the design of the world and machines. According to Philo, without such a specific resemblance, to establish the origin of the design of the world from intelligence requires seeing God and his product constantly conjoined (Hume's official account of how we learn what causes what); since we have never seen 'worlds formed under our eyes' we are unable to rule out alternative principles of design – both those whose effects we have observed on earth, and others whose influence is not found within the world itself. In short, Philo's criticisms of Cleanthes' argument show that he has misgivings about the evidence which the argument utilizes: he holds that more is needed besides the mere presence of means to ends relations and a coherence of parts before we are justified in postulating intelligence as the cause of design.


The Rationale For The Renewed Turn To Ethical Community In both theory and practice, controversy over framing conduct and institutions has increasingly revolved around the idea of ethical community. Advanced more and more frequently under the banner of "communitarianism," this idea has cast an alluring spell. However vaguely it be drawn, ethical community is widely entertained as a practical alternative to the alienations and anomies of modern life, where instrumental rationality and atomistic self-interest have allegedly supplanted tradition without supplying any new bonds of intrinsic worth. And just as commonly, the concept of ethical community is appealed to as a remedy to the complementary dilemmas of the two leading competitors in contemporary ethical theory, teleological and procedural ethics. On both fronts, a turn to ethical community has taken center stage. If this turn sometimes has a nostalgic air, yearning for the faded spirit of ancient assemblies, town meetings, and village commons, it equally reflects the perennial character of the underlying issues, as much in dispute when Plato and Aristotle argued for the polis in opposition to the natural bonds of tribal association and the instrumental association of social contract, as when Hegel defended the ethical life of family, civil society, and state against the advocates of restoration and the contractarians of his day. Although we can take advantage of the experience of past ages that have grappled with ethical community in theory and practice, the worth of their achievements can only be known by first independently certifying the valid content of ethical community and the place it should command in the conception and reality of conduct. The current rehabilitation of ethical community, comprising the communitarian turn in ethics, has its own lessons for reconstructing theory and practice provided one rethinks its formulations with the same critical autonomy. Above all, what the communitarian turn uncovers of the inherent logic of ethical community must be distinguished from what it ignores and perverts. To its credit, the communitarian appeal to ethical community is grounded in an understanding of the complementary limitations of teleological and procedural ethics. Admittedly, teleological ethics adopts a plausible strategy by seeking the legitimacy of conduct in the given nature of its ends, transforming ethics into a science of a highest good. Yet every candidate for a highest good is subject to the skeptical doubt that its particular content is devoid of universal validity. Since any putative ultimate end, be it happiness or human perfection, cannot retain its normative primacy if any other factor grounds its Archimedean role, its authority must reside in its own immediate givenness. However, every particular content can be ascribed an immediate givenness, especially when no higher tribunal can be relied upon without undermining the primacy of the end it is intended to sanction. Hence, teleological ethics remains caught in the bind of rooting conduct in a particular content, whose universality remains doubtful. By contrast, procedural ethics falls into a precisely inverse dilemma. Abandoning any attempt to found normativity in privileged ends, procedural ethics instead appeals to a privileged form of willing, involving a principle that determines conduct independently of any particular end. Right hereby precedes the good, insofar as what makes conduct valid is conformity to an antecedently prescribed formal requirement that first allows an end to qualify as good. Yet, because the privileged form of willing is prior to all particular ends and actual conduct requires that something particular be willed, this content must derive from some other source. But no further law can mandate how to decide which extraneous end should be chosen as the goal of action in conformity with the privileged procedure, since the procedure has exclusive normative primacy. …


The paper addresses the linkage between certain aspects of the increasing economic integration of world markets and the level of child labour. We empirically examine, first, the often-cited conventional wisdom that multinational enterprises invest in countries where the extent of child labour is relatively high and, second, the concern that countries may gain an unfair comparative advantage in trade by using child labour. The results indicate that multinationals are highly sensitive with respect to the location of their transplants and prefer countries with lower levels of child labour. The opposite outcome applies to child labour and comparative advantage in labour-intensive goods, where we find a statistically significant positive relationship. Based on these results, the paper also discusses some policy implications on how to deal with child labour effectively.


The purpose of this paper is to investigate the use of living plants in enhancing the indoor air quality (IAQ) and the general indoor environment within a large modern open-plan office building with a central atrium design and a building management system (BMS) in place. Poor indoor air quality was measured within the building, primarily due to the low relative humidity during the winter months. Previous literature suggests that the incorporation of plants in buildings helps to regulate relative humidity whilst also bringing perceptual benefits and potentially reducing short-term sickness absence.
The investigation was developed through quantitative and qualitative data. The quantitative element involved the use of experimental and control zones within the building, selected on the basis of orientation, user density and users' work roles. Plants were selected based on the transpiration rates of various commercially-available species. Relative humidity was continuously monitored using data loggers with half-hourly logging intervals for a duration of six months. Carbon dioxide gas concentration was measured using a dedicated hand-held sensor. Qualitative user perception data was gathered through the use of a structured questionnaire distributed to staff members working in each of the experimental and control zones.
Initial findings suggest that the plants have not instigated the positive effects on IAQ that were expected. The recorded data on relative humidity displayed only non-significant variations between the experimental and control zones. These findings are attributed, in part, to the atrium design, which results in a substantial volume of air within the building, leading to cross-contamination and excessive dilution of the introduced humidity as a result of plant transpiration. The study extends the previous, mainly laboratory-based, investigations to a real working environment. However, this introduces a range of other experimental factors, thus impacting the results.
Implications for further research and practice include the extension of this research approach to consider a wider selection of buildings studied over a longer period of time, taking further account of seasonal fluctuations and the impact of additional variables present in real working environments. The practical value of this study is evident through the sustainability aspect provided by the potential of indoor plants to reduce carbon emissions of the general built environment through the elimination or reduction in use of energy and capital-intensive humidification air-conditioning systems.


An error analysis of a Mueller matrix polarimeter with dual rotating retarders is presented. Errors in orientational alignment of three of the four polarization elements are considered. Errors that are due to nonideal retardation elements are also included in the analysis. Compensation for imperfect retardation elements is possible with the equations derived, and the equations permit a calibration of the polarimeter for azimuthal alignment of polarization elements. An analytical treatment is given and is followed by numerical examples. The latter should prove useful in the laboratory in comparing precalibrated experimental results with theoretical predictions.


It is of increasing importance to develop learning methods for ranking. In contrast to many learning objectives, however, the ranking problem presents difficulties due to the fact that the space of permutations is not smooth. In this paper, we examine the class of rank-linear objective functions, which includes popular metrics such as precision and discounted cumulative gain. In particular, we observe that expectations of these gains are completely characterized by the marginals of the corresponding distribution over permutation matrices. Thus, the expectations of rank-linear objectives can always be described through locations in the Birkhoff polytope, i.e., doubly-stochastic matrices (DSMs). We propose a technique for learning DSM-based ranking functions using an iterative projection operator known as Sinkhorn normalization. Gradients of this operator can be computed via backpropagation, resulting in an algorithm we call Sinkhorn propagation, or SinkProp. This approach can be combined with a wide range of gradient-based approaches to rank learning. We demonstrate the utility of SinkProp on several information retrieval data sets.


At the end of the 19th century, after prolonged and extensive harvesting, indigenous giant tortoises had been eliminated from all islands in the Indian Ocean, except Aldabra atoll, where only a few survived. With greatly reduced levels of exploitation during the 20th century, the population recovered to a revised estimated total of 129 000 in 1973 to 1974, when the first sample census was conducted. A repeat census in 1997 revealed a highly significant reduction in numbers over the past 24 years to an estimated total of 100,000. The great majority of tortoises are still found at relatively high density in south–eastern Grande Terre, where the number of animals has declined by more than a third. In contrast, low–density subpopulations on Malabar and Picard have almost doubled in size, but they represent less than 5% of the total population. Corroborative evidence for the crash in the Grande Terre subpopulation comes from two independent observations: a significant increase in tortoise mortality; and a significant decline in tortoise counts on long–term population monitoring transects. These population changes are attributed to natural population regulatory mechanisms, exacerbated by low rainfall years in the period 1980 to 1997, including two consecutive years of below average rainfall in 1995 to 1996 and 1996 to 1997.


In the paper it is analysed which countries are likely to become the lead markets for fuel cells in stationary applications. The study is part of a larger research project "Policy Frameworks for the Development of International Markets for Innovations of a Sustainable Economy - from Pilot Markets to Lead Markets (LEAD)". In the course of this project more than 20 environmental technologies were examined regarding the regional differences of their market introduction and penetration. The project aims to explain why some countries are earlier in the introduction of environmental innovations and why the market penetration is more encompassing than in others. If the technologies of the pioneering countries diffuse to other countries without great modification, they can be analysed as lead markets for environmental innovations. Fuel cells for electricity generation in stationary are an emerging technology that is still in the stage of development and demonstration. There are several competing innovation designs on the market, and it is still open which technology is likely to be successful. The different technologies are described and compared among each other, as well as against conventional technologies for power generation. Three countries can be identified as frontrunners in the development of fuel cells, namely the United States, Japan and Germany. These countries are analysed regarding the R&D policies, the conditions for combined heat and power generation (CHP), the structure of energy prices, and regarding environmental policies that aim at internalising the environmental costs of energy production. The paper evaluates the different activities to stimulate the development and market introduction of fuel cells from a comparative perspective in order to assess respective lead market potential.


The Norman, Oklahoma, municipal landfill closed in 1985 after 63 years of operation, because it was identified as a point source of hazardous leachate composed of organic and inorganic compounds. The landfill is located on the floodplain of the Canadian River, a sand-bed river characterized by erodible channel boundaries and by large variation in mean monthly discharges. In 1986, floodwaters eroded riprap protection at the southern end of the landfill and penetrated the landfill's clay cap, thereby exposing the landfill contents. The impact of this moderate-magnitude flood event (Q12) was the catalyst to investigate erosion hazards at the Norman landfill. This geomorphic investigation analyzed floodplain geomorphology and historical channel changes, flood-frequency distributions, an erosion threshold, the geomorphic effectiveness of discharge events, and other factors that influence erosion hazards at the landfill site. The erosion hazard at the Norman landfill is a function of the location of the landfill with respect to the channel thalweg, erosional resistance of the channel margins, magnitude and duration of discrete discharge events, channel form and hydraulic geometry, and cumulative effects related to a series of discharge events. Based on current climatic conditions and historical channel changes, a minimum erosion threshold is set at bankfull discharge (Q = 572 m3/s). The annual probability of exceeding this threshold is 0.53. In addition, this analysis indicates that peak stream power is less informative than total energy expenditures when estimating the erosion potential or geomorphic effectiveness of discrete discharge events. On the Canadian River, long-duration, moderate-magnitude floods can have larger total energy expenditures than shorter-duration, high-magnitude floods and therefore represent the most serious erosion hazard to floodplain structures.


The urban waste in tourist cities needs comprehensive global research efforts and proceeded action as for metropolitan areas huge impact and load on waste management is generated. Waste management and resource conservation strategies are prepared in state-of-the-art level however implementation and future improvement of the current situation is crucial. Beside the collection of data for information base, analysis on selected pilot cities and metropolitan areas in terms of environmental impacts, social and economic aspects have been done. Best-practice examples in waste prevention and management for better tourism, waste and resource management are provided in the paper.
What we need is policy and tools based on information gathered by scientists, municipal and NGOs experience (e.g. separation of biowaste in catering industries, "sin-wastes" as from the bars, nightclubs and smoker places, reuse of unnecessary items that can serve for others and many more). However, regulatory instruments (e.g. ban of plastic bags, reduction of allowed biowaste in landfilling), economic instruments (taxes) and voluntary agreements (e.g. deposit systems. Cleaning actions by volunteers) should be used to implement and elaborate. Waste management and prevention practices in tourist metropolitan cities shall first of all be concentrated to deal with food waste prevention, management, special practices for festival waste and large amount specific waste generating facilities (e.g., entertainment industry, cruises etc.). The low-waste organisation of events and the promotion of re-use activities as well as waking of consumer consciousness are the positive trends. Eco-labelling and accompanying roadmaps shall lead the theory to the action. Entertainment and hospitality industries in concert with food and catering entrepreneurs do compete for better and greener marketing. The future outlook may be concentrated on digitalizing of waste flows and using the "big data" concept for better and smarter waste management.
Pilot studies were done in frame of the HORIZON2020 "Urban Strategies for Waste Management in Tourist Cities" as well as Swedish Institute supported activities in projects "PECEC" and "LASUWAMA". Additionally the authors performed studies in Tenerife, Nice, Rio de Janeiro, Sydney, Perth, Brussels, Copenhagen, Riga and many other tourist metropolitan areas through field studies on waste management and minimization activities in real life.


Venezuela has seen an unprecedented exodus of people in recent months. In response to a dramatic economic downturn in which inflation is soaring, oil production tanking, and a humanitarian catastrophe unfolding, many Venezuelans are seeking refuge in neighboring countries. However, the lack of official numbers on emigration from the Venezuelan government, and receiving countries largely refusing to acknowledge a refugee status for affected people, it has been difficult to quantify the magnitude of this crisis. In this note we document how we use data from the social media service Twitter to measure the emigration of people from Venezuela. Using a simple statistical model that allows us to correct for a sampling bias in the data, we estimate that up to 2,9 million Venezuelans have left the country in the past year.


Renewable energy production can kill individual birds, but little is known about how it affects avian populations. We assessed the vulnerability of populations for 23 priority bird species killed at wind and solar facilities in California, USA. Bayesian hierarchical models suggested that 48% of these species were vulnerable to population-level effects from added fatalities caused by renewables and other sources. Effects of renewables extended far beyond the location of energy production to impact bird populations in distant regions across continental migration networks. Populations of species associated with grasslands where turbines were located were most vulnerable to wind. Populations of nocturnal migrant species were most vulnerable to solar, despite not typically being associated with deserts where the solar facilities we evaluated were located. Our findings indicate that addressing declines of North American bird populations requires consideration of the effects of renewables and other anthropogenic threats on both nearby and distant populations of vulnerable species.


The aim of this research is to investigate the exergetic destructions of Azzour steam generation system. The exergy destructions (irreversibilities) of the steam generation system were analysed based on actual plant operating data. Three irreversible processes were investigated; combustion, heat transfer and streams mixing processes. Sensitivity analysis was carried out to study the effects of inlet air temperature, excess theoretical air, air humidity and generated steam temperature on steam generation system performance. Results showed that at stoichiometric condition, the exergy was destroyed mainly by two irreversibilities, associated with heat transfer and combustion processes, and to a much lesser extent by streams mixing process.


Cool-season oilseed crops are potential feedstock for biofuel production, but few studies have compared oilseed-durum (Triticum durum Desf.) rotations on yield, quality, water use, and pests associated with crops. We conducted an experiment under dryland conditions during 2007 to 2010 near Culbertson, MT, comparing crop productivity, water balance, and key weed and arthropod pests of 2-yr oilseed-durum rotations under zero tillage. Rotations included durum with three Brassicaceae sp., camelina [Camelina sativa (L.) Crantz], crambe (Crambe abyssinica Hochst. ex R.E. Fries), and canola-quality Brassica juncea L., and fallow. Over 4 yr, B. juncea had the highest seed and oil yields of crucifer entries. Water use was similar among oilseed crops, averaging 286 mm. Water use was similar for durum following oilseeds, averaging 282 mm, 72 mm less than for durum following fallow. Durum following fallow averaged 775 kg ha−1 greater grain yield than durum following oilseeds due to higher water availability and use. Camelina had greater weed biomass at harvest and lower densities of Plutella xylostella L. than other oilseeds. Durum in rotation with crambe had higher weed density and biomass at harvest than durum following B. juncea or fallow. Brassica juncea generally performed better than crambe or camelina, but each oilseed crop had several positive attributes. Oilseeddurum rotations can be used for biofuel feedstock and grain production, but long-term sustainability of 2-yr rotations on crop yields and pest management requires further study.


This guide covers how to find digitised and digital archives material at a time when many archives are closed for in-person visits, and how to critically examine what you find.


In almost all Western bureaucracies in recent years there has been a tremendous growth in the use of market type mechanisms and prescriptions for the ailments and shortcoming of public service delivery systems, policy instruments and norm based, as well as management ethos. These mechanisms are aimed at a national level to combat inefficiency, waste and redundancy in government, through the separation of operation from policy. The principle thrust of this reform comes from the emphasis on "outputs".
Empirical evidence would appear to support the notion that there is an inevitable convergence of public management governance principles and practices taking place throughout most bureaucracies. This has largely been driven by the new public management (NPM) initiative, which attempts to bring the entrepreneurial model from the private sector into public agencies to improve efficiency and cut costs.
Undoubtedly the public service understands that technology can play an important role in increasing public access and enabling governments to deliver services in new and innovative ways. Technology will not only assist decision-makers to manage data, but also to identify problems and align service delivery. In this way technology serves not as a silver bullet, but a golden arrow, pointing the direction and improving government's ability to do the right thing and to do things right.
This paper attempts to provide an understanding of the importance of information technology and communication to public management, provide a perspective on the role of new technologies in the formation and implementation of public policies, evaluate the role of the public and of new technology and their implications for democracy vital to the appreciation and understanding of contemporary public management with a strong emphasis on the uses and flows of information in and around public institutions.


Sometimes a scientist's life is as interesting, if not more so, than the science with which he or she is credited. Such is the case with the life of Anton Von Leeuwenhoek.
Students at my school (a science and technology magnet school at which I am the science specialist) first encounter Anton Von Leeuwenhoek in the first half of fourth grade when we begin a major study of microscopy.
What follows is a description of some of my most successful microscope activities for students and a culminating celebration where students receive "A Leeuwenhoek License" certifying their proficiency with the microscope.


One of the key challenges in bioinformatics is to find the distinction between driver mutations that lead to tumorigenesis and random passenger mutations, which are known to be neutral and does not play any role in cancer development. To solve this problem, several approaches and techniques were used. In this article, we introduce an algorithm based on an exact approach in order to solve the so called "maximum weight submatrix problem". The proposed algorithm maximizes the weight and samples all the possible pathways that can be found. We present the details about our algorithm and then compare them to a metaheuristic algorithm called Genetic Algorithm (GA) and with another exact model named Binary Linear Programming (BLP). Our Exact Algorithm shows good results in terms of maximizing the weight and finding all possible pathways.