This study seeks to examine the relationships between emotional intelligence, organizational commitment, individual dean performance, dean leadership styles as
mediating and demographic of the deans as moderating factor in private higher educations in West Java Province, Indonesia. When the research was started, the West Java Province was divided into two provinces by the federal government law with decree from parliament; Banten and West Java until present time. First, there is an evidence of particular leadership being favored by deans in private higher education e.g. Bureaucratic leadership or Participative leadership. Second, there are many variables as the reasons why the leadership styles favored such as demographic and culture that have influences. Third, the variables also affect and/or related with the deans leadership styles. Fourth, to be more focused and intensified. These research is limited to three independent variables which are: Deans' emotional intelligence,
organizational commitment, the leadership style of the dean, while deans' individual performance is dependent variable. To be noticed, leadership style in this research is
not only independent variable, but also the mediating variable. Finally, demographic factors as moderating variables in this research are age, education level and
tenure/work experiences. This research is expected to provide more knowledge and skill regarding leadership at the faculty as an organization. While deans' leadership
styles need to acquire a suitable style and his/her commitment to improve the faculty as an organization and lecturers' condition as workers and academicians at the faculty. This research utilized the theory of Allen, N. J and John, P. Meyer (1990) which states that commitment is divided into three dimension; (i) affective commitment, (ii)
continuance commitment and (iii) normative commitment. This research also utilized the theory of individual dean performance, emotional intelligence by Robert K. Cooper
and Ayman Sawaf (1999), Daniel Colleman (1996). Those theories were adopted and utilized in this research appropriate to the situation of Indonesia. The leadership styles in this research which are bureaucratic and participative leadership, follow previous scholars who had examined a similar subject. The population of this research was all the deans at private universities in Banten and West Java with a total number of 170 deans. The main method in distributing the questionnaire of this research to
respondents was by mail. Unfortunately, as the level of response was dissatisfied, the distribution of questionnaire was executed by handing over directly to the respondents
to accomplish an accurate sample. The SPSS Ver. 12.00 was utilized to the data analysis and information, while the multiple regressions, person correlation were carried out to test the entire third ten main hypothesis with 154 sub hypotheses. Also categorical and descriptive statistic was utilized to analyze in this research. Some of the main results illustrated that there were some emotional intelligences of the deans in hypothesis one that have a correlation to the dependent variables which is dean
individual performance, and organizational commitment that have significant relationship with individual performance. Mediating effect of leadership is partially accepted on the relationship between emotional intelligence of the deans and individual performance. The mediating effect of leadership is also significant on the relationship between organizational commitment of the deans and individual
performance. The moderating effects are; age, education level and tenure/work experience of the dean that have partially effects on their relationship between emotional intelligence and leadership styles. Thus, demographic of the deans which are age, level of education and tenure are partially accepted or they affect on the relationship between leadership styles and individual performance which is also significant relationship to the emotional intelligence. This research considered organizational commitment as independent variable while in most of the other research, this variable is usually utilized as a dependent variable. The result is interesting that organizational commitment is found significant correlated to the individual deans' performance.


The quest for information and research-based insight is an obsession in the capital markets. There is a veritable industry of analysts, investment bankers, portfolio managers, and investors who seek any informational advantage, which is one reason that academics who study finance have been recruited to work on Wall Street and with money managers. Yet the potential payoff for using valid evidence is even greater when it comes to managing organizations. At the same time, however, imitation is much slower and less effective in the world of management practices, in part because such practices depend on tacit knowledge and implementation skill, on knowing not just what to do but how to do it. In addition, management practices and logic resist copying because of the power of precedent and ideology. Most managers actually try to act on the best evidence. They follow the business press, buy business books, hire consultants, and attend seminars featuring business experts. While companies sometimes benefit from these efforts, there is surprisingly little rigorous use or serious appreciation of evidence-based management. This article explores these obstacles and offers guidelines to enable managers to better practice evidence-based management.


In this paper I want to explore the systemic-functional notion of 'grammatical metaphor' from a cross-linguistic perspective. After a brief introduction to the concept of 'grammatical metaphor', I shall discuss the distinction between 'congruent' and 'metaphorical' encodings of meaning, as well as the distinction between rankshift, transcategorization, and grammatical metaphor as semogenic resources (Section 1). In a second section, I shall then focus on ideational grammatical metaphors in English and German and revisit the notion of direct vs. indirect mapping of experiential and logical semantics onto lexicogrammar (Section 2). It will be argued that 'directness of encoding' within one language can be defined with the help of the concept of 'transparency' or 'motivation' of encoding between levels. Across and between languages, however, the notion of 'directness' either has to be seen from the perspective of one of the languages involved, or from the perspective of a generalized semantics and grammar. In Section 3, I shall then explore the question of the experiential vs. logical encoding of semantic categories across languages, and of how this relates to metaphoricity. I shall exemplify and discuss the fact that in cross-linguistic analyses, one cannot consider any one of a given set of experiential or logical encodings of some unit of meaning as 'congruent' or 'direct', as long as one does not have a cross-linguistic semantics to establish 'motivation' and 'transparentness' on. It will also be argued that some of the differences in texts across languages as to what counts as 'congruent' can be predicted from comparisons between the language-specific grammatical systems involved. Other differences, however, seem to rely heavily on registerial influences and cultural factors. In Section 4, then, I shall inquire into the question of whether and precisely in what sense we can speak of two different types of grammatical metaphor, dependent on whether they involve a relocation in rank or a mere re-arrangement of mappings of semantic and lexicogrammatical functions. These types of metaphor, it will be argued, have different implications for the metaphoricity of the clause as a whole, as well as for the 'density' of the packaging of meaning.


Microstructure refinement and synergic coupling among different phases are currently explored strategies to improve the hydrogen storage properties of traditional materials. In this work, we apply a combination of these methods and synthesize Mg–Pd composite nanoparticles by inert gas condensation of Mg vapors followed by vacuum evaporation of Pd clusters. Irreversible formation of the Mg6Pd intermetallic phase takes place upon vacuum annealing, resulting in Mg/Mg6Pd composite nanoparticles. Their hydrogen storage properties are investigated and connected to the undergoing phase transformations by gas-volumetric techniques and in situ synchrotron radiation powder x-ray diffraction. Mg6Pd transforms reversibly into different Mg–Pd intermetallic compounds upon hydrogen absorption, depending on temperature and pressure. In particular, at 573 K and 1 MPa hydrogen pressure, the metal-hydride transition leads to the formation of Mg3Pd and Mg5Pd2 phases. By increasing the pressure to 5 MPa, the Pd-richer MgPd in...


In solid organ transplantation, ongoing allograft inflammation and alloreactivity is a recognised cause leading to chronic rejection and poor long term outcomes. To date, the role of Natural Killer (NK) cells in determining outcomes following lung transplantation, an established treatment for patients with advanced end stage lung disease, is not confirmed. NK cells are a population of innate immune cells that recognise virus-infected and malignant tumour cells but in addition can detect foreign proteins on transplanted tissue and so potentially exacerbate an immune response against the transplanted organ. This study in lung transplantation is unique in its examination of the role of NK cells in the post-transplant immune processes by assessing longitudinal changes in phenotype, function and potential alloreactivity. In addition the effects of the transplant immunosuppression drug regimen on the function of immune cells was observed, as well as analysis of cellular activation changes at the molecular level as a result of graft rejection and viral infections. Finally, the alloreactive potential of NK cells were assessed in response to HLA-mismatched donor cells as well as the association of NK cell KIR genotype and KIR-ligand mismatches to clinical outcomes after transplantation. A regulatory role for NK cells in the setting of lung transplantation is a much more likely scenario as it was shown that KIR/KIR-ligand mismatches were in fact associated with protection against acute rejection and protection against the development of BOS, and may instead reflect NK cell control of CMV infection in the lung allograft. The study cohort comprised 73 patients who had undergone lung transplantation at The Alfred Hospital and received ongoing routine clinical assessment. Monitoring the dynamics of NK cells can improve our understanding of their contribution to long term outcomes in lung transplant patients and may be used as a potential diagnostic marker for modulation of post-transplant medical intervention strategies including immunosuppression and/or antiviral prophylaxis; findings that may be extended into other solid organ transplant settings.


Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) have gained significant consideration these days, as opposed to wired sensor networks, by introducing multi-functional wireless nodes, which are smaller in size. The main advan-tage is that its wireless, so it costs less to install, maintain and reconfig-ure. These sensor nodes are used in various application areas. For ex-ample: residential, industrial, environmental and military application areas. However WSNs communication is prone to negative influences from the physical environment, such as physical obstacles and interfer-ence. Algorithms must be developed for handling these problems and also to investigate the channel properties. The purpose of this work is to design a testbed, which enables the communication of wireless sensor nodes, to capture the properties of the channel, which will, in the long run, enable better solutions to be designed which are, more appropriate to the errors in the channel. In this testbed, one channel, from the IEEE 802.15.4 channels spectrum, is dedicated as an emergency channel, which is used for handshaking and to handle channel/external interfer-ence or hardware failure between the communication of Transmitter (TX) and Receiver (RX) nodes. The remaining 15 channels are called data channels and are used for actual data transmission and control signals. Peer to Peer transmission of a transmitter-receiver pair is achieved with the introducing of beacons and acknowledgment (ACK) packets. The testbed also has the property of dual reception and data logging on a single PC by maeans of two RX nodes simultaneously from a single TX node. The dependency of the packet on the "Frame Length" byte(in the Frame header) during the reception is eliminated so that if the "Frame Length" byte is compromised, it will replace the programmer defined value with the "Frame Length" byte which helps to investigate the actual packets byte sent from the TX. Also, the Received Signal Strength (RSS) is calculated at the maximum sample rate of the channel. Power consumption is not considered in this testbed. The work is conducted on both the IEEE 802.15.4 physical and the application layers. Linux based TinyOS-2.x is used as an operating system for low power sensor devices. New algorithms are designed for each step in the development of the testbed. MICAz motes are used as nodes and an MIB520 programming board is used for burning the codes and for the purpose of gateways.


Clinical trial protocols are important documents that guide clinical research. Modern protocol development requires collective expertise from a group of Loosely-Coupled protocol writers, who work across distances and time zones. Email has been the primary communication tool for these protocol writers. Unfortunately, it inadequately supports collaborative writing tasks. Without appropriate groupware technology, these protocol writers often compromise work efficiency and the degree of collaboration to complete their tasks. This situation is exhibited at the Southwest Oncology Group (SWOG), one of the Cooperative Group Programs under the direction of NCI. While it is clear that its current work practices do not support optimal collaboration, it is unclear how to improve the collaboration and communication in such group work because the complexities of collaborative protocol development has rarely been studied. This research utilizes and extends Computer-supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) theories to identify the problems in protocol development and to design groupware technology for supporting this group work. This dissertation consists of four parts: (1) qualitative fieldwork of the collaborative protocol writing process at SWOG; (2) a design of an annotation model that facilitates in-context communication around evolving documents during the iterative reviewing and revising process; (3) a design and an implementation of a protocol collaborative authoring tool (PCAT) that embodies the annotation model from #2 to address group work problems identified in #1; and (4) a validation of the usability of the annotation model and the PCAT prototype. In addition, this dissertation implements a grounded design process and contributes a socio-technical design of groupware technology in a healthcare setting to the literature of socio-technical approaches for system design.


QUESTION Many of my patients prefer to use natural or herbal medicines, such as ginger, before taking drugs to treat nausea and vomiting of pregnancy. Is there evidence that ginger is safe to use during pregnancy? Is it effective? ANSWER Although ginger is used in many cultures to treat the symptoms of nausea and vomiting, no trials have established its safety for use during pregnancy. On the other hand, its efficacy has been documented in two randomized, blinded controlled trials. RESUME


This paper is an output from the project CAPABLE (Children?s Activities,Perceptions and Behaviour in the Local Environment) being carried out at UCL,jointly between the Centre for Transport Studies, the Department of Psychology, theBartlett School of Planning and the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis. The overallaim of the project, which runs from 1 August 2004 to 31 July 2006, is to examine theinteraction between children and the local environment, including identifying howchildren use open space and streets, and why they go to some places but not others.This paper draws on results from questionnaires completed by children about theextent to which they are allowed out unaccompanied by an adult. The surveys werecarried out in four schools, two in Hertfordshire, the area immediately north ofLondon, and two in the London Borough of Lewisham. The purpose is to establish theextent to which the children are allowed by their parents to go out unaccompanied byadults. The issues covered include whether the children go out walking or cyclingwithout an adult, whether they are allowed out alone to visit friends houses, go outafter dark or to cross main roads. The results are considered in terms of the children?sage and gender, and in terms of the households? car ownership level and the strengthof its local social networks. It is found that more of the children in Hertfordshire areallowed out alone, despite the fact that the factors that seem to correlate with beingallowed out unaccompanied are stronger in Lewisham. It is concluded that this maywell be due to environmental factors, real and perceived.


We consider the problem of approximating a variable bit rate (VBR) source by a simple process such that the corresponding buffer-related performance measures are close approximations of the true performance measures. Assuming that a VBR source can be modeled by a discrete-time batch Markovian arrival process (D-BMAP), we propose an approach for approximating it by a "matched" Markov process of finite memory obtained by information-theoretic techniques. We confirm analytically that the approximating performance measures become increasingly accurate with the memory of the matched Markov process. When the parameters of the D-BMAP are unknown, we estimate instead the parameters of a suitable Markov approximation from samples of an observed cell stream. We show that the estimated Markov process, with a fixed memory, comes closer with increasing sample size to the D-BMAP, as do the corresponding performance measures, in accordance with the law of iterated logarithm. Numerical examples are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the approach.


Background Diagnostic delay in rare disease (RD) is common, occasionally lasting up to more than 20 years. In attempting to reduce it, diagnostic support tools have been studied extensively. However, social platforms have not yet been used for systematic diagnostic support. This paper illustrates the development and prototypic application of a social network using scientifically developed questions to match individuals without a diagnosis. Objective The study aimed to outline, create, and evaluate a prototype tool (a social network platform named RarePairs), helping patients with undiagnosed RDs to find individuals with similar symptoms. The prototype includes a matching algorithm, bringing together individuals with similar disease burden in the lead-up to diagnosis. Methods We divided our project into 4 phases. In phase 1, we used known data and findings in the literature to understand and specify the context of use. In phase 2, we specified the user requirements. In phase 3, we designed a prototype based on the results of phases 1 and 2, as well as incorporating a state-of-the-art questionnaire with 53 items for recognizing an RD. Lastly, we evaluated this prototype with a data set of 973 questionnaires from individuals suffering from different RDs using 24 distance calculating methods. Results Based on a step-by-step construction process, the digital patient platform prototype, RarePairs, was developed. In order to match individuals with similar experiences, it uses answer patterns generated by a specifically designed questionnaire (Q53). A total of 973 questionnaires answered by patients with RDs were used to construct and test an artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm like the k-nearest neighbor search. With this, we found matches for every single one of the 973 records. The cross-validation of those matches showed that the algorithm outperforms random matching significantly. Statistically, for every data set the algorithm found at least one other record (match) with the same diagnosis. Conclusions Diagnostic delay is torturous for patients without a diagnosis. Shortening the delay is important for both doctors and patients. Diagnostic support using AI can be promoted differently. The prototype of the social media platform RarePairs might be a low-threshold patient platform, and proved suitable to match and connect different individuals with comparable symptoms. This exchange promoted through RarePairs might be used to speed up the diagnostic process. Further studies include its evaluation in a prospective setting and implementation of RarePairs as a mobile phone app.


When working in a residential facility it is difficult for staff to take the time to really get to know whom they are helping due to time constraints. This study conducted a pre and post test to determine the impact that a Memory Box Activity has on staff attitudes about the residents. The Memory Box is a box put together by residents (with staff help) that includes items that have meaning to them. The presumption was that by participating in this activity with the residents the staff attitudes would be positively impacted. This study was conducted at two local long-term care facilities. The goal of this project was to assess whether knowledge of a dementia patient's life and likes and dislikes affects staff attitudes and therefore quality of care provided by staff. Degree Type Open Access Senior Honors Thesis Department Social Work First Advisor Elizabeth Schuster Second Advisor Yvette Colon


A perceptual study investigated the ability of scale degrees to evoke qualia, and the impact of harmonic context in shaping a scale degree's qualia. In addition, the following questions were addressed: What role does music training have in shaping qualia? Are listeners consistent in their descriptions? Are experiences similar across participants, or are they individual and subjective? Listeners with or without music-theoretic training were asked to rate the qualia of scale degrees following various chord progressions, each ending with a different final harmony. Scale degrees were found to exhibit relatively consistent musical qualia; however, the local chord context was found to significantly influence qualia ratings. In general, both groups of listeners were found to be fairly consistent in their ratings of scale-degree qualia; however, as expected, musician listeners were more consistent than nonmusician listeners. Finally, a subset of the musical qualia ratings were compared against Krumhansl and Kessler's (1982) scale-degree "profiles." While profiles created from the present data, overall, were correlated with the K&K profiles, their claim that tonal stability accounts for the high ratings ascribed to tonic triad members was found to be better explained by the effect of the local chord context.


As enshrined in the 2009 Climate Change Act, Scotland has one of the most ambitious and binding targets for greenhouse gas reductions in the world. By 2050 it has committed to reducing emissions by 80%, with an interim target of 42% by 2020. The agricultural sector is a significant source of emissions within Scotland and therefore has been set a specific target – to achieve a 1.3 mt reduction by 2020. The approach adopted within Scotland to achieve these targets can be defined as a Voluntary Environmental Programme involving actions focussed on extension and incentives. Improving the efficiency of the agricultural sector is seen as the primary way to reduce emissions, thereby placing little or no constraint on the development of farm businesses. Following the method for classifying policy actions developed by Pannell, the approach adopted is shown to be appropriate (with certain caveats) given the nature of the changes required and the impact on private firms and wider society. However, fundamental challenges are shown to exist in actually relying on this approach in practice. These relate to achieving the required levels of participation and the monitoring and measurement of the proposed changes to farming practices. The industry's response to the 2007–2008 food price spike bears witness to the fact that even if these challenges are overcome, any gains made are susceptible to changes in practice and land use driven by an improved market situation. For these reasons, the article concludes that tighter restrictions are likely to be placed on farms to ensure that the targets are met and these are likely to constrain the choices of land managers.


This book revolutionizes how vision can be taught to undergraduate and graduate students in cognitive science, psychology, and optometry. It is the first comprehensive textbook on vision to reflect the integrated computational approach of modern research scientists. This new interdisciplinary approach, called "vision science," integrates psychological, computational, and neuroscientific perspectives. The book covers all major topics related to vision, from early neural processing of image structure in the retina to high-level visual attention, memory, imagery, and awareness. The presentation throughout is theoretically sophisticated yet requires minimal knowledge of mathematics. There is also an extensive glossary, as well as appendices on psychophysical methods, connectionist modeling, and color technology. The book will serve not only as a comprehensive textbook on vision, but also as a valuable reference for researchers in cognitive science, psychology, neuroscience, computer science, optometry, and philosophy.


The effects of DDT on the behaviour and mortality of Anopheles gambiae Giles, A. funestus Giles, Mansonia uniformis (Theo.) and Culex pipiens fatigans Wied., entering experimental huts, have been studied with the assistance of gas-chromatographic techniques. Sixty to 70% of A. gambiae and 70–80% of M. uniformis were deterred from entering verandah-trap huts treated indoors with a nominal dosage of 200 μg/cm 2 of DDT active ingredient. Gas chromatographic techniques indicate that the chemical basis of the deterrency was a steadily diminishing outflow of DDT from the hut, either as a dust or vapour, and the build-up of deposit on the untreated overhanging eaves to 0·02 to 0·27 μg/cm 2 seven months after treatment. A. funestus was less deterred than A. gambiae and M. uniformis , but the behaviour of C. p. fatigans was almost unaffected by the DDT deposit. Overall mortalities were highest in A. funestus and M. uniformis , lower in A. gambiae and extremely low in C. p. fatigans . There was a marked irritant effect of the DDT deposit on recently blood-fed A. gambiae , some 50–70% being driven out of the treated huts. This behaviour occurred to a lesser degree in A. funestus but was absent in M. uniformis and C. p. fatigans . The chemical basis of the irritant effect was indicated to the extent that surviving mosquitoes, that left the treated hut, showed 1·5 ng/insect of DDT. Mosquitoes that died, whether indoors or after leaving the hut, picked up amounts ranging from 7 to 20 ng/insect.


With the advent of Internet of Things (IoT) it has become clear that radio-frequency (RF) designers have to be aware of power constraints, e.g., in the design of simplistic ultra-low power receivers often used as wake-up radios (WuRs). The objective of this work, one of the first systematic studies of power bounds for RF-systems, is to provide an overview and intuitive feel for how power consumption and sensitivity relates for low-power receivers. This was done by setting up basic circuit schematics for different radio receiver architectures to find analytical expressions for their output signal-to-noise ratio including power consumption, bandwidth, sensitivity, and carrier frequency. The analytical expressions and optimizations of the circuits give us relations between dc-energy-per-bit and receiver sensitivity, which can be compared to recent published low-power receivers. The parameter set used in the analysis is meant to reflect typical values for an integrated 90 nm complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor fabrication processes, and typical small sized RF lumped components.


Within policy implementation and street-level bureaucracy
research, there is a continuing debate on how to account for the
complex, messy, and, sometimes, contradictory implementation of
public policies. Frontline workers, such as teachers, doctors, and
police, as a consequence of their discretion, play a crucial role
in successful policy implementation and the efficient, effective,
and responsive delivery of public services. However, in practice,
frontline workers do not always act in line with the ambitions of
politicians and policymakers. In doing so, they can create major
difficulties for governments, democratically mandated to change
policy, in making their (new) policies a success.

This book quantitatively investigates how previous policy
experiences affect the frontline. Contrary to previous work that
mostly has focused on the experiences of frontline workers with
specific policies, this study takes into account that policies are
not developed in a vacuum. Rather, they build upon each other;
a process described as policy accumulation. Based on research
on change cynicism, this book argues that frontline workers - as
a consequence of continuous policy changes that are sometimes
perceived as inconsistent and too frequent - could become
indifferent to whatever new policy is introduced, viewing new
policies as just the 'new political flavor of the month'.

As such, this study opens the way for a better understanding
of policy implementation failure and success, by showing how
frontline workers' previous policy experiences shape how they
perceive and enact new policies. In doing so, this study underscores
the importance of alignment between policy makers and policy
implementers for successful implementation. The author illustrates
the dynamics surrounding policy implementation in the Dutch
education sector by combining implementation and street-level
bureaucracy theory with detailed empirical analysis.


There is scanty knowledge on macro fungi diversity in Kigoma region. Bioprospecting survey was undertaken in Miombo woodlands, Kigoma region of Tanzania that has never been explored. The survey sought to conduct an inventory of Craterellus Persoon . Conventional taxonomic techniques were used during the survey to characterize the collected materials. Both macro and micro morphological features including basidiocarp size, colour, shape, spore size and print colour were examined. High diversity of reputed macrofungi was observed. This study presents a preliminary inventory of the genus Craterellus Persoon in the country. Three species were described; two namely Craterellus cornucopioides (Linnaeus) Persoon and Craterellus odoratus (Schweinitz: Fries) Fries, being recorded for the first time in Tanzania; while the remaining one could be a new species. Further comprehensive studies need to be conducted in Kigoma miombo woodland to explore the macrofungi diversity to understand and document them. Key words: Craterellus, Kigoma, Miombo woodland, Tanzania


In this paper, we deal with the subject of piezonuclear reactions, namely nuclear reactions (of new type) triggered by pressure waves. We discuss the experimental evidences obtained in the last two decades, which can be summarized essentially as follows: experiments in cavitation of liquids, where transmutation of elements, creation of elements and emission of neutrons have been observed; emission of neutrons in brittle failure of solids subjected to mechanical pressure; alteration of the lifetime of un unstable element (thorium) subjected to cavitation. A theoretical model to explain these facts is proposed. Future perspectives of these experimental and theoretical investigations are also underlined.


Dithienylethenes (DTEs) can be assembled to form supramolecular multiphotochromic systems that are highly functional molecular architectures of potential interest for building complex optoelectronic devices. Yet even simple DTE dimers relying on an organic linker may suffer from a partial photoactivity, i.e., only one of the two switches does isomerise. Experimentally, this limited photochromism has been attributed to an excited state energy transfer (EET) between the two DTEs of the multimer; this EET taking place instead of the desired photoinduced cyclisation of the DTE. However, no clear evidences of this phenomenon have been provided so far. In this work we propose the first rationalisation of this potential parasite photoinduced event using a computational approach based on Time-Dependent Density Functional Theory (TD-DFT) for the calculation of the electronic coupling in DTE dimers. Besides quantifying EET in several systems, we dissect the role of through-bond and through-space mechanisms on this process and clarify their dependence on both the nature and length of the bridge separating the two photochromes. The theoretical data obtained in this framework are in full agreement with the experimental outcomes and pave the way toward a molecular design of coupled, yet fully functionals, DTE-based multiswitches.


Wireless access points are becoming more and more prominent in the home, yet there is no incentive to encourage access point owners to share their service. We introduce SWAP, a lightweight protocol that uses reciprocity to motivate users to share service. Each node participating in SWAP stores perishable receipts that are used to calculate a user's rating (how much the user shares his or her access point). SWAP does not use a centralized authority to store or validate receipts nor does it place an excessive burden on peers. SWAP is also robust against collusion, which we show through analysis and implementation. As demonstrated by an implementation of the most computationally expensive portions of the protocol, SWAP imposes little overhead even on mobile devices. Keywords—Community Wireless, Reciprocity, Wireless Security


Natural catastrophes attract regularly the attention of media and have become a source of public concern. From a financial viewpoint, natural catastrophes represent idiosyncratic risks, diversifiable at the world level. But for reasons analyzed in this paper reinsurance markets are unable to cope with this risk completely. Insurance-linked securities, such as cat bonds, have been issued to complete the international risk transfer process, but their development is disappointing so far. This paper argues that downside risk aversion and ambiguity aversion explain the limited success of cat bonds. Hybrid cat bonds, combining the transfer of cat risk with protection against a stock market crash, are proposed to complete the market. Using the concept of market modified risk measure, the paper shows that replacing simple cat bonds with hybrid cat bonds would lead to an increase in market volume.


Abstract This study focuses on the crystal-chemical characterization of fluorannite from the Katugin Ta-Nb deposit, Chitinskaya Oblast', Kalar Range, Transbaikalia, eastern Siberia, Russia. The chemical formula of this mineral is (K0.960Na0.020Ba0.001)(Fe2.1022+Fe0.4253+Cr0.0023+Mg0.039Li0.085Ti0.210Mn0.057)(Al0.674Si3.326) O10(F1.060OH0.028O0.912). This mica belongs to the 1M polytype (space group C2/m) with layer parameters a = 5.3454(2) Å, b = 9.2607(4) Å, c = 10.2040(5) Å, β = 100.169(3)º. Structure refinement,using anisotropic displacement parameters, converged at R = 0.0384. When compared to annite, fluorannite shows a smaller cell volume (Vfluorannite = 497.19 Å3; Vannite = 505.71 Å3), because of its smaller lateral dimensions and c parameter. Flattening in the plane of the tetrahedral basal oxygen atoms decreases with F content, together with the A-O4 distance (i.e. the distance between interlayer cation A and the octahedral anionic position) due to the reduced repulsion between the interlayer cation and the anion sited in O4.


Neural pruning is a widely-used compression technique for Deep Neural Networks (DNNs). Recent innovations in Hardware Architectures (e.g. Nvidia Ampere Sparse Tensor Core) and N:M fine-grained Sparse Neural Network algorithms (i.e. every M-weights contains N non-zero values) reveal a promising research line of neural pruning. However, the existing N:M algorithms only address the challenge of how to train N:M sparse neural networks in a uniform fashion (i.e. every layer has the same N:M sparsity) and suffer from a significant accuracy drop for high sparsity (i.e. when sparsity > 80%). To tackle this problem, we present a novel technique – DominoSearch to find mixed N:M sparsity schemes from pre-trained dense deep neural networks to achieve higher accuracy than the uniform-sparsity scheme with equivalent complexity constraints (e.g. model size or FLOPs). For instance, for the same model size with 2.1M parameters (87.5% sparsity), our layer-wise N:M sparse ResNet18 outperforms its uniform counterpart by 2.1% top-1 accuracy, on the large-scale ImageNet dataset. For the same computational complexity of 227M FLOPs, our layer-wise sparse ResNet18 outperforms the uniform one by 1.3% top-1 accuracy. Furthermore, our layer-wise fine-grained N:M sparse ResNet50 achieves 76.7% top-1 accuracy with 5.0M parameters. This is competitive to the results achieved by layer-wise unstructured sparsity that is believed to be the upper-bound of Neural Network pruning with respect to the accuracy-sparsity trade-off. We believe that our work can build a strong baseline for further sparse DNN research and encourage future hardware-algorithm co-design work. Our code and models are publicly available at https://github.com/NM-sparsity/DominoSearch .


Unsophisticated applicants can be at a disadvantage under manipulable and hence strategically demanding school choice mechanisms. Disclosing information on applications in previous admission periods makes it easier to asses the chances of being admitted at a particular school, and hence may level the playing field between applicants who differ in their cognitive ability. We test this conjecture experimentally for the widely used Boston mechanism. Results show that, absent this information, there exist a substantial gap between subjects of higher and lower cognitive ability, resulting in significant differences in payoffs, and ability segregation across schools. The treatment is effective in improving applicants' strategic performance. However, because both lower and higher ability subjects improve when they have information about past demands, the gap between the two groups shrinks only marginally, and the instrument fails at levelling the playing field.


Normative constitutional theory asks at least two distinct questions: How should judges and other officials approach constitutional decision-making? And what counts as a good reason — or "normative foundation" — for adopting a particular approach? The two questions are obviously related, but the first has filled libraries while discussion of the second has been largely unsystematic and ad hoc. There is no well-recognized taxonomy of the types of reasons on which an approach to constitutional decision-making might be premised. Nor is it widely appreciated that competing approaches might rest on the same type of normative foundation or that multiple normative foundations might be invoked to support a single approach to constitutional decision-making.This Article proposes a taxonomy organizing the normative foundations of constitutional theory into four distinct categories: metaphysical, procedural, substantive, and positivist. This taxonomy clarifies that theoretical disagreement can concern the proper approach to constitutional decision-making, what counts as a good reason for adopting a particular approach, or both. It also permits analysis of the attractions and limitations common to each type of normative claim, revealing significant points of overlap between apparently divergent approaches. Positivist originalism, for instance, may in some respects share more in common with positivist common-law constitutionalism than with metaphysical originalism. These points of overlap should serve as the basis for new and more productive discussion among theorists who have previously considered themselves completely at loggerheads.


This paper discusses the optical properties of colloidal CdSe/CdTe, CdTe/CdSe, and CdTe/CdS heterostructures synthesized by growing a shell on CdSe and CdTe nanocrystals. The extinction coefficients of the first exciton absorption band and the extinction coefficients at 400 nm are determined as a function of the amount of shell material added during the growth of the heterostructures. It is shown that the resulting heterostructures have extinction coefficients 1–2 orders of magnitude greater than the initial cores: up to 0.3×107cm−1M−1 in the case of CdTe/CdS and CdTe/CdSe and up to 1.6×107cm−1M−1 in the case of CdSe/CdTe. It is shown that the luminescence wavelength in the 550–950-nm range can be controlled by varying the shell size for CdSe/CdTe heterostructures.


Java EE developers increasingly want to utilize OSGi to develop modular applications for component and service-based architectures. But tools required for OSGi implementation have been slow to develop. Spring Dynamic Modules (Spring DM) is a framework that simplifies the creation of component and service-oriented architectures with OSGi, to build modular Java applications using the powerful Spring framework. Spring Dynamic Modules in Action presents the fundamental concepts of OSGi-based apps and maps them to the familiar ideas of the Spring framework. Then, it teaches the techniques and concepts required to develop stable, flexible enterprise apps. Along the way, readers will learn to incorporate other topics including dependency injection and unit testing in an OSGi-based environment.


Does a face itself determine how well it will be recognized? Unlike many previous studies that have linked face recognition performance to individuals' face processing ability (e.g., holistic processing), the present study investigated whether recognition of natural faces can be predicted by the faces themselves. Specifically, we examined whether short- and long-term recognition memory of both dynamic and static faces can be predicted according to face-based properties. Participants memorized either dynamic (Experiment 1) or static (Experiment 2) natural faces, and recognized them with both short- and long-term retention intervals (three minutes vs. seven days). We found that the intrinsic memorability of individual faces (i.e., the rate of correct recognition across a group of participants) consistently predicted an independent group of participants' performance in recognizing the same faces, for both static and dynamic faces and for both short- and long-term face recognition memory. This result indicates that intrinsic memorability of faces is bound to face identity rather than image properties. Moreover, we also asked participants to judge subjective memorability of faces they just learned, and to judge whether they were able to recognize the faces in late test. The result shows that participants can extract intrinsic face memorability at encoding. Together, these results provide compelling evidence for the hypothesis that intrinsic face memorability predicts natural face recognition, highlighting that face recognition performance is not only a function of individuals' face processing ability, but also determined by intrinsic properties of faces. Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2015.


BACKGROUND
The double-blind, placebo-controlled food challenge (DBPCFC) is considered the definitive diagnostic test for food allergy. Nevertheless, validated recipes for masking the foods are scarce, have not been standardized, and differ between centers. Sensory evaluation techniques such as the triangle test are necessary to validate the recipes used for DBPCFC.

METHODS
We developed 3 recipes for use in DBPCFC with milk, egg white, and hazelnut and used the triangle test to validate them in a 2-phase study in which 197 volunteers participated. In each phase, participants tried 3 samples (2 active-1 placebo or 2 placebo-1 active) and had to identify the odd one. In phase 1, the 3 samples were given simultaneously, whereas in phase 2, the 3 samples of foods that failed validation in phase 1 were given sequentially. A visual analog scale (VAS) ranging from 1 to 10 was used to evaluate how much participants liked the recipes.

RESULTS
In phase 1, the egg white recipe was validated (n=89 volunteers, 38.9% found the odd sample, P=.16). Milk and hazelnut recipes were validated in phase 2 (for both foods, n=30 participants, 36.7% found the odd sample, P=.36). Median VAS scores for the 3 recipes ranged from 6.6 to 9.7.

CONCLUSIONS
We used sensory testing to validate milk, egg white, and hazelnut recipes for use in DBPCFC. The validated recipes are easy to prepare in a clinical setting, provide the equivalent of 1 serving dose, and were liked by most participants.


This book critically analyses the Model Work Health and Safety Bill, which is the pivotal legal instrument upon which the harmonisation of work health and safety regulation in Australia is based. This Model Act has already been adopted from 1 January 2012 in some Australian jurisdictions - the Commonwealth, New South Wales, Queensland and the two territories - and is the culmination of a long process which gained renewed impetus with a National Review of Model Occupational Health and Safety Laws commissioned by the Federal Government on behalf of all Australian governments in April 2008. The book explains the origins of the Model Act, analyses its provisions, outlines practical issues, including potential difficulties, in their application and makes suggestions for further debate to develop the harmonised provisions. It explores the potential of the harmonised health and safety laws and assesses their adequacy to guide us through the challenges of the next century.


Paul Jackson's major new title Complete Pleats is the most comprehensive book about pleating on the market. It explains how pleating systems can be stretched, compressed, flared, skewed, multiplied and mirrored, showing how from simple ideas, a huge number of original pleat forms can be created. Each technique is explained with a series of step-by-step photographs and line illustrations, enabling the designer to work through the basic principles of pleating and then adapt them to their specific needs. Complete Pleats also features more than 60 examples of pleats from the worlds of architecture, fashion and product design. Paul Jackson has taught pleating techniques to students of Fashion Design for 30 years, in both paper and fabric. Complete Pleats is the definitive practical guide for anyone wishing to create and make pleats.


In memory of Ira F. Brilliant (1922-2006) In November 1827, Beethoven's estate containing music autographs, books, furniture, and other personal items sold at auction on behalf of the beneficiary, his nephew Karl. The estate inventory of 252 lots listed seventy sketches and "notebooks" and about 120 other music autographs, none appraised at more than ten florins. The following April, The Harmonicon printed a report on the results of the estate auction with comments on the "uncommon interest" on the part of buyers, some of whom paid "astonishing" prices. However, the lots that excited greatest demand might surprise today's auctioneers. For example, Beethoven's autograph score for the Fifth Symphony sold for only one florin more than its appraised value of five florins. His original score for the Septet, op. 20, however--a work so astoundingly popular during his lifetime that an exasperated Beethoven eventually proclaimed that "I wish it were burned" (1)--sold for eighteen florins, or six times its appraisal value. Tobias Haslinger bought the notebooks containing Beethoven's counterpoint studies, appraised at ten florins, for seventy-four florins, by far the highest price paid for any other autograph. (2) Thus began an active and sometimes erratic trade in Beethoven manuscripts and other treasures that, in spite of dwindling supplies, continues today. The purpose of this article is to review auction sales of biographical and musical manuscripts, first and early editions, and other Beethoven-related documents and artifacts over a twenty year period (1985-2005). An introductory summary highlights changes in values, repeated sales of the same documents, and discoveries of manuscripts thought to be long missing. Although the major auction houses (Christie's, Sotheby's, and J. A. Stargardt) are the primary vendors of Beethoven rarities, several of the smaller venues are also represented. The appended index of auction sales supplements the list published as "A Ten-Year Review of the Beethoven Auction Market (1985-1995)" in The Beethoven Journal (vol. 11, no. 1 [Spring 1996]: 26-31). The intention is for libraries and dealers to use these lists to help them assess the rarity and value of their Beethoven collections. Because many manuscripts are in private hands and thus still eligible for future auction sales, these lists do not identify the current location of the materials. When possible, this information is recorded in the Beethoven Auction Database recently mounted on the Web site of the Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies (http://www.sjsu.edu/depts/beethoven [accessed 22 November 2006]). This searchable database is to be updated biannually to keep track of recent sales and identify locations when known. SUPPLY AND DEMAND Throughout the nineteenth century, most Beethoven manuscripts were the property of private collectors who exchanged them through dealers rather than auction. By midcentury some of the major European libraries and archives began building Beethoven collections through donations and purchases. The Royal Library at Berlin took the first step in 1846 by acquiring the collection of Beethoven's notorious secretary, Anton Schindler, who claimed many Beethoven documents prior to the estate sale, including the conversation books. Many of the sketchbooks purchased by Domenico Artaria and other dealers who were present at the estate auction eventually ended up in the Berlin library, mostly through acquisition from private collectors such as Ludwig Landsberg (acquired 1861), Friedrich August Grasnick (1879), and Ernst von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1908). A large collection of letters accumulated by II. C. Bodmer are now in the Beethoven-Haus in Bonn. The Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna became a repository of several major music autographs, some gifts of prominent members such as Johannes Brahms. Other manuscripts are scattered throughout the western world, with significant collections in the national libraries of Great Britain and France, and the Library of Congress in the United States. …


This report is one of a series of reports documenting the methods and findings of a multi-year, multi-disciplinary project coordinated by the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center (PEER and funded by the California Earthquake Authority (CEA). The overall project is titled "Quantifying the Performance of Retrofit of Cripple Walls and Sill Anchorage in Single-Family Wood-Frame Buildings," henceforth referred to as the "PEER–CEA Project." The overall objective of the PEER–CEA Project is to provide scientifically based information (e.g., testing, analysis, and resulting loss models) that measure and assess the effectiveness of seismic retrofit to reduce the risk of damage and associated losses (repair costs) of wood-frame houses with cripple wall and sill anchorage deficiencies as well as retrofitted conditions that address those deficiencies. Tasks that support and inform the loss-modeling effort are: (1) collecting and summarizing existing information and results of previous research on the performance of wood-frame houses; (2) identifying construction features to characterize alternative variants of wood-frame houses; (3) characterizing earthquake hazard and ground motions at representative sites in California; (4) developing cyclic loading protocols and conducting laboratory tests of cripple wall panels, wood-frame wall subassemblies, and sill anchorages to measure and document their response (strength and stiffness) under cyclic loading; and (5) the computer modeling, simulations, and the development of loss models as informed by a workshop with claims adjustors. This report is a product of Working Group 2: Development of Index Buildings and focuses on the identification of common variations and combinations of materials and construction characteristics of California single-family dwellings. These were used to develop "Index Buildings" that formed the basis of the PEER–CEA Project testing and analytical modeling programs (Working Groups 4 and 5). The loss modeling component of the Project (Working Group 6) quantified the damage-seismic hazard relationships for each of the Index Buildings.


BACKGROUND
The rapid increase in the number of heart failure (HF) patients in parallel with the increase in the number of older people is receiving attention worldwide. HF not only increases mortality but decreases quality of life, creating medical and social problems. Thus, it is necessary to define molecular mechanisms underlying HF development and progression. HMGB2 is a member of the high-mobility group superfamily characterized as nuclear proteins that bind DNA to stabilize nucleosomes and promote transcription. A recent in vitro study revealed that HMGB2 loss in cardiomyocytes causes hypertrophy and increases HF-associated gene expression. However, it's in vivo function in the heart has not been assessed. Methods and Results: Western blotting analysis revealed increased HMGB2 expression in heart tissues undergoing pressure overload by transverse aorta constriction (TAC) in mice. Hmgb2 homozygous knockout (Hmgb2-/-) mice showed cardiac dysfunction due to AKT inactivation and decreased sarco(endo)plasmic reticulum Ca2+-ATPase (SERCA)2a activity. Compared to wild-type mice, Hmgb2-/- mice had worsened cardiac dysfunction after TAC surgery, predisposing mice to HF development and progression.

CONCLUSIONS
This study demonstrates that upregulation of cardiac HMGB2 is an adaptive response to cardiac stress, and that loss of this response could accelerate cardiac dysfunction, suggesting that HMGB2 plays a cardioprotective role.


Comfort performance of any vehicle depends on the dynamic characteristics of dampers. In this thesis, we analyze the influence of semi-active MR(Magneto rheological) damper using the quarter and half car models, and discuss about the nonlinear characteristics of passive oil damper using half car model. The vehicle suspension of quarter car model with MR damper is considered while the vehicle is traveling at constant speed on random road profile. The hysteretic behavior of the MR damper is characterized using modified Bouc-Wen model. Using equivalent linearization technique hysteretic behavior of MR damper is linearized and used in the state space form. Subsequently, the rms values of system response characteristics such as sprung mass acceleration, suspension stroke, road holding and control force verses vehicle velocity are obtained by solving matrix lyapunov equation in time domain. The system responses in term of above parameters are computed for the parameters related with MR damper at different current which are obtained from the experimental conducted in our group. It is found that as the current in MR damper increases, the control force also increases, thus, reducing the suspension stroke and road holding. However, the sprung mass acceleration is increases, which reduces the comfort. Hence, optimal application of current has to be used to actuate MR damper for a given disturbance. Similarly, we also analyzed the system response of front and rear suspension system using the half-car model. We obtain the similar characteristics as that in quarter car model.


A method for characterizing a range‐dependent acoustic waveguide by remote sensing is examined. The approach is to transmit from a limited number of source locations and measure the propagating field along a vertical array. Characterization of the environment is cast as an inverse problem where the goal is to determine the mode coupling coefficients from the acoustical measurements. Ideally, measurements from the source at a single location should suffice to characterize the medium when the propagation is adiabatic. When there is coupling, the problem is underdetermined and unstable if the number of source locations is less than the number of propagating modes. Tikhonov regularization is used to build stability into the inversion algorithm. The number of measurements required is shown to be directly related to the nature and extent of the mode coupling. The method is demonstrated by numerical simulation for two shallow water scenarios: a sloping bottom and a randomly rough bottom. [Work supported by ONR.]


Background: Insulin resistance is the hallmark of type 2 diabetes and is a known risk factor for the development of cardiovascular diseases. We have determined that overexpression of a GTPase-activating protein, RGS2 decreases insulin sensitivity. This study describes RGS2 regulation of insulin signaling pathways in order to assess whether this information can be used to reverse insulin insensitivity in diabetes. Hypothesis, Methods and Results: RGS2 protein levels were elevated 3 to 5-fold in white adipose tissues from ob/ob and high fat diet induced Insulin Resistant mice. Further, RGS2 protein is elevated in insulin resistant 3T3-L1 adipocytes treated chronically with either insulin, ET-1, or TNF-aplha. Further, SiRNA knockdown of endogenous RGS2 protein increases basal, insulin independent and insulin-dependent GLUT4 translocation. We hypothesized that the RGS2 regulatory system is defective/overactive in insulin resistance, and that a modulation of this regulatory system by RGS2 inhibition would improve insulin sensitivity. Thus, we determined the mechanisms whereby RGS2 modulates insulin sensitivity in 3T3-L1 adipocytes; focusing on insulin-regulated G-protein/PI3-K pathways leading to GLUT4 translocation and glucose uptake; utilizing adenoviruses over-expressing wild-type and mutants RGS2, as well as by siRNA-mediated knock down of endogenous RGS2. We overexpressed the Wild-Type (WT), GTPase defective (GD), and plasma membrane translocation defective (TD) RGS2 proteins in 3T3-L1 adipocytes. Overexpression of WT RGS2 leads to ~ 50% inhibition of insulin induced 2-DOG uptake, without affecting IR Tyr phosphorylation. RGS2 constitutively associates with Galpha/q11, and prevent its Tyr phosphorylation and activation by insulin. Interestingly, insulin-stimulated PKClambda phosphorylation was completely blocked by RGS2, whereas, AKT phosphorylation was minimally inhibited. Neither the insulin receptor tyrosine phosphorylation nor insulin-stimulated MAPK phosphorylation was affected by RGS2. Conclusion: This study identifies a novel role of RGS2 in cellular insulin resistance by negatively regulating signaling through the Galpha/q11 pathway to glucose uptake. This research has received full or partial funding support from the American Heart Association, AHA Western States Affiliate (California, Nevada & Utah).


In the Agri Valley, high-angle faults crosscut platform carbonates that are analogues of the lithological units that host the deep seated largest onshore oil reservoir in Europe. The main faults are W-NW oriented with a left-lateral strike-slip kinematics; additionally, three sets of related secondary faults are present: ( i ) N-NE oriented with right-lateral/transtensional kinematics; ( ii ) E-W trending left-lateral transtensional and ( iii ) N-NW trending left-lateral transpressional. Two of the secondary N-NE striking faults, strike-slip and transtensional, together with the adjacent host rock, were selected to build a Discrete Fracture Network model eventually used to evaluate the hydraulic properties and permeability anisotropy of these faults. The outcomes of this modelling show that the total permeability of the fault zones is higher than that one of the host rock. Moreover, the results are consistent with the transtensional fault having higher permeability values relative to the strike-slip one. The permeability anisotropy within the fault damage zone as well as in the host rock is mainly related to the fracture orientation.


Recent realistic simulations confirm that the polarization of the fuel would improve significantly the DT fusion efficiency. We have proposed an experiment to test the persistence of the polarization in a fusion process, using a terawatt laser hitting a polarized H D target. The polarized deuterons heated in the plasma induced by the laser can fuse producing a 3 He and a neutron in the final state. The angular distribution of the neutrons and the change in the corresponding total cross section are related to the polarization persistence. The experimental polarization of DT fuel is a technological challenge. Possible paths for Magnetic Confinement Fusion (MCF) and for Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) are reviewed. For MCF, polarized gas can be used. For ICF, cryogenic targets are required. We consider both, the polarization of gas and the polarization of solid DT, emphasizing the Dynamic Nuclear polarization (DNP) of H D and DT molecules.


The microscopic fungus Geomyces destructans is a psychrophilic dermatophyte causing since 2006 a serious bat disease in North America called white-nose syndrome (WNS). In Europe, G. destructans has also been recorded, however less commonly and without striking lethal effects. Currently, seven isolates of G. destructans isolated from greater mouse-eared bat (Myotis myotis) from four localities are maintained in the Culture Collection of Fungi (CCF) in Prague. Growth tests at 12 and 15 °C on eight agar media demonstrated that the fungus grows somewhat faster at 12 °C than at 15 °C. Good growth was observed on nutrient rich media. No further isolates of G. destructans were recovered during screening of bat-associated environments.


OBJECTIVE To study the association of gluten intake with development of islet autoimmunity and progression to type 1 diabetes. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS The Diabetes Autoimmunity Study in the Young (DAISY) follows children with an increased risk of type 1 diabetes. Blood samples were collected at 9, 15, and 24 months of age, and annually thereafter. Islet autoimmunity was defined by the appearance of at least one autoantibody against insulin, IA2, GAD, or ZnT8 (zinc transporter 8) in at least two consecutive blood samples. Using food frequency questionnaires, we estimated the gluten intake (in grams per day) annually from 1 year of age. Cox regression modeling early gluten intake, and joint modeling of the cumulative gluten intake during follow-up, were used to estimate hazard ratios adjusted for confounders (aHR). RESULTS By August 2017, 1,916 subjects were included (median age at end of follow-up 13.5 years), islet autoimmunity had developed in 178 participants, and 56 of these progressed to type 1 diabetes. We found no association between islet autoimmunity and gluten intake at 1–2 years of age or during follow-up (aHR per 4 g/day increase in gluten intake 1.00, 95% CI 0.85–1.17 and 1.01, 0.99–1.02, respectively). We found similar null results for progression from islet autoimmunity to type 1 diabetes. Introduction of gluten at <4 months of age was associated with an increased risk of progressing from islet autoimmunity to type 1 diabetes compared with introduction at 4–5.9 months (aHR 8.69, 95% CI 1.69–44.8). CONCLUSIONS Our findings indicate no strong rationale to reduce the amount of gluten in high-risk children to prevent development of type 1 diabetes.


Fibers with symmetric bend compensated claddings are proposed, and demonstrate performance much better than conventional designs. These fibers can simultaneously achieve complete HOM suppression, negligible bend loss, and mode area >1000 square microns. The robust single-modedness of these fibers offers a path to overcoming mode instability limits on high-power amplifiers and lasers. The proposed designs achieve many of the advantages of our previous (asymmetric) bend compensation strategy in the regime of moderately large area, and are much easier to fabricate and utilize.


This book highlights that the capacity for gathering, analysing, and utilising vast amounts of digital (user) data raises significant ethical issues. Annika Richterich provides a systematic contemporary overview of the field of critical data studies that reflects on practices of digital data collection and analysis. The book assesses in detail one big data research area: biomedical studies, focused on epidemiological surveillance. Specific case studies explore how big data have been used in academic work. The Big Data Agenda concludes that the use of big data in research urgently needs to be considered from the vantage point of ethics and social justice. Drawing upon discourse ethics and critical data studies, Richterich argues that entanglements between big data research and technology/ internet corporations have emerged. In consequence, more opportunities for discussing and negotiating emerging research practices and their implications for societal values are needed. An electronic version of this book is freely available, thanks to the support of libraries working with Knowledge Unlatched. KU is a collaborative initiative designed to make high quality books Open Access for the public good. More information about the initiative and details about KU's Open Access programme can be found at www.knowledgeunlatched.org .


In past years ERP Systems have become one of the main components within the corporate IT structure. Several problems exist around implementing and operating these systems within companies. In the literature one can find several studies about the problems arising during the implementation of an ERP system. The main problem areas are around the complexity of ERP systems. One vision to overcome some of these problems is federated ERP. Federated ERP systems are built of components from different vendors, which are distributed within a network. All components act as one single ERP system from the user perspective. The decreased complexity of such a system would require lower installation and maintenance cost. Additional, only the components which are needed to cover the company's business processes would be used. Several theories around this concept exist, but a feasibility assessment of developing a federated ERP system has not been done yet. Based on a literary analysis of existing methods for feasibility studies, this paper is applying strategic planning concepts and referential data from the traditional ERP development to provide a first assessment of the overall feasibility of developing a platform for federated ERP systems. An analytical hierarchical approach is used to define effort and effect related criteria and their domain values. The assessment as the criteria is done in comparison to the development of a classical ERP system. Using the developed criteria, a net present value calculation is done. The calculation of the net present value is done on an overall, not company specific level. In order to estimate the weighted average cost of capital, the values from successful software companies are used as a baseline. Additional potential risks and obstacles are identified for further clarification.


ABSTRACT The focus of this article is the discourse of entrepreneurship education in Sweden. Drawing on a genealogical approach, the analysis draws attention to how this discourse is shaped in the curriculum today, and how it has come to emerge. Focusing on two key events that constitute this discourse, responsibility and problem-solving, and tracing these events back in time, the analysis illustrates how the discourse on entrepreneurship education today shapes a specific kind of citizen, one who is responsible for themselves and who has developed a constant will and desire for learning, thus being able to adapt to the constant changing future. Such a citizen is distinctly different from the one emerging in the 1960s and 1980s, where a citizen that shows solidarity with others, and especially the weak, and who develops problem-solving skills in order to actively engage in the development of society, emerges. These results can be related to wider trends in education policy, where neo-liberal rationalities have become more central, in Sweden as well as in other countries, where there has been a shift of focus, from an understanding of education as a common good, to an understanding of education as a private good.


In the wake of the Supreme Court's decision in Stern v. Marshall, there is widespread uncertainty as to what other proceedings may constitutionally fall within a bankruptcy court's core jurisdiction. Supreme Court jurisprudence has been cryptic regarding the constitutional limitations of non-Article III courts, but the Court has identified a "public rights exception" to the general rule that the judicial power must be exercised only by judges with life tenure and salary protection. This public rights exception has not yet been explicitly extended to a bankruptcy proceeding, but the reasoning of the Court strongly suggests that a trustee's motion to avoid preferences would fall under the public rights exception, as a proceeding stemming exclusively from bankruptcy law and necessary to resolve claims against the estate. Accordingly, and contrary to what most scholars have suggested, preference proceedings fit comfortably within the jurisdiction of bankruptcy courts, even after the Supreme Court's ruling in Stern.


This study examines media framing of philanthropy. It presents a new theoretical and methodological framework that combines and integrates theories and models from the fields of communication and philanthropy. The framework includes three communication components (media outlets, functions, and roles) and three philanthropy components (donors, donations, and recipients). The integration of these components yielded six frames: government substitution, individual, high-net-worth, consumer, corporate, and media driven, as well as a new framework for analysis. Content analysis of media coverage of philanthropy during two cases of warfare in Israel demonstrates examples of these frames. The findings and the framework for analysis have significant implications for the study of media-philanthropy relations.


In this thesis we consider efficient algorithms for matching problems involving preferences,
i.e., problems where agents may be required to list other agents that they find
acceptable in order of preference. In particular we mainly study the Stable Marriage
problem (SM), the Hospitals / Residents problem (HR) and the Student / Project Allocation
problem (SPA), and some of their variants. In some of these problems the aim
is to find a stable matching which is one that admits no blocking pair. A blocking pair
with respect to a matching is a pair of agents that prefer to be matched to each other
than their assigned partners in the matching if any.
We present an Integer Programming (IP) model for the Hospitals / Residents problem
with Ties (HRT) and use it to find a maximum cardinality stable matching. We also
present results from an empirical evaluation of our model which show it to be scalable
with respect to real-world HRT instance sizes.

Motivated by the observation that not all blocking pairs that exist in theory will lead
to a matching being undermined in practice, we investigate a relaxed stability criterion
called social stability where only pairs of agents with a social relationship have the
ability to undermine a matching. This stability concept is studied in instances of
the Stable Marriage problem with Incomplete lists (smi) and in instances of hr. We
show that, in the smi and hr contexts, socially stable matchings can be of varying
sizes and the problem of finding a maximum socially stable matching (max smiss and
max hrss respectively) is NP-hard though approximable within 3/2. Furthermore we
give polynomial time algorithms for three special cases of the problem arising from
restrictions on the social network graph and the lengths of agents' preference lists.
We also consider other optimality criteria with respect to social stability and establish
inapproximability bounds for the problems of finding an egalitarian, minimum regret
and sex equal socially stable matching in the sm context.

We extend our study of social stability by considering other variants and restrictions
of max smiss and max hrss. We present NP-hardness results for max smiss even
under certain restrictions on the degree and structure of the social network graph as
well as the presence of master lists. Other NP-hardness results presented relate to the
problem of determining whether a given man-woman pair belongs to a socially stable
matching and the problem of determining whether a given man (or woman) is part of
at least one socially stable matching. We also consider the Stable Roommates problem
with Incomplete lists under Social Stability (a non-bipartite generalisation of smi under
social stability). We observe that the problem of finding a maximum socially stable
matching in this context is also NP-hard. We present efficient algorithms for three
special cases of the problem arising from restrictions on the social network graph and
the lengths of agents' preference lists. These are the cases where (i) there exists a
constant number of acquainted pairs (ii) or a constant number of unacquainted pairs
or (iii) each preference list is of length at most 2.

We also present algorithmic results for finding matchings in the spa context that are
optimal with respect to profile, which is the vector whose ith component is the number
of students assigned to their ith-choice project. We present an efficient algorithm for
finding a greedy maximum matching in the spa context — this is a maximum matching
whose profile is lexicographically maximum. We then show how to adapt this algorithm
to find a generous maximum matching — this is a matching whose reverse profile is
lexicographically minimum. We demonstrate how this approach can allow additional
constraints, such as lecturer lower quotas, to be handled flexibly. We also present
results of empirical evaluations carried out on both real world and randomly generated
datasets. These results demonstrate the scalability of our algorithms as well as some
interesting properties of these profile-based optimality criteria.

Practical applications of spa motivate the investigation of certain special cases of the
problem. For instance, it is often desired that the workload on lecturers is evenly distributed
(i.e. load balanced). We enforce this by either adding lower quota constraints
on the lecturers (which leads to the potential for infeasible problem instances) or adding
a load balancing optimisation criterion. We present efficient algorithms in both cases.
Another consideration is the fact that certain projects may require a minimum number
of students to become viable. This can be handled by enforcing lower quota constraints
on the projects (which also leads to the possibility of infeasible problem instances). A
technique of handling this infeasibility is the idea of closing projects that do not meet
their lower quotas (i.e. leaving such project completely unassigned). We show that the
problem of finding a maximum matching subject to project lower quotas where projects
can be closed is NP-hard even under severe restrictions on preference lists lengths and
project upper and lower quotas. To offset this hardness, we present polynomial time
heuristics that find large feasible matchings in practice. We also present ip models
for the spa variants discussed and show results obtained from an empirical evaluation
carried out on both real and randomly generated datasets. These results show that
our algorithms and heuristics are scalable and provide good matchings with respect to
profile-based optimality


Background: The increasing use of nanomaterials and nanoproducts has increased the possibility of contamination of the environment, which may have adverse effects on different organisms. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of silver nanoparticles on histopathology and gill ultrastructure of zebrafish (Danio rerio) under laboratory conditions. Methods: Zebrafish were exposed to four concentrations of silver nanoparticles (0.0015, 0.00375, 0.0075, and 0.015 mg/l) for a period of 4 days. Gill ultrastructure and histopathological changes were studied using scanning electron microscope and haematoxylin - eosin staining. Results: Exposure to silver nanoparticles significantly (P < 0.001) increased the diameter of gill filaments and secondary lamellae, while silver nanoparticles significantly reduced the length of the secondary gills in zebrafish. Moreover, other changes such as vacuolization, dilated and clubbed tips, hyperplasia, edema, fusion, swelling of mucocytes, hypertrophy, and necrosis were observed. The effects of silver nanoparticles in zebrafish gills were dose dependent. Conclusion: Based on the adverse effects of AgNPs on zebrafish gills, silver nanoparticle


POND SAND FILTER (PSF), a special small scale filtering device has been used mainly in the coastal parts of Bangladesh to treat the water from rain-fed ponds. It is a manually operated treatment unit, based on the principle of slow sand filtration. Water is pumped up from the pond by a handpump and is poured into a small concrete tank, having more compartments, of which one is the filter chamber filled with the sand. Water passes through the sand filter chamber from where it flows into adjacent storage chamber. A small chamber filled with brick chips acts as a pretreatment unit. The treated water quality depends on the efficiency of the filtration system and also on the raw water quality of the pond. Again, the water quality of the pond depends on design of the pond, the use being made of the pond by people and or livestock, and the runoff into the pond of drainage and wastewater.


Complex interactions among conjunctive (simultaneous) goals motivate the need for nonlinear planners. Whereas the literature addresses least-commitment approaches that require breadth-first search and theorem proving style-reasoning to seek a possible answer, we advocate a casual-commitment approach that finds viable plans incrementally. In essence, all decision points (operator selections, goal orderings, backtrack ing points, etc.) are open to introspection and reconsideration. However, in the presence of background knowledge - heuristic or definitive - only the most promising parts of the search space will be explored in satisficing mode to produce a solution plan efficiently. In the limiting case, however, casual commitment can backtrack, explore the entire space subsuming all goal orderings, and generate partial orders guaranteeing synthesis of all possible plans including the optimal one. This paper reports on the full implementation of the efficient, casual-commitment nonlinear problem solver of the PRODIGY architecture. The principles of nonlinear planning are discussed, the algorithms in the implementation are described in some detail, and the use of knowledge (if present) to focus search is considered.


This paper is a discussion of the political agency of Cultural Studies within the contemporary conjuncture. It begins by examining critical polemics around culture and postmodernity and moves on to consider Bennett's Foucauldian approach to cultural criticism. Although critical of Bennett's approach, the paper retains the Foucauldian notion of governmentality as the explanation of governance as a form of rule. The relevance of governance to cultural studies is shown through the argument that the political agency of cultural studies rests on an administrative structure that can no longer be verified empirically or conceptually. The argument proceeds by proposing that the liquidation of this political agency has been caused by the cultural agency of postmodernity, to which administrative and political authority is subordinate. Governance is the political expression of this state of affairs. After outlining the general features of governance the paper concludes with a discussion of how the political agency of culture is expressed through governance.


For half a century, computer architects have been striving to improve uniprocessor computer performance. Many of their successful designs such as vliw and superscalar machines use multiple functional units trying to exploit instruction level parallelism in computer programs. As the number of functional units rises, another hardware constraint enters the picture — the number of register-file ports needed grows directly with the number of functional units. At some point, the multiplexing logic on register ports can come to dominate the processor's cycle time. A reasonable solution is to partition the register file into independent sets and associate each functional unit with a specific register set. Such partitioned register sets have appeared in a number of commercial machines, such as Texas Instruments TMS320C6xxx dsp chips. Partitioned register-set architectures present a new set of challenges to compiler designers — the compiler must assign each operation to a specific clusters and coordinate data movement between clusters. In this thesis, we investigate five instruction scheduling methods with different scopes to find a suitable one for partitioned register-set architectures. Next, we examine previous algorithms for the combined cluster assignment and scheduling problem and propose two new algorithms that improve upon the prior art. Then we study the difficulties introduced by limited number of registers and provide an approach to handle them. Finally we take several other measurements of partitioned register-set architectures that may shed light on some of the architectural decisions.


Wilms' tumor gene (WT1) is important for nephrogenesis and gonadal growth. WT1 mutations cause Denys-Drash and Frasier syndromes, which are characterized by glomerular scarring. To test whether genetic variations in WT1 and WIT1 (gene immediately 5' to WT1) associate with focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS), patients with biopsy-proven idiopathic and HIV-1-associated FSGS were enrolled in a multicenter study. We genotyped SNP rs6508 located in WIT1 exon 1, three SNPs (rs2301250, rs2301252, rs2301254) in the promoter shared by WT1 and WIT1, rs2234590 in exon 6, rs2234591 in intron 6, rs16754 in exon 7, and rs1799937 in intron 9 of WT1. Cases (n = 218) and controls (n = 281) were compared in the African American population. Stratification by HIV-1 infection status showed that SNPs rs6508, rs2301254, and rs1799937 were significantly associated with FSGS [rs6508 odds ratio (OR) 1.82, P = 0.006; rs2301254 OR 1.65, P = 0.049; rs1799937 OR 1.91, P = 0.005] in the non-HIV-1 group and rs2234591 (OR 0.234, P = 0.011) in the HIV-1 group. Haplotype analyses in the population revealed that seven SNPs were associated with FSGS; five SNPs had the highest contingency score [-log10(P value) = 13.57] in the HIV-1 group. This association could not be explained by population substructure. We conclude that SNPs in WT1 and WIT1 genes are significantly associated with FSGS, suggesting that variants in these genes may mediate pathogenesis by altering WT1 function. Furthermore, HIV-1 infection status interacts with genetic variations in both genes to influence this phenotype. We speculate that nephropathy liability alleles in WT1 pathway genes cause podocyte dysfunction and glomerular scarring.


This paper proposes novel techniques for scheduling radar dwells in phased array radar systems. In order to handle complex physical characteristics such as dwell interleaving, transmitting duty cycle constraint, and energy constraint, we propose a notion of schedulability envelope. The schedulability envelope designed offline hides the details of complex radar dwell scheduling and provides a simple measure for the schedulability check. Using the schedulability envelope, the proposed technique can efficiently perform the admission control for dynamic target tracking tasks. The simulation results show that the proposed approach can significantly improve the system utilization by taking advantage of dwell interleaving while guaranteeing the schedulability and physical constraints


The role of the cytoplasmic domain of the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) envelope glycoproteins in virus replication was investigated. Deletion of residues 840 to 856 at the carboxyl terminus of gp41 reduced the efficiency of virus entry during an early step in the virus life cycle between CD4 binding and formation of the DNA provirus without affecting envelope glycoprotein synthesis, processing, or syncytium-forming ability. Deletion of residues amino terminal to residue 846 was associated with decreased stability of envelope glycoproteins made in COS-1 cells, but this phenotype was cell type dependent. The cytoplasmic domain of gp41 was not required for the incorporation of the HIV-1 envelope glycoproteins into virions. These results suggest that the carboxyl terminus of the gp41 cytoplasmic domain plays a role in HIV-1 entry other than receptor binding or membrane fusion. The cytoplasmic domain of gp41 also affects the stability of the envelope glycoprotein in some cell types.


Background/Context Portfolio assessment is a popular form of authentic assessment, but often portfolios become simply folders full of papers rather than student reflections on their work. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study The author conducted a study aiming to help the ninth-grade students in his English language arts classroom be more reflective about their reading and writing portfolios. Research Design This study was conducted as a teacher research study in two parts. The first part studied the effect on the reflectiveness of students when using a 10-minute one-on-one presentation with the teacher instead of a cover letter. From the data received from these first-semester presentations, the teacher-researcher categorized the students' statements into reflective and nonreflective categories. In the second part of the study, the teacher used these categories to teach students to speak more reflectively during their second-semester presentations. Conclusions/Recommendations The author found that students can be taught to be more reflective about their work and that this newfound reflectiveness helps students take more control in their literacy education.


This paper examines the role of institutions (including civil law origin), financial deepening and degree of regime authority on growth rates in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region using panel data through a fixed effect model. The results reveal that English civil law origin and the establishment of the rule of law work with the development of financial institutions to increase economic growth in these economies; however, the democratization of the political institutions and foreign direct investment do not assist financial development in promoting economic growth. The findings emphasize the prominence of overcoming institutional weaknesses and establishing transparent public policy governing businesses as a pre-requisite for successful universal integration in developing countries.


Background Podcasts are popular with medical students, but the impact of podcast use on learning outcomes in undergraduate medical education has not been studied in detail. Objective Our aim was to assess the impact of podcasts accompanied by quiz questions and lecture attendance on short- and medium-term knowledge retention. Methods Students enrolled for a cardio-respiratory teaching module were asked to prepare for 10 specific lectures by watching podcasts and submitting answers to related quiz questions before attending live lectures. Performance on the same questions was assessed in a surprise test and a retention test. Results Watching podcasts and submitting answers to quiz questions (versus no podcast/quiz use) was associated with significantly better test performance in all items in the surprise test and 7 items in the retention test. Lecture attendance (versus no attendance) was associated with higher test performance in 3 items and 1 item, respectively. In a linear regression analysis adjusted for age, gender, and overall performance levels, both podcast/quiz use and lecture attendance were significant predictors of student performance. However, the variance explained by podcast/quiz use was greater than the variance explained by lecture attendance in the surprise test (38.7% vs 2.2%) and retention test (19.1% vs 4.0%). Conclusions When used in conjunction with quiz questions, podcasts have the potential to foster knowledge acquisition and retention over and above the effect of live lectures.


Exploration of the effect of ligand-protein interactions on conformational substates and internal dynamics in different regions of phospholipase A2 from porcine pancreas (PLA2), was performed by combining site-directed mutagenesis and time-resolved fluorescence measurements. The single tryptophan residue (Trp-3) in the wild type protein was replaced by a phenylalanine residue, whereafter Trp was substituted either for leucine-31 ,located in the calcium binding loop, or for phenylalanine-94, located at the "back side" of the enzyme, in a-helix E (Dijkstra et al., J. Mol. Biol., 147, 97-123, 1981). Analyses by the Maximum Entropy Method (MIEM) of the total fluorescence intensity decays, provide in each case a distribution of separate lifetime classes, which can be interpreted as reflecting the existence of discrete conformational substates in slow exchange with respect to the time-scale of the decay kinetics. The fluorescence decay of the W94 mutant is dominated by an extremely short excited state lifetime of ~60 ps, probably arising from the presence of two proximate disulfide bridges. Time-resolved fluorescence anisotropy studies show that the Trp residue near the NH2 terminus (Trp-3) undergoes a more limited rotational motion than the Trp-3 1 located in the calcium binding loop. The widest angular rotation is observed at position 94, in a-helix E. Calcium binding displays the strongest influence on the lifetime distribution of Trp-31: a major local conformation corresponding to a lifetime class with a barycenter value of ~5.5 ns and contributing to ~50% of the decay is selected. The conformations giving rise to the short lifetimes ((tau)1 and (tau)2 lifetime classes) become less important. The contribution of the third lifetime class (c3) stays at a constant value of 30%. In the presence of calcium, the amplitude of motion is wider than without the ion. There is virtually no effect of calcium binding on the lifetime distribution of the Trp residue at the 3 or the 94 position. Binding of the monomeric substrate analog n-dodecylphosphocholine (C12PN) in the presence of calcium hardly affects neither the Trp-3 excited state population distribution, nor its rotational dynamics. The binding of C12PN monomers to the W31 mutant further increases the contribution of the t4lifetime class at the expense of c2. A more restricted rotation of the Trp-31 residue is also induced. The binding of the micellar substrate analog n-hexadecylphosphocholine (C16PN) in the presence of calcium is very efficient in modifying the lifetime distribution of Trp-3. Essentially, one major broad lifetime population (centered at ~2.6 ns) is revealed by MEM analysis of the total intensity decay. The internal motion is slowed down and the angle of rotation is much smaller in this conformation. Neither the excited state lifetime distribution of Trp-31 nor its dynamics are affected by micelle binding relative to monomer binding. In conclusion, by placing a single Tip-residue at strategic positions along the peptide chain of PLA2, relevant to the binding of biological ligands, an excellent model system for the study of selective perturbations of conformational substates and internal dynamics is provided.


Creative thought and the ability to innovate are critical skills in industrial and academic careers alike. There exist attempts to foster creative skills in the business world, but little such work has been documented in a physics context. In particular, there are few tools available for those who want to assess the creativity of their physics students, making it difficult to tell whether instruction is having any effect. In this paper, we outline a new elective course at the Colorado School of Mines in the physics department designed to develop creativity and innovation in physics majors. We present our efforts to assess this course formatively, using tablet PCs and InkSurvey software, and summatively using the discipline-independent Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking. We also describe early work towards developing a physics-specific instrument for measuring creativity.


The lighting market has recently improved LED performance by orders of magnitudes. In parallel, massive production decreases dramatically LED price. Those improvements triggered new interests for LED pumping of lasers which was first studied in the early 1980s on neodymium doped and ytterbium doped lasers at low temperature. Since the 2000's, several research teams started to revisit the concept of LED pumped lasers: polymer laser, fiber laser and semiconductors have recently demonstrated laser effect under visible LED pumping. However, no experimental results were reported on LED pumped bulk crystals. In this paper, we demonstrated for the first time a LED pumped Nd:YVO4 laser operating at room temperature. We investigated two pumping wavelengths: in the amber around 600 nm and in the near infrared around 850 nm. The laser operated in quasi-cw-pumping regime to increase the LED intensity. We performed a two-mirror cavity transversely pumped by 36 LEDs. Laser operation was achieved at room temperature for the both pump wavelengths: a maximum output energy of 40µJ for an emitted energy of 7.4 mJ with infrared pumping and an energy of 11.7 µJ for an emitted energy or 2.3 mJ with amber pumping. This works demonstrated that LED pumping has an interesting potential to realize ultra-low-cost solid-state lasers operating in pulsed regime at kHz repetition rate and with energies in the mJ range.


After years of neglect, agriculture is once again seizing the attention of African governments, business leaders, communities, and development donors, as a powerful driver of the continent's relentless growth. Some estimated that Africa's population will be reaching 2 billion in 2020, with resultant consequences for food security, growing urbanization, and youth unemployment. Therefore, the majority of African countries urgently need to refocus their future agricultural growth strategies. To make things worse, the continent's agriculture is substantially under-capitalized, with extremely low levels of mechanization and value addition. Some statistics give for the continent an average of 13 tractors for each one hundred square kilometres of arable land compares unfavorably both with the global average (200/100km2 of arable land) and with the average for other developing regions, such as South Asia (129/100km2 of arable land). The same applies to irrigation: sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has only 4% of arable and permanent cropland under irrigation, compared with 39% in South Asia and 11% in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The African agribusiness's present share of total Gross Domestic Product is very low. Data from the World Bank shows that the value of agribusiness production in Thailand matches that of the entire Sub Saharan Africa region, while that of Brazil is nearly four times the African total. In addition, in two African countries (South Africa and Zimbabwe), agriculture's share of GDP exceeds that of agribusiness by 10 percentage points, highlighting the region's failure to add value to farm production. This is surprising for South Africa who has a tradition of high volumes agriculture. This inability to produce and process considerable volumes of agro-industrial commodities stifles the scope for industrialization and means that these countries are failing to benefit from opportunities to add value and create sustainable jobs.

While high-income countries add about US$180 of value by processing one tonne of agricultural products, African countries generate less than US$40. Moreover, while 98% of agricultural production in high-income countries undergoes industrial processing, in African countries less than 30% is processed. Rural areas in African countries have limited agro-processing activity and capacity. Sub Saharan African countries experience large post-harvest losses, especially for perishable commodities such as fruit and vegetables, with post-harvest losses above 50% of total attainable production, with grains losses below 25%.


A newly developed bidirectional Retarding Field Energy Analyzer, RFEA, which measures ion temperatures from both sides (downstream and upstream), was commissioned in the STOR-M tokamak. Its entrance slit width follows one of the design criteria, < 2λDe. The dimension of the RFEA is small enough to avoid creating a shadow effect. The probe is the replacement of previous RFEA which measures ion temperature, Ti, from one side only. An external cable used as an antenna parallel to the cables, connected to the collector, is used to suppress noise picked up by the cable. A similar technique was used in the previous RFEA. By operating the probe in standard ramping mode, Ti in the scrape-off layer (SOL) region between 15.5cm and 12cm from the chamber center is measured (minor radius). The probe performs Ti measurement campaign twice with different entrance slits. The entrance slit 1 provides higher collector current than the entrance slit 2, but the entrance slit 1 on the downstream side did not survive during the first Ti campaign. Ti measured by the entrance slit 2 in the SOL region of the STOR-M is between 19eV and 34eV. The probe operation is validated by Te values simultaneously measured by the Triple probe. Ti Te is between 1.8 and 2.8 in the STOR-M SOL. RFEA in DC mode operation demands higher ion current to estimate Ti fluctuation. The 2011 Ti campaign shows that the direction of magnetic field largely affects the current RFEA operation both in conventional ramping mode and in DC mode.