Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) have been widely applied to various fields for learning over graph-structured data. They have shown significant improvements over traditional heuristic methods in various tasks such as node classification and graph classification. However, since GNNs heavily rely on smoothed node features rather than graph structure, they often show poor performance than simple heuristic methods in link prediction where the structural information, e.g., overlapped neighborhoods, degrees, and shortest paths, is crucial. To address this limitation, we propose Neighborhood Overlap-aware Graph Neural Networks (Neo-GNNs) that learn useful structural features from an adjacency matrix and estimate overlapped neighborhoods for link prediction. Our Neo-GNNs generalize neighborhood overlap-based heuristic methods and handle overlapped multi-hop neighborhoods. Our extensive experiments on Open Graph Benchmark datasets (OGB) demonstrate that Neo-GNNs consistently achieve state-of-the-art performance in link prediction. Our code is publicly available at https://github.com/seongjunyun/Neo_GNNs.


KERAKOVA, M., M. IHTIMANSKA and E. VARADINOVA, 2013. Application of trophic indices in ecological state assessment of riverine water bodies. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., Supplement 2, 19: 277–281 Benhtosological data from 39 potentially referent sites situated on 33 Bulgarian rivers are used for this study. Functional feeding group distribution and the main indicator macroinvertebrate groups along the studied sites are analyzed. Current ecological state, based on German Feeding Type index and Index of Trophic Completeness, of the studied sites was determined. Assessment was compared with the one made in the adapted version of Irish Biotic Index, widely applied in Bulgarian benthosological practice. Percentage distribution of the species in the main indicative groups demonstrates that SC and SH are dominant in macrozoobenthic trophic structure of the studied sites. Benthic species, which belong to functional group SH, are sensitive, while SC, PR, CL and FL are more or less tolerant. DF is characterized as most tolerant. Applicability of two trophic indices showed that the highest coincidence in assessment between the BI and RETI/PETI is observed. RETI/PETI is closer in ecological assessment to the BI and more relevant for conditions of the Bulgarian riverine ecosystems.


Graph matching is a fundamental problem in Computer Vision and Machine Learning. We present two contributions. First, we give a new spectral relaxation technique for approximate solutions to matching problems, that naturally incorporates one-to-one or one-to-many constraints within the relaxation scheme. The second is a normalization procedure for existing graph matching scoring functions that can dramatically improve the matching accuracy. It is based on a reinterpretation of the graph matching compatibility matrix as a bipartite graph on edges for which we seek a bistochastic normalization. We evaluate our two contributions on a comprehensive test set of random graph matching problems, as well as on image correspondence problem. Our normalization procedure can be used to improve the performance of many existing graph matching algorithms, including spectral matching, graduated assignment and semidefinite programming.


Honey has been used traditionally for ages to treat infectious diseases. These amazing properties of honey are complex as a result of the involvement of various bioactive compounds. Honey is becoming sustainable as a reputable and effective therapeutic agent to practitioners of conventional medicine and to the general public. Its beneficial role has been endorsed due to its antimicrobial, antiviral, anti-inflam-matory, and antioxidant activities as well as boosting of the immune system. Also, other medical conditions discussed here which can be treated with honey include but not limited to diarrhea, gastric ulcer, canine recurrent dermatitis, diabetics, tumor, and arthritis, and honey can also be used for skin disinfection and wound healing. Most of the known factors that give honey these properties include its acidity, high sugar, hydrogen peroxide, and other non-peroxide properties. Some factors may affect the therapeutic properties of honey such as exposure to heat and light.


We investigate competitiveness and price behaviour in the Israeli citrus export sector following the removal of the government export monopoly and the entry of private export companies in 1991. We identify asymmetric price transmission for some exporters even in the liberalized market which only became symmetric when a minimum price agreement was established by the government in the grapefruit market. Our findings indicate that citrus growers' seasonal losses resulting from asymmetric price transmission amounted to as much as 4.0% of their total revenues, and a much larger share of their profits. This result is consistent with the hypothesis that the observed asymmetry in price transmission was caused by Israeli exporters exerting market power over Israeli citrus growers. Concluding, our analysis demonstrates that the liberalization of the Israeli grapefruit export market by the abolishment of the government marketing board alone was not sufficient to establish a competitive market. Rather, an additional temporary government market intervention was necessary to foster competitive pricing behaviour by the exporting companies vis-a-vis the Israeli grapefruit growers.


Increasing population, finite resources, over-consumption, and unsustainable trends in business contribute to urgent and complex sustainability challenges in society. The intent of this research is to understand the role business can play in moving society toward sustainability, specifically by analyzing the strengths and weaknesses present in the outdoor industry. Evaluation of the outdoor industry using a lens of the FSSD highlights unique opportunities for the outdoor industry in moving society toward sustainability while addressing the complex challenges. Using the advantages of being cooperative and sharing the values of trust and a connection to nature, the outdoor industry has the potential to make a unique shift from the current profit-driven market economy. This thesis examines how the current operations of the industry can be more strategic, efficient, and impactful in moving consumers, business, and society in a transition toward sustainability.


Software misconfigurations are time-consuming and enormously frustrating to troubleshoot. In this paper, we show that dynamic information flow analysis helps solve these problems by pinpointing the root cause of configuration errors. We have built a tool called ConfAid that instruments application binaries to monitor the causal dependencies introduced through control and data flow as the program executes -- ConfAid uses these dependencies to link the erroneous behavior to specific tokens in configuration files. Our results using ConfAid to solve misconfigurations in OpenSSH, Apache, and Postfix show that ConfAid identifies the source of the misconfiguration as the first or second most likely root cause for 18 out of 18 real-world configuration errors and for 55 out of 60 randomly generated errors. ConfAid runs in only a few minutes, making it an attractive alternative to manual debugging.


Normal0falsefalsefalseMicrosoftInternetExplorer4In his 2004 book" Game Work," Ken S. McAllister proposed a rigorous critical methodology for the discussion of the video game complex the games themselves, their players, the industry that produces them, and those who review and market them. Games, McAllister demonstrated, are viewed and discussed very differently by different factions: as an economic force, as narrative texts, as a facet of popular culture, as a psychological playground, as an ethical and moral force, even as a tool for military training.In "Gaming Matters," McAllister and coauthor Judd Ruggill turn from the broader discussion of video game rhetoric to study the video game itself as a medium and the specific features that give rise to games as similar and yet diverse as Pong, Tomb Raider, and Halo. In short, what defines the computer game itself as a medium distinct from all others? Each chapter takes up a different fundamental characteristic of the medium. Games are: Idiosyncratic, and thus difficult to apprehend using the traditional tools of media study Irreconcilable, or complex to such a degree that developers, players, and scholars have contradictory ways of describing them Boring, and therefore obligated to constantly make demandson players attention Anachronistic, or built on age-old tropes and forms of playwhile ironically bound to the most advanced technologies Duplicitous, or dependent on truth-telling rhetoric even when they are about fictions, fantasies, or lies Work, or are often better understood as labor rather than play Alchemical, despite seeming all-too mechanical or predictableVideo games are now inarguably a major site of worldwide cultural production."Gaming Matters" will neither flatter game enthusiasts nor embolden game detractors in their assessments. But it will provide a vocabulary through which games can be discussed in academic settings and will create an important foundation for future academic discourse."


Nowadays all types of garbage are dumped into the dustbin at the buildings (houses), hospitals etc., Hence it is difficult to segregate it. To avoid all such problems, we are going to implement a project where segregation of wet, dry, plastics and metallic wastes automatically using automated smart dust bin and afterwards signal is sent to the Mobile phones. The automated smart dust bin has several features and the main feature of it is to separate the waste automatically. The bin will have four compartments for the segregation of the wastes: for plastic waste, for wet waste, for dry waste and finally for the metallic wastes. Apart from this the bin will have motor for the rotation of the bin. This project makes it hands-free and evidently more hygienic method of separation. The bin will also notify about the amount of wastes filled through an LED. The bin will also alert by sending a message to phone to tell that it is time to throw the garbage. This idea will help us to dispose the waste in a hygienic manner. This project mainly concentrates on domestic wastes whose value is unrecognized since people do not spend time in separating the wastes. Instead of sending them to municipal corporation, waste can be sent directly for recycling if waste is separated at household level.


The irradiation of the heart during thoracic cancer radiotherapy can lead to changes in the
cardiac electrophysiology. These findings were applied in a first in vivo feasibility study using
scanned carbon ion irradiation to establish an alternative, non-invasive treatment method for
cardiac arrhythmias. Damage to the small blood vessels (microvasculature) after cardiac
irradiation is putatively an initial event for longterm effects like fibrosis and finally
electrophysiological changes. However, the exact underlying mechanisms of those effects after
high dosed carbon ion irradiation of small volumes are not fully understood. Therefore,
irradiation–induced vascular damage was characterized in a porcine model for the ablation of
potentially arrhythmogenic cardiac substructures in the presented thesis.
The irradiation of target areas, the left ventricle (LV) and atrio–ventricular node (AVN), was
performed with high doses. The LV target was exposed to 40 Gy. For the AVN target, a dose–
escalation study was performed. Consequently, the AVN was irradiated with 25, 40 or 55 Gy.
The irradiation of entrance channel regions resulted in the deposition of medium doses (7 –
17 Gy). All target groups exhibited electrophysiological changes in target areas. These changes
were presumably caused by the formation of a fibrous scar. However, heterogeneous results for
the scar formation were obtained among animals of the same dose group.
Correspondingly, the vascular damage (haemorrhage and loss of microvessels) and subsequent
tissue responses (inflammatory processes and cell death) were investigated in this thesis. Their
repeated occurrence pointed to an uncompleted scar formation. Aside from target areas, nontargeted
regions were also investigated to detect potential side effects. In entrance channel
regions, hints for a delayed progression of tissue remodelling were found. However, the damage
in irradiated tissue was not spreading to unirradiated cardiac regions during the investigated
time frame (until six months after irradiation). Furthermore, no systemic inflammation was
detected after the applied carbon ion irradiation.


The stress-free way to get up and running with Windows 10 If you're a first-time, over-50 Windows user looking for an authoritative, easy-to-follow guide to the basics of this new operating system, look no further. This no-nonsense book cuts through confusing jargon and covers just what you need to know, providing lots of helpful figures along the way! Whether you're upgrading to the new Windows 10 operating system with the hopes of keeping in touch with loved ones via webcam or social media, or simply want to make your life more organized and streamlined, all the help you need to make the most of Windows 10 is at your fingertips. You'll find out how to navigate the interface with a mouse or touchscreen, manage printers and other external devices, store files in the Cloud, send and receive email, listen to music, and so much more. Customize the desktop and set up a simple network Connect with family and friends online Protect your data, your computer, and your identity Learn faster and easier with the help of large-print text There's no easier way to get up and running on the new Windows operating system than with Windows 10 For Seniors For Dummies.


Social benefit calculations of reduced noise from electric bus transport in GothenburgIn this study we examine noise from different types of buses. The aim is to calculate the economic benefits of electric buses over other bus types used in Gothenburg in terms of noise reduction. Since there is no established method to investigate the economic effects of noise from buses a large part of this study focuses on if methods currently available to quantify the health effects and economic costs of noise are sufficient to assess the effects of noise from buses. DALYs is a measure that has been developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) to quantify the health effects by counting the number of healthy life years lost every year because of the noise. ASEK is a Swedish method used to calculate the costs caused by the transport sector to society every year.In order to calculate noise from buses in a sufficiently correct way, it is necessary to have knowledge on how the different bus types operating in Gothenburg today sound. In Gothenburg there are diesel, gas, hybrid and electric buses. The method we used to calculate the bus noise was Nord2000, which is a more advanced method of calculation than the one usually used for calculations in Sweden, i.e. the Nordic Prediction method from 1996 (RTN: 96). The advantage with Nord2000 is that you can use specific input data for each bus type, something that is impossible with RTN where in-data for light and heavy vehicles are based on measurements carried out in the early 1990s. Nord2000 has been implemented in different noise calculation software, of which SoundPLAN is the computational tool used in this project. The drawback with SoundPLAN however, is that it is not possible to calculate maximum sound levels with the Nord2000 model as this has not been implemented in the software. For calculations with Nord2000 new input data has been collected based on measurements of gas, electrically charged hybrid buses driving in diesel mode, and electrically charged hybrid buses driving in electric mode on a test track in the autumn of 2016. For diesel buses existing input data for Nord2000 was used based on measurements in real traffic in 2015. The results of these measurements are used not only to do outdoor calculations of bus noise, but also for calculations of indoor noise.Another disadvantage of Nord2000 is that the calculations are more time consuming, which meant that we had to limit the geographic calculation area to 32 km2 in central Gothenburg. It is the most densely populated area in Gothenburg is where the bus traffic is most intense. In this area, bus traffic along with car traffic and other heavy vehicles was calculated within 100 meters from the road center, as well as within 30 meters of all bus stops to see the effect of starting and stopping on noise levels.We have also calculated a small residential area in the center of town where buses dominate namely the area around Backegatan, to analyze the impact of bus traffic noise in more detail.Measurements of the various bus types demonstrates that there are differences between the bus types and that diesel buses cause more noise than the other bus types. A frequency analysis of the sound also shows that the sound from diesel buses contains much more low frequency sound than electric buses. Gas and hybrid buses lie somewhere in between when it comes to the content of low-frequency sound.The estimates of the health effects and economic costs of bus noise show that diesel buses cause the highest costs of the various bus types included. But despite electric buses being perceived as much quieter it is in general difficult to show any significant difference between the bus types, even if hybrid buses in diesel mode and gas-powered buses contain more low frequency sound than electric buses. There is however a greater difference between bus types at bus stops because diesel, hybrid bus in diesel mode and gas-powered buses make a lot more noise than electric buses during acceleration. When the buses are calculated together with other road traffic, the other road traffic tends to dominate due to the fact that the volume of other traffic tends to be much greater than the volume of buses.However if you only have bus services near homes (without other traffic), the differences in exposure, especially from 55 dBA and above, is large between bus types and the electric bus is by far the quietest option. For exposure at night, calculated both with buses only and with buses and other traffic included, the differences in exposure to sound levels that can cause sleep disturbances are greater between bus types, and electric bus clearly contribute least to increased sleep disturbance.Research shows that the link between annoyance to and loudness of noise from heavy traffic, measured or calculated as a daily equivalent noise level in decibel A, is not particularly good. Low-frequency sounds are perceived as more disturbing and are perceived as louder than sound sources that are dominated by sounds in the higher frequencies, such as car traffic. The methods for quantifying the health impact and economic costs of traffic noise need to be developed or supplemented by other methods which more accurately include annoyance and sleep disturbance from heavy traffic in order to be able to make more accurate cost-benefit calculations.


Background: Rate control and rhythm control have demonstrated similar benefits for heart failure (HF) patients with atrial fibrillation (AF), but no study has attempted to rank their benefits. We aim to conduct a network metaanalysis of the efficacies of rate control and rhythm control therapies for HF patient with AF. Methods: We searched PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane Library with various combinations of "rate control", "rhythm control", "atrial fibrillation" and "heart failure". The retrieved records were screened by "Patient- Intervention-Control-Outcome" principle. The eligible randomized controlled trials were extracted for basic characteristics, outcomes data, and synthesized with random-effects model. Results: Eleven trials involving 2,086 patients and 8 rate control and rhythm control therapies were included. The interventions for all-cause mortality reduction were ranked as follows: catheter ablation (mean rank [MR] 2.3, surface under the cumulative ranking curves [SUCRA] 81.1%), atrioventricular node ablation and pacemaker (MR 3.1, SUCRA 70.0%), β-blocker (MR 3.9, SUCRA 58.8%), optimal medical treatment (MR 3.9, SUCRA 57.9%), amiodarone (MR 4.3, SUCRA 52.9%), placebo (MR 4.5, SUCRA 50.3%), digoxin (MR 6.8, SUCRA 16.7%), β- blocker and/or digoxin (MR 7.1, SUCRA 12.2%). Conclusion: In HF patients with AF, catheter ablation may be the most effective therapy for rate control and rhythm control, while digoxin is probably harmful.


Statistics about the Catholic population of the United States have frequently been used for political and ideological purposes, at the same time as they have figured prominently in discussions about the disaffiliation of Catholics from the institutional church. But how are the most commonly cited statistics generated, and to what extent are they reliable? This article reports the results of a new, qualitative study of the procedures by which a randomly selected group of Catholic dioceses and archdioceses in the U.S. obtain and publish their population statistics. In addition to assessing the reliability of the procedures used, this essay also reflects on the theological, ecclesial, and political dimensions of the processes of data collection and reporting. Despite the aspirations of the church workers interviewed, most do not believe that the methods at their disposal permit them to report with accuracy important statistics about the populations of their parishes and dioceses. Factors like the choice of statistical methods, unforeseen events in particular dioceses, and the presence of intra-ecclesial incentives to report both higher and lower statistics all reveal that to count the Catholic population is to engage, wittingly or unwittingly, in a theological and ecclesio-political act.


Computing derivatives of tensor expressions, also known as tensor calculus, is a fundamental task in machine learning. A key concern is the efficiency of evaluating the expressions and their derivatives that hinges on the representation of these expressions. Recently, an algorithm for computing higher order derivatives of tensor expressions like Jacobians or Hessians has been introduced that is a few orders of magnitude faster than previous state-of-the-art approaches. Unfortunately, the approach is based on Ricci notation and hence cannot be incorporated into automatic differentiation frameworks like TensorFlow, PyTorch, autograd, or JAX that use the simpler Einstein notation. This leaves two options, to either change the underlying tensor representation in these frameworks or to develop a new, provably correct algorithm based on Einstein notation. Obviously, the first option is impractical. Hence, we pursue the second option. Here, we show that using Ricci notation is not necessary for an efficient tensor calculus and develop an equally efficient method for the simpler Einstein notation. It turns out that turning to Einstein notation enables further improvements that lead to even better efficiency.


Heteroglossia (Novella for Orchestra) explores a non-programmatic musical narrative which seeks to juxtapose Spectral, late-Romantic, and 12-tone aesthetics. The work is structured into seven distinct chapters which utilize Fibonacci numbers and tilings of the golden proportion to create the proportions of the work. The underlying conceptual foundations (and title) of the work are intrinsically related to the concepts of dialogism, polyphony (in the novel), and heteroglossia found within the literary theories of Mikhail Bakhtin. The work is also heavily influenced by theories of narratology and semiotics found in the writings of Jean-Jacques Nattiez and Jean Molino. The discussion document outlines how these concepts are applied in the music, while also providing a summation of the history, aesthetics, and techniques of Spectral composition and outlining the use of late-Romantic triadic transformations, microtonal variance based upon the harmonic series, as well as referential passages found within the work.
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Burundi's agricultural sector employs close to 90 percent of the country's economically active population, represents approximately 50 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP), and accounts for over 80 percent of exports (World Bank 2010; FAO 2009). However, structural constraints including low productivity, land fragmentation, weak water resource management, and processing and preservation problems impede agricultural growth. In addition, the civil war that shook the country in the 1990s negatively impacted the sector, including agricultural research and development (R&D) investment.


The thermal and mechanical properties of Cu, Au pure metals and their ordered intermetallic alloys of Cu3Au(L12), CuAu(L10) and CuAu3(L12) are studied by using the molecular dynamics simulation. The effects of temperature and concentration on the physical properties of CuxAu1−x are analysed. Sutton–Chen (SC) and quantum Sutton–Chen (Q-SC) many-body potentials are used. The simulation results such as cohesive energy, density, elastic constants, bulk modulus, heat capacity, thermal expansion, melting points and phonon dispersion curves are in good agreement with the available experimental data at the various temperatures. Q-SC potential parameter results are usually closer to experimental values than the ones predicted from SC potential parameters.


Professional development opportunities can range from a single workshop to long term ongoing training. Research shows that an inspiring and informed teacher is one of the most important school related factor influencing student achievement. The best professional development for new teachers is ongoing, experiential, and collaborative, while providing an opportunity for practice, reflecting and mentoring for successful development. Most professionals involved in professional development would agree that the goal of staff development is to produce a change in participant's knowledge, behaviors, understanding, skills, values, and beliefs (Hord, S. & Monk, B. 1997). The purpose of this creative project was to evaluate the effectiveness of professional development and observations on the implementation of instructional routines and response opportunities. Participants learned how to effectively introduce reading and writing skills during small group using instructional routines and to provide response opportunities for teachers and students. The professional development outcome was measured with an instructional routine observation form that focused on 8 instructional routine procedures and a response opportunity observation form that focused on praise statements, opportunities for student response and error correction procedures. Trainees also took an effective instructional practice pre-post quiz and completed a professional development questionnaire at the conclusion of training. EFFECTIVE INSTRUCTIONAL ROUTINES AND RESPONSE OPPORTUNITIES 3


Over the past decades, metaphor has predominantly been studied as a matter of language and thought within the framework of Conceptual Metaphor Theory. Recently, however, metaphor scholars have observed that this two-dimensional cognitive-linguistic view of metaphor does not (sufficiently) accommodate the role of metaphor in communication. They argue for a rehabilitation of more rhetorically-oriented approaches to metaphor in which the role of metaphor as metaphor in communication between language users is central. This thesis investigates the communicative dimension of metaphor within the developing theoretical framework of Deliberate Metaphor Theory (DMT). DMT extends the two-dimensional model of metaphor with a dimension of communication in which a distinction is made between 'deliberate' and 'non-deliberate' metaphors. Specifically, this thesis contributes to the further development of this three-dimensional model of metaphor by addressing a set of key methodological and empirical issues regarding the role of deliberate metaphor that are currently in need of clarification. To this end, the first part of this thesis is concerned with the establishment of a reliable method for the identification of deliberate metaphor in language use. In the second part, the manifestation of deliberate metaphor in natural language use is described from both a quantitative, corpus-analytical perspective, as well as from a qualitative perspective. Finally, the third part of this thesis examines the effects of deliberate metaphor on reasoning. Together, the studies carried out in this thesis demonstrate the value of deliberate metaphor, adding to the growing body of research on the role of metaphor as metaphor in communication.


PURPOSE
The research proposal is to evaluate the association between certain irian signs and general pathology of studied patients.

METHOD
There were studied 57 hospitalized patients; there was taken over all their iris images, which were analyzed through iridological protocols; in the same time the pathology of these patients was noted from their records in the hospital, concordant with the clinical diagnosis; all these information were included in a database for a computerised processing.

RESULTS
The correlations resulted from, shows a high connection between the irian constitution establish through iridological criteria and the existent pathology.

CONCLUSIONS
Iris examination can be very useful for diagnosis of a certain general pathology, in a holistic approach of the patient.


This paper analyzes the connection between Hegel's theory of objective thinking and language. The current interpretative trend considers the conceptual only in a formal and propositional manner and it understands the Hegelian theory of truth in the light of semantic inferentialism. In contrast with this interpretative trend, the paper argues for two claims.
1) Hegel's notion of concept (Begriff) does not overlap with the structure of the proposition. 2) Language plays an essential and systematic role in Hegel's philosophy, but language can not be understood as the highest form of rational understanding.
As for the Hegelian theory of truth, the paper criticizes the disjunction between the logical-formal perspective and the ontological perspective. For Hegel, the concept defines the unity of subjectivity and objectivity. The correlate ontological monism represents, on the one hand, a critique of Kant's cognitive dualism. On the other hand, Hegel's ontological monism provides a theory of truth which constitutes an immanent criticism of the knowledge forms of the consciousness (Bewusstsein).
From this point of view, language as well as the "social practice" of giving and asking for reasons show their onesidedness, because they still constitute a "subjective" sphere of knowledge.


Juan Nepomuceno Seguín (1806–1890) was the leading Mexican-Texan military figure of the Texas Revolution (1835–1836) to participate on the Texas side of the struggle. He was the only Mexican Texan to serve in the Senate of the Republic of Texas and was the last Mexican Texan to serve as mayor of San Antonio until the 1980s. Having fled to Mexico to avoid violence at the hands of enemies he made during his tenure as mayor, he commanded an auxiliary cavalry company of fellow Mexican-Texan exiles in the Mexican army until the end of the US-Mexico War. During his effort to reestablish himself in Texas in the 1850s he wrote his memoirs of the Texas Revolution. He was one of only three Mexican Texans to do so, and the only one to have them published during his lifetime. Seguín returned to Mexico on the eve of the US Civil War to participate in Mexico's civil conflicts. In about 1870 he permanently settled in Nuevo Laredo, where he died in 1890.


Currently, European marine governance seems to be undergoing significant changes. From having been based largely on scientific expert knowledge, restricted risk assessments and governmental regulation, we are now witnessing a management turn towards holistic perspectives, the inclusion of stakeholders, adaptive governance, and co-production of knowledge—the so-called ecosystem approach to management (EAM). By using the Baltic Sea as an example of these changes, we have taken a closer look at the 2007 Baltic Sea Action Plan (BSAP) of the Helsinki Commission and the recent organizational changes within the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES). Informed by a Reflexive Governance perspective, the primary objective has been to analyse the extent to which institutional preconditions for using an EAM exist in these two cases. Our results show that even though the BSAP has been designed with an EAM approach as its core philosophy, existing implementation, financing, monitoring, and enforcement structures make it unlikely that actual management modes will change significantly in the near feature. Changes in the ICES have occurred as a result of an internal restructuring process characterized by integrative and learning elements. It has been shown that adopting a broad social science perspective and a reflexive governance viewpoint can elucidate how factors such as inadequate institutional change, limited cooperation over sector borders, and adjustment problems caused by path dependency can threaten the successful turn towards the EAM in marine governance.


When treefalls occur or tree crowns are damaged due to windthrow, tree death, disease or anthropogenic disturbance, the gaps that are created in the forest canopy initiate dramatic changes in abiotic conditions, particularly microclimate. It is generally acknowledged that the magnitude of the changes in microclimate is related to the size, shape and 3-D geometry of the gap and characteristics of the remaining surrounding canopy. However, there is currently a paucity of models that are able to describe these relationships, particularly in temperate forests. Furthermore, we currently have very limited ability to characterise the consequences of the variations in the spatial distribution of gaps on the microclimatic conditions across entire forest stands. The present project aims to address these issues by using a unique combination of field observations, numerical modelling and remote sensing techniques. In situ observations at the field site are helping to provide the empirical evidence with which to construct a dynamic spatio-temporal model of gap microclimates, while experiments over the growing season will develop robust and extendible remote sensing techniques for characterising relevant gap and canopy properties. The use of the NERC GEF GPS equipment, deployed during an extensive ground campaign coinciding with the NERC ARSF overflights, has enabled a comprehensive validation of our outputs.


Children's collaborative music making has recently gained a lot of interest in the field of musical development and learning. Mobile learning (M-learning) is a relatively new field of educational research and so far there has been only few studies about children's musical collaboration with mobile devices. Current knowledge of children's social development forms a basis for communicational design of the ubiquitous learning environment. In the present study, which is a part of EU FP7 UMSIC research project, a software JamMo (Jamming mobile) will be designed for the Nokia N810 Internet tablet. In this paper, we report on the communal features of JamMo, which are specified to Jammo's different user interfaces and groups. The design will be based on the the existing literature of children's social cognition and the development on knowledge of others, social comparison, concept of self, language use, nonverbal communication, emotions and peer interaction and prosocial development. The requirements for social development as well as learning context are described. In the JamMo's communal features design, we focus especially on peer relations, interaction and collaboration. The end product will be an accessible mobile learning device to be used in classroom and informal creative music learning, and tested with user groups mentioned in stand-alone, ad hoc and networked social contexts to promote social inclusion of children.


Objectives: This study used a quasi-experimental method in the pretest-posttest to evaluate the efficacy of cognitive-existential group therapy on hopefulness in parents of children with cancer. Method: Thirty parents (24 to 54 years old) of children with cancer were divided randomly into experimental and control groups. Both groups were assessed with Miller Hope Scale (1988), as pre-test. The experimental group received cognitive-existential group therapy in 12 sessions, each lasting 90 minutes (2 sessions per week), but no psychological intervention was applied to the control group. At the end of the intervention, both groups were reassessed through post-test. Data were analyzed by SPSS through analysis of covariance. Results: Significant differences in hopefulness between the two groups (p<0.01) were observed in favor of the experimental group. Conclusion: Cognitive-existential group therapy can be effective in increasing hopefulness in parents of children with cancer.


Investigation of a Highly Loaded, High Pressure Ratio Axial Turbine Stage for Industrial Applications (April 2005) Amit Garg, M.S., Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Chair of Advisory Committee: Dr. Magdy Attia The turbine component of a gas turbine engine is the most costly component due to its complexity, and life requirements, given the harsh environment in which it is required to operate. Minimizing the number of stages can lead to significant savings in terms of development efforts, materials, and serviceable parts. This philosophy has lead to a significant increase in the work demanded from the typical stage. In this work, a highly loaded axial turbine stage was designed for high power-output industrial applications using a comprehensive set of investigations, which included parametric studies, throughflow solutions, and 2D airfoil shapes. The design procedure was defined and used for the conceptual design calculations; several parametric studies were conducted to assess the impact of various critical design parameters such as degree of reaction, rotor exit conditions, and annulus shape. A winning design was chosen based on several factors, and the Free Vortex solution was employed to define the design boundary conditions for the airfoils hubs and tips. The NASA Throughflow Code (TDII) was used to generate the throughflow solution for the stage, and 2D airfoil shape design and analysis was performed using an in-house code (T-Foil) for the design, and the commercial CFD code (Star-CD) for the mesh and flow solutions.


Background Little is known about the epidemiology of contact dermatitis (CD) in print machine operators (PMOs). Objective The aims of this study were to estimate the prevalence of CD and characterize clinically relevant and occupationally related allergens among PMOs undergoing patch testing. Methods This was a retrospective cross-sectional analysis of the North American Contact Dermatitis Group data from 1998 to 2014. Results Of 39,332 patch-tested patients, 132 (0.3%) were PMOs. Among PMOs, most were male (75.0%) and white (92.4%). The majority were printing press operators (85.6%). The most frequent sites of dermatitis were hands (63.6%), arms (29.5%), and face/scalp (24.2%). More than half had an occupationally related skin condition (56.1%). Final diagnoses were most commonly allergic CD (58.3%) and irritant CD (33.3%). Cobalt (20.8%), carba mix (12.5%), thiuram mix (8.3%), and formaldehyde (8.3%) were the most frequent occupationally related allergens. The top allergen sources included inks (22.9%), gloves (20.8%), and coatings/dye/copy/photographic chemicals (14.6%). Conclusions Allergic CD, irritant CD, and involvement of exposed body areas were common among PMOs. Common allergens included rubber accelerators, metals, and preservatives.


The purpose of the paper is to evaluate the nature of the Nigerian construction industry, concerning its impact on the activities contributing to the competitive advantage of the industry and to the development of Nigeria in particular. One of the critical threat to the Nigerian construction industry is the limited skills workforce within the industry. The skills of the current workforce do not lend confidence in their output concerning the major issues of the quality-finished product, time delays and cost. The inadequate skilled workers affect various aspects of construction projects and impact on time, cost, as well as the quality of work within the construction sector. Therefore, this endangers the success of projects execution and the output of the industry, which in turns affect the economy of the country as a whole. This is due to insufficient skills upgrade of workers in the industry performances, which is greatly affected and needed immediate attention. Hence, to improve the performances of the industry, an effective training of the workforce needs rethinking. This study investigates the usefulness of training and skills development as the major growth enhancement in the Nigerian construction industry. The study seeks to assess the current worker's skills acquisition and training needs; the research attempts to identify and categorise the challenges and barriers that negate growth in the workers' skills acquisition of Building Construction in Nigeria. The study is purely qualitative in nature from the reviewed literature using keywords such as 'training' 'skills', output, construction, with a traditional method. The researcher has thoroughly searched related literature by searching electronic database. The analysis and the findings of the study is through document analysis from the reviewed literature. Hence, a preliminary model is develop to enhance the current training and skilled development in the Nigerian construction industry, from the findings of the document analysis.


An unknown killer has been wiping out populations of six species of hibernating bats in the northeastern United States in what appears to be the biggest die-off on record. So far, scientists studying the problem have more questions than answers. The task is urgent. The disappearance of these bats could have larger impacts on ecosystems, as these night flyers hunt insects that annoy humans and damage crops. And last October, a group of more than 100 participants from a science strategy meeting concluded that if the problem continues to expand at its current rate, entire species—including the endangered big-eared bat in Virginia and Indiana—could be in jeopardy.


Rate-adaptive pacemakers make use of sensors in order to automatically adjust the pacing rate according to the metabolic needs of the patient, thus overcoming the limitation of fixed-rate pacemakers that cannot ensure an adequate heart beat in cases of varying physical, mental or emotional activity. This feature significantly improves the quality of life of patients with chronotropic incompetence, i.e. Whose heart is unable to increase its rate as the activity increases. We develop a formal model of a rate-adaptive pacemaker based on hybrid automata that explicitly includes sensors for rate control. In particular, we model the VVIR pacemaker with a QT interval sensor, a highly specific metabolic sensor that can sense the exercise activity level, based on the fact that physical (and mental) stresses shorten the QT interval, in turn requiring an increased heart rate. We implement the QT interval sensor through a runtime ECG detection algorithm and validate our model with patient data, showing that the simulated VVIR pacemaker is able to successfully regulate a bradycardia ECG signal and produce a correctly paced heart. The validated rate-adaptive pacemaker is plugged into the model-based framework introduced in Chen et al. (2014), which enables rigorous and quantitative verification of closed-loop patient-device systems described as hybrid automata, and supports multiple heart and pacemaker models in a modular way. We demonstrate the usefulness of the framework by performing in silico experiments to demonstrate the correct functioning of rate modulation under different activity levels. Our framework has the potential to reduce the need for exercise testing with real patients.


Connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs) could become the most powerful mobility intervention in the history of human race; possibly greater than the conception of the wheel itself or the shift from horse-carriages to automobiles. Despite CAVs' likely traffic safety, economic, environmental, social inclusion and network performance benefits their full-scale implementation may not be as predictable, uncomplicated, acceptable and risk-free as it is often communicated by a large share of automotive industries, policy-makers and transport experts. Framing an 'unproven', 'disruptive' and 'life-changing' intervention, primarily based on its competitive advantages over today's conventional automobile technologies, may create misconceptions, overreaching expectations and room for errors that societies need to be cautious about. This article 'tests' eleven myths referring to an overly optimistic CAVs' development and adoption timeline. This approach highlights unresolved issues that need to be addressed before an inescapable CAV-based mobility paradigm transition takes place and provides relevant policy recommendations on how to achieve that.


Our homage is to Ellison Kahn the editor. We know that every tribute to him (in this volume, in volume 116 of the SALJ on the occasion of his retirement as editor in 1999, and in the volume of essays published in his honour in 1989) has praised his 'polishing hand', but we want to take this opportunity to underline his special contribution to South African law in setting the benchmarks for good editing during his fifty years as editor of this journal. Amongst his many and great accomplishments, this must surely be his most durable monument.


By now the slogan of the National Trust for Historic Preservation that "the greenest building is the one already built" is widely known. In an era of increased environmental awareness and rising fuel prices, however, the question is how can historic building stock be made more energy efficient in a manner respectful of its historic integrity and character. The other challenge is to find those improvements that, in the quest to save energy (and, by extension, money), do not in the long run cost more than they save. There are an increasing number of "sustainable solutions" in the marketplace today, but not all are good investments, provide tangible benefits, or are appropriate approaches for historic buildings. Often common sense, trained historic and/or aesthetic judgment, and the studies and assurances of those marketing the solutions are used to determine what interventions are appropriate. In addition, practical and objective analysis tools are needed in the process, and that is the benefit of including energy modeling and life-cycle costing in assessing potential changes. These calculation tools can help all of those involved in a project to understand which solutions truly offer energy and operating-cost savings. Energy Modeling The use of computers to simulate annual energy consumption began as a result of the energy crisis in the 1970s. After the United States Department of Energy (DOE) was created by President Jimmy Carter, algorithms were developed to simulate the annual energy consumption of a building. These calculations were refined and further developed over the years, with the DOE-2 simulation algorithms gaining wide acceptance in the industry throughout the 1990s. Currently, use of these energy-modeling tools has become standard for any project that is pursuing Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification from the United States Green Building Council. There are many energy-modeling software programs in use today, including Energy Plus, developed jointly by the University of Illinois and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. (1) The basic concept of the energy model is to virtually create (or, in the case of preservation, recreate) a building, delineating not only its physical form but also other performance and usage variables. The simulation process includes a virtual model of the building geometry, the building materials and their characteristics, and the types of mechanical systems and lighting, along with other systems that may consume energy. The patterns of the occupants and their activity levels are added to the virtual model, and finally the weather-data files that reflect the particular locale are referenced for a complete hour-by-hour simulation of a typical meteorological year. (2) Depending on the size of the building, creating this baseline model can be a process that takes 40 hours for a small, straightforward building, such as a suburban office building, to hundreds of hours for a large, complex edifice, such as a monumental campus building. Regardless of project size, the process is typically the same, although larger buildings tend to leverage the effort and cost of the model to greater effect since the improvements can produce larger energy savings. Once the baseline information has been entered and an existing-conditions model created, it is then possible to calculate the building's current energy-use footprint and to track what percentage of that consumption can be attributed to each of the building's components. Before performing any analysis, however, this initial calculation should first be cross-checked against any energy bills or other records that may exist to help normalize the model to the actual operation of the building and to allow for more accurate predictions in the future comparisons. (3) For example, energy loss through air infiltration can constitute a sizable percentage of the overall total, ranging anywhere from less than five percent in a newly constructed building with careful air-barrier detailing to 40 percent or more in an old, poorly maintained building that has numerous gaps and openings at such locations as foundations, sill plates, windows, doors, sheathing, flues, and eaves. …


: This paper analyses the impact of comprehensive sex education on teenage pregnancy rates in Ecuador, specifically examining its implementation in schools. The inclusion of sex education as a mandatory cross-cutting theme in the updated and strengthened educational curriculum of 2010 provides a potential source of exogenous variation in access to comprehensive sex education. Using a difference-in-differences model, the study finds that the provision of comprehensive sex education in schools contributed to a reduction in teenage pregnancy rates in Ecuador. This research addresses a notable gap in the literature, as there is a scarcity of causal research studies conducted in Latin American countries focusing on this topic. The findings underscore the importance of the ongoing debate regarding the reintroduction of comprehensive sex education into the educational curriculum, and emphasize the need for coordinated efforts with parents to maximize the benefits of its implementation.


We have investigated the effects of mismatch repair on 1-to 61-bp deletions in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The deletions are likely to involve unpaired loop intermediates resulting from DNA polymerase slippage. The mutator effects of mutations in the DNA polymerase delta (POL3) gene and the recombinational repair RAD52 gene were studied in combination with mismatch repair defects. The pol3-t mutation increased up to 1000-fold the rate of extended (7-61 bp) but not of 1-bp deletions. In a rad52 null mutant only the 1-bp deletions were increased (12-fold). The mismatch repair mutations pms1, msh2 and msh3 did not affect 31- and 61-bp deletions in the pol3-t but increased the rates of 7- and 1-bp deletions. We propose that loops less than or equal to seven bases generated during replication are subject to mismatch repair by the PMS1, MSH2, MSH3 system and that in cannot act on loops > or = 31 bases. In contrast to the pol3-t, the enhancement of 1-bp deletions in a rad52 mutant is not altered by a pms1 mutation. Thus, mismatch repair appears to be specific to errors of DNA synthesis generated during semiconservative replication.


The main contribution of this work is to analyze and describe the state of the art performance as regards answer scoring systems from the SemEval2013 task, as well as to continue with the development of an answer scoring system (EHU-ALM) developed in the University of the Basque Country. On the overall this master thesis focuses on finding any possible configuration that lets improve the results in the SemEval dataset by using attribute engineering techniques in order to find optimal feature subsets, along with trying different hierarchical configurations in order to analyze its performance against the traditional one versus all approach. Altogether, throughout the work we propose two alternative strategies: on the one hand, to improve the EHU-ALM system without changing the architecture, and, on the other hand, to improve the system adapting it to an hierarchical configuration. To build such new models we describe and use distinct attribute engineering, data preprocessing, and machine learning techniques.


TERM[1] is used to analyse the short term regional economic impact of an increase in industries' transport costs when paying E-Tolls. Market-clearing and accounting equations allow regional economies to be represented as an integrated framework; labour adjusts to accommodate increasing transportation costs, and investments change to accommodate capital that is fixed.[2] We concluded that costs from levying E-Tolls on industries are relatively small in comparison to total transport costs, and the impact on economic aggregates and most industries are negligible: investments (-0.404%), GDP (-0.01), CPI (-0.10%). This is true even when considering costs and benefits on industries as well as consumers. Industries that experienced the greatest decline in output were transport, construction, and gold. Provinces which are closer to Gauteng, and have a greater share of severely impacted industries, experienced larger GDP and real income reductions. Mpumalanga's decrease in GDP was 17% greater than Gauteng's.[1] "TERM" is an acronym for "The enormous regional model", for simplicity we refer to the TERM model.[2] TERM is a bottom-up CGE model designed for highly disaggregated regional data. "CGE" is an acronym for Computable General Equilibrium. TERM models originate from Horridge et al. (2005) which are better explained in Horridge (2011).


Banana is an important food crop in the world after cereals. In 2004, the Asia and Pacific region, Malaysia ranked 3rd for cultivated banana exporter, exporting mainly to Singapore, Hong Kong, Brunei and the Middle East. However, disease has become a major factor contributing to the declining banana industry in Malaysia. Fusarium wilt, primarily caused by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense, is a destructive disease, causing production loss of commercial banana cultivars not only Malaysia but worldwide. Up to now, no strategy has been found to effectively combat this disease. In this study, cDNA libraries for Musa acuminata x balbisiana cv Mutiara (banana Mutiara, AAB, Fusarium tolerant) and Musa acuminata x balbisiana cv Rastali (banana Rastali, AAB, Fusarium susceptible) were constructed. Five micrograms of mRNA from each banana variety was used in respective for cDNA library construction and 5000 clones from each library were randomly cored and amplified using PCR. Clones were then arrayed on glass slides and gene expression analysis was carried out. Interesting clones were randomly selected for sequencing and homology search against available databases were made. The emphasis was give to clones that have putative function in pathogen response or are pathogenesis related following Fusarium fungal infection. The cDNA microarray analysis identified 55 M. acuminata x balbisiana cv Mutiara clones that were transcriptional responsive to the Fusarium fungus infection. Several functional types of genes, including those involved in defence response, cell structure, energy, transport, signal transduction and intracellular traffic were up-regulated after Fusarium fungus infection. Clones encoded proteins that are involved in primary metabolism, protein destination and storage were down-regulated after Fusarium infection. These expression profiles show defence signalling pathways of M. acuminata x balbisiana cv Mutiara against Fusarium involved considerable interaction between different signalling pathways. Activation of defence response to Fusarium fungal attack did not involve individual gene. Additionally, many clones encoding proteins with unknown functions were identified. Functional analysis of these genes could broaden the understanding of disease resistance mechanisms of M. acuminata x balbisiana cv Mutiara defence responses to Fusarium wilt of bananas and potentially introduce candidate prevent for this disease in application to molecular breeding.


We examined the dispersal of larvae (glochidia) of a common unionid mussel species, Actinonaias ligamentina, which need to attach to a host fish in order to develop into juveniles, in a lowland river (Sydenham River, Ontario, Canada). Generally, the decline in the number of glochidia captured with distance from release was best described by an inverse power function. The highest proportion was found in the first net 4 m downstream (range 0.1–3.6%), but a small proportion of glochidia was captured 96 m downstream (0–0.03%). This indicates that infestation of host fish may occur several tens to hundreds of meters downstream of the adults' location, even at relatively low flow conditions (mean velocity, 15 cm s−1). Dispersal distances increased with velocity, but the number of glochidia sampled at a given location can vary considerably due to stochastic effects of turbulence, especially at shorter distances. Individual trials could, therefore, deviate considerably from the predictions of an existing turbulent transport model (local exchange model), but overall there was a good correlation between measured data and model prediction. However, model predictions were quantitatively much higher than measured values (i.e., > 50 fold in some cases), which could be in part due to several simplifying assumptions of the model.


In today's public and private sectors, corporate governance is a key focus, and management of libraries, records, archives, and information centers is an increasingly important preoccupation. This implies that the issue of LIS education should not be taken lightly. As the economy grows, the demand for information will propel the demand for LIS professionals because of the need to manage different kinds of documents. This paper, based on relevant literature review and the authors' experience as LIS practitioners and educators, aims at discussing this subject and highlights important issues to be addressed. The paper makes a brief exploration of LIS education in Uganda, identifies the challenges, and proposes strategies as the way forward. It recommends that as LIS education and training seeks a wider role in society, there is a need to prepare students for careers in a rapidly changing world. This requires multidisciplinary education, greater emphasis on core knowledge, and fully well-articulated graduate programmes to meet the requisite of LIS professionals.


Past research has focused on either the positive influence of incentives on homework completion (Cullen, Cullen, Hayhow, & Plouffe, 1975) or the positive influence of homework completion on academic performance (Cooper, Robinson, & Patall, 2006). Our study is one of the first to integrate these two streams of research to examine whether higher amounts of incentives to do homework increases academic performance. In a quasi-experimental field study, we show that university students who had a higher incentive to complete homework (n = 66) performed significantly better than those who had a lower incentive to do so (n = 135). We highlight how important it is to use incentives to do homework as a motivational tool to encourage university students to complete their homework (i.e., out-of-class practice) to improve their performance. ********** Secondary educators often assign homework (i.e., out of class practice activities) to improve academic performance (Cooper, Robinson, & Patall, 2006). One reason why post-secondary educators may not use homework is because they believe university students are aware of the connection between out-of-class practice (e.g., rehearsing oral presentations) and performing well in-class (e.g., on oral presentations). Thus the custom of assigning homework to university students is less frequent and research on how to motivate such students to do their homework has been sparse. The current paper addresses this issue by examining how university educators can motivate their students to engage in out-of-class activities to improve their in-class performance. Several studies show that out-of-class activities affect in-class performance (see Cooper et al., 2006 for a review). Completing homework affects immediate achievement and learning because it allows for practice and review of class material (Epstein & Van Voorhis, 2001). Practice leads to a higher level of skill acquisition and as skill acquisition increases, performance does too (Ericsson, Krampe, & Tesch-Romer, 1993). One way in which educators can encourage homework completion is to give students incentives (i.e., goal objects that people "desire to attain or avoid"; Tuckman, 1996). For instance, Cullen, Cullen, Hayhow, and Plouffe (1975) found that students who were given an incentive (i.e., marks) were more likely to complete an assignment than those who were not. Similarly, Bryan and Sullivan-Burstein (1997 as cited in Bryan & Burstein, 2004) found that introducing incentives such as treats and extra recess time significantly increased the completion of homework. Finally, Chee-Mattei (2007) showed that the significant increase in homework completion compared to baseline levels remained even after the incentives were removed. Thus, students are more likely to engage in responses (e.g., homework completion) that are directed toward incentives because such incentives are motivating to them (Beck, 2004; Petri & Govern, 2004). However, studies that examine the effect of incentives to do homework (e.g., Chulkov, 2006; Cullen et al., 1975) only measure their effects on homework completion and not on performance. And studies that measure the effect of homework completion on performance (e.g., Cooper et al., 2006) do not examine the direct effect of incentives to do homework on performance. Our study is the first to fill this gap by examining whether incentives to complete homework lead to improved academic performance. Further, based on previously established links between incentives to do homework and the link between homework and academic performance, it is reasonable to propose that incentives would lead to greater homework completion, which in turn would improve performance. However, our prediction of the mediating mechanisms is constrained by limited empirical evidence examining all three variables and therefore, is preliminary at best. Another reason why our hypothesis is tentative is that most of the research on homework and achievement is not conducted with post-secondary students (see Graham, 2006; Uskul & Eaton, 2005 for a few exceptions). …


A new theory has been presented, for the first time, called the "Phase Theory", which is the natural evolution of the physical thought and is considered the one beyond the super string theory. This theory solves the unsolved problems of the mysterious of matter, antimatter and interactions and makes a wide step towards the unification of the forces of nature. In this theory, the vibrating string of different frequency modes which determines the different types of elementary particles is replaced by a three dimensional infinitesimal pulsating (black)holes with the same frequency. Different types of elementary particles are determined by different phase angles associated with the same frequency. This allows the force of interactions to take place among elementary particles, without the need to invoke the notion of the force carrier particles, as the (stable) force of interactions can never take place between elementary particles at different frequencies. Besides the strong mathematical proofs given in this paper to prove its truthfulness, an experimental prediction has been given to confirm the theory presented in the form of the relation between the electron radius and quarks radii. The paper shows that quarks are direct consequence of this theory, and solves "the flavor problem" in QCD, and gives the clue to answer the questions of "Why are there so many flavors? The paper also derives the equation of the big bang theory which describes the singularity of the moment of creation of the universe.


In February 2015, the U.S. Copyright Office released a report entitled Copyright and the Music Marketplace, which summarizes its study of the music industry and recommends significant revisions to copyright law in response to the rapidly changing demands of the industry. Among its recommendations, the Copyright Office proposes an amendment to section 115(a)(2) of the Copyright Act. Currently, section 115(a)(2), referred to as the compulsory licensing provision of copyright law, permits someone to record a new version of a previously recorded and publicly distributed song, regardless of the format of the newly recorded version. The revised section 115(a)(2) would require someone who wishes to distribute a cover recording of a song to seek a license from the copyright owner for dissemination via interactive new media and digital downloads. However, distribution of cover songs in physical formats still would be subject to compulsory licensing. The Copyright Office's suggested amendment to section 115(a)(2) would create nonuniformity for creators of cover recordings based on the intended format of the newly recorded song. This approach seems contrary to the Copyright Office's guiding principles and reasoning behind its recommendations for other changes to copyright law in the Music Marketplace report that emphasize the importance of harmonization of the rules for music licensing. For example, the Copyright Office supports harmonizing the rules that govern terrestrial radio with the rules concerning digital and satellite radio by broadening the sound recording performance right to include terrestrial broadcasts and including terrestrial uses under sections 112 and 114 licenses. According to the report, the creation of a terrestrial radio performance right would adhere to the Office's principle that "analogous uses should be treated alike." Yet, the recommendation for section 115(a)(2) would produce different treatments of digital and physical formats of works. A potential licensee who is the digital distributor of a cover song would no longer have the option of a compulsory license if the licensee does not want to contact the copyright owner or the copyright owner does not wish to license the song, but the potential licensee could distribute the same cover song in a physical format, such as a compact disc (CD), under the current compulsory licensing system. This Article concludes this recommendation is inadvisable because it creates inconsistencies in licensing musical works when harmonization is critical for the music industry, and it places an unjustifiable burden on musicians and distributors seeking to rerecord songs in digital formats. The U.S. Copyright Office should either recommend the elimination of the compulsory licensing system for music or suggest format-neutral changes to the current system. Because of the lack of need and purpose for a compulsory licensing system for musical works today, the Article suggests that the Office develop a recommendation that includes the repeal of section 115.


Abstract. We studied three-dimensional (3-D) vesicle size distributions by X-ray microtomography in scoria collected during the relatively quiescent Phase II of the April–May 2010 eruption at Eyjafjallajokull volcano, Iceland. Our goal was to compare cumulative vesicle size distributions (VSDs) measured in these samples with those found in Stromboli volcano, Italy. Stromboli was chosen because its VSDs are well-characterized and show a correlation with eruption intensity: typical Strombolian activity produces VSDs with power-law exponents near 1, whereas larger and more energetic vulcanian-type explosions and Plinian eruptions produce VSDs with power-law exponents near 1.5. The first hypothesis to be tested was whether or not the samples studied in this work would contain VSDs similar to normal Strombolian products, display higher power-law exponents, or be described by exponential functions. Before making this comparison, we tested a second hypothesis, which was that the magma–water interactions in the Eyjafjallajokull eruption might have a significant effect on the VSDs. We performed 1 bar bubble-growth experiments in which the samples were inundated with water and compared them to similar control experiments without water inundation. No significant differences between the VSDs of the two sets of experiments were found, and the second hypothesis is not supported by the experimental evidence. The Phase II Eyjafjallajokull VSDs are described by power-law exponents of ~0.8, typical of normal Strombolian eruptions, and support the first hypothesis. The comparable VSDs and behavior of Phase II of the Eyjafjallajokull 2010 eruption to Stromboli are interpreted to be a reflection of similar conduit systems in both volcanoes that are being constantly fed by the ascent of mingled/mixed magma from depth. Such behavior implies that continued activity during Phase II of the Eyjafjallajokull eruption could be expected and would have been predicted, had our VSDs been measured in real time during the eruption. However, the products studied show no peculiar feature that could herald the renewed eruption intensity observed in the following Phase III of the eruption.


Phone surveys were conducted with 1200 American adults in 2001 and in 2003 designed to track the strength, extent and persistence of consumers' attitudes toward genetically modified food. The results suggest that most Americans remain largely uninformed about GM foods and the topic is not often the subject of social discourse. Only 20% of Americans report having had more than one or two conversations about genetically modified foods. However, the results also suggest that support for GM foods has slipped between 2001 and 2003. In 2001, 59% of Americans said they thought GM would make their lives better. Only 39% had a similar response in 2003.


Innovation is considered one of the main drivers of productivity growth and economists have investigated both its determinants and its contribution to firm performance, measured as productivity; growth and/or market value. There are several reasons for analysing the link between innovation and productivity at the firm level. First, it is firms that innovate, not countries or industries. Second, aggregate analysis hides a lot of heterogeneity. Firms' performance and characteristics differ both across countries and within industries; countries' innovation systems are characterised by mixed patterns of innovation strategies which have an impact on firms' behaviour; and firms may adopt multiple paths to innovation, including non-technological ones. The advantage of micro-level analysis is that it attempts to model the channels through which specific firms' knowledge assets or specific knowledge channels can have an impact on these firms' productivity and therefore shed light on the role that innovation inputs, outputs and policies play in economic performance.


This paper presents a new method to predict the springback in sheet metal forming. First the genetic algorithm (GA) is adopted for recognizing the material parameters. According to the even design idea, the calculation scheme is selected and the finite element method (ANSYS/LS-DYNA 5.71) is used for calculating the springback. Compared with the calculations and experiments, the difference between the two results is taken as source data, a new pattern recognition method of data mining called hierarchical optimal map recognition (HOMR) method is applied for summarizing the calculation regulation in finite element method. In the end, the mathematics model of the springback simulation has been established. Based on the model, the calculation error of springback can be controlled within 10% compared with the experiments.


Current commercial vehicles are beginning to include automated features such as adaptive cruise control and automated lane keeping. This is a first step towards full vehicle automation which is predicted to be possible within the next five years. As automated features are integrated into vehicles, the driver must know how to properly interact with and trust these systems. A key element of drivers interacting and relying on these systems is the handover of control between the vehicle and driver. This handover, occurring during times of automation error, will be a critical point of high workload for drivers when driving a partially or fully automated vehicle. If the driver is aware of the system's performance and can appropriately calibrate his or her trust, then these instances of handover may become less stressful and easier to complete successfully. This study explored the driving performance, trust, visual scanning behaviors, perceived workload, and objective workload for handover scenarios. There were four between-subjects display conditions: (1) no display; and reliability displays using (2) quantitative information (percentage of reliability); (3) qualitative information (direct representation of a number); and (4) representational information (abstract representation of a number). Participants completed two drives. The first drive aided in familiarization with the automated lane keeping system. In the second drive, the handover drive, participants experienced an automation failure resulting in transition of control from automated to manual. Results from this study showed that there was a difference in subjective experience between the baseline and handover drive due to experiencing an automation failure. Participants in the no display condition were more affected by the automation failure, greatly decreasing their overall trust in the automated lane keeping system. Participants with reliability displays were able to appropriately calibrate their trust to system performance and were less impacted by the automation failure, experiencing a slight, statistically insignificant, decrease in trust. These findings will impact the implementation and design of automation reliability displays and shows that drivers with reliability displays are less impacted by automation failure than those without reliability displays.


The three REE phases florencite-(Ce), allanite-(Ce)–Ce-rich epidote solid solution, and monazite-(Ce) are present in two of four mica schists with the assemblage garnet + chloritoid ± kyanite + muscovite + quartz from the Eclogite Zone, Tauern Window, Austria. Prograde peak conditions of ~560–600°, 20–25 kbar are associated with the reaction: chloritoid + quartz = garnet + kyanite + H2O. Florencite-(Ce) inclusions are mostly found in ganet rims and kyanite, but also in the muscovite-quartz matrix, where it has partly broken down to symplectites containing, e.g ., monazite-(Ce) and more rarely apatite. Allanite-(Ce) is mostly restricted to garnet cores and none was found in the matrix of florencite-bearing domains. Pseudosections with preliminary thermodynamic data for florencite and bulk compositions of four mica schists including REE reveal that florencite-(Ce) is stable from the low to the higher P–T regions. Increase in bulk Ca, with all other components unchanged, markedly reduces florencite stability due to a shift to higher pressure, but extends allanite stability. Increase of Al content has a similar, albeit smaller effect, whereas an increase in Fe results in a moderate reversal of this trend. A higher Fe3+/Fetot ratio shifts florencite and allanite stabilities towards higher P–T conditions. The contrasting assemblages of two compositional domains in one sample support the strong influence of Ca: a) the Ca-poor domain bears numerous florencite grains in the matrix and included in garnet, but only a single allanite inclusion in garnet, b) the Ca-rich domain contains no florencite but abundant allanite-(Ce)–epidote as inclusions in garnet and in the matrix. Fractional garnet crystallization has a strong influence and extends florencite stability closer to the "allanite out" line. Florencite stability in the present samples is mainly due to the low bulk-Ca content together with relatively high P .


Background. Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) still remains a common device-associated hospital acquired infection in pediatric and adult intensive care units. The aim of our study was to determine ways of microbial transmission to the lower airways in intubated patients admitted to a single tertiary-care pediatric intensive care unit. Methods. This was a prospective observational study. A total of 284 sample sets (oropharyngeal swabs, swabs from the lumen of the proximal tip of an endotracheal tube, and bronchoalveolar lavage samples) were collected from 62 consecutive pediatric patients intubated for > 24 hours. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis was performed on all isolated pathogens, which were later identified by MALDI biotyper (MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry). Results. Overall colonization rates were high and did not differ significantly at different time points in the oropharynx (75%–100%) and the lower airways (50%– 76.5%). The endotracheal tube was colonized at lower rates: on day 1–3 (28.8%), on day 4–6 (52.7%), on day 7–9 (61.8%) and on day 10-12 (52.9%) (P < 0.001). A total of 191 matched sample sets from the lower airways and at least one site above were collected from 46 (74.2%) patients. In the oropharynx-lower airways group, Candida spp. (76.9%) and upper airway bacteria (63.2%); in the endotracheal tubelower airway group, S. aureus (15.7%) and upper airway bacteria (21.1%); in the oropharynx-endotracheal tube-lower airway group, Enterobacteriaceae (70.8%) prevailed (P < 0.001). The mean survival (entrance) time to lower airways for the Acinetobacter / Pseudomonas / Stenotrophomonas group was 8.28 ± 0.81 days; for the Enterobacteriaceae group, 5.63 ± 0.41; and for Candida spp. group, 3.00 ± 0.82 days (P < 0.005). Conclusions. Oropharyngeal contamination of the lower airways is the most important route of colonization. Different pathogens enter the lower airways at different time intervals from the insertion of an endotracheal tube.


To say that this common [criminal] fate was described in the popular press and commented on simply as a piece of police news is, indeed, to fall short of the facts. To say that it was sung and balladed would be more correct; it was expressed in a form quite other than that of the modern press, in a language which one could certainly describe as that of fiction rather than reality, once we have discovered that there is such a thing as a reality of fiction. —Louis Chevalier, Laboring Classes and Dangerous Classes SPEAKING OF NINETEENTH-CENTURY FRANCE, Louis Chevalier traces the bourgeoisie's elision of the working classes with the criminal classes, in which crime becomes either the representation of working class "failure" or "revenge" (396). Chevalier argues that working- class texts "recorded" their acquiescence to and acceptance of "a genuine fraternity of [criminal] fate" when they "described and celebrated [it] in verse" (397). Though a community of fate might inspire collective resistance, popular poetry and ballads, he confirms, reproduced metonymic connections between criminal and worker when "their pity went out to embrace dangerous classes and laboring classes alike. . . . One might almost say [they proclaimed these characteristics] in an identical poetic strain, so strongly was this community of feeling brought out in the relationship between the favorite subjects of working-class songs and the criminal themes of the street ballads, in almost the same words, meters, and tunes" (396) Acquiescence to or reiteration of worker/criminal equations established itself in workers' views of themselves as "a different, alien and hostile society" (398) in literature that served as an "involuntary and 'passive' recording and communication of them" (395). Though I am investigating Victorian England, not nineteenth-century France, and though I regard the street ballads as popular texts which record resistance, not acquiescence, Chevalier's work usefully articulates the predicament of class-based ideologies about worker and criminal which functioned similarly in Victorian England. More importantly, Chevalier acknowledges the complexity of street ballads as cultural texts..


Regulators charged with monitoring systemic risk need to focus on sentiment as well as narrowly defined measures of systemic risk. This chapter describes techniques for jointly monitoring the co-evolution of sentiment and systemic risk. To measure systemic risk, we use Marginal Expected Shortfall. To measure sentiment, we apply a behavioral extension of traditional pricing kernel theory, which we supplement with external proxies. We illustrate the technique by analyzing the dynamics of sentiment before, during, and after the global financial crisis which erupted in September 2008. Using stock and options data for the S&P 500 during the period 2002–2009, our analysis documents the statistical relationship between sentiment and systemic risk.


Poly (ADP‐ribose) polymerase 1 (PARP‐1) is a constitutive enzyme, the major isoform of the PARP family, which is involved in the regulation of DNA repair, cell death, metabolism, and inflammatory responses. Pharmacological inhibitors of PARP provide significant therapeutic benefits in various preclinical disease models associated with tissue injury and inflammation. However, our understanding the role of PARP activation in the pathophysiology of liver inflammation and fibrosis is limited. In this study we investigated the role of PARP‐1 in liver inflammation and fibrosis using acute and chronic models of carbon tetrachloride (CCl4)‐induced liver injury and fibrosis, a model of bile duct ligation (BDL)‐induced hepatic fibrosis in vivo, and isolated liver‐derived cells ex vivo. Pharmacological inhibition of PARP with structurally distinct inhibitors or genetic deletion of PARP‐1 markedly attenuated CCl4‐induced hepatocyte death, inflammation, and fibrosis. Interestingly, the chronic CCl4‐induced liver injury was also characterized by mitochondrial dysfunction and dysregulation of numerous genes involved in metabolism. Most of these pathological changes were attenuated by PARP inhibitors. PARP inhibition not only prevented CCl4‐induced chronic liver inflammation and fibrosis, but was also able to reverse these pathological processes. PARP inhibitors also attenuated the development of BDL‐induced hepatic fibrosis in mice. In liver biopsies of subjects with alcoholic or hepatitis B‐induced cirrhosis, increased nitrative stress and PARP activation was noted. Conclusion: The reactive oxygen/nitrogen species‐PARP pathway plays a pathogenetic role in the development of liver inflammation, metabolism, and fibrosis. PARP inhibitors are currently in clinical trials for oncological indications, and the current results indicate that liver inflammation and liver fibrosis may be additional clinical indications where PARP inhibition may be of translational potential. (Hepatology 2014;59:1998–2009)


In an article published in the American Journal of International Law (AJIL), I tackled the difficult question of how to explain the pattern of domestic judicial use of the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women that I had identified, and I suggested explanations for this pattern. My tentative conclusion was that what similarities and differences were observable resulted, at least in part, from the functions that international human rights law fulfills in domestic jurisdictions, and that these functions may differ from the role that international human rights law plays at the international level. It was suggested that the observable pattern of references to CEDAW in national level courts results, to a significant degree, from the combination of the four elements involved in comparative international human rights law: that it is international law; and that it concerns human rights; and that it is law; and that it is being applied domestically. In this article, I referred to both the methodology I used, and the findings of the study on which this analysis was based, in summary form, promising a fuller account in this book. This chapter seeks to fulfil the promise in my AJIL article to explain my methodology and my basic findings in more detail. The chapter is structured as follows. Part II presents a brief outline of CEDAW in order to locate what follows. Part III provides a detailed analysis of the methodology I adopted in undertaking the study, including a discussion of the sources I used in compiling a detailed dataset of judicial opinions and how I formulated the questions used to analyze this dataset. Part IV presents the basic findings that resulted from this analysis. Part V concludes. There are, in addition, two appendices. Appendix A sets out the electronic and other databases and datasets from which my dataset of domestic cases citing CEDAW was drawn. Appendix B provides citations for each of the cases in the dataset, by jurisdiction.


We report on geochemical and petrophysical properties of shales from the Prince Albert, Whitehill and Collingham Formations of the Lower Karoo Supergroup, near Jansenville in the Eastern Cape, close to the tectonic front of the Cape Fold Belt. Results are based on two boreholes sited on a southerly dipping limb of a shallowly plunging syncline. Structural, sedimentological, lithological, mineralogical, geochemical and petrophysical analyses provide detailed characteristics that have become the focus of interest for potential shale gas occurrences. The black shales of the Whitehill Formation are composed of quartz, illite, muscovite and chlorite, with lesser plagioclase and accessary pyrite. The Collingham Formation rocks have the largest proportion of quartz, which gives this formation a higher brittleness factor than that of the Prince Albert and Whitehill formations. Mercury porosimetry analyses yield average meso- and macroporosity values of 0.83% for black shales of the Whitehill Formation, confirming that these sediments are tightly packed. Layers of dolomite within the shales have porosities of 2.9%, and pores measuring 1.5 m wide. The black shales of the Whitehill Formation have an average total organic carbon (TOC) content of 4.5 weight % whereas the TOC content of shales in the Collingham and Prince Albert Formations is 13 C and δ 15 N stable isotope values suggest that the Whitehill Formation was deposited under anoxic conditions, which led to the preservation of the mixed marine and terrestrial organic matter, whereas the Prince Albert and the Collingham Formations were deposited under oxidizing conditions. High maximum temperature values (Tmax average: 528°C), low overall hydrogen and oxygen index values (all from Rock Eval analyses) and high reflectance measurements on bitumen (BR o = 4%) characterise these sedimentary rocks as over mature. As a consequence, they display few hydrocarbon yields in pyrolysis and thermovaporization experiments, and offer a minor late-gas potential. The main characteristics of black shales in the study area indicate that their overmaturity with respect to hosting gas deposits is attributed to the tectono-metamorphic overprinting during the Cape Orogeny (ca. 250 Ma, Halbich, 1993; Hansma et al., 2015). Rocks of the lower Karoo Supergroup outcropping within the area flanking the northern tectonic margin of the Cape Fold Belt therefore have limited potential for hosting shale gas deposits. This finding has implications for estimates of potential shale gas resources of the Karoo Basin.


This paper describes a new holistic approach to integrate remote and virtual laboratories in the educational process. Aim of the integration is to test students' knowledge not only on lower levels as usual multiple choice tests and the like are doing, but also on higher-order thinking skills. Based on these tests the students should get a detailed feedback about their strengths, weaknesses or mis-conceptions. Therefore Learning Analytics methods are applied to a database, storing learning activities of the students during their online work- phase in the educational process. The paper discusses the actual approach as well as the architecture of a prototype implementation.


This Article critiques the holding adopted by a growing number of courts that law enforcement may delay a warrantless arrestee's constitutional right to receive a judicial determination of probable cause for up to forty-eight hours following an arrest as long as a judge or magistrate ultimately determines that the arrest itself was supported by probable cause. Although this issue has largely escaped review within academic literature, the practice of employing investigative detentions against warrantless arrestees is widespread among law enforcement. Of note, whether such investigative detentions comport with the Fourth Amendment has also generated a circuit split between the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals and one of two irreconcilable lines of authority within the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. The issue has similarly divided the appellate courts of at least nine states. This Article rejects the notion that law enforcement may ever deliberately delay a warrantless arrestee's constitutional right to receive a judicial determination of probable cause (known as a "Gerstein hearing") in order to facilitate further investigation by law enforcement. Specifically, it argues that the conclusion reached by several courts that police may intentionally delay a warrantless arrestee's Gerstein hearing for the purpose of further investigation as long as probable cause existed to justify the defendant's arrest in the first place is inconsistent with the Fourth Amendment for five separate reasons. First, it confounds the essential distinction between a judicial determination of probable cause, which is a constitutional right, and a determination of probable cause that is made by law enforcement, which carries no constitutional significance. Second, it violates the "administrative purpose" requirement — initially established by the Supreme Court in Gerstein v. Pugh, and subsequently reaffirmed by the Supreme Court in County of Riverside v. McLaughlin — which permits law enforcement to delay a warrantless arrestee's Gerstein hearing for administratively necessary reasons only. Third, this conclusion fails to grasp the crucial distinction between, on the one hand, delaying a warrantless arrestee's Gerstein hearing for investigative reasons, and on the other, continuing an investigation while the administrative steps leading up to a warrantless arrestee's Gerstein hearing are simultaneously being completed. Fourth, it renders McLaughlin's express prohibition on "delays for the purpose of gathering additional evidence to justify [an] arrest" superfluous, because all arrests unsupported by probable cause are already prohibited by the Fourth Amendment. Fifth, it substantially diminishes the value of the check on law enforcement established by Gerstein by introducing hindsight bias into probable cause determinations and by allowing a substantial number of warrantless arrests to escape judicial review of any kind.


There is an increasing demand for highly integrated optical and optoelectronical devices that provide active laser emission, adaptability and low optical losses. A well-established production technology for customized structures with high functionality and geometrical flexibility is additive manufacturing (AM). It enables new constructional degrees of freedom to overcome the limitations of substractive material processing such as milling and drilling. Commercial AM systems for metals and polymers are ubiquitous; whereas glass AM systems almost exclusively exist in scientific environments. Laser glass deposition welding allows the AM of waveguides by fusing coreless fused silica fibers with a diameter of 400 µm and a 50 µm thick polymer coating onto a fused silica substrate. The deposition process is performed with defocused CO2-laser radiation (10.6 µm). Based on laser deposition welding, the fiber is fed laterally into the processing zone and is melted or fused by the incoming laser beam. In order to achieve a sufficient coupling of laser radiation into and out of the fibers, a proper cleaving process for the end faces has been established. The cleaving is performed with a CO2-laser based process for optimized and reproducible results. In this contribution, the focus is on the manufacturing of bended waveguides and the feasible bending radii, which can be accomplished during the deposition process. The influence of the bending radius on the guiding efficiency is investigated. Therefore, the light transmission and beam profile of the deposited fibers is measured and compared with an untreated one. Furthermore, the appearance of the cleaved end faces and the internal stress in the glass substrate are characterized. Functional, nearly stress-free curved and straight waveguides for light transmission with high position stability are achieved, which opens a wide range of applications for optical system integration.


Sharing certain assumptions but differing in theory and practice, both Columbia School linguistics (CS) and Cognitive Grammar (CG) have increasingly supported their analyses with quantitative evidence. Citation of individual sentences, in isolation or in context, has been supplemented with counts of linguistic forms in texts, informant questionnaires, and perception tests. The present volume, continuing a dialogue between CS and CG, offers six such qualitative-quantitative studies, one on Afrikaans and five on Dutch. Topics include (a) demonstratives, (b) pragmatic particles and imperatives, (c) a puzzling "dismissive" idiom, (d) progressive aspect, and (e) indirect objects. While CS is better suited for analyzing relatively closed systems (e.g. tense, pronouns), CG provides more insight into the vagaries of the amorphous lexicon. The author also offers personal remarks on "linguistics as a path" and discusses how in one case a wrong prediction reflects his dual role as both linguist and student of Dutch as a foreign language.


The 2e of this classic "Guide to Protein Purification" provides a complete update to existing methods in the field, reflecting the enormous advances made in the last two decades. In particular, proteomics, mass spectrometry, and DNA technology have revolutionized the field since the first edition's publication but through all of the advancements, the purification of proteins is still an indispensable first step in understanding their function. This volume examines the most reliable, robust methods for researchers in biochemistry, molecular and cell biology, genetics, pharmacology, biotechnology and sets a standard for best practices in the field. It relates how these traditional and new cutting-edge methods connect to the explosive advancements in the field. This 'Guide to' gives imminently practical advice in order to avoid costly mistakes in choosing a method and brings in perspective from the premier researchers while it presents a comprehensive overview of the field today. It gathers top global authors from industry, medicine, and research fields across a wide variety of disciplines including biochemistry, genetics, oncology, pharmacology, dermatology and immunology. It assembles chapters on both common and less-common relevant techniques, and provides robust methods as well as an analysis of the advancements in the field that, for an individual investigator, can be a demanding and time-consuming process.


This research focuses on the most problematic rock type for ripping works in Malaysia particularly weathered sedimentary rocks. The weathering zone that normally requires ripping are zone II-V and these zones has always be problematic zone for excavation in term of selecting the most suitable method and cost evaluation. This research is to examine the relationship of rock material properties and the weathering grades. The information gathered from the monitoring was used for determining the rippability of rocks. Monitored ripping tests were conducted at Bukit Indah which consisted of sandstone and shale. Samples which have been known for their rippability were collected and brought back to the laboratory to determine their parameters for their uniaxial compressive strength test, Brazillian tensile strength, point load test, slake durability and Pundit test. Results from the laboratory tests are presented and their relation with the weathering grade was established. Some of the standard strength tests were not able to test very weak materials with weathering grade V (completely weathered), due to sampling difficulties. By measuring the ripping process, the relationships between the rock properties and the rippability were established. It was revealed that, the laboratory test results alone would not represent the actual behaviour of rock material during rippability assessment. Some of the material found to be weak, are found to be not rippable and vice versa. Thorough field assessments, which need to include discontinuity analysis, are vital and these data are to substantiate the laboratory results.