What did democracy mean before liberalism? What are the consequences for our lives today? Combining history with political theory, this book restores the core meaning of democracy as collective and limited self-government by citizens. That, rather than majority tyranny, is what democracy meant in ancient Athens, before liberalism. Participatory self-government is the basis of political practice in 'Demopolis', a hypothetical modern state powerfully imagined by award-winning historian and political scientist Josiah Ober. Demopolis' residents aim to establish a secure, prosperous, and non-tyrannical community, where citizens govern as a collective, both directly and through representatives, and willingly assume the costs of self-government because doing so benefits them, both as a group and individually. Basic democracy, as exemplified in real Athens and imagined Demopolis, can provide a stable foundation for a liberal state. It also offers a possible way forward for religious societies seeking a realistic alternative to autocracy.


We exploit the unexpected announcement of an immediate, temporary VAT cut in Germany in the second half of 2020 as a natural experiment to study the spending response to unconventional fiscal policy. We use survey and scanner data on households' consumption expenditures and their perceived pass-through of the tax change into prices to quantify its effects. The temporary VAT cut led to a substantial relative increase in durable spending of 36% for individuals with a high perceived pass-through. Semi- and non-durable spending also increased. According to our preferred estimates, the VAT policy increased aggregate consumption spending by 34 billion Euros.


The map distribution of ancient civilizations shows a remarkable correspondence with tectonic boundaries related to the southern margin of the Eurasian plate. Quantification of this observation shows that the association is indeed significant, and both historical records and archaeoseismological work show that these civilizations commonly suffered earthquake damage. Close association of ancient civilizations with tectonic activity seems to be a pattern of some kind. In the hope that dividing the civilizations into subsets might clarify the meaning of this relation, primary and derivative civilizations were compared. Derivative civilizations prove to be far more closely related to the tectonic boundaries. Similarly, the civilizations that endured the longest (and that have been described as most static) are systematically the farthest from plate boundaries. It is still unclear how the relation actually worked in ancient cultures, i.e., what aspects of tectonism promoted complexity. Linkages to water and other resources, trade (broadly construed), and societal response seem likely. Volcanism appears not to be involved. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


Valuing real estate is a key requirement for various stakeholders in the property industry. There are many challenges that include the issue of liquidity, individual real estate charachteristics and lot sizes. As this creates difficulties and with limited sales evidence – an analysis of future income streams (including discounted cash flow approach) is one of the accepted methods of valuing a real estate asset. The rationale for this research emerged from an issue facing the professional doctorate candidate in practice. The researcher identified (1) the lack of comparable sales data and (2) the reliance on the comparable method of valuation in the agricultural land market in Ireland. Drawing on his professional experience the researcher observed that in the absence of data or alternative methods of valuation it can lead to non-evidence based opinions of value. The researcher set out to investigate this problem with the aim to provide insights into the valuation of agricultural land in Ireland. The research commences with a historical review of the agricultural land market in Ireland which provides context on the research problem. The reasons for the lack of agriculture land sales are explored. The research proposes and produces a long run dataset of agricultural land sales and rentals from the researchers' firm's (Smith Harrington) records. The literature review goes on to review alternatives methods of valuation. It identifies the discounted cash flow (DCF) method as compatible with the culture and conceptual framework. This leads to the primary research question of the study 'Can the DCF method provide supportive evidence in the estimation of market value of agricultural land in Ireland'. The research develops a model to test this question drawing on investment theory and analyses the results from the model against the sales records from the Smith Harrington dataset. The findings suggest that the DCF model proposed can provide supportive evidence in the valuation of agricultural land in Ireland. A further output from the research is a series of market discount rates. The researcher reasons that improving the availability and accessibility of agricultural land market data through the publication of the Smith Harrington dataset, identifying and testing alternative methods of valuation and discussing these findings, limitations and areas of further research provide a valuable tool for the Irish property industry, insights into the valuation of agricultural land in Ireland and are valuable contributions to knowledge.


We report vibrational sum frequency generation (SFG) spectra in which the C-H stretches of lipid alkyl tails in fully hydrogenated single- and dual-component supported lipid bilayers are detected along with the O-H stretching continuum above the bilayer. As the salt concentration is increased from ∼10 μM to 0.1 M, the SFG intensities in the O-H stretching region decrease by a factor of 2, consistent with significant absorptive-dispersive mixing between χ(2) and χ(3) contributions to the SFG signal generation process from charged interfaces. A method for estimating the surface potential from the second-order spectral lineshapes (in the OH stretching region) is presented and discussed in the context of choosing truly zero-potential reference states. Aided by atomistic simulations, we find that the strength and orientation distribution of the hydrogen bonds over the purely zwitterionic bilayers are largely invariant between submicromolar and hundreds of millimolar concentrations. However, specific interactions between water molecules and lipid headgroups are observed upon replacing phosphocholine (PC) lipids with negatively charged phosphoglycerol (PG) lipids, which coincides with SFG signal intensity reductions in the 3100-3200 cm-1 frequency region. The atomistic simulations show that this outcome is consistent with a small, albeit statistically significant, decrease in the number of water molecules adjacent to both the lipid phosphate and choline moieties per unit area, supporting the SFG observations. Ultimately, the ability to probe hydrogen-bond networks over lipid bilayers holds the promise of opening paths for understanding, controlling, and predicting specific and nonspecific interactions between membranes and ions, small molecules, peptides, polycations, proteins, and coated and uncoated nanomaterials.


High-performance sports medicine (HPSM) is an area of sport and exercise medicine (SEM) that deals with distinct groups of individuals who can differ from the general population in many ways, including their physiology, psychology and behaviour. As detailed in the first article of this series, provision of medical care to the high-performance athlete can involve specific and often unconventional models of working to facilitate the delivery of optimum medical care to the athlete and team. This is still an evolving area, and the best models of care will vary between sports, athletes and nations. However, the evidence base relating to best-practice medical care in the elite athlete population is currently lacking. Unproven and at times inappropriate approaches are common in HPSM, and athletes must be protected from these. While research issues form the subject of the following article, here we discuss the great opportunity—and a necessity—for innovation to help to provide best practice. Innovation is not easy: it requires huge commitment and proactive creativity to explore novel methods and models that suit specific sports. Carefully selected models and methods can then be thoroughly scrutinised through rigorous research. This article focuses upon the nature and process of innovation, and its importance to the development of HPSM. Importantly, many of the examples given also have relevance in the field of SEM in general.

Innovation is the act of introducing something new. In high-performance sport, the description 'change that creates a new dimension of performance'1 may help to focus the concept. 'Performance' may apply either to the athlete's performance or to the delivery of care. Innovation is critical to the advancement of all walks of life and has a strong foundation in business model literature, but is now recognised as a critical aspect in the development of healthcare systems and processes.2 …


Students in any educational setting need to learn how to integrate and successfully use technology to be successful in a future career. While no one educational system can teach every skill, faculty can help integrate technology and model skills that students will need later in life. Using Rogers" Diffusion of Innovations as a model, the researcher examined technology integration and how it affected engagement, motivation, and learning in the classroom setting. The purpose of this study was to investigate the phenomenon of technology integration in an agriculture associate"s degree program and evaluate the program from the faculty and student perspective. Ninety-six students enrolled in an agriculture associate"s degree program served as the case study group. A qualitative approach guided the inquiry of the study and was represented through observations, participant interviews, and video collection using Noldus Observer. Findings indicated that technology integration was being implemented in a purposeful way and the faculty work together to make decisions regarding what to integrate for the students" use in their courses. Technology integration decisions were supported by the faculty and program leader. Students viewed the technology as beneficial to their learning while enrolled in the program and as an asset when they graduated. Students reported that they felt as though technology was helping them remain engaged and motivated in the program. Students who participated in the recommend that the faculty use the course iii management system more efficiently to streamline content to students and the faculty use more features that the system offers such as chat and discussion boards. Students expressed a belief that these practices would help keep students more engaged during class time and help them locate resources more efficiently. It is recommended that faculty work to offer a blended learning experience in the classroom, with group work or guided practice. Finally, as an alternative to traditional assessment, it is recommended that faculty members in the program encourage students to work with technology outside of class to create videos or podcasts to illustrate what they are learning.


Standing genetic variation represents a genetic load on population fitness but can also support a rapid response to short‐term environmental change, and the greatest potential source of such standing genetic variation typically exists among locally adapted populations living along an environmental gradient. Here, we develop a spatially explicit simulation model to quantify the contribution of existing genetic variation arising from migration–mutation–selection–drift balance to time to extinction under environmental change. Simulations reveal that local adaptation across a species range associated with an underlying environmental gradient could extend time to extinction by nearly threefold irrespective of the rate of environmental change. The potential for preadapted alleles to increase the rate of adaptation changes the relative importance of established extinction risk factors; in particular, it reduced the importance of the breadth of environmental tolerance and it increased the relative importance of fecundity. Although migration of preadapted alleles generally increased persistence time, it decreased it at rates of environmental change close to the critical rate of change by creating a population bottleneck, which ultimately limited the rate at which de novo mutations could arise. An analysis of the extinction dynamics further revealed that one consequence of gene flow is the potential to maximize population growth rate in at least part of the species range, which is likely to have consequences for forecasting the consequences of ecological interactions. Our study shows that predictions of persistence time change fundamentally when existing local adaptations are explicitly taken into account, underscoring the need to preserve and manage genetic diversity.


After the studies of R. Wellek and A. Warren (Theory of Literature, Harmondsworth, 3rd, 1963, p. 187-189), the custom has prevailed of distinguishing, in world literature, two fundamental metaphorical categories: "visual imagery" and "auditory imagination." Visual and sound images interact with different calibre in the design of a literary work, enriching the poetic discourse with different emphases and subtleties, which need to be duly recognised for what they are, for there to be a complete hermeneutics of the text. The Book of the Prophet Amos, in its present canonical shape, also makes use of rhetorical registers rooted in the catastrophic landscapes of devastated countryside and ruined cities, in elements of a frightening bestiary, and lastly in the disturbing timbres of an extraordinary range of sound instruments. It is precisely on this latter aspect of Amos' poetics that the present study will concentrate. This study will research the principal semantic fields of sound that can be found in this book of the Bible (the lion's roar, the rumble of the earthquake, the clamour of war, the variegated modulations of the funeral chant, the light-hearted music of the court, and the silence that is filled with horror and death), distributing them in specific sections and reuniting them in the end in a final framework. To this end, the exegetical enterprise will make use of the contributions of lexicography and of modern linguistics. Moreover, the interweaving and the modulating of the varied auditory images will emerge with a particular clarity in the light of the categories of cinematographic scholarship, employed in an analogical way with respect to the more common narrative method. The result is a partly innovative reading of the entire Book of Amos, as if it were an extended liturgy of death, a necessary preamble to the re-birth of all things.


In this volume, new human disease pandemics, arising from animals stimulated by ongoing environmental change, demonstrate the value of ornithological research into avian diseases. A group of 29 researchers address a diverse set of topics, including the evolutionary and ecological aspects of the host-vector systems, the effects of genetic variation, introduction success and vector ecology, evolution of resistance and virulence of pathogens, and the effects of changing geographic distributions. In addition to empirical studies under field conditions, the authors present predictive models to assess the movement and potential impact of these diseases. Other chapters delve into the potential impacts of pathogens and the key role of biosurveillance and documenting impacts of disease on bird populations.


Many health care systems have looked to mid-level workers as a way of dealing with a growing shortage of professional human resources, while managing tighter
budgets. Although initially opposed by the pharmacy profession, a category of
support personnel was recognised formally by the South African Pharmacy Council
(SAPC) as pharmacist's assistants, and has been an ever-growing part of health
care delivery in both the public and private sectors since the late 1980s. The way
in which such support personnel are trained and utilised was changed substantially
in the post-apartheid era. Accredited private providers now cater for all such
training in South Africa. Training is done in practice sites approved by the SAPC,
with an assessment done on site or in assessment centres. Pharmacy legislation
has provided for two categories of pharmacist's assistant - basic and post-basic
level. An appropriate scope of practice has been developed for each cadre. Of
note, post-basic assistants can work under indirect supervision in some settings. This
concession is particularly important in primary care services at district level. Funding
for pharmacist's assistant training can be accessed through the skills development
system. There are currently 3 063 pharmacist's assistants or learner assistants
registered with the SAPC. There are still considerable barriers to the efficient and
effective utilisation of pharmacist's assistants, particularly in the public sector. A post
structure and career path for assistants is urgently needed. This will be particularly
true after 1 July 2005, when the Pharmacy and Medicines Acts become binding on
the State.


Disability reform in Australia centres on a National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), which aims to provide lifelong, individualised support based on the principle of 'reasonable and necessary' care. As a universal rights‑based scheme it represents a historical shift in allocation principles in Australia's disability policy. Nonetheless, attention will be on determining who receives what care given the diversity of personal and family contexts. The aim of this paper is to discuss the operational complexities of a principle of reasonable and necessary care with reference to the findings of a three‑year study on the experiences and perspectives of disability care of 25 adults with acquired disability, their 22 nominated family members and 18 service providers. Evidence from this study suggests enacting the principle of reasonable and necessary care and support will be problematic, in particular as it relates to personalising the level and scope of services, balancing formal and informal care, and principles of equity. The paper contributes to the literature about allocation principles in social policy and the challenges of implementation. Further, it provides an empirically informed discussion of some of the specific policy implementation challenges concerning the NDIS.


Grab your copy of The 5-Minute Urology Consult, 3e for rapid-fire reference in the clinic. This essential, easy-to-read text was designed to aid in the diagnosis and treatment of urologic problems quickly and efficiently. Engineered for crystal clarity, and chock-full of information and action items, the "5-Minute Consult" series includes facts and recommendations as informed by the most current data available, sourced from actual patient consultations and further reviewed by top academics and physicians. An invaluable resource for urologists, this book is perfect for the busy specialist or practitioner who deals with urologic conditions on a daily basis, as well as residents and fellows prepping for their certification exams. Features: topics include adult and pediatric urology, and the subspecialties of urologic oncology, endourology, female urology, neurourology, andrology, infectious diseases, and renal transplantation; international editorial board captured the widest array of diseases and conditions expressed worldwide; over 300 major diseases and conditions, with a lexicon of over 1,300 key concepts, diseases, complaints and conditions; visual algorithms and charts enhance clarity; drug Reference section outlines hundreds of urologic drugs and dosages; and readable, two-color design and two-page layout. Now with the print edition, enjoy the bundled interactive eBook edition, offering tablet, smartphone, or online access to: complete content with enhanced navigation; a powerful search that pulls results from content in the book, your notes, and even the web; cross-linked pages, references, and more for easy navigation; highlighting tool for easier reference of key content throughout the text; ability to take and share notes with friends and colleagues; and quick reference tabbing to save your favorite content for future.


The objective of this study was to assess the environmental risk posed to Australian and New Zealand ecosystems by the presence of powdered laundry detergents in greywater used for irrigating gardens. Fifty powdered laundry detergents were assessed and all contained hazards which posed moderate to very high risks from increased alkalinity, sodicity and salinity to plants and soils when used at manufacturer-recommended doses and the resulting greywater used for irrigation. A number of detergents had phosphorus and boron concentrations considered to be a high risk for a number of plants. Risk to groundwater quality was also evaluated and found to potentially be a tighter constraint than risk to plants and soil where irrigation reuse is extensive in arid areas. A detergent environmental performance index was composed on risks assessed for three scenarios to compare with a washability performance index for the same powders. Only one detergent exceeded the 80% environmental index (100% = low risk from all hazards assessed) and maintained wash performance above 85%. The analysis suggests that for poorly drained soils greywater reuse is not recommended for most of the powdered laundry detergents evaluated. However the methodology may provide a basis for environmental labelling of detergents.


A comprehensive analytical model using Excel and Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) has been developed to simulate life cycle climate performance (LCCP) for residential heat pumps. The LCCP model includes the direct impacts of refrigerant emissions, the indirect impacts of energy consumption used to operate the heat pump system, and the energy to manufacture and safely dispose the system and refrigerant. The annual energy consumption for heat pump operation, including backup heat, is calculated using input performance data at several operating points, in a number of different formats, assuming a linear relationship as defined in AHRI Standard 210/240. With appropriate input, the program can handle different heat pump systems, refrigerants, locations, and CO2 emission profiles of power plants.


We implement unsupervised machine learning techniques to identify characteristic evolution patterns and associated parameter regimes in edge localized mode (ELM) events observed on the National Spherical Torus Experiment. Multi-channel, localized measurements spanning the pedestal region capture the complex evolution patterns of ELM events on Alfvén timescales. Some ELM events are active for less than 100 μs, but others persist for up to 1 ms. Also, some ELM events exhibit a single dominant perturbation, but others are oscillatory. Clustering calculations with time-series similarity metrics indicate the ELM database contains at least two and possibly three groups of ELMs with similar evolution patterns. The identified ELM groups trigger similar stored energy loss, but the groups occupy distinct parameter regimes for ELM-relevant quantities like plasma current, triangularity, and pedestal height. Notably, the pedestal electron pressure gradient is not an effective parameter for distinguishing the ELM groups, but the ELM groups segregate in terms of electron density gradient and electron temperature gradient. The ELM evolution patterns and corresponding parameter regimes can shape the formulation or validation of nonlinear ELM models. Finally, the techniques and results demonstrate an application of unsupervised machine learning at a data-rich fusion facility.


Random response analysis is a linear approach, while most real life random vibrations involve nonlinear components. It is challenge to analyze a nonlinear system subjected to random vibration. This paper presents an Abaqus FEA approach on the fatigue life calculation of an automobile assembly with rubber isolators subjected to random vibration. Random loading is categorized using Power Spectral Density (PSD). An equivalent dynamic analysis or a random response analysis was used to obtain the maximum stress level and location from random vibration. A MATLAB routine was used to post process Abaqus PSD response to calculate the stress cycles/peaks and the fatigue damages were estimated. Hyperelastic behavior of the rubber isolator was derived from Abaqus materials module and the corresponding tests. Random vibration test results with the same PSD input were used to tune and verify the FEA model.


Despite their ecological, economic and social importance, Mediterranean grasslands continue to receive limited scientific, political and media attention. Grasslands are typically viewed as underutilized space, able to be transformed into more "valuable" land by placing it under cultivation, transforming it into forest land and/or privatizing it. This paper synthesizes a number of pertinent issues in relation to social and economic systems on grasslands within the southern Mediterranean region. One effective avenue for drawing more attention to the need for preserving grasslands is to emphasize the economic aspects and benefits of grasslands, relative to the costs of degradation and the cost of inaction. This paper defines marketable and non-marketable goods that are not clearly defined in the literature of sustainable grassland management. When goods are clearly defined payment for environmental services is feasible. Providing an enabling environment for community-based land use and decision-making may foster an acceptance of schemes for community-based payment for ecosystem services on grasslands. There is a need for policies which provide security in property rights, risk reducing strategies, and that take into account both technical and socioeconomic constraints to ensure adequate incentives for participation in grassland management. This is important as mismanagement and climate change have led to further degradation. Land tenure practices and improper policies can also act as indirect drivers of grassland degradation. When farmers and herders lose control or long-term security over the land they use, the incentives for maintain environmentally sustainable practices are lost.


have never attempted a coherent articulation of my intuitive need to make art. An inarticulate theoretical groundwork for the production of my art becomes problematic when sharing that art. Relentless studio practice under the critical lenses of the art and art history faculties has afforded me direction in seeking and formulating my articulation. Art making is a logical and rigorous strategy for improving the quality of my life, and potentially the lives of those that I share my life with.


Changes in bacterial production, bacterivory and microbial biomass (autotrophic and heterotrophic) were determined in a complex area characterized by different physico-chemical regimes during the austral summer (January 1994, ECOANTAR-94 cruise). The main goal was to explore the importance of bacterivory as a factor potentially controlling bacterial production in such an extreme environment. The area studied was located in the eastern part of the Bransfield Strait, between 59.5-64° S and 58-50° W. It covered part of the South Shetland Islands shelf and extended northwards to the Weddell-Scotia Confluence and southwards towards the ice edge. Stations were grouped into 4 zones under the influence of different hydrographic conditions: IEZ, influenced directly by the ice edge zone; WS, presenting typical characteristics of the Weddell Sea; FR, located within the Bransfield Strait frontal system and its continuation in the Weddell-Scotia Confluence; and BSO-WSC, containing stations influenced by waters originating in the Bellingshausen Sea and the Weddell-Scotia Confluence. We determined the spatial distribution of microbial biomass (chloro- phyll a, bacteria, heterotrophic and phototrophic nanoflagellates and ciliates), bacterial heterotrophic production, and bacterivory. The highest values of chlorophyll a concentration and primary produc- tion as well as the lowest grazing rates (0.3 µg C l -1 d -1 ) and bacterial production values were found at IEZ, together with the lowest temperatures. In contrast, the highest bacterial losses (4.7 µg C l -1 d -1 ) coincided with high heterotrophic nanoflagellate biomass and bacterial production at the Weddell- Scotia Confluence and waters of Bellingshausen Sea origin (BSO-WSC). These waters showed the highest temperatures, and low chlorophyll a concentration and primary production values. Taking into account the whole data set, bacteria and heterotrophic nanoflagellate biomass explained 68% of the variability in grazing rates. Our results indicated that bacterial losses due to protists represented a large proportion of bacterial production (average 67% d -1 ). However, the variability detected in the study area was very large (from undetectable to >100%). Therefore, bacterivory does not seem to be the main factor in controlling bacterial production in all the zones studied.


WHAT IS ISAAC? The rising trend of asthma prevalence in industrialized countries has become a major public-health issue. However, despite intensive research in past decades, the mechanisms underlying this increase are still largely unclear. One way to investigate the etiology of a disease is through international comparisons of its prevalence. This provides us with the opportunity to evaluate whether our current knowledge of putative risk factors can account for the differences seen among different populations (including different populations with the same ethnic origins) and at different times. Furthermore, this may help identify "new" risk factors that hitherto have not been hypothesized or adequately studied. This approach has been used in the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC).'


Background: Identifying and investigating the factors influencing self-efficacy and eventually health
related quality of life (HRQoL) can be an important step toward the prevention and treatment of the
obesity. The aim of the study was to compare weight self-efficacy and HRQoL among normal-weight,
overweight and obese Iranian adolescents.
Materials and Methods
In this case-control study, 118 obese and overweight adolescents (case group) and 118 adolescents
with normal weight (control group) were recruited. Adolescent's anthropometric characteristics were
measured. The Weight Efficacy Lifestyle Questionnaire (WEL), pediatric quality of life inventory
(PedsQLTM 4.0) and self-reported physical activity were completed by the adolescents.
Results: Multivariate logistic regression adjusting for various confounders indicated that overweight
and obese adolescents were less likely to be physically active (adjusted odds ratio, AOR= 0.66; 95%
confidence interval [CI], 0.48 to 0.911), had lower ability to cope with social pressure (AOR= 0.54;
95% CI, 0.32 to 0.93), involved in less positive activities (AOR= 0.53; 95% CI, 0.37 to 0.75), and felt
more negative emotions (AOR= 0.23; 95% CI, 0.14 to 0.36) than their normal-weight counterparts.
Moreover, obese and overweight adolescents were more likely to report deteriorated quality of life in
all PedsQL subscales than those with normal weight P<0.05). The results of the mediation analysis
indicated that negative emotions mediated the relationship between adolescents' weight status and
HRQoL (Z =-5.79, P<0.001).
Conclusion: Weight management programs should focus on increasing adolescent's control on
situations related to negative emotions to improve their HRQoL.


Background: UK society is ageing. Older people who drink alcohol, drink more than those from previous generations, drink more frequently than other age groups and are more likely to drink at home and alone. Alcohol problems in later life however are often under-detected and under-reported meaning older people experiencing alcohol problems have high levels of unmet need. Methods: This study sought to identify existing services within South of Tyne, North East England to capture the extent of service provision for older drinkers and identify any gaps. The Age UK definition of 'older people' (aged 50 and over) was used. Services were contacted by telephone, managers or their deputy took part in semi-structured interviews. Findings: Forty six service providers were identified. Only one provided a specific intervention for older drinkers. Others typically provided services for age 18+. Among providers, there was no definitive definition of an older person. Data collection procedures within many organisations did not enable them to confirm whether older people were accessing services. Where alcohol was used alongside other drugs, alcohol use could remain unrecorded. Conclusion: To enable alcohol services to meet the needs of older people, greater understanding is needed of the patterns of drinking in later life, the experiences of older people, the scale and scope of the issue and guidance as to the most appropriate action to take. An awareness of the issues related to alcohol use in later life also needs to be integrated into commissioning of other services that impact upon older people.


We present Embodied Chaotic Exploration (ECE), a novel direction of research into a possible candidate for Darwinian neural dynamics, where such dynamics are occurring not at the level of synaptic connections, but rather at the slightly higher and more abstract level of embodied motor pattern attractors. Crucially, the (chaotic) neuro dynamics are embodied and it is the whole neuro-body-environment system that must be considered, although the changes occur at the neural level. ECE incrementally explores and learns motor behaviors through an integrated combination of chaotic search and reflex learning. The architecture developed here allows real-time, goal-directed exploration and learning of the possible motor patterns (e.g. for locomotion) of embodied systems of arbitrary morphology. The overall iterative search process formed from this combination is shown to have strong parallels with evolutionary search.


Abstract The flow of complex fluids is routinely encountered in a variety of industrial manufacturing operations. Some of these operations use rheological methods for process and quality control. In a typical process operation small quantities of the process fluid are intermittently sampled for rheological measurements and the efficiency of the process or the quality of the product is determined based on the outcomes of these measurements. The large number of sample-handling steps involved in this approach cost time and cause inconsistencies that lead to significant variability in the measurements. These complications often make effective process/ quality control using standard rheometric techniques difficult. The effectiveness of control strategies involving rheological measurements can be improved if measurements are made online during processing and sampling-steps are eliminated. Unfortunately, online instruments capable of providing sufficiently detailed rheological characterisation of process fluids have been difficult to develop. Commercially available online instruments typically provide a single measurement of viscosity at a fixed deformation rate. This dependence on a single pre-determined shear rate restricts these instruments from identifying changes in the product or the process, especially if the viscosity at the pre-determined shear rate remains unaltered during these changes. We introduce an Online Rheometer (OLR) that uses small amplitude oscillatory squeeze flow to measure the viscoelastic properties of process fluids in-process and in real time under typical processing conditions. We demonstrate that with an appropriate measuring geometry and amplitude of oscillation, the frequency response of typical non-Newtonian fluids can be accurately measured in a process pipe. We also compare our results with other techniques that are typically used for process rheometry, critically evaluating the utility of the OLR technology for advanced process and quality control.


Australia's high species extinction rate shows no sign of abating, with at least three vertebrate extinctions recorded within the last decade. In each case, scientists have published 'post-mortems' examining the context of these recent extinctions. By tracing the decline of a once-widespread and common bird to the point that it has disappeared from over 80% of its original range, and describing the circumstances under which habitat loss continues to be approved despite its formal protection, we present a 'pre-mortem' for the endangered, and endemic, southern black-throated finch (Poephila cincta cincta). The southern black-throated finch has suffered extensive habitat loss historically, much of which was unregulated. In 2000 Australia increased environmental regulation, and the southern black-throated finch was listed under the Commonwealth's Environment Protection & Biodiversity Conservation Act. Despite increased environmental regulation and formal protection, habitat loss for the southern black-throated finch has continued, mostly incrementally but resulting in large cumulative loss. Despite recognition of its steep population decline and range contraction, five large coal mines were approved between 2012 and 2015 by both State and Commonwealth governments that will remove most of the largest area of high quality habitat that remains. We outline the policy settings under which the decline occurred, with a particular focus on recent ongoing habitat loss occurring within a highly regulated environment. We show that despite Australia's comparatively Accepted for publication in Environmental Science & Policy on 10/1/2019. DOI: 10.1016/j.envsci.2019.01.005 strong governance and regulatory frameworks, legally permitted habitat loss continues even for imperilled taxa formally listed under State and Commonwealth environment protection laws.


OBJECTIVE
To assess the strain heterogeneity of enrofloxacin-resistant Escherichia coli associated with urinary tract infections in dogs at a veterinary medical teaching hospital (VMTH). In addition, strains from other veterinary hospitals in California were compared with the VMTH strains to assess the geographic distribution of specific enrofloxacin-resistant E. coli isolates.

DESIGN
Bacteriologic study.

SAMPLE POPULATION
56 isolates of E. coli from urine samples (43 isolates from dogs at the VMTH, 13 isolates from dogs from other veterinary clinics in California).

PROCEDURES
Pulsed field gel electrophoresis was performed on 56 isolates of E. coli from urine samples from 56 dogs. All 56 isolates were tested for susceptibility to amoxicillin, chloramphenicol, enrofloxacin, tetracycline, trimethoprim-sulphamethoxazole, cephalexin, and ampicillin. Enrofloxacin usage data from 1994 to 1998 were obtained from the VMTH pharmacy.

RESULTS
Several strains of enrofloxacin-resistant E. coli were collected from urine samples from the VMTH, and strains identical to those from the VMTH were collected from other veterinary clinics in California. For the isolates that did share similar DNA banding patterns, variable antibiotic resistance profiles were observed.

CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE
The increased occurrence of enrofloxacin-resistant E. coli from urine samples from dogs at the VMTH was not likely attributable to a single enrofloxacin-resistant clone but may be attributed to a collective increase in enrofloxacin resistance among uropathogenic E. coli in dogs in general.


Today, there is widespread consensus about the notable, yet simultaneously growing, negative environmental impacts generated by the transportation sector. Experts working in a number of different fields consider the current situation to be unsustainable and possible measures to reduce emissions and foster sustainability are being encouraged. The European Commission has highlighted the need to shift away from unimodal road transport toward a greater use of intermodal transport through, for example, motorways of the sea, in light of the evidence that the former makes a significant contribution to increased CO2 emissions. However, although there is a general perception that sea transport is environmentally preferable to road transport, recent studies are beginning to question this assumption. Moreover, little research has been conducted to quantify environmental aspects and incorporate them into the decision-making processes involved in the modal shift. This study first reviews the existing literature to examine the extent to which environmental aspects are relevant in the modal choice in the case of short sea shipping and motorways of the sea. Related to this, the study also evaluates the role that different agents may play in making decisions about choice of mode, taking into consideration environmental aspects. Secondly, we use the values the European Commission provides to calculate external costs for the Marco Polo freight transport project proposals (call 2013) to estimate the environmental costs for several routes (a total of 72), comparing the use of road haulage with the intermodal option that incorporates the Spanish motorways of the sea. The results of this comparative analysis show that the intermodal option is not always the best choice in environmental terms. Consequently, the traditional environmental argument to justify this alternative must be used carefully.


Why is Bernard the Bear baffled? Well, for one thing, he has lost his whistle and he can't figure out where it is. For another thing, he has just met Jack Jones-one of the High-Rise Private Eyes and a very fine detective in his own right-and Jack won't stop talking about . . . pretzels! Luckily for the baffled bear (and for kids who are ready to read on their own), Jack takes the mystery (and the bear) back to the high-rise to meet Bunny Brown. Bunny is the brains of the operation, and she quickly determines that it's high time for the High-Rise Private Eyes to open case file #7: The Case of the Baffled Bear.


Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) in animals are caused by pathogens that are transmitted during copulation. Birds have played an important role in the development of STD-centered theories of mating behavior. However, it is not known whether STDs exist in wild bird populations. While the avian cloaca with its dual functions of gamete transfer and excretion seemingly predisposes birds for the evolution of STDs, the life history patterns of most birds (i.e., seasonal breeders with relatively brief annual periods of sexual activity) suggest otherwise. The importance of STDs as selective forces that shape host biology depends on whether host life history patterns provide the necessary conditions for the evolution and spread of virulent pathogens that rely on host copulation for dispersal. Infrequent dispersal opportunities for microbes that rely on host sexual contact for dispersal should favor the evolution of low pathogen virulence, persistent infection, and lengthened infectious periods. I examine the disease characteristics of documented STDs that are relevant to birds in order to evaluate the (1) importance of STDs as selective forces in birds and (2) ecological conditions in which avian STDs are likely to be discovered. I conclude that socially monogamous short-lived birds with short breeding cycles and altricial nestlings (e.g., temperate zone songbirds) are not likely to have coevolved with highly virulent STDs which would be important selective forces. However, virulent STDs may have evolved in birds with one or more of the following life history characteristics: long life spans, long breeding cycles, multiple matings, and precocial young because these conditions produce increased opportunities for pathogen transmission and can favor the evolution of virulence. These life history characteristics are found and exaggerated in the birds for which STDs have been documented, the domesticated fowl and waterfowl.


In many dynamical state estimation problems, not all the values that the state can take have the same importance; hence, missing to deliver an appropriate estimate has more severe consequences for certain state values than for others. In many applications, such important state values correspond to events that have low a priori probability to happen (e.g., unsafe situations or conditions that one tries to avoid by design). Provably, Kalman filtering techniques are inadequate to correctly estimate such rare events. In this article, a new state estimation paradigm is introduced to build confidence regions that contain the true state value, whatever this value is, with a user-chosen probability. Among regions having this property, an algorithm is introduced that generates in a Gaussian setup the region that satisfies a minimum-volume condition.


Seven Australian universities (of 38) have established institutional repositories (also known as IRs or eprint archives) that can be analyzed for content and which were in operation during 2004 and 2005.

The paper analyses their performance and concludes that a requirement to deposit research output into a repository coupled with effective author support policies works in Australia. Voluntary policies do not, regardless of any author support, consistent with international data.


T his study examines the academic performance, retention, and degree-completion rates of two groups of honors students, those who completed all their honors program requirements (honors completers; n = 30) versus those students who started off in honors programs but did not complete these program requirements (partial honors students; n = 82). These two sets of honors students are then compared to a third group of similar students, those who had comparable pre-college academic creden-tials as the honors students, but who did not participate in an honors program (called high-ability students; n = 108). These three student groups entered three Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education universities as first-time, full-time freshmen in fall 1997. The study encompasses a five-year period, from fall semester 1997 through spring semester 2002. The study design is ex post facto and longitudi-nal, using secondary data primarily obtained from the institutional research offices at the respective study sites. The results show that three out of every four students who begin honors programs fail to complete them. Honors program completers have the highest academic performance and graduation rates, and shortest time to degree completion, compared to other high ability students, including partial honors students. The analysis strong-ly suggests that partial exposure to the honors program does not significantly enhance academic performance, graduation rates, time to degree, nor length of enrollment beyond what is achieved by other high-ability students who were never part of these programs. These findings control for the effects of student, institutional, and honors program characteristics at the three universities cooperating in the study.


Mass atrocity prosecutions are credited with advancing a host of praiseworthy objectives. They are believed to impose much-needed retribution, deter future atrocities, and affirm the rule of law in previously lawless societies. However, mass atrocity prosecutions will accomplish none of these laudable ends unless they are able to find accurate facts. Convicting the appropriate individuals of the appropriate crimes is a necessary and foundational condition for the success of mass atrocity prosecutions. But it is a condition that is frequently difficult to meet, as mass atrocity prosecutions are often bedeviled by pervasive and invidious obstacles to accurate fact-finding. This article deconstructs those obstacles. Isolating fact-finding challenges and ascertaining their impact is no mean feat because mass atrocity prosecutions are a heterogeneous combination of a variety of different kinds of crimes and different kinds of proceedings. Mass atrocity prosecutions take place in international courts, domestic courts, and hybrid international/domestic courts. Mass atrocity prosecutions encompass international crimes and domestic crimes, and they encompass a wide range of horrific acts perpetrated by a wide range of individuals, acting in a wide range of contexts. Previous scholarship has identified international criminal law as a discipline intensely marked by pluralism; this article contends that that same pluralism characterizes the fact-finding challenges that confront international criminal prosecutions. Moreover, this article advances the debate by isolating three particularly significant factors likely to create factual uncertainty at trial. Taken together, this examination produces a startling revelation: that the "gold standard" of mass atrocity prosecutions – international criminal tribunal prosecutions of international crimes – is at greatest risk for inaccurate fact-finding at trial.


New underwater passive sonar techniques are developed for enhancing target localization capabilities in shallow ocean environments. The ocean surface and the seabed act as acoustic mirrors that reflect sound created by boats or subsurface vehicles, which gives rise to echoes that can be heard by hydrophone receivers (underwater microphones). The goal of this work is to leverage this "multipath" phenomenon in new ways to determine the origin of the sound, and thus the location of the target. However, this is difficult for propeller driven vehicles because the noise they produce is both random and continuous in time, which complicates its measurement and analysis. Further, autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) pose additional challenges because very little is known about the sound they generate, and its similarity to that of boats. Existing methods for localizing propeller noise using multiple hydrophones have approached the problem either purely theoretically, or empirically such as by analyzing the interference patterns between multipath arrivals at different frequencies, however little has been published on building localization techniques that directly measure and utilize the time delays between multipath arrivals while simultaneously accounting for relevant environmental parameters. This research develops such techniques through a combination of array beamforming and advanced ray-based modeling that account for variations in bathymetry (seabed topography) as well as variations of the sound speed of the water. The basis for these advances come from several at-sea experiments in which different configurations of passive sonar systems recorded sounds emitted by different types of targets, including small boats and an autonomous underwater vehicle. Ultimately, these contributions may reduce the complexity and cost of passive systems that need to be deployed close to shore, such as for harbor security applications. Further, they also create new possibilities i for applying passive sonar in remote ocean regions for tasks such as detecting illegal fishing activity. This dissertation makes three key contributions: 1. Analysis of the aspect-dependent acoustic radiation patterns of an underway autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) through full-field wave modeling. 2. A two-hydrophone cross-correlation technique that leverages multipath as well as bathymetric variations to estimate the range and bearing of a small boat, supported by a mathematically rigorous performance analysis. 3. A multi-target localization technique based on directly measuring multipath from multiple small surface vessels using a small hydrophone array mounted to the nose of an AUV, which operates by cross-correlating two elevation beams on a single bearing.


The legitimacy and effectiveness of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES) depends on problem-adequate listing decisions. Decisions are frequently highly controversial, because they commit the member states to imposing trade restrictions on listed species. We examine whetherand howCITES' impressive institutional apparatus deprives the member states of their bargaining power and empowers actors who can make reasoned arguments on the merits of a listing decision. For this purpose, we demonstrate theoretically that appropriately designed decision-making procedures can diminish stake-holders' opportunities for exploiting their bargaining power and provide room for reason-based deliberation. Subsequently, we explore member states' and other stakeholders' incentives, created by the CITES listing procedure, for refraining from bargaining and accepting scientifically sound decisions. Finally, we examine three recent controversial listing decisions as examples of the actual operation of the listing procedure.


Abstract
 Common Snook Centropomus undecimalis were once abundant off the Texas coast, but these populations are now characterized by low abundance and erratic recruitment. Most research concerning Common Snook in North America has been conducted in Florida and very little is known about the specific biology and habitat needs of Common Snook in Texas. The primary objective of this study was to describe the habitat use patterns of juvenile Common Snook and their role in the fish assemblage in the lower portion of the Rio Grande, Texas. Secondarily, we documented the relationship between age and juvenile reproductive development. Fish were collected during January—March 2006 from the lower 51.5 km of the Rio Grande using a bottom trawl and boat-mounted electrofisher. Measurements of water quality and other habitat traits were recorded at each sampling site. We captured 225 Common Snook exclusively in freshwater habitats above river kilometer 12.9. The distribution of juvenile Common Snook was not random, but influenced primarily by turbidity and dissolved oxygen. Sex differentiation and gonadal development based on histological examination of gonads established that age-1 and age-2 Common Snook were juvenile, prepubertal males. There was no difference between the age groups in their overall distribution in the river. However, age-2 Common Snook were associated with deeper areas with faster currents, higher conductivity, and steeper banks. Overall, Common Snook in the lower Rio Grande show substantial differences in habitat use than their counterparts in other parts of the range of the species, but it is unclear whether this is due to differences in habitat availability, behavioral plasticity, or some combination thereof.


Introduction: Safe waste management protects hospital staff, the public, and the local environment. The handling of hospital waste in Bwindi Community Hospital did not appear to conform to the hospital waste management plan, exhibiting poor waste segregation, transportation, storage, and disposal which could lead to environmental and occupational risks. Methods: We undertook a mixed-methods study. We used semi-structured interviews to assess the awareness of clinical and non-clinical staff of waste types, risks, good practice, and concerns about hospital waste management. We quantified waste production by five departments for 1 month. We assessed the standard of practice in segregation, onsite transportation, use of personal protective equipment, onsite storage of solid waste, and disposal of compostable waste and chemicals. Results: Clinical staff had good awareness of waste (types, risk) overall, but the knowledge of non-clinical staff was much poorer. There was a general lack of insight into correct personal or departmental practice, resulting in incorrect segregation of clinical and compostable waste at source (>93% of time), and incorrect onsite transportation (94% of time). In 1 month the five departments produced 5,398 kg of hazardous and non-hazardous waste (12; 88%, respectively). Good practice included the correct use of sharps and vial boxes and keeping the clinical area clear of litter (90% of the time); placentae buried immediately (>80% of the time); gloves were worn everyday by waste handlers, but correct heavy-duty gloves <33% of the time, reflecting the variable use of other personal protective equipment. Chemical waste drained to underground soakaways, but tracking further disposal was not possible. Correct segregation of clinical and compostable waste at source, and correct onsite transportation, only occurred 6% of the time. Conclusion: Waste management was generally below the required WHO standards. This exposes people and the wider environment, including the nearby world heritage site, home to the endangered mountain gorilla, to unnecessary risks. It is likely that the same is true in similar situations elsewhere. Precautions, protection, and dynamic policy making should be prioritized in these hospital settings and developing countries.


The case of a patient is presented in whom a No. 11 scalpel blade was inadvertently broken and embedded within the lateral femoral condyle during initial arthroscopic portal creation. After a thorough diagnostic arthroscopy and synovectomy to expose the distal femoral articular surface was unsuccessful, luoroscopy was performed to localize the blade fragment in orthogonal planes. The blade tip was eventually retrieved from its position below the surface of the cartilage. The details of the loss and recovery of the blade fragment reinforce that exceptional care must be taken and attention given during the creation of portals, particularly when resistance is encountered. Additionally, all instruments, especially scalpel blades, should be exam- ined carefully when removed from the knee joint.


The evolution of High-Performance Computing systems has taken asharp turn in the last decade. Due to the enormous energyconsumption of modern platforms, miniaturization and frequencyscaling of processors have reached a limit. The energy constraintshas forced hardware manufacturers to develop alternative computerarchitecture solutions in order to manage answering the ever-growingneed of performance imposed by the scientists and thesociety. However, efficiently programming such diversity ofplatforms and fully exploiting the potentials of the numerousdifferent resources they offer is extremely challenging. Thepreviously dominant trend for designing high performanceapplications, which was based on large monolithic codes offeringmany optimization opportunities, has thus become more and moredifficult to apply since implementing and maintaining such complexcodes is very difficult. Therefore, application developersincreasingly consider modular approaches and dynamic applicationexecutions. A popular approach is to implement the application at ahigh level independently of the hardware architecture as DirectedAcyclic Graphs of tasks, each task corresponding to carefullyoptimized computation kernels for each architecture. A runtimesystem can then be used to dynamically schedule those tasks on thedifferent computing resources.Developing such solutions and ensuring their good performance on awide range of setups is however very challenging. Due to the highcomplexity of the hardware, to the duration variability of theoperations performed on a machine and to the dynamic scheduling ofthe tasks, the application executions are non-deterministic and theperformance evaluation of such systems is extremelydifficult. Therefore, there is a definite need for systematic andreproducible methods for conducting such research as well asreliable performance evaluation techniques for studying thesecomplex systems.In this thesis, we show that it is possible to perform a clean,coherent, reproducible study, using simulation, of dynamic HPCapplications. We propose a unique workflow based on two well-knownand widely-used tools, Git and Org-mode, for conducting areproducible experimental research. This simple workflow allows forpragmatically addressing issues such as provenance tracking and dataanalysis replication. Our contribution to the performance evaluationof dynamic HPC applications consists in the design and validation ofa coarse-grain hybrid simulation/emulation of StarPU, a dynamictask-based runtime for hybrid architectures, over SimGrid, aversatile simulator for distributed systems. We present how thistool can achieve faithful performance predictions of nativeexecutions on a wide range of heterogeneous machines and for twodifferent classes of programs, dense and sparse linear algebraapplications, that are a good representative of the real scientificapplications.


The purpose of the study was to investigate the nature and extent of bulling among visually impaired pupils at Magwero School in Chipata District, St. Mulumba School in Choma District, and Ndola Lion School in Ndola District. All the three school are special residential schools. The objectives of the study were to: assess the nature of bulling among visually impaired pupils in special residential schools; establish the extent of bulling among the visually impaired pupils in special residential schools; determine whether the rate of bulling varies with grade and gender; and find out whether there are interventions which teachers could use to use to decrease the prevalence of bulling in special schools. A survey approach was used in conducting this research. Data was collected through a check list; group discussions sessions with the pupils; and questionnaires which were administered to specialist teachers to compliment the data from the checklist. The study used both qualitative and quantitative methods in the collection of data. The target population comprised all lower and middle grades1 to 6 special residential school pupils who were visually impaired and all specialist teachers who handled them. The sample size comprised 75 boys and 75 girls visually impaired pupils and 15 special teachers. The study used a total of 165 respondents. The Statistical Package of Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to analyse the data from which frequencies, percentages and graphs were generated. vi The study revealed that bulling in residential special schools does exits and that the levels vary between boys and girls. It also showed that bulling was more eminent among the boys than the girls. Nearly all the pupils in the study indicated that they were bullied more than once. The study revealed that bullying mainly occurred in the dormitories and outside the classrooms. All the grades were affected by bullying but that it was more eminent in the lower grades (1-5). This scenario could be attributed to the fact that these pupils are new to the school and have very little experience of the school environment. The study showed that both girls and boys were victims of bullying. Boys bullied their fellow boys and the girls to some extent. In grades 1, 3 and 5 the rate of bullying was higher among boys than girls. Intervention strategies put in place to reduce the prevalence of bullying in special residential schools include counseling sessions, sensitization programmes, punishing the perpetrators and stiffening school rules. From the findings of the study, the following recommendations were suggested: The Ministry of Education to introduce programmes in schools to specifically sensitize parents, teachers and school administrators on the evils of bullying. The Ministry of Education should send more trained guidance and counselling teachers to special schools to combat bullying through counselling the bullies and the bullied pupils. School Head teachers should embark on routine checks in the dormitories and outside the classrooms to apprehend the culprits who should be sensitized on the effects of bullying.


Antiracism training for staff of health care institutions is a promising intervention strategy to address racial and ethnic disparities in health care. In 2001, Southern County Public Health Department (SCPHD) staff completed a mandatory Dismantling Racism (DR) training, and some continued with an optional DR process to challenge institutional racism within their agency. To explore factors influencing participation in optional DR activities (i.e., caucuses and Change Team), a process evaluation was conducted involving in-depth interviews with 28 SCPHD administrators and staff members, whose participation in the DR process varied. Findings demonstrate that familiarity with and receptiveness to the relationship between racism and health care inequities influenced participation in DR activities. Perceived relevance and impact of the DR process on the organization and staff were also major factors affecting participation. Improvements for implementing such efforts including the consideration of institutional power and other implications for addressing racial health care inequities through antiracism initiatives are discussed.


The preservation of knowledge has been a human endeavour since the dawn of time. Using whatever resources possible, humans have recorded knowledge for the purpose of bequeathing it to the next generations. With each technological advance, it would appear that the resources available for recording knowledge have improved. Not only this, but with each advance, the accessibility and availability to this knowledge has been enhanced; and in our present times, the impact of technology has made it easier than ever before. As with education, the consequence of making knowledge more available and accessible is the creation of more knowledgeable individuals; individuals who live in a modern society which has been termed the knowledge society. The potential of these knowledgeable individuals or knowledge workers as key assets in the production of services and goods is well recognised. Knowledge management has emerged, hand in hand, with this new breed of worker. As a tool, organisations are using knowledge management as means to preserve the knowledge of these workers. For different reasons, private sector organisations have been quicker to embrace knowledge management than their public sector counterparts. Ironically, governments support the concept of the knowledge society and all the benefits it promotes, yet, many of the agencies who operate on their behalf do not use knowledge management. This is all the more strange given that conducting business on behalf of the nation is knowledge intensive. Oberstown Boys School is one such agency. Operating in the domain of justice, its business is the detention of juvenile offenders. Given the nature of business, which is people focussed, the research of this project explores if a knowledge management initiative could be cultivated there. Through use of a knowledge audit the project will explore where the knowledge is in the organisation and explore how technology can help.


In this contribution we are looking for an efficient strategy to combat economic crime in the cases when the victims are other organizations, a state as whole or individuals. Different analyses of economic crime show that the offenders of economic crime benefit from two basic weaknesses of their victims: laws are not precise enough which is often a consequence of a free market philosophy and partially a consequence of unresolved dilemma about the limitations to the state sovereignty which is necessary for the implementation of investigation procedures on the global level, criminal and other social control mechanisms do not respond adequately. That is why the economic crime offenders are rarely detected, prosecuted and sentenced. A more precise regulation of a free market would have many negative consequences. That is why an indirect strategy that would contribute to a higher vulnerability of the economic crime offenders that would bring about increased transparency of business transactions, especially the financial ones. With the assistance of special analytical treatment of different data-base, it would be possible to identify the suspicious transactions. For the moment, only those who are planning the actions against money laundering are using this kind of analysis but it could be used also for different forms of economic crime like business fraud, pirate production, etc. Economic crime is becoming global; that is why this strategy would only be efficient on a global level and that reason harmonization of legislation is necessary. The essential part of the strategy is the improvement of social control institutions because it is necessary to increase the feeling of risk among the offenders who will be detected and sentenced. This feeling of risk is very rare among the economic crime offenders. The investigators would gain strategically by change of legislation which should provide for criminal responsibility of companies and for the burden of proof to be on the " accused" in the process for assets forfeiture after the crime had been proven. A strategy to combat economic crime could only be efficient as a combination of different measures.


Seismic tank damage has been reported in almost every major earthquake in the past, sometimes with serious environmental ramifications, thus raising concerns about the safety of these structures. In earlier studies, the dynamic uplift mechanism of unanchored cylindrical tanks have been investigated using the static tilt uplift model. A brief discussion on the static tilt uplift analysis procedure is presented. However, this rigorous formulation requires considerable amount of computational effort, and thus it is not very effective to implement this model to analyze the dynamic uplift problem. This paper presents a simplified model of the uplift mechanism, based on the adoption of a set of simplified displacement shape functions in the discretization process. The derivation and selection criteria of this simplified set of shape functions are presented. These shape functions are very effective in capturing all the important characteristics of the uplift mechanism. Some preliminary results using the simplified shape functions for static tilt uplift analysis are presented.


Major coastal storms, associated with strong winds are mostly know because of the serious damage they can cause along the shoreline and other threats. Sea storm events on the Catalan coast are often associated with stormy weather phenomena. Furthermore, the earth's ability to respond to extreme natural events has been limited due to the extent of area used for maritime activities. As such, the receiving environment is not able to respond to the storm surges. An example of this is the coastal strip of Tossa de Mar. This region occasionally suffers episodes of flooding along the beach and the urban waterfront when the sea level is high and there are strong waves. Flooding in the lower part of Tossa's core follows a complex pattern, since it depends both on the maritime conditions and on the sediment dynamics of the stream. The conditions from an extreme event in Tossa de Mar in December 2008 were reproduced using actual field data. It displays the simulation results, integrating different numerical modelling tools to develop the model. Along with numerical simulation tools within the scope of Maritime Engineering (developed by the Laboratory of Maritime Engineering at the UPC), this study also implements tools usually applied in Fluvial Dynamics and Urban Drainage studies (developed at the Flumen Institute for Fluvial Dynamics and Hydrologic Engineering), therefore signifying a notable innovation within the field of Hydraulic Engineering. The latter will ultimately have applicability to the study of floods and the assessment of flood risks in the urban zone of Tossa, if also resulting applicable to other towns with similar predicaments with which the Catalan Coast abounds. The present study aims at simulating the rough weather of December 26 and 27 2008 (Storm of Sant Esteve) in order to validate a forecasting tool based upon data from the past flood, as well as suggest alternatives or actions to mitigate the risk before a potential incident (i.e. inappropriateness or appropriateness of the removal of the bar that develops at the mouth of the stream, re-outlining of beaches) as well as during the course of an episode (i.e. assessment of the immediate risk according to the climatic conditions, establishment of evacuation routes...). The obtained results certainly signify a step further over the currently existing work areas on both the development and utilization of both numerical modelling tools that could indeed be implemented in future research projects and subsequently applied to the elaboration of municipal emergency plans.


In this work it was used a statistical methodology for obtaining an indicator of social sustainability for Venezuela. It was used information from the sustainable development social dimension for each of the Venezuelan states during 2007-2009. For building the social sustainability indicator (SSI) it was used the first two principal components obtained from the analysis for each year and as aggregation method the sum of components was used. The resulting values of social sustainability indicator is decomposed into 5 levels in similar way to the sustainability barometer and federal entities with the corresponding SSI level were assigned. It's proposed, the use of the Euclidean distance, for determining the optimal setting proximity. An interesting relationship between the value of SSI and distance is found. Key-Words: sustainability indicators, sustainable development, sustainability barometer, principal components, distance.


Although water resources managers speak of a water crisis in Africa, the management of ground water has to date not featured strongly in national and regional African water agendas. Examination of the physical environment of the continent and, in particular, the water resources in relation to the socioeconomic landscape and regional development challenges makes it clear that widely occurring, albeit largely low‐yielding, ground water resources will be crucial in the achievement of water security and development. Ground water is important primarily in domestic water and sanitation services, but also for other local productive needs like community gardens, stock watering, and brick‐making, all essential to secure a basic livelihood and thus to alleviate poverty. Despite the importance of small‐scale farming in Africa, there is little information on the present and potential role of ground water in agriculture. In contrast to its socioeconomic and ecological importance, ground water has remained a poorly understood and managed resource. Widespread contamination of ground water resources is occurring, and the important environmental services of ground water are neglected. There appear to be critical shortcomings in the organizational framework and the building of institutional capacity for ground water. Addressing this challenge will require a much clearer understanding and articulation of ground water's role and contribution to national and regional development objectives and an integrated management framework, with top‐down facilitation of local actions.


Survival of premature babies has considerably improved during the recent twenty years. A significant improvement in survival occurred in the second half of the 90s, this progress is mainly due to the introduction of artificial surfactant, which allows us to overcome the characteristic respiratory distress syndrome of premature infants especially in those greater or equal to 25 weeks of gestation. Unfortunately, especially neurological morbidity of these premature infants, has not improved as the same rate as survival. If in the 80s the onset of severe disability was 12%, at the moment it's about 10%. Severe disabilities are those that prevent normal school attendance, such as severe forms of cerebral palsy, blindness, deafness, and slow development. The increasing proportion of premature infants who survive increases the prevalence of these disabilities. The most significant factors associated with the development of these disabilities are chronic lung disease, intraventricular hemorrhage or periventricular leukomalacia, use of steroid and male sex. The rate of neurological morbidity remained more or less unchanged compared with the past, and is inversely correlated with gestational age and birthweight: the less are gestational age and birth-weight the higher the probability of neurological disorders. The preterm infant is particularly fragile, exposed to various pathogenic insults, in which small environmental perturbations can cause significant changes in the organism. In fact between 24 and 40 weeks of gestation, the Central Nervous System (CNS) has a rapid growth, high differentiation, high plasticity and a strong sensitivity to any kind of stress. Furthermore, the premature is frequently exposed to numerous diseases and alterations of various apparatus:Cardiovascular: hypotension, patent ductus arteriosus;Respiratory: apnea of prematurity, respiratory distress syndrome, bronchopulmonary dysplasia; Apparatus Gastrointestinal: necrotizing enterocolitis; Central nervous system: periventricular leukomalacia, intraventricular hemorrhage, subarachnoid hemorrhage, hydrocephalus, retinopathy of prematurity. Preterm infants have also been reported to be at higher risk than term infants for sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). Reasons for this higher risk are not clear. Infants who subsequently died of SIDS had fewer spontaneous arousals. In addition they had more central apnoeas in the prone position which suggests that they have poorer respiratory control in that position. The aim of this study is to detailed different aspects of the premature infant at high risk, starting from an epidemiological study conducted in the NICU of Federico II of Naples, investigating both the respiratory and gastrointestinal physiopathology and studying new automated methods for the rapid identification of late sepsis.


Composite restorative materials represent one of the many successes of modern biomaterials research, since they replace biological tissue in both appearance and function. At least half of posterior direct restoration placements now rely on composite materials . Composite resins are a class of dental restorative materials that are a mixture of organic and inorganic components. The primary organic components are the resin, the coupling agent, the initiator and filler. Fillers play a pivotal role in the performance of composite resins. Fillers can be from a wide range of materials. Fillers in composites can be made of glasses, ceramics, metals etc. Glass fillers are usually made of crystalline silica, silicone dioxide, lithium/barium-aluminium glass, and borosilicate glass containing zinc/strontium/lithium. Ceramic fillers are made of zirconia-silica, or zirconium oxide. The development and implementation of composite dental restorative materials rely on a comprehensive understanding of each component of the composite and consideration of methods for changing each component. The aim of the review is to showcase the recent advances in composite resin fillers which have substantially improved the clinical performance of composite.


Magnetic Resonance Image (MRI) acquisition, reconstruction and tissue segmentation are usually considered separate problems. This can be limiting when it comes to rapidly extracting relevant clinical parameters. In many applications, availability of reconstructed images with high fidelity may not be a priority as long as biomarker extraction is reliable and feasible. Built upon this concept, we demonstrate that it is possible to perform tissue segmentation directly from highly undersampled k-space and obtain quality results comparable to those in fully-sampled scenarios. We propose 'TB-recon', a 3D task-based reconstruction framework. TB-recon simultaneously reconstructs MRIs from raw data and segments tissues of interest. To do so, we devised a network architecture with a shared encoding path and two task-related decoders where features flow among tasks. We deployed TB-recon on a set of (up to 24×) retrospectively undersampled MRIs from the Osteoarthritis Initiative dataset, where we automatically segmented knee cartilage and menisci. An experimental study was conducted showing the superior performance of the proposed method over a combination of a standard MRI reconstruction and segmentation method, as well as alternative deep learning based solutions. In addition, our ablation study highlighted the importance of skip connections among the decoders for the segmentation task. Ultimately, we conducted a reader study, where two musculoskeletal radiologists assessed the proposed model's reconstruction performance.


Background- With coronary artery disease set to become the world's leading cause of mortality by 2020, there is an urgent requirement for novel treatment strategies which protect the myocardium against ischaemia-reperfusion injury, in order that patient morbidity and mortality can be improved and the global burden of this disease can be alleviated. This thesis examined the role of the mitochondrial permeability transition pore (mPTP) as a novel target for two major strategies for myocardial protection: (1) Interventions applied at the time of reperfusion, which protect the heart against lethal reperfusion injury, and (2) Myocardial Preconditioning, a process which renders the myocardium more resistant to subsequent ischaemia-reperfusion injury. Methods and Results- Using an isolated perfused rat model of ischaemia-reperfusion injury, we demonstrated that the opening of the mPTP at the time of reperfusion is a critical determinant of myocyte death, and we have shown that inhibiting its opening, by administering pharmacological agents at the time of reperfusion, is cardio-protective. Using experimental models for inducing and detecting mPTP opening in adult rat mitochondria and myocytes, we demonstrated that myocardial preconditioning protects the heart by inhibiting mPTP opening, and that the pro-survival kinases Akt and Erk1/2, may act to mediate the preconditioning- induced inhibition of mPTP opening at the time of reperfusion. Finally, we found that the mPTP may also act as a mediator of the preconditioning signal. In this scenario, transient (low- conductance) opening of the mPTP, which does not lead to cell death, may paradoxically contributed to protective mechanisms recruited by myocardial preconditioning and mitochondrial-uncoupling, indicating a dual role for the mPTP in myocardial preconditioning. Conclusion- We have demonstrated that inhibiting the opening of the mitochondrial permeability transition pore at the time of reperfusion, presents a common target for myocardial protection, irrespective of whether protection is mediated by myocardial preconditioning or by interventions applied solely at the time of reperfusion. Therefore, interventions which target and inhibit mPTP opening, at the time of reperfusion, may improve morbidity and mortality from coronary artery disease, in the clinical settings of ischaemia-reperfusion injury such as thrombolysis following an acute myocardial infarction, heart surgery and percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty. Furthermore, we found that transient (low-conductance) opening of the mPTP mediates both preconditioning and mitochondrial uncoupling-induced protection by acting as a channel for the mitochondrial release of reactive oxygen species.


This Article is the first in the academic literature to examine how a strict application of the childhood history requirement reduces the likelihood that applicants will receive ADHD accommodations on the bar exam based on race, sex, socioeconomic status, location, and age. Part One provides an introduction to ADHD, explaining the diagnostic framework and its limitations, specifically with regard to childhood diagnosis and adult ADHD. Part Two describes the legal and policy framework applicable to bar examiner agencies, focusing on the Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA"). The Article sets forth, in Part Three, state bar policies and practices regarding ADHD accommodations. Within that context, Part Four demonstrates how the childhood history requirement exposes state bars to liability under the ADA. Part Five reveals how the childhood history requirement negatively impacts protected classes and, thus, the diversity of the legal profession. Finally, the analysis concludes in Part Six with specific, groundbreaking recommendations to address and mitigate the injustice that bar applicants from underrepresented populations in the profession face.


A general address term in Communist China, tongzhi 'comrade' was appropriated by gay rights activists in Hong Kong to refer to members of sexual minorities. Examining its level of acceptance among non-activist gay and lesbian Hongkongers, this article argues that non-activists' ideology about sexuality accounts for their rejection of tongzhi and their preference for strategies that leave same-sex desire unspecified. This study demonstrates how the discursive history of a label can both enable and impede its political efficacy. It also sheds light on the internal resistance that representatives of minority groups encounter when introducing new labels for those they supposedly speak for.


Purpose: Most educational programs in the health sciences present their students with a clinical decision-making model (CDMM) to help them define and treat client problems with a client-centered approach. However, little is known about how well students apply such a model in a clinical setting. The purpose of this study was to determine whether physical therapy students used a CDMM to make clinical decisions, and how well they used it. Method: Fifty-four physical therapy students in their first full-time clinical placement were asked to write up one of their client cases explaining how they made their clinical decisions and evaluating the success of these decisions. Three faculty members used a standardized form to assess each student's use of various components of the CDMM. Results: Students were generally better at following the CDMM for obtaining information (history and assessment) and determining a diagnosis, than they were for planning goals and methods of treatment. Most students emphasized impairment rather than activity or participation , and did not consider the client's specific concerns. Although few students defined measurable outcomes for their clients, they still felt that their decisions were well founded and that the clients got better. Conclusions: Physical therapy students in their first major clinical placement believe that they are using the CDMM "automatically" and are making appropriate clinical decisions for their clients. However, students need assistance to effectively use all the steps in the CDMM to design client-centered, outcomeoriented treatment.


Nebraska is situated at the intersection of the northern and southern Great Plains, exhibiting a dramatic longitudinal gradient for precipitation and humidity, and benefiting from groundwater resources. The continental climate is highly variable temporally both for temperature and precipitation. Our assessment of long-term meteorological observations shows that over the last century the annual average temperature in Nebraska has warmed approximately 0.6°C, which is similar to the increase in the global average temperature over the same time period. Furthermore, we found minimum temperatures have warmed more than maximum temperatures, and winter and spring show the strongest warming. We found no significant long-term trend in annual precipitation, but seasonal variations exist, namely with wetter springs and falls, and drier winters and summers. The number of days having temperature extremes (both hot and cold) has decreased over time. We found an overall increase in growing season length.


Research on the criminal justice system, punishment, and media continue to generate academic interest, particularly in the realm of social constructionism. The social construction perspective provides insight into the process through which media-controlled images are translated into social definitions of crime and justice. One new area of interest is the representations of prisons and penal culture by the entertainment media, namely the film industry. In this study, the author contributes to the area of social constructionist literature by administering a content analysis of eleven feature films on male prisons produced between 1979 and 2001. The author examines the frequency and context of several constructs of penal culture: drug use and trafficking, rape and sexual assault, violence, and gang affiliation. This research examines whether the representations of these issues in recent motion pictures are consistent with extant academic correctional literature.
The present study found that within prison films the amount of portrayal of drug use and trafficking, and rape and sexual assault is consistent with the academic literature. Overall, when compared to the academic literature, prison movies under represent gang affiliation but within movies that portray gang affiliation, that portrayal is similar to the academic literature. Notably, heroin was the drug of choice depicted within prison films while academic correctional research in prisons shows marijuana as the drug of choice. The most significant finding was that the amount and type of violence, specifically murder, was overrepresented in prison films compared to the amount and type of violence reported within current academic research.
The over emphasis on violence and killing within prison films and the representation of heroin as the major drug consumed and trafficked could lead to public misunderstanding about the realities of prison life and living conditions of the prison institution. This study provides not only noteworthy information concerning the representations of prison life and penal culture by the film industry but also insight into the inconsistencies between the information presented on film and that within academic correctional literature that are transferred via this medium to the general public.


Kore-eda Hirokazu's Air Doll (Kuki ningyo, 2009) begins by following the character Hideo as he travels by train toward his home. After arriving, he speaks to someone offscreen before the film cuts to a scene at the dinner table where an over-the-shoulder shot from Hideo's point of view reveals that he was and continues speaking to a blow-up sex doll he has named Nozomi. Spectators see the plastic surface of Nozomi's body, and despite how Hideo personifies her, she remains the silent recipient of his statements. The scene transitions to Hideo's bedroom, where he will use Nozomi as a sexual object. During this sexual encounter, sound begins to orientate spectators toward the surface of Nozomi's plastic exterior more explicitly than its visibility. Each thrust or movement Hideo makes is accompanied by the sound of air-filled plastic under pressure. These sounds reiterate and exaggerate Nozomi's properties as an object by throwing plasticity toward the spectator to exaggerate its frailty; these sounds situate her plasticity within what Steven Connor calls the "rhetoric of the inflatable," which aims to perpetuate perceptions about the frailty of air-filled objects by foregrounding their potential for "abject eruption and collapse."1 In these contexts, the sound of strained plastic provides spectators with a sense of the weight any air doll must support and lures us toward the looming possibility of plastic ready to pop at the seams were the force of these thrusts to become too great.While this opening sequence in Air Doll positions Nozomi as an object, foreshadowing how several characters will perceive her purpose during other sexual encounters in the film,2 the narrative quickly departs from this explicitly anthropocentric perspective. Nozomi is initially confined by audiovisual cues aiming to reiterate her status as a plastic object, but after the opening sequence, the audible properties of the film begin to undermine our reliance on humans as the interlocutors who make objects meaningful. Sounds of breathing accompany the film's transition to daytime, and we return to Hideo's home after brief scenic shots of his neighborhood in Tokyo. We watch Hideo dress and prepare to leave for work while Nozomi remains unclothed in bed. The sounds of breathing persist in the bedroom but, after Hideo is out of the frame, become attributed to Nozomi by the movement of a wind chime thatjingles above her head. Spectators soon hear sounds of strained, stretching plastic return but, unlike the previous night, witness a visible shift from her state as an inanimate air doll: we see her legs begin to move before watching her translucent shadow on the wall while she walks from the bed toward the window (Figure 1).This transformation situates spectators to grapple with normative orientations toward objects when they cannot or do not remain confined in an all-too-typical binary opposition to (human) subjects. Contemporary speculative realist philosophies provide various definitions for objects, and I remain intrigued by those with an orientation toward better understanding about the ontological configurations of objects, things, and entities (human or otherwise).3 The aims of these writings have prompted me to pause and consider what circumstances might prompt anyone other than object-oriented philosophers to consider the lives of objects or reconsider and expand an anthropocentric ontology.4In what follows, I examine how Air Doll positions spectators to follow the life of a thing by upsetting normative orientations toward inanimate objects or tools. To accomplish this, I interrogate how the film reframes subject-object relations and, in turn, reveals the autonomy of things. I continue this inquiry by addressing why spectators are not only encouraged to look at the life of things but also, more importantly, why the film encourages engagement with things beyond (visible) present-at-hand surfaces. Finally, I address why the framing of relationships, between things and humans as well as things with other things, encourages and requires us to expand our conceptualization of ontology to include ec-static forms of being. …


Type 2 diabetes is a growing concern. The World Health Organisation predicts a 114% increase by 2030. Obesity is tightly linked to type 2 diabetes. An increase in adiposity predisposes to type 2 diabetes in which insulin resistance in skeletal muscle, adipocyte and liver gives rise to hyperinsulinemia, in the early stages of the disease. This is later followed by failure of pancreatic β cells to secrete insulin. The reduction in insulin secretion could be due to a decrease in β cell number or a functional loss. Adipose tissue is now recognized as an active endocrine organ, secreting adipokines involved in energy homeostasis. Adiponectin is one of the recently discovered adipokines but, paradoxically, its levels are decreased in obesity. In skeletal muscle, adiponectin suppresses triglyceride accumulation and increases fatty acid oxidation, improving insulin signalling, and it suppresses glucose production in the liver, implicating adiponectin as an insulin sensitiser. The effects of adiponectin on pancreatic β cells are unclear. The aims of the thesis were to investigate the acute (30 min) and the longer term (24 hr) effect of full-length adiponectin on Min6 cells, a murine pancreatic β cell line, in a bid to determine if the hormone improved pancreatic β cell function in conditions of diabetes. The first study (chapter 3) confirmed the presence of adiponectin receptors adipoQRl and adipoQR2 in these cells using real time PCR. The mRNA for adipoQRl was 2-fold greater than adipoQR2. Next, we investigated the regulation of gene expression of adipoQ receptors in conditions of high glucose (25mM), high insulin (10nM) and high fat (l-2mM). Our findings suggest that adipoQR1 is upregulated by 25mM glucose whereas adipoQR2 is downregulated. High insulin downregulated both receptors, while high fat upregulated their gene expression. Exogenous adiponectin upregulated both receptors in high glucose conditions. Our next study (chapter 4) investigated the effect of adiponectin (2µg/ml) on insulin secretion in basal (3mM) glucose. Acute (30min) application of adiponectin increased insulin levels in basal glucose (3mM) that was associated with an immediate (within I min) increase in [Ca2⁺]i. These adiponectin-induced increases in insulin and [Ca2⁺]i were comparable with those evoked by high glucose (25mM)stimulation This increase in [Ca2⁺]i was prevented by nifedipine, a blocker of L-type Ca2⁺ channels, and did not occur in Ca2⁺ free solution. The depolarisation required to achieve opening of the L-type Ca2⁺ channels by adiponectin appeared to be via the activation of C1⁻ channels. Our third study (chapter 5) investigated the effect of adiponectin on AMPK activity in 3mM glucose in 30 min using Western blotting. Adiponectin inhibited the phosphorylation of AMPK which was comparable with that of 25mM glucose. Our fourth study (chapter 6) examined the longer term effect of adiponectin on pancreatic β cell number. Thiazolidinediones are insulin sensitizers and ligands for peroxisome proliferator-activated γ receptors (PPARγ). PPARγ have been demonstrated in ~ cells and their activation promotes β cell survival. We hypothesized that adiponectin activates PPARγ in β cells, promoting survival, in 24 hrs. The aims were to investigate the effect of adiponectin on PPARγ message and protein by real-time PCR and western blotting. We also investigated adiponectin's effect on β cell proliferation by quantitating DNA content and examined glucosestimulated insulin secretion and insulin content via PPARγ using ELISA. Our findings showed that adiponectin significantly activated PPARγ message and strongly tended to increase protein. While PPARγ activation caused a significant increase in insulin content, it had no effect on glucose-stimulated insulin secretion. Furthermore, adiponectin also increased β cell number significantly, but this effect was not via PPARγ. In conclusion, our studies reveal the potential role of adiponectin as a novel therapeutic target in the treatment of diabetes.