The chapter discusses the management of institutional repositories (IR) in developing countries. It starts with the introduction of the concept of institutional repositories and its origin. Various definitions of institutional repositories are highlighted. The chapter goes further to discuss the features of institutional repositories such as infrastructure, hosted service, customer support, content organization and control, content discovery, publication tools, reporting, multimedia, social features and notifications, and so on. It further analyses vital issues in management of institutional repositories. Peculiar issues in open access for developing countries are also identified and discussed. The chapter covers the roles of libraries and librarians in the management of institutional repositories; the roles include collection development and management, software acquisition and training, formulation of guidelines for standard metadata and catalogue system, assessment of submission for standard and quality, persuading authors to contribute their intellectual works, enlightenment on copyright issues, information literacy in the use of institutional repositories, promotion and marketing of institutional repositories. The chapter further highlights the challenges and intervention strategies in the management of institutional repositories in developing countries; it enumerates the challenges to include: personnel and technical staff, ICT equipment and infrastructure, lack of awareness and advocacy, inadequate funding, poor policy guidelines, poor power supply, open access, software, copyright law and inadequate internet bandwidth. Based on these, the chapter recommends that an aggressive enlightenment programme should be carried out from time to time; developing countries and their higher institutions should wake up to their responsibilities by formulating policies on institutional repositories (IR); developing countries should also come together to form consortia in the areas of software selection and deployment for institutional repositories. Management of institutions in these countries should make funds available for the smooth running of their institutional repositories, and so on. The chapter concludes with the need for academic institutions and their libraries to pay more attention to the funding and development of institutional repositories in order to provide more effective and efficient access to digital information services to the global academic community. DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-0474-0.ch016


26 The present study was designed to investigate and compare the effects of game profile-based 27 (GPBT) and small-sided games (SSGs) training on physical performances of elite youth soccer 28 players during the in-season period. Twenty young soccer players (18.6 ± 0.6) were randomly 29 assigned to either GPBT or SSGs protocols performed twice a week for 8 weeks. The GPBT 30 consisted of 2 sets of 6-10 min of intermittent soccer specific circuits. The SSGs training 31 consisted of 3-5 sets of 5 vs. 5 SSGs played on a 42 x 30 m pitch. Before and after the training 32 program, the following physical performance were assessed: repeated sprint ability (RSA), 33 change of direction (COD), linear sprinting on 10-m and 20-m, jumping (CMJ), and 34 intermittent running (YYIRL1). Significant improvements were found in all the assessed 35 variables following both training interventions (p < 0.05). The GPBT group improved more 36 than the SSGs group in the 10-m and 20-m sprint tests by 2.4% (g = 0.4; small effect) and 4% 37 (g = 0.9; large effect), respectively. Conversely, the SSGs group jumped 4% higher (g = 0.4; 38 small effect) and resulted 6.7% quicker than the GPBT (g = 1.5; large effect) in completing the 39 COD task. These results suggest both GPBT and SSGs to be effective for fitness development 40 among elite young soccer players during the competitive season. More importantly, these two 41 conditioning methodologies may be considered in terms of specificity for selectively 42 improving or maintaining specific soccer fitness-related performances in the latter phase of the 43 season. 44 45


Electrochemical and acid-base properties of four free-base triarylcorroles were examined in nonaqueous media. These compounds are represented here as (tdcc)H3, (tpfc)H3, (Br8tdcc)H3 and (Br8tpfc)H3, where tdcc and tpfc are the trianions of tris(2,6-dichlorophenyl)corrole and tris(pentafluorophenyl)corrole, respectively. Different spectroscopic and electrochemical properties were observed for the β-brominated corroles as compared to the non-brominated derivatives, due in part to the corrole ring distortion and in part to the strong electron-withdrawing properties of the Br groups. The brominated free-base corroles are easier to deprotonate than the non-brominated corroles in solution, which was confirmed by electrochemistry and spectroelectrochemistry as well as protonation/deprotonation reactions of the compounds with acid or base in PhCN. The electrochemistry of the protonated and deprotonated corroles is presented and comparisons made with previously published data for other protonated and deprotonated free-base corroles under the same solution conditions.


Existing literature on the impact of Common Core State Standards in Math has shown little benefit, but it has not examined variation in outcomes based on implementation strategies, student subgroups, or outcomes other than test scores. We use a difference-in-differences approach with school fixed effects to compare outcomes in pre- and poststandards years across schools with different levels of participation in professional learning around the standards in the middle grades in Chicago. Postimplementation, there were significantly greater improvements in student reports of standards-aligned instructional practices, math grades, pass rates, and test scores in schools with more extensive professional learning around the standards, among students with low and average initial achievement. Relationships were largely not significant for students with high initial achievement. We discuss why Chicago might have seen positive results, including the district emphasis on professional learning around the practice standards and differential impacts based on student prior achievement.


Over the decades, western academic literature has embraced the power of visual arts as the first language with which children connect with the people and environment of their world. However, children in Hong Kong, a multi-cultural region in a Chinese context, have limited experiences in using visual language in the kindergartens due to pre-schools' academic-oriented atmosphere and focus on primary school readiness. Rather than engaging in visual arts, students are forced to start writing Chinese characters and English alphabets at age four or even younger. Though previous literature has explained that mixing languages in culturally-diverse classrooms has a positive influence on students, the integration of visual language has seldom been studied. This study, conducted through the lens of contemporary linguistics, examines how translanguaging emerged in children's artworks in four K3 level (aged 5-6) classes in a Hong Kong kindergarten. Altogether, 88 children participated in the study (N = 32 girls and 56 boys), of whom 57 were Cantonese-speaking Hong Kong citizens and the rest were non-Cantonese speaking children (26 Mainland Chinese; two Nepalese; three Pakistanis). Children participants' artworks were collected from an activity designed by the researcher and, through content analysis, divided into three categories: (1) exploratory experiences; (2) object references; and (3) visual components. These ground-breaking findings indicate that translanguaging does not exist only in verbal languages; the participating children tried to make good use of visual language, along with Chinese and English words they had learnt, to share their ideas, thoughts, and feelings. This study may inspire early childhood educators in culturally diverse region such as Hong Kong to explore how visual arts can help children from diverse backgrounds to express their voices.


It is clear that one of the primary tools we can use to mitigate the potential risk from a misbehaving AI system is the ability to turn the system off. As the capabilities of AI systems improve, it is important to ensure that such systems do not adopt subgoals that prevent a human from switching them off. This is a challenge because many formulations of rational agents create strong incentives for self-preservation. This is not caused by a built-in instinct, but because a rational agent will maximize expected utility and cannot achieve whatever objective it has been given if it is dead. Our goal is to study the incentives an agent has to allow itself to be switched off. We analyze a simple game between a human H and a robot R, where H can press R's off switch but R can disable the off switch. A traditional agent takes its reward function for granted: we show that such agents have an incentive to disable the off switch, except in the special case where H is perfectly rational. Our key insight is that for R to want to preserve its off switch, it needs to be uncertain about the utility associated with the outcome, and to treat H's actions as important observations about that utility. (R also has no incentive to switch itself off in this setting.) We conclude that giving machines an appropriate level of uncertainty about their objectives leads to safer designs, and we argue that this setting is a useful generalization of the classical AI paradigm of rational agents.


Now that she is finally and happily married to her long-term suitor Mr J.L.B. Matekoni, Mma Ramotswe of the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency of Botswana might have expected life to grow more sedate. But the many problems that lead customers to Mma Ramotswe's door seem, if anything, to have multiplied, and no sooner has she settled her traditionally built person into the married state than she finds herself looking into several troublesome matters at once. There is, to begin with, a disturbing case of blackmail and theft from the Government catering college. Then, while on an errand for her husband to the Mokolodi Game Reserve Mma Ramotswe is seconded to investigate an unpleasant atmosphere that may be down to witchcraft, or something worse. There are sinister goings-on at a health clinic to be looked into, not to mention any number of small wrongs to be righted along the path to detective triumph. And all the time Mma Ramotswe has weighty questions of a philosophical nature to consider, such as whether it is right to find happiness in small things, such as a new pair of blue shoes, a slice of cake, or a red sunset over the Kalahari.


The examination of foreign takeovers is a way of distinguishing between the characteristics of f inns and industries that encourage takeovers and the effects of foreignness or of takeovers per se. Foreigners have tended to take over Swedish firms that are of above average size within each industry. 'Very .few takeovers are of the smallest groups of firms: those with fewer than 20 employees or even those with fewer than 200. However, the firms taken over are not large compared to Swedish companies of 200 employees or more. In fact, they are well below average size within that group. The firms taken over are more skill-oriented or technology-oriented than Swedish-owned firms in the same industries. However, takeovers are not particularly prevalent in industries in which firms in general are large or skill-oriented or technology-oriented. Thus the select ion of firms for takeover is based on f inn characteristics, not industry characteristics. After takeover by foreigners, firms grow somewhat faster than Swedish-owned firms in the same industries. The technological characteristics of the firms, by the crude measurements we have been able to apply so far, do not seem to be affected in any consistent way by takeover.


Pivot is a new JavaScript isolation framework for web applications. Pivot uses iframes as its low-level isolation containers, but it uses code rewriting to implement synchronous cross-domain interfaces atop the asynchronous cross-frame postMessage( ) primitive. Pivot layers a distributed scheduling abstraction across the frames, essentially treating each frame as a thread which can invoke RPCs that are serviced by external threads. By rewriting JavaScript call sites, Pivot can detect RPC invocations, Pivot exchanges RPC requests and responses via postMessage( ), and it pauses and restarts frames using a novel rewriting technique that translates each frame's JavaScript code into a restart able generator function. By leveraging both iframes and rewriting, Pivot does not need to rewrite all code, providing an order-of-magnitude performance improvement over rewriting-only solutions. Compared to iframe-only approaches, Pivot provides synchronous RPC semantics, which developers typically prefer over asynchronous RPCs. Pivot also allows developers to use the full, unrestricted JavaScript language, including powerful statements like eval( ).


Study Design: Original article. Objective: Guidelines for deciding whether to perform open or percutaneous surgery in burst fractures. Summary of Background Data: The authors propose an algorithm for deciding whether to perform open surgery or percutaneous surgery with short fixation in patients with fractures of the thoracolumbar junction and lumbar spine. Methods: Between July 2005 and July 2009, 72 patients underwent surgical stabilization by posterior route for fractures of the thoracolumbar junction and lumbar spine. In 44 the lesion involved the thoracolumbar junction, in 28 the lumbar spine (L2 in6 cases, L3 in15 cases, L5 in7 cases). The fractures were assessed morphologically according to Magerl's classification (52 type A, 12 type B, 8 type C). All patients were analyzed according to the algorithm proposed, according to which patients must fulfil certain criteria: the fracture must be Magerl type A.3, it must involve one level, McCormack score must be 6 or less, invasion of the spinal canal must be 25% or less according to Hashimoto's formula, Magnetic Resonance Imating (MRI) must confirm discoligamentous integrity. Neurologically, the patient must be ASIA E. 25 patients (17 thoracolumbar junction, 8 lumbar spine) fulfilled these criteria and were treated by percutaneous short fixation. Results: The average length of the surgical procedure was 80 minutes and the loss of blood 10 cc. All patients were dismissed without brace and were submitted to follow-upComputed Tomography CTscan 3 and 6 months after surgery. Follow-up ranged from 6 months to 4 years. In all cases CT scan confirmed fusion and there were no cases of rupture of the device. None of the patients presented neurological deficits. Conclusion: The algorithm described permits a proper selection of patients with thoracolumbar fractures who can be treated by percutaneous short fixation, thus avoiding the risks connected with failure of the stabilization system.


Oakland, California, 1966-one of the nation's most controversial political organizations, the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense is founded. During its meteoric rise, and almost as rapid decline, the Black Panther Party became the subject of countless news articles, books, commentaries, and several motion pictures. This often misunderstood notoriety has made the Panthers America's most well-known Black revolutionaries. But few who have examined the role of the Panthers have done so with the depth and skill of Dr. Charles E. Jones and the other contributers to this provocative collection of essays. Here is a volume that provides the extensive analysis that will lead to a more complete understanding of the dynamics surrounding the Black Panther Party. Now available for the first time in paperback.


Abstract This paper reviews how neoclassical (NC) transport analyses have been exploited to predict/understand the improved confinement achieved in the Large Helical Device (LHD), such as high-temperature and/or high-density regimes. Recent high-performance LHD plasmas have provided a good opportunity to test/verify the impact of the radial electric field (Er) for reducing the NC transport in the low-collisionality regime. The bifurcative nature of Er to the electron root was clarified to be the background physics for the improved electron heat confinement in the core region. The ion root has been verified with measurement as predicted from the NC ambipolarity for the high-ion temperature plasmas. The construction of the NC diffusion coefficient database has been advanced for making accurate and fast NC calculations available. The predicted dependence of the bootstrap current on the magnetic configuration has also been experimentally verified. The extension of NC transport theory itself has been greatly motivated by the extension of the plasma parameters. Code development for the inclusion of the finite orbit width effect and the progress of the moment approach are explained as such examples.


ABSTRACT: This article presents one university's approach to supplementing traditional doctoral research training with a two-semester teaching practicum. The practicum is designed to help students develop and hone pedagogical and other teaching skills, while gaining insight into academic career acumen. It consists of two, one-hour courses taken by students during each of the first two semesters of their doctoral program. In the first semester, weekly teaching seminars are accompanied by an apprenticeship activity in which the students attend classes of faculty mentors throughout the term, teaching one of those classes toward the end of the term. In the second semester, the doctoral students are mentored through their first whole-semester teaching experience, sharing issues from that experience and sharpening skills in the weekly seminar discussions. The article provides details of the practicum and implementation guidance intended to encourage other Ph.D. programs to embrace the general approach we descri...


Abstract. This study describes and evaluates the Fire Including Natural & Agricultural Lands model (FINAL) which, for the first time, explicitly simulates cropland and pasture management fires separately from non-agricultural fires. The non-agricultural fire module uses empirical relationships to simulate burned area in a quasi-mechanistic framework, similar to past fire modeling efforts, but with a novel optimization method that improves the fidelity of simulated fire patterns to new observational estimates of non-agricultural burning. The agricultural fire components are forced with estimates of cropland and pasture fire seasonality and frequency derived from observational land cover and satellite fire datasets. FINAL accurately simulates the amount, distribution, and seasonal timing of burned cropland and pasture over 2001–2009 (global totals: 0.434×106 and 2.02×106 km2 yr−1 modeled, 0.454×106 and 2.04×106 km2 yr−1 observed), but carbon emissions for cropland and pasture fire are overestimated (global totals: 0.295 and 0.706 PgC yr−1 modeled, 0.194 and 0.538 PgC yr−1 observed). The non-agricultural fire module underestimates global burned area (1.91×106 km2 yr−1 modeled, 2.44×106 km2 yr−1 observed) and carbon emissions (1.14 PgC yr−1 modeled, 1.84 PgC yr−1 observed). The spatial pattern of total burned area and carbon emissions is generally well reproduced across much of sub-Saharan Africa, Brazil, Central Asia, and Australia, whereas the boreal zone sees underestimates. FINAL represents an important step in the development of global fire models, and offers a strategy for fire models to consider human-driven fire regimes on cultivated lands. At the regional scale, simulations would benefit from refinements in the parameterizations and improved optimization datasets. We include an in-depth discussion of the lessons learned from using the Levenberg–Marquardt algorithm in an interactive optimization for a dynamic global vegetation model.


Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) techniques have revolutionized most biomedical research fields over the past decade by allowing a broader vision on biological processes that occur at the molecular level. Among these, ribosome profiling or footprinting is a powerful tool to study mRNA translation in a transcriptome-wide manner. Ribosome profiling has been used to study the impact of translational control of gene expression under many different cellular conditions including viral infections. Indeed, translation is a critical step during the viral replication cycle in which the infected cell is embezzled to produce viral proteins. Ribosome profiling tools can provide new insights on viral translation by monitoring ribosome binding to viral and cellular RNAs with a high definition during the time course of an infection. Here, we describe the potential uses of ribosome profiling for the understanding of viral translational control and the impact of viral infection on host gene expression. We also discuss the main limitations and biases related to the technique that need to be taken into account for its use.


In this thesis I argue that Foucault's dispersive historiography is a
deepening rather than a purifying of historical existence. This emphasis
upon dispersion as a critical principle is contrasted with, and delimited by
the possibility of the narrative comprehension of historical existence
exemplified by the hermeneutics of Paul Ricoeur. Insofar as the
responsibility to act is an important field where tfphis deepening takes
place it cannot be subordinated to the responsibility to otherness which
aims at dismantling the action orientated frameworks of traditional ethics
and politics. Ricoeur's promotion of narrative refiguration as a response to
the aporias of time is thus, a timely rejoinder to dispersive genealogy. I
argue further that Foucault's historiography exhibits the productive tension
of history as both difference and meaning and that the ethical thrust of
such writing is to address the concerns of the present in a way that
metamorphosizes rather than challenges the narrative function. Insofar as it
connects with the struggles of disenfranchised and marginalized groups,
and discourses, it also echoes a powerful element In traditional
emancipatory historiography which attempts to fully embrace the
slaughtered possibilities of the past
The emancipatory potential of dispersive historiography is examined further
by comparison with the aims and values of traditional critical theory. Two
positions are delineated: (1) Complementarity, in which genealogy produces
valuable insights into hitherto unacknowledged power structures; (2)
Delimitation, in which Foucault's work is seen to be an important limitation
on the epistemological and ontological interventions of critical theory. This
JOIns the philosophical hermeneutical critique of critical theory In its
delimitation of the finite horizon of all emancipatory discourse.
Finally I argue that Foucault's work is itself limited by its refusal to
countenance the utopian dimension of social reproduction in which the
social imaginary is to be considered not as a delusory projection of desire,
but as a driving force behind the projection of freedom. Dispersive freedom
sees the formation of political, cultural, and social identities as always
constraints upon the real practice of freedom. It is this marginalisation of
liberation as a process with ends that I seek to dispute. I conclude that
Foucault's dispersive principles are belied by the important contribution his
work has made to the necessarily ceaseless task of the refiguration of the
concepts of history, freedom, power and truth.


Abstract. Mineral dust aerosols exert a significant effect on both solar and terrestrial radiation. By absorbing and scattering, the solar radiation aerosols reduce the amount of energy reaching the surface. In addition, aerosols enhance the greenhouse effect by absorbing and emitting outgoing longwave radiation. Desert dust forcing exhibits large regional and temporal variability due to its short lifetime and diverse optical properties, further complicating the quantification of the direct radiative effect (DRE). The complexity of the links and feedbacks of dust on radiative transfer indicate the need for an integrated approach in order to examine these impacts. In order to examine these feedbacks, the SKIRON limited area model has been upgraded to include the RRTMG (Rapid Radiative Transfer Model – GCM) radiative transfer model that takes into consideration the aerosol radiative effects. It was run for a 6 year period. Two sets of simulations were performed, one without the effects of dust and the other including the radiative feedback. The results were first evaluated using aerosol optical depth data to examine the capabilities of the system in describing the desert dust cycle. Then the aerosol feedback on radiative transfer was quantified and the links between dust and radiation were studied. The study has revealed a strong interaction between dust particles and solar and terrestrial radiation, with several implications on the energy budget of the atmosphere. A profound effect is the increased absorption (in the shortwave and longwave) in the lower troposphere and the induced modification of the atmospheric temperature profile. These feedbacks depend strongly on the spatial distribution of dust and have more profound effects where the number of particles is greater, such as near their source.


The Victorian Family Violence Information Sharing Scheme (FVISS - the Scheme) was established under Part 5A of the Family Violence Protection Act 2008 as part of the Royal Commission into Family Violence (State of Victoria 2016) reforms. The Scheme aims to:● better identify, assess and manage the risks to adult and child victim/survivor safety, preventing and reducing the risk of harm; and● better keep perpetrators in view and enhance perpetrator accountabilityThe Scheme commenced on February 26, 2018. It was rolled out to Initial Tranche and Phase One organisations, in February and September 2018 respectively. Organisations prescribed to share under the Scheme are known as Information Sharing Entities (ISE). Phase Two is due to commence in the first half of 2021. To date approximately 38,000 workers have been prescribed under the Scheme. In Phase Two approximately 370,000 additional workers are due to be prescribed.An independent Review of the FVISS is legislatively mandated to ensure that it meets its aims and avoids adverse outcomes. The recommendations and insights of this Review aim to improve the operation of the Scheme generally and the Scheme's implementation in Phase Two organisations in particular.


An experimental investigation of active control of vibratory power transmission in a semi‐infinite cylinder, using an array of electrodynamic shakers, is described. The cylinder was mounted vertically in a sand‐filled box (1 m in height) in an attempt to provide a semianechoic termination at one end. The other end was simply supported using a steel ring. The cylinder was excited near the simply supported end using a primary shaker. Control was implemented using three control shakers applied downstream from the primary shaker. Using three control shakers it is possible to achieve a 7‐dB reduction in power transmission. Although 7 dB was the maximum power reduction which could be obtained for the experimental equipment, the numerical simulation shows that on a large scale, a reduction of 30 dB could be obtained. Also, measurement of power transmission intensity in a cylinder using two accelerometers was investigated. The results indicate a means of simplifying power transmission measurements in large cylind...


The genome of a novel human herpesvirus has been detected in specimens of Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) and in several AIDS-related lymphoproliferative disorders. Here we examine the size and genomic conformation of the DNA of this virus (known as KS-associated herpesvirus or human herpesvirus 8) in latently and lytically infected cells and in virions. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis of viral DNA shows that the viral genome is similar in size to those of other gammaherpesviruses (160 to 170 kb). As with Epstein-Barr virus, KS-associated herpesvirus DNA is stably maintained in latently infected B cells as episomal monomer circles and induction from latency is associated with the selective accumulation of linear genomic forms.


Strategic alignment or the fit between information technology (IT) and business strategy remains a key topic of concern among managers worldwide. Change has always being considered the foremost challenge affecting strategic alignment. Planning for alignment in uncertain and dynamic environments is fraught with risk as organizations seek to understand how much flexibility to add to their IT infrastructure so as to maintain consistently high levels of alignment. Reviewing the literature showed that there is a positive relationship between IT infrastructure flexibility and strategic alignment with strategic information systems planning (SISP) serving as a moderator of this relationship. Additionally, according to literature on exporting area and logical arguments we proposed that export performance can moderators the link between IT flexibility and strategic alignment. Also, studies results emphasize the need for organizations to use SISP to consistently monitor the relationship between IT flexibility and alignment. Doing so during periods of increased change in dynamic and uncertain environments reduces the risk of being ensnared by rigidity traps that could transform IT into an inhibitor rather than an enabler of change.


Background Positive and negative psychological factors are associated with mortality and cardiovascular disease. This study prospectively investigated associations of daily frequency of laughter with mortality and cardiovascular disease in a community-based population. Methods This study included 17,152 subjects ≥40 years old who participated in an annual health check in Yamagata Prefecture. Self-reported daily frequency of laughter was grouped into three categories (≥1/week; ≥1/month but <1/week; <1/month). Associations of daily frequency of laughter with increase in all-cause mortality and cardiovascular disease incidence were determined using Cox proportional hazards modeling. Results During follow-up (median, 5.4 years), 257 subjects died and 138 subjects experienced cardiovascular events. Kaplan-Meier analysis revealed that all-cause mortality and cardiovascular disease incidence were significantly higher among subjects with a low frequency of laughter (log-rank P < 0.01). Cox proportional hazard model analysis adjusted for age, gender, hypertension, smoking, and alcohol drinking status showed that risk of all-cause mortality was significantly higher in subjects who laughed <1/month than in subjects who laughed ≥1/week (hazard ratio [HR] 1.95; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.16–3.09). Similarly, risk of cardiovascular events was higher in subjects who laughed ≥1/month but <1/week than in subjects who laughed ≥1/week (HR 1.62; 95% CI, 1.07–2.40). Conclusion Daily frequency of laughter represents an independent risk factor for all-cause mortality and cardiovascular disease in a Japanese general population.


The increased volatility of prices of agricultural commodities on international markets and the merger between the energy and food commodities markets have led to a sudden surge of interest in the acquisition or lease of farmland in developing countries. The result is �land-grabbing�: a global enclosure movement in which large areas of arable land change hands through deals often negotiated between host governments and foreign investors with little or no participation from the local communities who depend on access to those lands for their livelihoods. While recognizing that these transactions should be more closely scrutinized, some commentators see opportunities in this development, either because it means more investment in agriculture and thus productivity gains, or because it will accelerate the development of a market for land rights that could benefit current land users, provided their property rights are recognized through titling schemes. This Article questions these views. Based on an analysis of the relationship to property rights of different categories of land users in the rural areas in developing countries, this Article argues that thepoorest farmers will be priced out from these emerging markets for land rights, and that the interests of those depending on the commons will be ignored. I suggest that there are other ways to protect security of tenure: anti-eviction laws, tenancy statutes, and policies aimed at ensuring more equitable access to land. Although measures such as these require a disaggregation of property rights and an abandonment of the Western understanding of property as necessarily implying transferability, they may offer more promising solutions to the rural poor.


In 2014, I began working on a collaborative art project called Sugar vs the Reef? The project came about following an invitation from John Sweet, a retired farmer and active community worker in the Queensland town of Mackay. Sweet's hunch was that the involvement of artists in a complex environmental management problem might help to catalyse positive transformations in the sugar cane industry, which is often accused of polluting the pristine waters of the Great Barrier Reef with agricultural run-off. This chapter is based on some of the early field research for Sugar vs the Reef? and my task is to present the inventiveness of three change agents: two human and one non-human. The first is Simon Mattsson, a sugar cane farmer in Mackay, and a founder of Central Queensland Soil Health Systems (CQSHS). The second is Allan Yeomans, director of the Yeomans Plow Company on the Gold Coast and inventor of the Yeomans Carbon Still: a device for measuring carbon sequestration in soil. The third change agent has been around for millennia: the humble plantspecifically grass-and the complex soil community of which grasses are an integral member. While presenting the inventiveness of these three change agents together here, I also want to point to some of the factors that have thus far inhibited the broader uptake of their inventions. I do so in the hope that identifying such barriers might be a small positive step beyond the paternalistic discourse of environmental management, and towards the formation of more dynamic relations in social and ecological systems between humans and plants.


Modern accelerator programming frameworks, such as OpenCL, organise threads into work-groups. Remote-scope promotion (RSP) is a language extension recently proposed by AMD researchers that is designed to enable applications, for the first time, both to optimise for the common case of intra-work-group communication (using memory scopes to provide consistency only within a work-group) and to allow occasional inter-work-group communication (as required, for instance, to support the popular load-balancing idiom of work stealing). We present the first formal, axiomatic memory model of OpenCL extended with RSP. We have extended the Herd memory model simulator with support for OpenCL kernels that exploit RSP, and used it to discover bugs in several litmus tests and a work-stealing queue, that have been used previously in the study of RSP. We have also formalised the proposed GPU implementation of RSP. The formalisation process allowed us to identify bugs in the description of RSP that could result in well-synchronised programs experiencing memory inconsistencies. We present and prove sound a new implementation of RSP that incorporates bug fixes and requires less non-standard hardware than the original implementation. This work, a collaboration between academia and industry, clearly demonstrates how, when designing hardware support for a new concurrent language feature, the early application of formal tools and techniques can help to prevent errors, such as those we have found, from making it into silicon.


"Sustainable" is among the most sought after of all seafood product adjectives. Ironically it is also one of the most poorly defined and understood. The Global Aquaculture Performance Index (GAPI) is the first tool to assess environmental performance of global marine aquaculture production, permitting direct comparison of disparate species, production methods and jurisdictions. Clear patterns emerge from this analysis; significant variation of environmental performance is driven by the species being farmed, significant room for improvement exists across the entire sector, the worst performing players are also the fastest growing, particularly within Asia, and perhaps most importantly, this work highlights the potential trap awaiting policy makers who focus too narrowly on farm production efficiency alone as a solution to diminishing seafood availability.


The propagation of TE-polarized guided waves in a nonlinear tapered waveguide is studied. The incident fields are chosen from the stable branches of the nonlinear dispersion curve in its uniform section. The propagations of the field in both directions are calculated by the beam-propagation method. Wave propagation in the tapered waveguide is discussed in terms of the nonlinear dispersion curves of the waveguide. Depending on the intensity, the field can radiate as a spatial soliton or it can have an abrupt transition between the guided mode and the surface polariton. The wave propagation of an incident field that is composed of a dominant TE0 wave and a small TE1 wave is investigated. Finally, using a property of this wave propagation, we present a new device for continuous signal routing.


The number of three-dimensional structures of potential protein targets available in several platforms such as the Protein Data Bank is subjected to a constant increase over the last decades. This observation should be an additional motivation to use structure-based methodologies in drug discovery. In the recent years, different success stories of Structure Based Drug Design approach have been reported. However, it has also been shown that a lack of druggability is one of the major causes of failure in the development of a new compound.The concept of druggability can be used to describe proteins with the capability to bind drug-like compounds. A general consensus suggests that around 10% of the human genome codes for molecular targets that can be considered as druggable. Over the years, the protein druggability was studied with a particular interest to capture structural descriptors in order to develop computational methodologies for druggability assessment. Different computational methods have been published to detect and evaluate potential binding sites at protein surfaces. The majority of methods currently available are designed to assess druggability of a static structure. However it is well known that sometimes a few local rearrangements around the binding site can profoundly influence the affinity of a small molecule to its target. The use of techniques such as molecular dynamics (MD) or Metadynamics could be an interesting way to simulate those variations. The goal of this thesis was to design a new computational approach, called JEDI, for druggability assessment using a combination of empirical descriptors that can be collected 'on-the-fly' during MD simulations. JEDI is a grid-based approach able to perform the druggability assessment of a binding site in only a few seconds making it one of the fastest methodologies in the field. Agreement between computed and experimental druggability estimates is comparable to literature alternatives. In addition, the estimator is less sensitive than existing methodologies to small structural rearrangements and gives consistent druggability predictions for similar structures of the same protein. Since the JEDI function is continuous and differentiable, the druggability potential can be used as collective


Background & Objectives: Major depression and obsessive - compulsive disorders have some comorbidities. The objective of this study is to compare perfectionism and its components in patients with depression, obsessive - compulsive disorders and normal individuals. Materials & Methods: The current study was conducted in cross-sectional context. The study population included all patients who referred to the clinics, psychiatric centers and counseling centers in the city of Tabriz. The sample was divided into three groups, one group of 30 with a diagnosis of obsessive - compulsive disorders, another group of 30 with a diagnosis of major depression disorder, and the other 30 were normal. Participants answered to Hill perfectionism questionnaire. To analyze the data, multivariate analysis of variance was used. Results: The results showed that the mean scores of perfectionism and its positive- negative dimensions were higher in patients with obsessive - compulsive and depression disorders, in comparison with normal individuals. In addition, no significant differences in perfectionism and its positive- negative dimensions scores was observed between people with these two mentioned disorders. Conclusion: The perfectionism components are common component in obsessive - compulsive and major depression disorders.


OBJECTIVES
To assess the frequency and factors associated with parametrial involvement (PI) in patients with cervical cancer IB1 who underwent radical hysterectomy (RH) at the National Institute of Neoplastic Diseases in Peru.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Cross-sectional study of 214 patients with cervical cancer IB1 undergoing RH with pelvic lymphadenectomy between 2007 and 2012. The population was compared with and without clinicopathological variables associated with PI such as age, tumor size, depth of infi histological grade and pelvic lymph node involvement.

RESULTS
Ten patients (4.6%) had PI. Multivariate analysis showed that the depth of invasion (OR 8.37, 95% CI 1.24- 56.41, p=0.029) and pelvic node involvement (OR 18.03; 95% CI 3.30-98.44, p=0.001) were all independent predictors of PI. The presence of tumor size = 2 cm, invasion = 10 mm, absence of lymphovascular permeation and absence of nodal involvement identifi 97 patients at low risk of PI, none of whom had PI pathology.

CONCLUSIONS
We confi the low frequency of PI in the cervical cancer IB1 subgroup and its association with the depth of invasion and lymph node involvement suggested in previous studies. This information will allow the identifi of a subgroup of patients at low risk of PI for less radical surgery in our institution.


Multi-GPU systems are widely used in High Performance Computing environments to accelerate scientific computations.
This trend is expected to continue as integrated GPUs will be introduced to processors used in multi-socket servers and servers will pack a higher number of GPUs per node. GPUs are currently connected to the system through the PCI Express interconnect, which provides limited bandwidth (compared to the bandwidth of the memory in GPUs) and it often becomes a bottleneck for performance scalability. Current programming models present GPUs as isolated devices with their own memory, even if they share the host memory with the CPU. Programmers explicitly manage allocations in all GPU memories and use primitives to communicate data between GPUs. Furthermore, programmers are required to use mechanisms such as command queues and inter-GPU synchronization. This explicit model harms the maintainability of the code and introduces new sources for potential errors.
The first proposal of this thesis is the HPE model. HPE builds a simple, consistent programming interface based on three major features. (1) All device address spaces are combined with the host address space to form a Unified Virtual Address Space. (2) Programs are provided with an Asymmetric Distributed Shared Memory system for all the GPUs in the system. It allows to allocate memory objects that can be accessed by any GPU or CPU. (3) Every CPU thread can request a data exchange between any two GPUs, through simple memory copy calls. Such a simple interface allows HPE to provide always the optimal implementation; eliminating the need for application code to handle different system topologies. Experimental results show improvements on real applications that range from 5% in compute-bound benchmarks to 2.6x in communication-bound benchmarks. HPE transparently implements sophisticated communication schemes that can deliver up to a 2.9x speedup in I/O device transfers.
The second proposal of this thesis is a shared memory programming model that exploits the new GPU capabilities for remote memory accesses to remove the need for explicit communication between GPUs. This model turns a multi-GPU system into a shared memory system with NUMA characteristics. In order to validate the viability of the model we also perform an exhaustive performance analysis of remote memory accesses over PCIe. We show that the unique characteristics of the GPU execution model and memory hierarchy help to hide the costs of remote memory accesses. Results show that PCI Express 3.0 is able to hide the costs of up to a 10% of remote memory accesses depending on the access pattern, while caching of remote memory accesses can have a large performance impact on kernel performance.
Finally, we introduce AMGE, a programming interface, compiler support and runtime system that automatically executes computations that are programmed for a single GPU across all the GPUs in the system. The programming interface provides a data type for multidimensional arrays that allows for robust, transparent distribution of arrays across all GPU memories.
The compiler extracts the dimensionality information from the type of each array, and is able to determine the access pattern in each dimension of the array. The runtime system uses the compiler-provided information to automatically choose the best computation and data distribution configuration to minimize inter-GPU communication and memory footprint. This model effectively frees programmers from the task of decomposing and distributing computation and data to exploit several GPUs.
AMGE achieves almost linear speedups for a wide range of dense computation benchmarks on a real 4-GPU system with an interconnect with moderate bandwidth. We show that irregular computations can also benefit from AMGE, too.


The aim of the research was to discover the factors or influences associated with competitiveness of enterprises, particularly the factors influencing competitiveness from internal and external environments. The sample is gathered from the branches of manufacturing and construction industries in 2007 and for other sectors of the national economy in 2009. Acquired data reflect the personal views of managers from the monitored enterprises and are expressed in nine variables detailing the internal environment and eight variables detailing the external environment. In our study, the significant influence on competitiveness was found only for the two variables from the internal environment – the ability to flexibly adapt to their customers and the innovation activity of enterprises, though in different time periods. The first one was found to be influential in 2007, at the time of economic growth. The results reflect the fact that managers of enterprises from the first two groups (with higher and average Return on Assets) are homogenous in their opinions with regard to the influence over competitiveness in the capabilities to adapt flexibly to customers, while managers of financially inefficient enterprises held different opinion regarding this issue. On the contrary, in 2009 at the outbreak of the financial crisis, for financially efficient enterprises, innovation activities were found as decisive. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ee.25.5.3136


Abstract With routine antenatal ultrasound and recent advances in ultrasound technology, fetal intraabdominal cystic masses are recognized more often and are better characterized than in the past. They may be classified as solid and cystic, and may originate from multiple structures. When considering the extensive differential diagnosis of cystic masses, the observation of peristalsis narrows the possibilities to the gastrointestinal tract. To find this feature on ultrasound, the examiner must expressly think and look for it, otherwise it may be missed. Our case report illustrates one of those cases.


The main objective of this paper is to find a path for the robot arm from its given start point to its desired goal point in an automated manner without collision with the obstacles. This paper investigates the problem of path planning for a 5 axis robot, operating in environment with obstacles whose boundaries are enveloped by cubic shape. The path planning approach presented is developed in the robot joint space and consists of three steps. The first step is to used Bezier curve technique , the second step is to generate a sufficient number of intermediate points in Cartesian space along Bezier curve and the third step is to convert the coordinate of the generated intermediate points from it's Cartesian space into joint space and move the robot arm along the free collision generated path. This work is not limited to theoretical studies or simulations, experiments have been run with various tests, on a LabVolt R5150 robot to assess the real efficiency and usability of the adopted method. The method applies to robots in a fixed and known environment. A number of experiments were carried out to test the ability of the robot arm to reach it's goal without collision. Experiment results verify the effectiveness of the method developed in this paper.


Most geckos can rapidly attach and detach from almost any kind of surface. This ability is attributed to the hierarchical structure of their feet (involving toe pads, setal arrays, and spatulae), and how they are moved (articulated) to generate strong adhesion and friction forces on gripping that rapidly relax on releasing. Inspired by the gecko's bioadhesive system, various structured surfaces have been fabricated suitable for robotic applications. In this study, x–y–z asymmetric, micrometer‐sized rectangular flaps composed of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) were fabricated using massively parallel micro‐electromechanical systems (MEMS) techniques with the intention of creating directionally responsive, high‐to‐low frictional‐adhesion toe pads exhibiting properties similar to those found in geckos. Using a surface forces apparatus (SFA), the friction and adhesion forces of both vertical (symmetric) and angled/tilted (x–y–z asymmetric) microflaps under various loading, unloading and shearing conditIons were investigated. It was found that the anisotropic structure of tilted microflaps gives very different adhesion and tribological forces when articulated along different x–y–z directions: high friction and adhesion forces when articulated in the y–z plane along the tilt (+y) direction, which is also the direction of motion, and weak friction and adhesion forces when articulated against the tilt (–y) direction. These results demonstrate that asymmetric angled structures, as occur in geckos, are required to enable the gecko to optimize the requirements of high friction and adhesion on gripping, and low frictional‐adhesion on releasing. These properties are intimately coupled to a (also optimum) articulation mechanism. We discuss how both of these features can be simultaneously optimized in the design of robotic systems that can mimic the gecko adhesive system.


The second edition of this well-known book has been thoroughly revised with updated chapters on discipline and behaviour management, attention deficit disorder (ADD) and frustration tolerance management. There is also a renewed focus on the nature and practical extent of colleague support when working with challenging behaviours and emotional and behavioural disorders (EBD). 'Behaviour Recovery' uses a structured approach that enables students to develop positive behaviours. Bill Roger's inclusion of real school experiences - his own and others - makes the book informative, practical and easy to follow.


The 2008 Olympics brought world attention to the speed and assertiveness of China's self-conscious projection of its modernity in the form of spectacular urban built projects. Before Beijing's transformation, came Shanghai's Pudong, following the earlier instant metropolis of the Pearl River Delta's Shenzhen. Indeed, the two main questions dealt with in this book concern =the main factors responsible for the speed achieved by the Pudong development' (p. 337) and the extent to which this phenomenon =reflect[ed] the characteristics of a developmental state' (p. 337). Key explanations focus on the role of new networks leading to new forms of urban governance, along with the role of global and intellectual capital underlying the project and its contribution to shaping the form of the city. A basic question dealt with in this case study concerns whether the urban outcome of the avowedly developmental state's drive can serve as a replicable or desirable model for other countries climbing the ladder of modernization. The assertion that China's ascension poses an alternative to prevailing models based on earlier and largely Western-derived experience generates much attention — laying aside the example of Japan, which pioneered successful modernization transformation in Asia.


Since the discovery of Agarwood (Incense tree), many studies reported its characteristic effects and variable benefits, as either to produce Arabian Incense or as a traditional medicine against many diseases. Laboratory experiments were carried out on the effect of different concentrations of Incense smoke inhalation on the lung weight and tissue in female mice. This research derives its importance from the fact that Incense is heavily used in Saudi Arabia in the absence of thorough studies of its effects on health. Eighty animals are used in this study, and are divided into four groups, each is 20 animals. Three groups are exposed to different concentrations (2, 4 and 6 gm) of Incense smoke daily for three months, and the fourth group is the control. At the end of each month, five animals from each group were dissected. Obtained data showed an increase but not significant in animal body and lung weight, this results return to natural increase as a result of normal growth of animals. Light microscope reveals some changes in the lung tissue, such as focal emphysema, rupture in the alveolar walls, hemorrhage, congestion, edema and few peri-bronchial lymphoid cells. After continuous exposure to Incense smoke focal necrosis and degradation are observed in some cells of epithelial bronchioles. Also, fibrosis of peri-bronchial, thickening in alveolar walls and aggregation of lymphoid cells are demonstrated in some lungs sections . Conclusion: according to the above manifestations it could be concluded that exposure to Incense smoke causes pulmonary harmful effects. Therefore, we can recommend that Incense smoke will be used only in open places to reduce its harms. [Samar Omar A. Rabah, Sahar Ragab El Hadad and Fatmah Albani. Histological changes of Mice lungs after daily exposure to different concentration of Incense smoke. Life Sci J 2013;10(1):552-560]. (ISSN: 1097-8135). http://www.lifesciencesite.com. 90


A few intriguing neuropsychologial studies report dissociations where agraphic patients are severely impaired for writing letters whereas they write digits nearly normally. Here, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) together with graphic tablet recordings, we tested the hypothesis that the motor patterns for writing letters are coded in specific regions of the cortex. We found a set of three regions that were more strongly activated when participants wrote letters than when they wrote digits and whose response was not explained by low‐level kinematic features of the graphic movements. Two of these regions (left dorsal premotor cortex and supplementary motor complex) are part of a motor control network. The left premotor activation belongs to what is considered in the literature a key area for handwriting. Another significant activation, likely related to phoneme‐to‐grapheme conversion, was found in the right anterior insula. This constitutes the first neuroimaging evidence of functional specificity derived from experience in the cortical motor system. Hum Brain Mapp 35:6077–6087, 2014. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


This chapter.focuses on the discursive strategy of normalisation as one way wife abuse is legitimated in Colombia, exploring specific cultural aspects of this strategy and relating them to a more universal patriarchal ideology about violence against women. This study lies at the intersection of research concerning violence against women, discourse analysis, and Colombian culture. Critical discourse analysjs (van Dijk 1993, 2001) and grounded theory (Corbin and Strauss 2008) are brought together to form a methodology for examining the legitimation (Pardo Abril2007; van Leeuwen 2007) of violence against women in newspaper internet forums. The data set consists of internet forum discussions in the Colombian newspaper El Tiempo about a case of wife abuse. Drawing on sayings, metaphors, euphemisms, and jokes, this chapter shows how wife abuse is normalised in these El Tiempo forums. The postings employ discourses which suggest that violence is an acceptable and even important part of intimate partner relationships. The data analysed in this chapter elucidates part of an ideology in which masculinity is linked to authority, abuse is related to love, and suffering is part of femininity, in this way illustrating the connection between a centuries-old patriarchal ideology (Fernandez Poncela 2002) and the normalisation of wife_ abuse in contemporary Colombian society.


The diverse countries of Latin America have produced a lively and everevolving tradition of novels, many of which are read in translation all over the world. This Companion offers a broad overview of the novel's history and analyzes in depth several representative works by, for example, Gabriel Garcı́a Márquez, Machado de Assis, Isabel Allende and Mario Vargas Llosa. The essays collected here offer several entryways into the understanding and appreciation of the Latin American novel in Spanish-speaking America and Brazil. The volume conveys a real sense of the heterogeneity of Latin American literature, highlighting regions whose cultural and geopolitical particularities are often overlooked. Indispensable to students of Latin American or Hispanic studies and those interested in comparative literature and the development of the novel as genre, the Companion features a comprehensive bibliography and chronology and concludes with an essay about the success of Latin American novels in translation.


The most important football story ever told. 'It is amazing to think that a game that people take for granted all around the world, was the very same game that gave a group of prisoners sanity - and in a way, gave us the resolve to carry on the struggle'. Anthony Suze, Robben Island Prisoner. This is the astonishing story of a unique group of political prisoners and freedom fighters who found a sense of dignity in one of the ugliest hellholes on Earth: South Africa's infamous Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was famously incarderated. Despite all odds and regular torture, beatings and daily backbreaking hard labour, these extraordinary men turned soccer into an active force in the struggle for freedom. For nearly 20 years, these prisoners found the energy, spirit and resolve to organise a 1400 prisoner-strong, eight club football league which was played with strict adherance to FIFA rules. The prisoners themselves represented a broad array of political beliefs and backgrounds, yet football became an impassioned and unified symbol of resistance against apartheid. They refused to let their own political differences sway their devotion to the sport, which allowed them to organise and maintain leadership right under the noses of their captors. This league not only provided sanctuary and respite from the prisoners' cruel surroundings, it kept their minds active and many credit it with keeping them alive. More Than Just a Game chronicles their story, the politics of the time, the extraordinary characters, their heroism and the thrilling matches themselves.


Background: The evolution of antiviral drug resistance during influenza pandemics has created widespread concern. Use of antiviral drugs is a main contributor to the evolution of drug-resistant strains. Moreover, there are recent examples of influenza viruses acquiring drug resistance seemingly without incurring a fitness penalty that reduces their transmission rate. This creates the possibility of strategic (game theoretical) interaction between jurisdictions making decisions about use of antiviral drug stockpiles. Methods: We developed and analyzed a 2-player 2-strategy game theoretical model. Each 'player' (an authority in a health jurisdiction) can choose to treat with antiviral drugs at a low rate or a high rate. High treatment rates are more likely to cause emergence of a drug-resistant strain, and once a drug-resistant strain has evolved, it can spread between the two jurisdictions. We determine the Nash equilibria of the game. Results: We show that there is a coordination game between the jurisdictions, where both players choosing a low treatment rate, or both choosing a high treatment rate, are the only stable outcomes. The socially optimal outcome occurs if both players cooperate by choosing a low treatment rate, thereby avoiding generating drug-resistant mutants. However, such cooperation may fail to materialize if the jurisdictions are closely connected through travel; if the drug-resistant mutant is tolerated (not seen as undesirable); or if the antiviral drug has partial efficacy against transmission of the drug-resistant strain. Conclusions: Inter-jurisdictional cooperation could be essential during a severe influenza pandemic, but we know little about how jurisdictions will interact in a scenario where highly pathogenic, drug-resistant mutant strains are able to transmit as effectively as non-resistant strains. Therefore, strategic multi-population interactions during influenza pandemics should be further studied.


In total, 58 overwintered Maculinea nausithous (BERGSTRASSER, 1779) larvae were found in nests of Myrmica rubra
(LINNAEUS, 1758) from three sites in West Hungary. These results confirm that M. rubra is, in general, the host ant of
M. nausithous. Twenty-eight larvae of M. nausithous and eight larvae of M. teleius (BERGSTRASSER, 1779) were found in
a single M. rubra nest, which is a huge density for predacious butterfly species.


This article aims at understanding the Hegelian conception of music as expression of the inner life of human subjectivity as well as the role that music plays in Hegel's philosophical system. I defend that much of the value of Hegel's reflections on music is the primary role assigned to musical performance as expressive and communicative event. Therefore Hegel's reference to virtuosity and improvisation is consistent with his general thesis that art is the «sensual manifestation of the idea». Improvisation presents the essence of music, because it shows the self-construction of musical subjectivity 'on the stage'. It shows the unfolding of musical expressiveness, while building expressive subjectivity in real-time. Moreover, since it exhibits creativity in actu, musical improvisation also displays art as product, as connection (in the making) of form and content. However, improvisation shows art as art, that is, as only ephemeral and partial harmony between form and content, because it performs art: still better, it performs the end of art, showing its constituent possibilities and limits and making explicit that art's relationship with real life is a constitutive element of its nature as art.


Abstract: The largest and complicated joint in human body is knee joint. It is a pivotal hinge type joint which permits flexion and extension with a slight medial and lateral rotation as well. As it receives the whole body weight, it is vulnerable to both acute injury and the development of osteoarthritis. Integrity analysis of knee joint involves a detail study of several anatomical parts such as bones, cartilage, tendons etc. Moreover, the stability of motor strategies (muscle recruitment patterns) influences the integrity analysis of knee joint as the patellar instability along with many other reasons causes the pain in patellofemoral joint, especially when the joint is overloaded or aged. The disorderness or damage of these anatomical parts causes several knee diseases, particularly, the incidence of knee osteoarthritis (OA) increases with age due to some damages in cartilage, increased stiffness of ligaments or reduced quality and quantity of synovial fluid. Acoustic emission (AE) technique has been using, although, for several damage evaluation of materials in industrial applications, the signal processing of AE technique has been applied for evaluating the disorderness of knee joint as well in this paper. The present investigation, particularly, focuses on the dynamical behavioral characterization of knee joint for its integrity analysis with several non-destructive imaging conditions. Elecromyographic (EMG) patterns for particular motor strategy during dynamic movements of knee joint have been investigated as well. AE signals have been collected from different positions of tibia, patella, and femur for getting sufficient information about the condition of cartilage of knee joint. Results show the significant effects of increasing individuals' ages to increase knee joint problems. Keywords: AE technique, Non-destructive evaluation, Integrity analysis, Knee joint, Osteoarthritis.


Finding effective strategies against colorectal cancer (CRC) is still an emergent health problem. In the present study, we investigated the anticancer activity of quercetrin from Toona sinensis leaves (QTL) and explored the underlying mechanism in human CRC cell line SW620. The cells were treated with various concentrations of QTL and the cytotoxic effects of QTL were determined using the MTT assay. Apoptosis and cell cycle status were detected by flow cytometry. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels and mitochondrial membrane potential (∆Ψm) were assessed using DCF-DA and JC-1 fluorescence spectrophotometry, respectively. Western blot analysis was used to quantify the expression of apoptosis-related proteins. RT-PCR was applied to determine the mRNA levels of glutathione peroxidase (GPx) and catalase (CAT). QTL exhibited growth inhibitory effects and caused cell cycle arrest in the G2/M phase, which was accompanied by increased expression of p53 and p21 proteins. QTL promoted apoptosis which was consistent with the upregulated expression of Bax, cytochrome c, caspase-9, Apaf-1 and caspase-3. In addition, QTL induced the loss of mitochondrial membrane potential and triggered ROS generation, as revealed by the downregulated mRNA expression and enzymatic activity of GPx and CAT. Furthermore, both N-acetyl cysteine (NAC) and GSH attenuated the QTL-induced growth inhibition observed in SW620 cells along with the increase of ROS levels. These findings revealed that QTL inhibited the growth of CRC cells and facilitated apoptosis by enhancing oxidative stress. QTL may therefore have potential for use in CRC chemotherapy.


Precise knowledge of individual functional responses to changes in water velocity is still lacking, especially for cyprinids. In this study, we explore the relations between water velocity, feeding, energetic benefit and swimming capacities of the rheophilic cyprinid Chondrostoma nasus and its shifts during early ontogeny. Our results, obtained under controlled laboratory conditions, demonstrate that capture time asymptotically increased with water velocity. Attack rate, capture success and consumption rate are high up to a threshold water velocity, which increased with fish size. Above this threshold water velocity, corresponding to 4-5 BL.s -1 , these parameters rapidly diminished and energetic benefit consequently decreased to zero. Energetic benefit expressed as a percentage of fish energy content decreased with increasing fish size. The three critical water velocities assessed - 'nul benefit' 'nul feeding'-, and 'maximum sustainable' water velocities - linearly increased with fish size. For 3 out of 5 size classes, nul benefit- and nul feeding-critical water velocities were significantly lower than the maximal sustainable water velocities. This empirical study under controlled experimental conditions provides precise values of water velocity ranges which should be preserved or supplied in river systems in order to enhance the suitability of microhabitats for early life stages.


Music is not only the art of organized sound but also a compound of social interaction among people, built upon social and environmental foundations. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, containment measures such as shelter-in-place, lockdown, social distancing, and self-quarantine have severely impacted the foundation of human society, resulting in a drastic change in our everyday experience. In this paper, the relationships between musical behavior, lifestyle, and psychological states during the shelter-in-place period of the COVID-19 pandemic are investigated. An online survey on musical experience, lifestyle changes, stress level, musical behaviors, media usage, and environmental sound perception was conducted. The survey was conducted in early June 2020. Responses from 620 people in 24 countries were collected, with the large proportion of the responses coming from the U.S. (55.5%) and India (21.4%). Structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis revealed causal relationships between lifestyle, stress, and music behaviors. Elements such as stress-level change, work risk, and staying home contribute to changes in musical experiences, such as moderating emotion with music, feeling emotional with music, and being more attentive to music. Stress-level change was correlated with work risk and income change, and people who started living with others due to the outbreak, especially with their children, indicated less change in stress level. People with more stress-level change tended to use music more purposefully for their mental well-being, such as to moderate emotions, to influence mood, and to relax. In addition, people with more stress-level change tend to be more annoyed by neighbors' noise. Housing type was not directly associated with annoyance; however, attention to environmental sounds decreased when the housing type was smaller. Attention to environmental and musical sounds and the emotional responses to them are highly inter-correlated. Multi-group SEM based on musicians showed that the causal relationship structure for professional musicians differs from that of less-experienced musicians. For professional musicians, staying at home was the only component that caused all musical behavior changes; stress did not cause musical behavior changes. Regarding Internet use, listening to music via YouTube and streaming was preferred over TV and radio, especially among less-experienced musicians, while participation in the online music community was preferred by more advanced musicians. This work suggests that social, environmental, and personal factors and limitations influence the changes in our musical behavior, perception of sonic experience, and emotional recognition, and that people actively accommodated the unusual pandemic situations using music and Internet technologies.


The present paper is the second one in a set of papers presenting the results and conclusions of the third version of the IIASA FMS database. This version of the database includes 799 systems from 26 countries. The accuracy and completeness of the data has improved since the second version.

This paper focuses on international comparison. First, it presents the features and characteristics of the systems in the five main Western user countries. Secondly, it makes an East-West comparison indicating regular patterns and differences between countries. The paper gives a deep insight into adaptation patterns of FM-systems.


This thesis is about cooperation of multiple robots that have a common
task they should fulfill, i.e., how multi-robot systems behave in cooperative
scenarios. Cooperation is a very important aspect in robotics, because
multiple robots can solve a task more quickly or efficiently in many situations.
Specific points of interest are, how the effectiveness of the group of
robots completing a task can be improved and how the amount of communication
and computational requirements can be reduced. The importance
of this topic lies in applications like search and rescue scenarios, where
time can be a critical factor and a certain robustness and reliability are
required. Further the communication can be limited by various factors
and operating (multiple) robots can be a highly complicated task.
A typical search and rescue mission as considered in this thesis begins
with the deployment of the robot team in an unknown or partly known
environment. The team can be heterogeneous in the sense that it consists
of pairs of air and ground robots that assist each other. The air vehicle –
abbreviated as UAV – stays within vision range of the ground vehicle or
UGV. Therefrom, it provides sensing information with a camera or similar
sensor that might not be available to the UGV due to distance, perspective
or occlusion. A new approach to fully use the available movement range
is presented and analyzed theoretically and in simulations. The UAV
moves according to a dynamic coverage algorithm which is combined with
a tracking controller to guarantee the visibility limitation is kept.
Since the environment is at least partly unknown, an exploration method
is necessary to gather information about the situation and possible targets
or areas of interest. Exploring the unknown regions in a short amount
of time is solved by approaching points on the frontier between known
and unknown territory. To this end, a basic approach for single robot
exploration that uses the traveling salesman problem is extended to multirobot
exploration. The coordination, which is a central aspect of the
cooperative exploration process, is realized with a pairwise optimization
procedure. This new algorithm uses minimum spanning trees for cost
estimation and is inspired by one of the many multi-robot coordination
methods from the related literature. Again, theoretical and simulated as
well as statistical analysis are used as methods to evaluate the approach.
After the exploration is complete, a map of the environment with possible
regions of higher importance is known by the robot team. To stay
useful and ready for any further events, the robots now switch to a monitoring
state where they spread out to cover the area in an optimal manner.
The optimality is measured with a criterion that can be derived into a distributed
control law. This leads to splitting of the robots into areas of
Voronoi cells where each robot has a maximum distance to other robots
and can sense any events within its assigned cell. A new variant of these
Voronoi cells is introduced. They are limited by visibility and depend on
a delta-contraction of the environment, which leads to automatic collision
avoidance. The combination of these two aspects leads to a coverage
control algorithm that works in nonconvex environments and has advantageous
properties compared to related work.


The island Territory of Guam is about to experience a large U.S. military buildup. This buildup will set Guam as host of the largest U.S. military presence in all of Asia, with correspondingly advanced Naval base facilities. Part of Naval Base Guam capacity improvements will include significant dredging in Apra Harbor, home to the island's only deep-water lagoon. This lagoonal area is not only host to a United Stated Naval base, but is also host to Guam's commercial port and a highly attractive area for many recreational tourism activities. As a preparatory step before dredging activities occur, the island's dive businesses have been surveyed in order to establish baseline socioeconomic information on the use of Apra Harbor's coral reefs and to assess the potential impacts a Navy dredge project might have on dive businesses utilizing Apra Harbor coral reefs. This study concludes that Apra Harbor's coral reefs are an incredibly important asset to Guam's dive businesses, as the reefs are used for approximately 60% of dives annually conducted by surveyed businesses. One hundred percent of surveyed businesses utilize Apra Harbor coral reefs for dive and/ or snorkel trips, which cater mostly to the industry's largest clientele: novice divers/ snorkelers. Depending on the amount of dredge-based sediment settling on Apra Harbor's reef areas, the Navy dredge project has the potential to impact $1,253,340 in annual total revenues made by surveyed dive businesses. Given that Apra Harbor's coral reefs are highly utilized and depended upon by surveyed businesses, it is presumed that dredge-based sediment settling on the Harbor's coral reefs will directly impact dive business activity occurring within Apra Harbor both during and after dredging occurs.


Context: Medical students are exposed to various stresses such as demanding medical education and different teaching protocols.[4],[5] Heart rate variability (HRV) is a simple and noninvasive indicator for the detection of cardiac autonomic dysfunction. This study was done to assess the effect of stress and anxiety on HRV. Aims: This study aims to assess the perceived stress, anxiety, and HRV in 1st year medical students and to correlate stress and anxiety to HRV. Subjects and Methods: The study included 110, 1st year MBBS students, excluding students with any infections, metabolic diseases, cardiorespiratory diseases, and medications which alter the autonomic functions. Anxiety and stress were measured using Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) and Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) questionnaires, respectively. Based on the scores, students were assigned to stress and nonstress group and anxious and nonanxious group. The electrocardiogram (ECG) was recorded using a house built analog ECG amplifier, which was further analyzed using HRV analysis software. Results: STAI and PSS were analyzed; those who have STAI score of above 40 come under anxious group and those with PSS score of 13 and above comes under stress group. Sixty-two percent students are both anxious as well as stressed. The parameters, namely, mean heart rate, standard deviation of normal to normal, root mean square successive difference (RMSSD), low-frequency (LF) normalized unit, and high-frequency (HF) normalized unit were correlated with stress and anxiety scores. During state-anxiety, there is a significant increase in heart rate, RMSDD, LF domain, and LF/HF and during trait-anxiety, there is significant increase in RMSDD and LF/HF ratio. In this study, perceived stress is not significant with HRV. Conclusions: This study shows that during anxiety there is increased activity toward sympathetic, but no difference in parasympathetic activity and during perceived stress, there is no significance with HRV.


Objectives: The site of cannulation for repair of ascending aortic dissection remains controversial. Here we present our experience with ascending aortic cannulation for acute aortic dissection type A (AADA). Methods: From 01/1988 to 09/2007, 242 patients were operated for AADA. Medical records of 235 patients who received ascending aortic cannulation or femoral cannulation were retrospectively reviewed. Long term follow-up was complete in 97% of patients. Cannulation was accomplished in 82 patients through the ascending aorta and in 153 patients through the femoral artery. Results: There were no significant differences in preoperative characteristics between groups. Similarly, there were no differences in preoperative patient characteristics and intraoperative parameters including operation time (ascending 357±139 vs.peripheral 342±125min.; p=0.40), bypass time (ascending 219±105 vs.peripheral 206±96min.; p=0.32), cross-clamp time (ascending 106±43 vs.peripheral 106±51min.; p=0.69), hypothermic circulatory arrest time (ascending 28±19 vs.peripheral 27±23min.; p=0.73), and percentage of total arch replacement (ascending 54.9% vs.peripheral 55.7%; p=0.44). Hospital mortality was 12.2% in each group (p=0.98), and incidence of stroke was 4.9% in ascending group and 4.5% in peripheral group (p=0.86). During follow-up (mean 5.5 years), survival at 5 years and 10 years was 65% and 41% in ascending group and 64% and 46% in peripheral group, respectively (p=0.97). No persistent malperfusion by ECC was observed after aortic cannulation. Conclusions: Direct cannulation of the dissected aorta in patients with AADA is safe with acceptable results. The conventional femoral cannulation had no advantage on the direct cannulation strategy, avoidance of additional incision and possible peripheral vascular injury may favor the direct cannulation strategy.


The late Cenozoic stratigraphic and tectonic history of the Santa Clara Valley illustrates the dynamic nature of the North American–Pacific plate boundary and its effect on basin and landscape development. Prior to early Miocene time, the area that became Santa Clara Valley consisted of eroding Franciscan complex basement structurally interleaved in places with Coast Range ophiolite and Mesozoic Great Valley sequence, and locally overlapped by Paleogene strata. During early to middle Miocene time, this landscape was flooded by the sea and was deformed locally into deeper depressions such as the Cupertino Basin in the southwestern part of the valley. Marine deposition during the middle and late Miocene laid down thin deposits in shallow water and thick deeper-water deposits in the Cupertino Basin. During this sedimentation, the San Andreas fault system encroached into the valley, with most offset partitioned onto the San Andreas fault southwest of the valley and the southern Calaveras–Silver Creek–Hayward fault system in the northeastern part of the valley. A 6-km-wide right step between the Hayward and Silver Creek faults formed the 40-km-long Evergreen pull-apart basin along the northeastern margin of the valley, leaving a basement ridge between it and the Cupertino Basin. The Silver Creek fault was largely abandoned ca. 2.5 Ma in favor of a compressional left step between the Calaveras and Hayward fault, although some slip continued to at least mid-Quaternary time. Gravity, seismic, stratigraphic, and interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) data indicate no other major San Andreas system faults within the central block between the present-day range-front faults bounding the valley and the Silver Creek fault. Sometime between 9 and 4 Ma (9 and 1 Ma for the central block), the area rose above sea level, and a regional surface of erosion was carved into the Mesozoic and Tertiary rocks. Alluvial gravels were deposited on this surface along the margins of the valley beginning ca. 4 Ma, but they may not have prograded onto the central block until ca. 1 Ma, because no older equivalents of the Pliocene–Quaternary Santa Clara gravels have been found there. Thus, either the central block was high enough relative to the surrounding areas that Santa Clara gravels were never deposited on it, or any Santa Clara gravels deposited there were stripped away before ca. 1 Ma. Analysis of alluvium on the central block implies a remarkably uniform, piston-like, subsidence of the valley of ∼0.4 mm/yr since ca. 0.8 Ma, possibly extending north to northern San Francisco Bay. Today, the central block continues to subside, the range-front reverse faults are active, and the major active faults of the San Andreas system are mostly outside the valley.


Colonization-competition trade-offs represent a stabilizing mechanism that is thought to maintain diversity of forest trees. If so, then early-successional species should benefit from high capacity to colonize new sites, and late-successional species should be good competitors. Tests of this hypothesis in forests have been precluded by an inability to estimate the many factors that contribute to seed production and dispersal, particularly the many types of stochasticity that contribute to fecundity data. We develop a hierarchical Bayes modeling structure, and we use it to estimate fecundity schedules from the two types of data that ecologists typically collect, including seed-trap counts and observations of tree status. The posterior density is obtained using Markov-chain Monte Carlo techniques. The flexiblestructure yields estimatesofsizeandcovariateeffectsonseedproduction,variability associated with population heterogeneity, and interannual stochasticity (variability and se- rial autocorrelation), sex ratio, and dispersal. It admits the errors in data associated with the ability to accurately recognize tree status and process misspecification. We estimate year-by-year seed-production rates for all individuals in each of nine sample stands from two regions and up to 11 years. A rich characterization of differences among species and relationships among individuals allows evaluation of a number of hypotheses related to masting, effective population sizes, and location and covariate effects. It demonstrates large bias in previous methods. We focus on implications for colonization-competition and a related hypothesis, the successional niche—trade-offs in the capacity to exploit high re- source availability in early successional environments vs. the capacity to survive low- resource conditions late in succession. Contrary to predictions of trade-off hypotheses, we find no relationship between suc- cessional status and fecundity, dispersal, or expected arrivals at distant sites. Resultssuggest a mechanism for maintenance of diversity that may be more general than colonization- competition and successional niches. High variability and strong individual effects (vari- ability within populations) generate massive stochasticity in recruitment that, when com- bined with ''storage,'' may provide a stabilizing mechanism. The storage effect stabilizes diversity when species differences ensure that responses to stochasticity are not highly correlated among species. Process variability and individual effects mean that many species have the advantage at different times and places even in the absence of ''deterministic'' trade-offs. Not only does colonization vary among species, but also individual behavior is highly stochastic and weakly correlated among members of the same population. Although these factors are the dominant sources of variability in data sets (substantially larger than the deterministic relationships typically examined), they have not been not included in the models that ecologists have used to evaluate mechanisms of species coexistence (e.g., even individual-based models lack random individual effects). Recognition of the mechanisms of coexistence requires not only heuristic models that capture the principal sources of stochasticity, but also data-modeling techniques that allow for their estimation.


This book provides a contemporary overview of school effectiveness and improvement. It charts the development theory and research in this area and looks at the contribution made to policy and practice. It also challenges some assumptions that have become ingrained into the theoretical and methodological traditions of the field. By challenging these orthodoxies, it provides a framework that sets a new agenda and repositions the field to meet the emerging challenges of the 21st century. It argues that traditional measures of school effectiveness are challenged as systems have attempted to adapt to a complex range of emerging agendas. New theoretical perspectives are required which consider 'education' and a 'broader set of outcomes'. This shift requires a rethink of how effectiveness and improvement have been understood by the field, and a reconstruction by policy makers and practitioners. Attention must be given to promoting equity as well as effectiveness so that one school or student's gain no longer means another's loss. The field must develop new methodologies if inequities are to be challenged and a broader set of outcome measures are to be developed. The two questions guiding this book are: o How can educational effectiveness and improvement research and practice support the development of a more equitable education service? o What are the key indicators of educational effectiveness and improvement and what are the new methodologies required to facilitate a shift from 'school' effectiveness and improvement to 'educational' effectiveness and improvement? This book uses lenses of research, policy and practice to explore these key questions and articulate what such a repositioning may look like and how it may be achieved. It will prove invaluable for teachers, school leaders and anyone involved in policy and educational research.


Although strong storms affect all regions of the Arctic, little research has focused on the details of their structure and evolution—particularly of the storms passing over southern Baffin Island. Such storms form in a variety of locations and often occlude before passing over the region. To study these storms, a field project was conducted at Iqaluit, Nunavut, in the eastern Canadian Arctic in the autumn of 2005. We launched rawinsondes into six storm systems and made detailed measurements that included ice crystal structure and snow accumulation. The storms had quite different histories: some produced strong winds; some produced snow, while others produced rain and freezing precipitation; and three led to record-breaking temperatures. The types of precipitation particles varied greatly, but aggregates and rimed particles dominated. When comparing the six storms, we found numerous similarities between the surface and the vertical atmospheric conditions, but there were also distinct differences.


The 1990s represented a bountiful period for the nation?s pension funds, with soaring stock prices, low interest rates, and benign inflation. This article examines the major trends during this period for the 200 largest defined-benefit pension funds. Among the trends are tremendous asset growth, fundamental changes in asset allocation, and the growth of internal equities and indexed funds. Public pension funds grew faster than corporate funds, and internally managed assets fell from 42% to less than 33% of the total base. The current decade should be different, given an uncertain stock market as well as the upside risk of inflation and interest rates. The most significant near-term issue will be substantial cash inflows needed to fund both state and corporate pension funds.


Maltose is exported from the Arabidopsis chloroplast as the main product of starch degradation at night. To investigate its fate in the cytosol, we characterised plants with mutations in a gene encoding a putative glucanotransferase (disproportionating enzyme; DPE2), a protein similar to the maltase Q (MalQ) gene product involved in maltose metabolism in bacteria. Use of a DPE2 antiserum revealed that the DPE2 protein is cytosolic. Four independent mutant lines lacked this protein and displayed a decreased capacity for both starch synthesis and starch degradation in leaves. They contained exceptionally high levels of maltose, and elevated levels of glucose, fructose and other malto-oligosaccharides. Sucrose levels were lower than those in wild-type plants, especially at the start of the dark period. A glucosyltransferase activity, capable of transferring one of the glucosyl units of maltose to glycogen or amylopectin and releasing the other, was identified in leaves of wild-type plants. Its activity was sufficient to account for the rate of starch degradation. This activity was absent from dpe2 mutant plants. Based on these results, we suggest that DPE2 is an essential component of the pathway from starch to sucrose and cellular metabolism in leaves at night. Its role is probably to metabolise maltose exported from the chloroplast. We propose a pathway for the conversion of starch to sucrose in an Arabidopsis leaf.


Title of dissertation: Accretion Physics Through the Lens of the Observer: Connecting Fundamental Theory with Variability from Black Holes James Andrew Hogg, Doctor of Philosophy, 2018 Dissertation directed by: Professor Christopher Reynolds Department of Astronomy Variability is a generic feature of accretion onto black holes. In both X-ray binaries and active galactic nuclei, variability is observed on nearly all accessible timescales and across the entire electromagnetic spectrum. On different timescales and at different wavelengths it has unique signatures that can be used to characterize the accretion processes generating the emission and probe the accretion disks, which would otherwise be impossible. Despite having been observed for over fifty years, interpreting this variability is difficult. Simple phenomenological models have been used to explain the behaviors and geometries of the observed accretion disk, but they have yet to be rigorously tested in a full magnetohydrodynamic framework. In this dissertation we use high-resolution numerical models to investigate: (1) "propagating fluctuations" in mass accretion rate that give rise to the nonlinear signatures of accretion on viscous timescales, (2) the dynamics of truncated accretion disks which are invoked to explain the spectral variation of outbursting X-ray binaries and the bifurcation of AGN accretion states, and (3) the large-scale magnetic dynamo behavior in thick and thin accretion disks. We find that the structured variability readily seen in the light curves from accreting black holes (i.e. log-normal flux distributions, linear relations between the RMS and the flux, and radial coherence) quickly and naturally grows from the MRI-driven turbulence and that these properties translate into photometric variability. For the first time, we identify the large-scale magnetic dynamo as the source of the low-frequency modulations of the disk stress that cause this structure. We introduce a bistable cooling law into hydrodynamic and magnetohydrodynamic simulations to study the manifestation of a truncated accretion disk in each regime. We find that rather than a truncation edge, the transition is better described by a "truncation zone" when the angular momentum transport and heating is governed by MRI-driven turbulence instead of a true viscosity. Additionally, we find that the hot gas in the simulation buoyantly rises in a gentle outflow and eventually fills the entire volume, instead of simply being confined to the innermost region. The outflow interacts with the disk body and enhances the magnetic stresses, which could produce stronger quasiperiodic variability. Finally, we conduct an investigation of the large-scale magnetic dynamo using a suite of four global magnetohydrodynamic disk simulations with scaleheight ratios of h/r = {0.05, 0.1, 0.2, 0.4}. Most notably, the organization that is prevalent in accretion disk simulations and described as a "butterfly pattern" does not occur when h/r ≥ 0.2, despite the dynamo action still operating efficiently. Accretion Physics Through the Lens of the Observer: Connecting Fundamental Theory with Variability from Black Holes


An energy condition, in the context of a wide class of spacetime theories (including general relativity), is, crudely speaking, a relation one demands the stress-energy tensor of matter satisfy in order to try to capture the idea that "energy should be positive". The remarkable fact I will discuss in this paper is that such simple, general, almost trivial seeming propositions have profound and far-reaching import for our understanding of the structure of relativistic spacetimes. It is therefore especially surprising when one also learns that we have no clear understanding of the nature of these conditions, what theoretical status they have with respect to fundamental physics, what epistemic status they may have, when we should and should not expect them to be satisfied, and even in many cases how they and their consequences should be interpreted physically. Or so I shall argue, by a detailed analysis of the technical and conceptual character of all the standard conditions used in physics today, including examination of their consequences and the circumstances in which they are believed to be violated.