Background Non-protective work practices followed by farm workers during spraying of pesticides lead to occupational exposure among them. Objective This study is designed to explore the respiratory health and hematological profile of agricultural workers occupationally exposed to OP pesticides. Materials and Methods A cross sectional study was undertaken among 166 pesticide sprayers working in mango orchards of Lucknow district in North India compared with 77 controls to assess the respiratory illness, lung functions, cholinesterase levels and hematological profile. A questionnaire based survey and clinical examination for respiratory health were conducted among study subjects. Lung function test was conducted among study subjects by using spirometer. Cholinesterase level as biomarker of OP pesticides and hematological profile of study subjects were investigated in the laboratory by following the standard protocols. Results Overall respiratory morbidity observed among exposed subjects was 36.75%. Symptoms for respiratory illness like dry cough, productive cough, wheezing, irritation of throat and blood stained sputum were found to be significantly more (p<0.05) among pesticide sprayers than controls. Lung function parameters viz. PEFR, FEV1, %PEFR predicted, %FEV1 predicted and FEV1/FVC were found to be significantly decreased (p<0.05) among pesticide sprayers as compared to controls. Exposure wise distribution of respiratory illness and lung functions among pesticide sprayers show that the exposure duration significantly elevates (p<0.05) the respiratory problems and significantly decreases (p<0.001) lung functions among pesticide sprayers. Activities of acetylcholinesterase and butyrylcholinesterase were found to be significantly depleted (p<0.001) among pesticide sprayers as compared to controls which show the exposure of OP pesticides among them. The hematological profile viz. RBC, WBC, monocytes, neutrophils, MCV, MCH, MCHC and platelet count were significantly altered (p<0.001) in pesticide sprayers than controls. Conclusion This study shows that the unsafe occupational exposure of OP pesticides causes respiratory illness, decreased lung functions and hematological alterations among pesticide sprayers.


Catholiques et protestants sur la rive gauche du Rhin: Droits, confessions et coexistence religieuse de 1648 a 1789. By Laurent Jalabert. (Brussels: Peter Lang. 2009. Pp. 546. $72.95. ISBN 978-9-052-01479-1.) This nuanced and sophisticated study examines religious developments in the German-speaking territories to the west of the Rhine River in the century and a half after the end of the Thirty Years' War. These territories were profoundly affected in this period by the growing power of France, which supported the expansion of Catholicism in a predominantly Protestant region. Laurent Jalabert shows, however, the complex consequences of French efforts in the context of international wars, the institutions of the Holy Roman Empire, and the particularist traditions of the region. Ultimately Jalabert argues that the efforts to promote Catholicism led to a growing "pluriconfessionalism" and a rough-and-ready toleration in the context of everyday life in the towns and villages. Jalabert has conducted extensive archival research across a region that stretches from Alsace in the south to the region around Trier and Mainz in the north and from the Lorraine in the west to the Rhine in the east.The political fragmentation of the region was a cause of religious divisions and certainly complicates the research. One strength of Jalabert's study is its sensitivity to this complexity. Another is his familiarity with German, French, and English-language scholarship, a breadth that remains unusual in this field. Jalabert's well-organized study is divided into three chronological periods. He begins by examining the Peace of Westphalia and its impact in the region up to the 1680s. The second period of the study reflects French historiography and focuses on the dramatic impact of King Louis XIV's France on the region between about 1680 and first decade of the eighteenth century. The last and longest section examines the development of religious identity, confessional cultures, and religious coexistence across the eighteenth century. Part I emphasizes that religious minorities, particular Catholic minorities, appeared across the region in the aftermath of the war, mostly because authorities were not choosy about who arrived to farm fields and rebuild houses. In part ? the emphasis shifts to the role of the French state. In the western territories, many of which were "reunited" with France, Louis XTV's officials aggressively supported Catholic minorities, building churches, paying for priests, supporting conversion campaigns, and making life difficult for Lutheran or Reformed ministers. …


In various fields like software development, information systems development, and e-business development, model-based approaches allow specifying different models of which each emphasizes one specific aspect or part of the software system. In this thesis we consider particularly model-based approaches for defining inter-organizational cooperations. These cooperations are usually complex in terms of coordination, agreements, and value creation for involved partners.

At design time one should ensure that the different models are consistent with each other, i.e., that they describe the same system. At runtime we additionally have to deal with the fact that behavior of the software system might be different from that agreed upon. Such deviant behavior can, for example, be caused by partners in the cooperation that do not behave according to the agreement. Therefore, the challenges are to ensure consistency at design time as well as to monitor the system at runtime in order to detect inconsistencies with the models it relies on.

When managing complex cooperations, it is also vital to maintain the models describing them to keep an overview on the successfulness of the cooperation. Changing one model to regain consistency with the running system might result in new inconsistencies between the different models. As a consequence, this maintenance phase of the models is time consuming and grows in complexity with increasing number of models describing the system.

This thesis proposes a method that supports ensuring and maintaining consistency between running system and underlying models for inter-organizational cooperations. We provide a structured and model-independent approach to check and maintain consistency. Thereby, we focus on identifying and maintaining these inter-model relations.

We validate our method by conducting two case studies in two different fields of research. The first scenario deals with business and coordination models, while the second one addresses Web service compositions. Furthermore, we provide a prototypical implementation as proof-of-concept evaluation of both scenarios. We conclude with an empirical validation of the Web service composition scenario by an extensive and interactive survey conducted among 34 participants. This survey confirms the suitability of our proposed management solution provided for real life use.


System Summary In 2001, when the Tallahassee--Leon County GIS (TLCGIS) Interlocal Project was implementing the 2001 Flyover Project to update orthophotography and planimetric data sets previously gathered in 1996, concerns were voiced about the accuracy of contour data initially captured in 1996, especially in those areas of the county that had heavy tree canopy. Some users preferred contour data created in 1988 rather than the 1996 data. Users were concerned that if the same photogrammetric methods used in 1996 to collect data were used again in 2001, the accuracy of the new data would not meet their needs. Rather than simply moving forward with the 2001 Flyover Project, the TLCGIS staff called together all the potential users of the data and formed the Topographic Partnering Group to discuss accuracy issues, and the pros and cons of available methods used to collect data and create contour data sets. The Partnering Group decided to have a prototype study of LIDAR-based terrain mapping conducted in four pilot test areas. The Tallahassee--Leon County GIS Interlocal Project diverted funds from the 2001 Flyover Project to complete the prototype study. Thus, a Digital Terrain Model (DTM), vector contour data, and vector spot elevation data were delivered and evaluated. Based on these results, the LIDAR DTM data and derived contour data had accuracy levels of +/-1.5 feet in heavily wooded areas, in comparison to 1996 contour data accuracy levels of +/-30 feet in heavily wooded areas. The group determined that the prototype study was a success and recommended LIDAR data be acquired countywide. The Topographic Partnering Group/LIDAR Project is exemplary for several reasons. First, it brought together critical users from multiple agencies--many of whom had never worked together before--to discuss their concerns and needs about data accuracy. Second, users learned about LIDAR, a cutting-edge technique for mapping terrain data in heavily vegetated areas with high accuracy. Third, the Tallahassee--Leon County GIS Interlocal Project diverted funds from an existing project to acquire LIDAR data. Finally, because some members of the Partnering Group required a turnaround time of one year for finished data sets, members assisted in securing funding for the project, and, therefore, ensured that more accurate data would be developed so that every user's needs would be met. Motivation for System Development The Tallahassee-Leon County GIS is an Interlocal Project funded by three local governments: the city of Tallahassee, Leon County, and the Leon County Property Appraiser's Office. One of the duties of the Interlocal GIS is to maintain GIS data, including orthophotos and planimetric data, for use by staff in these three governments. As such, every five years, the Interlocal GIS arranges for a flyover of the entire county, to acquire orthophotos from which data sets, including contours, are derived using photogrammetric techniques. In the course of the 2001 Flyover Project, however, it came to the attention of project personnel that some of the critical users of the data from city and county local governments, especially engineers who rely on data for infrastructure projects, had concerns about the accuracy of contour data initially captured in 1996, especially in those areas of the county that had heavy tree canopy. Because Leon County has such a dense tree canopy--more than 60 percent of the county is covered by a heavy tree canopy--traditional photogrammetric techniques cannot provide accurate elevation information for the ground underneath the tree canopy. This often resulted in inaccurate elevation data in those obscured areas. Additionally, the finished data required extensive field surveys to verify elevation to facilitate preplanning for large community improvement projects. Based on these factors, users were concerned that if the same photogrammetric methods used in 1996 to collect data were again used in 2001, then the accuracy of the new data would not meet their needs. …


Congenital atresia of the external ears and severe tinnitus has been reported by two patients to be contralateral to the atretic ear. The use of the nuclear medicine imaging technique of single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) of brain has demonstrated hypoperfusion in brain areas supplied by the middle cerebral artery on the side of the atretic ear. Ultrahigh-frequency audiometry (UHFA) has revealed a bilateral loss of hearing greater than expected for the age of affected patients. Quantitative electroencephalography (QEEG) has shown a significant central nervous system electrical dysfunction correlated with the SPECT of brain findings. One case is reported in detail at this time. Completion of the medical audiological tinnitus patient protocol, including SPECT of brain, UHFA, and QEEG, accurately established the clinical tinnitus diagnosis of predominantly a central-type tinnitus, a clinical hypothesis that the medical significance of the tinnitus is a "soft" sign of cerebrovascular disease, and provided a rationale for treatment directed to a presumed ischemia of brain based on a receptor-targeted therapy targeted to the GABA-A receptor, resulting in significant tinnitus relief. Questions that have arisen include (1) the incidence of occurrence of hypoperfusion of the middle cerebral artery in congenital atresia patients; (2) implications and long-term consequences of this finding in this patient population for development of cerebrovascular disease; (3) brain plasticity for tinnitus relief (i.e., neuronal reprogramming, particularly in response to treatment recommendations for complaints of the cochleovestibular system in general and specifically for tinnitus); (4) the clinical significance of the UHFA thresholds of bilateral hearing loss greater than expected for the age of the patient; and (5) whether congenital atresia of the external ear may be part of a syndrome that includes hypoperfusion in brain areas supplied by the middle cerebral artery on the side of the atretic ear, ultra-high-frequency bilateral loss of hearing greater than expected for the age of the patient, and significant central nervous system electrical dysfunction. As far as we can determine, these findings, highlighted by the brain SPECT, have not previously been reported in patients with congenital atresia of the external ear.


Papers in the September 2018 issue of the Journal provide an interesting mix of public policy debate, technology and the communications for the America's Cup Challenge defence held in Fremantle, Australia. The public policy papers cover fixed broadband adoption and economic growth in ASEAN and a framework to demystify machine to machine spectrum regulation. A technical paper on bitmaps and bitmasks provides an insight into the latest tools and techniques. The history of Australian telecommunications paper on the America's Cup communications solution provides an insight into what was a successful and difficult to achieve outcome for one of the world's major sporting events. The Journal welcomes contributions.


The establishment of a localization system is an important task in wireless sensor networks. Due to the geographical correlation between sensed data, location information is commonly used to name the gathered data and address nodes and regions in data dissemination protocols. In general, to estimate its location, a node needs the position information of at least three reference points (neighbors that know their positions). In this work, we propose a different scheme in which only two reference points are required in order to estimate a position. To choose between the two possible solutions of an estimate, we use the known direction of the recursion. This approach leads to a recursive localization system that works with low-density networks (increasing by 40 percent the number of nodes with estimates in some cases), reduces the position error by almost 30 percent, requires 37 percent less processor resources to estimate a position, uses fewer beacon nodes, and also indicates the node position error based on its distance to the recursion origin. No GPS-enabled node is required, since the recursion origin can be used as a relative coordinate system. The algorithm's evaluation is performed by comparing it with a similar localization system; also, experiments are made to evaluate the impact of both systems in geographic algorithms.


Shia account for approximately 10–15 per cent of the Muslim population in Pakistan, which has a largely Sunni Muslim population. Anti-Shia violence, led by extremist militant groups, dates to 1979 and has resulted in thousands killed and injured in terrorist attacks over the years. Hazara Shia, who are both an ethnic and a religious minority, make an easy target for extremist groups as they are physically distinctive. The majority live in Quetta, the provincial capital of Balochistan in central Pakistan, where they have become largely ghettoised into two areas as result of ongoing attacks. Studies on the Hazara Shia persecution have mostly focused on the killings of Hazara men and paid little attention to the nature and impact of religious persecution of Shias on Hazara women. Poor Hazara women in particular face multi-layered marginalisation, due to the intersection of their gender, religious-ethnic affiliation and class, and face limited opportunities in education and jobs, restricted mobility, mental and psychological health issues, and gender-based discrimination.


Limited supply of clean water in urbanizing watersheds creates challenges for safely sustaining irrigated agriculture and global food security. On-farm interventions, such as riverbank filtration (RBF), are used in developing countries to treat irrigation water from rivers with extensive fecal contamination. Using a Bayesian approach incorporating ethnographic data and pathogen measurements, quantitative microbial risk assessment (QMRA) methods were employed to assess the impact of RBF on consumer health burdens for Giardia, Cryptosporidium, rotavirus, norovirus, and adenovirus infections resulting from indirect wastewater reuse, with lettuce irrigation in Bolivia as a model system. Concentrations of the microbial source tracking markers pepper mild mottle virus and HF183 Bacteroides were respectively 2.9 and 5.5 log10 units lower in RBF-treated water than in the river water. Consumption of lettuce irrigated with river water caused an estimated median health burden that represents 37% of Bolivia's overall diarrheal disease burden, but RBF resulted in an estimated health burden that is only 1.1% of this overall diarrheal disease burden. Variability and uncertainty associated with environmental and cultural factors affecting exposure correlated more with QMRA-predicted health outcomes than factors related to disease vulnerability. Policies governing simple on-farm interventions like RBF can be intermediary solutions for communities in urbanizing watersheds that currently lack wastewater treatment.


In all animals examined, somatic cells of the gonad control multiple biological processes essential for germline development. Gap junction channels, composed of connexins in vertebrates and innexins in invertebrates, permit direct intercellular communication between cells and frequently form between somatic gonadal cells and germ cells. Gap junctions comprise hexameric hemichannels in apposing cells that dock to form channels for the exchange of small molecules. Here we report essential roles for two classes of gap junction channels, composed of five innexin proteins, in supporting the proliferation of germline stem cells and gametogenesis in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. Transmission electron microscopy of freeze-fracture replicas and fluorescence microscopy show that gap junctions between somatic cells and germ cells are more extensive than previously appreciated and are found throughout the gonad. One class of gap junctions, composed of INX-8 and INX-9 in the soma and INX-14 and INX-21 in the germ line, is required for the proliferation and differentiation of germline stem cells. Genetic epistasis experiments establish a role for these gap junction channels in germline proliferation independent of the glp-1/Notch pathway. A second class of gap junctions, composed of somatic INX-8 and INX-9 and germline INX-14 and INX-22, is required for the negative regulation of oocyte meiotic maturation. Rescue of gap junction channel formation in the stem cell niche rescues germline proliferation and uncovers a later channel requirement for embryonic viability. This analysis reveals gap junctions as a central organizing feature of many soma–germline interactions in C. elegans.


This paper outlines a recently articulated concept in the demographic literature known as the 'demographic dividend', and connects it with key features of Maori and non-Maori demography. The dividend arises – or has the potential to arise - as each population passes through a particular point in its demographic transition. During these years, the maximum proportion of the population moves into the key working and income-earning age groups, and the minimum (comprised of youth and the elderly) is notionally dependent. With proactive and timely investment in the youthful base of the population, there is potential to convert the demographic dividend into two economic windfalls, the first arising as fertility decline causes youthful dependency to fall and the last large waves of young adults flood into the working age population, the second as the latter age and move on into the higher income earning age groups. However the window of opportunity to invest in the first dividend is fleeting, while failure to invest in that stage seriously compromises the second. This paper shows that for the Maori population, despite its relative youth, the first opportunity is already coming to an end and with it the potential gains of the second. But it also argues that there is a third window of opportunity which holds particular promise for Maori. This period will also be fleeting, but is arising in both absolute and relative terms as the relatively youthful Maori population co-exists alongside its structurally older counterpart, and together (with other New Zealanders) comprise an 'economic dividend system' that produces the potential for a 'collateral dividend'.


The cotton (Gossypium spp.) plant is a true perennial with perhaps the most complex structure of all the major field crops. Plants can compensate to a large degree for environmental as well as physical conditions. Much research has been conducted to arrive at plant population recommendations that optimize the yield and quality of the crop. Research conducted in the low desert regions of Arizona suggest that optimum plant density lies somewhere between 25,000 and 50,000 plants per acre. However, cotton crops with plant densities outside of this optimal range still have the ability to yield similarly and maintain premium quality. Accordingly, a research project was conducted comparing four separate plant densities. Objectives included determining effects on yield and fiber quality. The study was laid out in a randomized complete block design with target plant populations of approximately 30K, 50K, 70K, and 90K plants per acre as the treatments. All other inputs were equal across treatments. Throughout the course of the season, plant measurements showed no distinct differences among the treatments. Height-to-Node ratios (an indicator of vegetative tendencies) remained above normal throughout the season for all populations. Fruit retention levels remained optimal throughout the season. Lint yield results revealed that treatment four (90K plants per acre) yielded significantly less that the other three treatments. No significant differences in fiber quality were observed among treatments.


This article presents a systematic review of research on the achievement outcomes of all types of approaches to teaching science in elementary schools. Study inclusion criteria included use of randomized or matched control groups, a study duration of at least 4 weeks, and use of achievement measures independent of the experimental treatment. A total of 23 studies met these criteria. Among studies evaluating inquiry-based teaching approaches, programs that used science kits did not show positive outcomes on science achievement measures (weighted ES = +0.02 in 7 studies), but inquiry-based programs that emphasized professional development but not kits did show positive outcomes (weighted ES = +0.36 in 10 studies). Technological approaches integrating video and computer resources with teaching and cooperative learning showed positive outcomes in a few small, matched studies (ES = +0.42 in 6 studies). The review concludes that science teaching methods focused on enhancing teachers' classroom instruction throughout the year, such as cooperative learning and science-reading integration, as well as approaches that give teachers technology tools to enhance instruction, have significant potential to improve science learning. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 51:870–901, 2014.


PURPOSE
To study MR patterns of venous sinus occlusive disease and to relate them to the underlying pathophysiology by comparing the appearance and pathophysiologic features of venous sinus occlusive disease with those of arterial ischemic disease.

METHODS
The clinical data and MR examinations of 26 patients with venous sinus occlusive disease were retrospectively reviewed with special attention to mass effect, hemorrhage, and T2-weighted image abnormalities as well as to abnormal parenchymal, venous, or arterial enhancement after intravenous gadopentetate dimeglumine administration. Follow-up studies when available were evaluated for atrophy, infarction, chronic mass effect, and hemorrhage.

RESULTS
Mass effect was present in 25 of 26 patients. Eleven of the 26 had mass effect without abnormal signal on T2-weighted images. Fifteen patients had abnormal signal on T2-weighted images, but this was much less extensive than the degree of brain swelling in all cases. No patient showed abnormal parenchymal or arterial enhancement. Abnormal venous enhancement was seen in 10 of 13 patients who had contrast-enhanced studies. Intraparenchymal hemorrhage was seen in nine patients with high signal on T2-weighted images predominantly peripheral to the hematoma in eight. Three overall MR patterns were observed in acute sinus thrombosis: 1) mass effect without associated abnormal signal on T2-weighted images, 2) mass effect with associated abnormal signal on T2-weighted images and/or ventricular dilatation that may be reversible, and 3) intraparenchymal hematoma with surrounding edema.

CONCLUSION
MR findings of venous sinus occlusive disease are different from those of arterial ischemia and may reflect different underlying pathophysiology. In venous sinus occlusive disease, the breakdown of the blood-brain barrier (vasogenic edema and abnormal parenchymal enhancement) does not always occur, and brain swelling can persist up to 2 years with or without abnormal signal on T2-weighted images. Abnormal signal on T2-weighted images may be reversible and does not always indicate infarction.


Lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) individuals and communities have long been regarded as 'sexual and/or gender dissidents', resulting in their marginalisation and exclusion. While legislative changes during the New Labour era in the UK, to a degree, benefitted some LGBT people, LGBT people continue to face marginalization, considerations which are more than scholarly but also have implications for policy and planning. Using an LGBT community-led research project, Count Me In Too, this chapter outlines how partnership working that is instigated right from the design of the research can empower marginalised LGBT people, and yet still contribute to the agendas of those 'in power'. However, even this impact is not uniform across different sectors. Using data on housing and suicide, we show that sexual and gender difference matters in different ways to different people, and that the organizational context in which partnership working takes place is crucial in making research 'do something'. We argue that participatory action research, and partnership working, more broadly, can affect social change, but this is not uniform because of the broader contexts into which the research data comes and is used or not. We conclude by contending that work across community-university-public sector divides has the potential to be productive.


How much do animals matter-morally? Can we keep considering them as second class beings, to be used merely for our benefit? Or, should we offer them some form of moral egalitarianism? Inserting itself into the passionate debate over animal rights, this fascinating, provocative work by renowned scholar Paola Cavalieri advances a radical proposal: that we extend basic human rights to the nonhuman animals we currently treat as "things." Cavalieri first goes back in time, tracing the roots of the debate from the 1970s, then explores not only the ethical but also the scientific viewpoints, examining the debate's precedents in mainstream Western philosophy. She considers the main proposals of reform that recently have been advanced within the framework of today's prevailing ethical perspectives. Are these proposals satisfying? Cavalieri says no, claiming that it is necessary to go beyond the traditional opposition between utilitarianism and Kantianism and focus on the question of fundamental moral protection. In the case of human beings, such protection is granted within the widely shared moral doctrine of universal human rights' theory. Cavalieri argues that if we examine closely this theory, we will discover that its very logic extends to nonhuman animals as beings who are owed basic moral and legal rights and that, as a result, human rights are not human after all.


Recently, two approaches have been introduced that dis- tribute the molecular fragment mining problem. The first approach ap- plies a master/worker topology, the second approach, a completely dis- tributed peer-to-peer system, solves the scalability problem due to the bottleneck at the master node. However, in many real world scenarios the participating computing nodes cannot communicate directly due to administrative policies such as security restrictions. Thus, potential com- puting power is not accessible to accelerate the mining run. To solve this shortcoming, this work introduces a hierarchical topology of comput- ing resources, which distributes the management over several levels and adapts to the natural structure of those multi-domain architectures. The most important aspect is the load balancing scheme, which has been de- signed and optimized for the hierarchical structure. The approach allows dynamic aggregation of heterogenous computing resources and is applied to wide area network scenarios.


Introduction NICE have recommended clear pathways for assessment of patients with transient loss of consciousness (TLoC), with the aim of reducing unnecessary investigations, the length of hospital admission and aiming for early specialist assessment and better patient outcomes. Methods A retrospective analysis of electronic case records for all patients referred by A and E for medical assessment in King's College Hospital in July and August 2015 was performed in August 2016. To capture all potential patients, any referral including the words fall, collapse, seizure, syncope, LoC, cardiac arrest or blackout were screened. Patients who did not have TLoC were excluded based on prespecified criteria. The remaining patient records were evaluated against the 2010 NICE guideline audit tool. Results 2101 patients were referred over 2 months. 192 (9%) were possible TLoC on the basis of the initial referral. After medical assessment, 147 patients were found not to have TLoC. The most common reasons were absence of LoC (75 pts), epileptic seizure with known epilepsy (24 pts) and drug or alcohol intoxication (17 pts). After screening, there were 45 patients (2%,) with potential TLoC. No patient with TLoC had the all the NICE-mandated minimum data recorded. Unrecorded data included high risk features that should be the basis for TLoC admissions; family history of premature death (40%), collapse during exertion (20%), new or unexplained dyspnoea (18%). Although 82% had a CXR and 76% received CT head, 84% had no recorded postural BP and 24% had no record of an ECG. Only 16% were referred for inpatient evaluation by a cardiologist. The mean length of stay was 7 days, equivalent to 5 bed-years on an annualised basis. However, 20% were discharged without a diagnosis, and 36% did not have any outpatient follow up. Conclusions Despite clear guidelines, syncope patients still do not receive appropriate initial evaluation, investigation or diagnosis, even in a large tertiary centre with ready access to specialist assessment. Hospital length of stay is long, yet simple diagnostic tests (such as ECGs and postural BPs) are commonly not performed. Screening of all medical referrals based on simple criteria results in a relatively small number of patients with TLoC. Early specialist involvement in patients with syncope would be practically feasible, and would potentially result in better patient outcomes.


Measure-valued branching processes can be characterized in terms of the Laplace transform of their transition densities and this gives rise to a second order nonlinear p.d.e. ― the evolution equation of the process. We write the solution to this evolution equation as a series, each of whose coefficients is expressed in terms of the linear semigroup corresponding to the spatial part of the measure-valued process. From this we obtain a simple proof that if the spatial part of the process is a recurrent (resp., transient) Markov process on a standard Borel space and the initial value of the process is an invariant measure of this spatial process, then the process has no (resp., has a unique) nontrivial limiting distribution


ABSTRACT This article makes the case for recovering women's roles from the forgotten corners of diplomatic history, and for considering the consequences of the gap between feminist and non-feminist research. It shows how ignorance of the gendered nature of diplomatic norms and practices impacts our understanding of diplomatic history, and how specific biographies are hampered by gender blindness in particular. Using the history of Margaret van Kleffens and Dutch World War II diplomacy as an example, the article demonstrates how historians' continued neglect of the role of women and gender norms has influenced representations of twentieth-century diplomacy. To dismiss the history of gender and of women as by definition irrelevant to the actions of states and of male statespersons is not simply part of a self-appointed focus on the political at the expense of the personal; rather, it omits much of the political history too, reproducing stereotypes and resulting in a skewed understanding of diplomatic history and foreign policy decisions. The article argues that both historians and feminist scholars need to historicize gender in order to recognize women's roles in diplomacy, and so gain a better understanding of the history of international politics as a whole.


Problem Statement: Scientists support that success cannot be achieved through schools with a bureaucratic structure in which top-down relation is emphasized but rather with a decentralized structure of authority. Scientists also posit that participative management is the best approach. Participation or participative leadership is defined as deciding jointly or as the shared influence for deciding between superiors and subordinates. From this standpoint, participative management has focused on allocating decision-making authority and sharing power. It is vital for schools to apply innovations to be effective. Leadership is one of the most important factors affecting organizational innovation. Participative leaders encourage teachers to find new opportunities, generate new information, and perform. Thus, it can be asserted that participative leadership behavior effects change-oriented organizational citizenship behavior. The motivational model used to explain the effect of participative leadership behaviors of superiors on the work performance of subordinates asserts that participation in decision making provides intrinsic rewards for subordinates. It has been indicated within research results that participative leadership affects subordinates' behavior by means of intrinsic motivation.  Purpose of the study: This study aimed to explore the mediating role of intrinsic motivation on the relationship between participative leadership and change-oriented organizational behavior. Method: The survey model was used in this study. The participants included 850 teachers randomly selected from 68 elementary schools in the center of Nigde and its districts in Turkey. Three different instruments were used in this study. The scales were translated using the translation and back translation method. In order to examine the construct validity of the scales, exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were used. Structural equation modeling was conducted using the LISREL 8.7 computer program for the mediating test. Findings: Participative leadership was a significant predictor of change-oriented organizational citizenship behavior (β=0.26, p<.01) and intrinsic motivation (β=0.27, p<.01). A significant relationship between change-oriented organizational citizenship behavior and intrinsic motivation (β=0.75, p<.01) was present. Intrinsic motivation fully mediated the relationship between participative leadership and change-oriented organizational behavior (β=0.06, t= 1.87). Conclusion and Recommendations: Results indicated that participative leadership significantly affected change-oriented organizational citizenship and intrinsic motivation. A significant relationship was found between change-oriented organizational citizenship and intrinsic motivation. It was determined that intrinsic motivation fully mediated the relationship between participative leadership and change-oriented organizational citizenship behavior. Key Words: Participative management, participative leadership, change-oriented organizational citizenship, intrinsic motivation.


The purpose of this study was to investigate empirically the application of one of the cornerstones of chaos theory, that is, sensitivity to initial conditions, to language assessment. In doing so, 20 Iranian students at masters' level participated in this study. They were majoring in nanophysics in Islamic Azad University of Bushehr. They were sophomores aged 23 to 30. In order to ensure homogeneity, they were administered a test of reading comprehension called PET. Then, another test of reading comprehension was administered to them based on "English for the Students of Physics". Having taken that test, the students took the same test after two weeks in different versions. The versions were created by changing the order of items. The analysis of the data showed that 75.83% of students performed better in the second version of the test. This showed the effect of changing the order of items on the students' performance which is consistent with the principle of sensitivity to initial conditions in chaos theory. The implications of the findings will be discussed at the end of the study.


We describe the vegetation of Kwerba, in the foothills of the Foja Mountains in the Mamberamo Basin of West Papua, Indonesia. Few surveys have been carried out in this remote area of Western New Guinea. Working in col- laboration with local people we made 15 plots, 10 in primary forest, 3 in secondary forest and 2 in gardens. A total of 487 morpho-species were distinguished, of which 32 % (156) did not match any herbarium specimens or published reference. Tree densities (598 ± 136/ha) are similar to lowland forests elsewhere, but mean stem sizes (22 ± 1 cm dbh and 21 ± 2 m height for trees over 10 cm dbh) appear small. Numbers of tree species per plot (22 ± 4, of 40 stems recorded) are unremarkable, but levels of endemism are potentially high with many of the unidentified species being rare (seldom col- lected) or undescribed. This is the first quantitative description of vegetation in Kwerba, Foja and Mamberamo, and joins only a handful of such studies in Papua. Additional botanical and ecological survey effort is greatly needed in Mamberamo, and in New Guinea generally.


Shape-from-shading is a classical problem in computer vision. The aim is to recover 3D surface
shape from a single image of an object, based on a photometric analysis of the pattern of shading.
Since the amount of light reflected by a surface is a function of the direction of the incident light
and the viewer, relative to the local surface normal, image intensity conveys information about
surface orientation and hence, indirectly, surface height. This thesis aims to relax some of the
assumptions typically made in the shape-from-shading literature. Our aim is to move shape-fromshading
away from the overly simplistic assumptions which have limited its applicability to images
captured in lab conditions. In particular, we focus on assumptions of surface smoothness, point
source illumination and reconstruction in the surface normal domain.
In Chapter 3, we relax the assumption of a smooth surface. We exploit a psychology-inspired
heuristic that pixels need only have a similar surface orientation if they are both in close proximity
and have a similar intensity. This leads to an adaptive smoothing process which is able to preserve
fine surface structure. We adapt a geometric shape-from-shading framework to overcome
the problem of normals "flipping" between solutions which alternately satisfy data-closeness and
smoothness terms. Under the classical assumption of point source illumination, we show that our
method significantly outperforms a number of previously reported methods.
In Chapter 4, we relax the assumption of illumination being provided by a single point light
source. Specifically, we consider environment illumination in which lighting is represented by
a spherical function which describes the incident radiance from all directions in the scene. We
use the well known result that Lambertian reflectance acts like a low pass filter and hence the
convolution of environment lighting and surface reflectance can be efficiently represented using a
low order spherical harmonic. With an order-1 approximation, we show how the image irradiance
equation can be solved as a quadratically-constrained linear least squares optimisation. The global
optimum is found using the method of Lagrange multipliers. The order-2 case is non-convex and
prone to converge on local minima if solved using local optimisation. We reformulate the problem
as a bilinear system of equations which leads to an efficient and robust solution method. In both cases, we incorporate a structure-preserving smoothness constraint based on ideas from Chapter 3
to regularise the problem.
In Chapter 5, we continue with the relaxed illumination assumption (i.e. we model environment
illumination), but we develop algorithms which operate in the domain of surface height rather
than surface normals. This has the advantage of reducing the dimensionality of the problem at the
expense of increased complexity. Moreover, integrability is implicitly enforced via the problem
formulation. We describe two contributions. The first is a linear method for recovering surface
height directly from images formed by taking ratios between colour channels. In this case, the
nonlinear normalisation term is factored out. This allows us to form a linear system of equations
relating image intensity and surface height via a finite difference approximation to the surface gradient.
Finally, we relax the assumption that the object must be globally convex (i.e. contains no
self occlusions). We show that self occluded intensity can be related to unoccluded intensity via a
quadratic inequality constraint. This is too weak a constraint to be used for shape-from-shading on
its own. However, we use it to develop an occlusion-sensitive surface integration algorithm. We
show that the problem can be formulated as a convex optimisation and solved using semidefinite
programming.


Polarized single-crystal Raman scattering and powder infrared absorption spectra of Fdd2 orthorhombic natural natrolite (Na1.88 K0.02 Ca0.04 )(Al1.96 Si3.03 O10)⋅2.03 H2O from Khibiny, Kola peninsula, were measured. Using short-range models, lattice-dynamical calculations were performed for an idealized natrolite structure Na4(Al4Si6O20)4H2O containing 46 atoms in the primitive unit cell (Z = 2). By varying the valence force constants, the calculated frequencies in the Raman and IR spectra were fitted to the observed frequencies. On considering their calculated intensities as well, nearly all the observed bands (especially those corresponding to the A1 modes) could be unambiguously assigned and interpreted. The external vibrations of H2O could be correctly assigned using deuter- ated samples. The strongest Raman band at 534 cm-1 corresponds to a breathing mode of the four-membered alumi- nosilicate ring. The calculated bulk modulus (52.7 GPa at zero pressure) is close to the experimental value of 47 ± 6 GPa. The natrolite structure has some advantages upon other zeolites to understand the amorphization mechanism, because samples of this mineral surrounded by a non-penetrating medium show no crystal phase transitions with increasing pressure. Lattice energy minimization calculated with variable unit-cell dimensions shows the crystal structure to become unstable at about 5.5 GPa, thereby apparently explaining the amorphization process at 4-7 GPa. This instability is connected with shear acoustic modes coupled with soft internal framework vibrations.


In this work, we present the realized versatile hermetically sealed sensor packaging platform based on glass interposers which is applicable in industrial metrology, MEMS, photonics, life sciences and process automation application, among others. The sealed glass package can include passives and different active devices (radar, pressure, infrared sensors, etc.). Glass is used because it offers ideal properties for such a package by providing excellent chemical resistance, mechanical strength, advantageous RF characteristics and low costs. The capabilities of the platform are demonstrated in form of a radar level sensor which is operated at 160GHz. The level sensor includes our sensor packaging platform with an integrated SiGe ASIC and an RF port. Due to the hermetic sealing of the ASIC inside, it is possible to utilize the package in hazardous environments, in this case in chemical microreactors. The package only measures 5.9 x 4.4 x 0.8 mm3 and uses TGVs (Through-Glass Vias) in this miniaturized sensor systems as vertical DC and RF interconnections with low parasitics which leads to low losses, while maintaining hermetic sealing. The performance of the TGVs regarding their reliability and their RF capabilities was investigated before and showed superior properties with less effort for fabrication. In this paper we will focus on all aspects of the final package with a fully functional radar ASIC inside. We consider the processing chain based on wafer-level processes, design and simulation, the analysis of the realized radar sensor demonstrator as well as the characterization and evaluation of the final package regarding reliability and hermeticity. The glass interposer processing steps and all the challenges which had to be solved for the via formation, the TGV filling and the hermetically sealing of the two interposers with the ASIC inside will be highlighted. The characterization and evaluation of the novel demonstrator system will consider RF performance, radar characteristics, reliability and hermetic sealing of the glass package


Vulnerability and poverty levels remain stubbornly high and arguably are deepening in many pastoral areas of the Horn of Africa. This is in spite of galloping livestock commercialisation in these areas and their closer incorporation into wider systems of marketing, trade and investment. The fact remains that the benefits of recent growth and investment in pastoral areas have yet to result in wider benefits for addressing food insecurity and poor nutrition. Chronically food insecure, poor or vulnerable people with limited assets cannot engage in or contribute to more productive livestockkeeping or other growth-oriented economic activities that are the intended focus of the New Alliance. Thus, strengthening social protection systems in the region is a prerequisite for realising more inclusive growth at the pastoral margins. This brief details the role of social protection in agendas to promote agricultural growth, highlighting areas of innovative programme design and implementation where further efforts might focus. Scale and scope of social protection in pastoral areas


The Lisbon Treaty now having entered into force, it is time for the EU to get back to work and more specifically to focus on its foreign policy. In a world that is increasingly complex and multipolar, the EU must act strategically. To avoid becoming an irrelevant international actor, Brussels needs to (1) develop a grand strategy to define the true purpose of its foreign policy; (2) forge solid strategic partnerships with key global players; and (3) contribute to the building of a new effective multilateral system which takes into account the new global structure of power.


The introduction of Fel-O-Vax FIV in 2002 was the first commercially available lentiviral vaccine. Consisting of whole inactivated virus (WIV) and inactivated infected cells, vaccination lead to the production of a strong humoral and T-cell immune response. As FIV is a lentivirus, the viral genome must be integrated into the host genome and therefore leads to lifelong infection. For this reason, the detection of FIV specific antibodies has been used as a proxy for FIV infection and led to the development of several commercially available serology diagnosis kits. As vaccination leads to the development of FIV antibodies it is not possible to differentiate infected from vaccinated animals (DIVA) using conventional serology diagnosis assays. Several attempts have been made to DIVA FIV vaccinated cats, however no test can differentiate FIV vaccinated from infected animals and FIV uninfected and unvaccinated animals.

The data presented in this thesis demonstrates that it is possible to DIVA cats when vaccinated with a mutated chimeric virus representative of isolates circulating in the field. The identification and characterisation of a novel envelope glycoprotein, isolated from a client owned cat with broad neutralising antibodies to FIV, a unique potential N-linked glycosylation mutation at the apex of variable loop 2 revealed a neutralisation sensitive epitope. By swapping the env gene of a molecular clone of FIV-Glasgow8 with that of the novel field isolate, it was hypothesised that vaccinated with the chimaeric virus (FIV ΔV2) could elicit a broadly neutralising antibody response capable of protection against low does challenge with virulent UK primary isolate, FIV-Glasgow8. Additionally, by mutating the principal immunodominant (PID) of the transmembrane region of FIV ΔV2 from that of FIV to lion lentivirus subtype-E (LLV-E), it was proposed that the humoral immune response towards the wildtype sequence would be abolished, and recognise only LLV-E PID when plasma/sera were screened for reactivity to either PID sequence in a peptide ELISA format.
The pathogenesis of FIV ΔV2 revealed the rapid production of homologous neutralising antibodies that corresponded with a marked reduction in the proviral load. Although no heterologous neutralising antibodies were detected, it was thought that If the PID of the FIV ΔV2 virus were mutated to that of LLV-E (DIVA virus) and used as a whole inactivated virus candidate vaccine in a prime boost regime, cats may elicit both homologous and heterologous neutralising antibodies whilst at the same time demonstrate sufficient reactivities to the two different PID sequences that it would be possible to DIVA cats solely by conventional serology techniques.

The DIVA virus did not afford protection against low dose challenge with FIV-Glasgow8 and appeared to enhance infection as all vaccinates became infected before controls. Additionally, no homologous or heterologous neutralising were produced, although the antibody response towards the PID sequences differed substantially so that DIVA could be performed on cats by conventional serology. Such was the utility of the PID peptide ELISA it was possible to differentiate infected from vaccinate cats and unvaccinated from uninfected cats, an observation that has never previously been reported.


This Colloquium reviews statistical models for money, wealth, and income distributions developed in the econophysics literature since the late 1990s. By analogy with the Boltzmann-Gibbs distribution of energy in physics, it is shown that the probability distribution of money is exponential for certain classes of models with interacting economic agents. Alternative scenarios are also reviewed. Data analysis of the empirical distributions of wealth and income reveals a two-class distribution. The majority of the population belongs to the lower class, characterized by the exponential ("thermal") distribution, whereas a small fraction of the population in the upper class is characterized by the power-law ("superthermal") distribution. The lower part is very stable, stationary in time, whereas the upper part is highly dynamical and out of equilibrium.


This book identifies 47 Acacia species which have potential for cultivation in the southern semi-arid region of Australia as a source of seed for human consumption.

Eighteen species are regarded as having the greatest potential. Botanical profiles are provided for these species, together with information on the natural distribution, ecology, phenology, growth characteristics and seed attributes.

Two species, Acacia victoriae and Acacia murrayana, appear particularly promising as the seeds of both these have good nutritional characteristics and were commonly used as food by Aborigines. Acacia victoriae is currently the most important wattle used in the Australian bushfood industry.

This book is a useful reference for the bush food industry.


Abstract Large-scale trends in planktonic foraminiferal diversity have so far been based on utilization of synoptic biostratigraphic range charts. Although this approach ensures the taxonomic consistency and quality of the data being used, it takes no formal account of any sampling biases that might exist in the fossil record. We demonstrate that the occurrence data of planktonic foraminifera, as recorded in the primary literature, are strongly biased by sampling. We do this by demonstrating that raw diversity curves derived from the land-based and deep-sea records are strikingly different, but that they each correlate with the intensity of sampling in their respective environments, and thus are ultimately controlled by the structure of the geological record in each setting. Because sampling of the Mesozoic record is best in our land record whereas sampling of the Cenozoic is best in our deep-sea record, we combine the two to generate the best-supported estimates of species and genus diversity over time from these data. We correct for sampling bias using shareholder quorum subsampling and a modeling approach. The data are then transformed to generate a range-through plot of species richness that is compared with two earlier estimates of the diversity history where comparable species-in-bin data can be recovered. No robust statistical correlation is found among the three estimates. Although differences in amplitude are to be expected, differences in the actual shape of the curve are surprising. We conclude that these differences stem from the nature of the data themselves, namely the taxonomic scheme adopted and the taxonomic coverage used.


Block-structured matrices arise in several contexts in circuit simulation problems. These matrices typically inherit the pattern of sparsity from the circuit connectivity. However, they are also characterized by dense spots or blocks. Direct factorization of those matrices has emerged as an attractive approach if the host memory is sufficiently large to store the block-structured matrix. The approach proposed in this thesis aims to accelerate the direct factorization of general block-structured matrices by leveraging the power of multiple OpenCL accelerators such as Graphical Processing Units (GPUs). The proposed approach utilizes the notion of a Directed Acyclic Graph representing the matrix in order to schedule its factorization on multiple accelerators. This thesis also describes memory management techniques that enable handling large matrices while minimizing the amount of memory transfer over the PCIe bus between the host CPU and the attached devices. The results demonstrate that by using two GPUs the proposed approach can achieve a nearly optimal speedup when compared to a single GPU platform.


Cardiovascular disease (CVD) including atherosclerosis is the leading cause of illness and death in the United States. The American Heart Association indicated that an estimated 81,100,000 American adults have one or more types of CVD and the estimated direct and indirect cost of CVD for 2010 is $503.2 billion, which is $27.9 billion more than last year. Although the exact cause of this disease remains unsolved, previous studies have demonstrated that pro-oxidative and pro-inflammatory pathways in vascular endothelium play a critical role in early pathological events of atherosclerosis. However, the detailed molecular signaling mechanisms underlying this process are not yet completely understood. Recently, the role of interleukin-4 (IL-4) in atherogenesis became controversial and gained attention. IL-4 is a pleiotropic immunomodulatory cytokine secreted by T-helper 2 (Th2) lymphocytes, eosinophils, and mast cells. It was traditionally believed to be an anti-inflammatory cytokine. Increasing evidence, however, has suggested that IL-4 contributes to the initiation and progression of atherosclerosis by oxidative stress-mediated up-regulation of pro-inflammatory mediators such as vascular cell adhesion moledule-1 (VCAM-1), monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1), and interleukin-6 (IL-6) in vascular endothelium. 5-Lipoxygenase (5-LOX) is one of the key sources that generate reactive oxygen species (ROS) via metabolic pathways of arachidonic acid. Although 5-LOX has been implicated in the development of atherosclerosis, it remains unclear whether 5-LOX-mediated ROS generation is associated with IL-4-induced MCP-1 expression in vascular endothelium. The present study was focused on the oxidative mechanisms by which IL-4 induces vascular inflammation as well as how 5-LOX is involved in this process. The results showed that IL-4 significantly up-regulates mRNA and protein expression of MCP-1 in vascular endothelium. In addition, DHE and DCF fluorescence staining demonstrated that IL-4 increases ROS production in human vascular endothelial cells. We have also provided the first novel evidence that 5-LOX, one of the enzymes associated with arachidonic acid metabolism, is responsible for the IL-4-induced ROS generation and MCP-1 expression in human vascular endothelial cells.


Cold inactive disks are believed to exist in Low Luminosity AGN (LLAGN). They may also exist in the nuclei of inactive galaxies and in the center of our own Galaxy. These disks would then be embedded in the observed dense nuclear stellar clusters. Making the simplest assumption of an optically thick disk, we explore several ways to detect the disk presence through its interaction with the cluster. The first of these is the eclipse of close bright stars by the disk. The second is the increase in the infrared flux of the disk due to illumination of its surface by such stars during close passages. Finally the surface brightness of the star cluster should show an anisotropy that depends on the inclination angle of the disk. We apply the first two of the methods to Sgr A, the super-massive black hole in our Galactic Center. Using the orbital parameters of the close star S2, we strongly rule out a disk optically thick in the near infrared unless it has a relatively large inner hole. For disks with no inner holes, we estimate that the data permit a disk with infrared optical depth no larger than about 0.01. Such a disk could also be responsible for the detected 3.8m excess in the spectrum of S2. The constraints on the disk that we obtain here can be reconciled with the disk parameters needed to explain the observed X-ray flares if dust particles in the disk have sizes greater than30m. The destruction of small dust particles by strong UV heating and shocks from star passages through the disk, and grain growth during "quiescent" times, are mentioned as possible mechanisms of creating the unusual grain size distribution. We estimate the emissivity of the thin layer photo-ionized by the star in Hydrogen Br line and in the continuum recombination in the 2.2m band, and find that it may be detectable in the future if the disk exists.


We suggest two simple ways to use a genetic algorithm (GA) to design a multiple-classifier system. The first GA version selects disjoint feature subsets to be used by the individual classifiers, whereas the second version selects (possibly) overlapping feature subsets, and also the types of the individual classifiers. The two GAs have been tested with four real data sets: heart, Satimage, letters, and forensic glasses. We used three-classifier systems and basic types of individual classifiers (the linear and quadratic discriminant classifiers and the logistic classifier). The multiple-classifier systems designed with the two GAs were compared against classifiers using: all features; the best feature subset found by the sequential backward selection method; and the best feature subset found by a CA. The GA design can be made less prone to overtraining by including penalty terms in the fitness function accounting for the number of features used.


Find out how the exciting new developments towards 4G mobile services and technologies will put the user at centre stage. Towards 4G Technologies provides a comprehensive explanation of future networking and service delivering technologies for next generation mobile systems. The authors explain how personalization, mobile middleware, peer-to-peer services, semantic computing, and content-awareness fit into this new concept and why they will become a necessity for future mobile services. The book presents the latest challenges and opportunities of Next Generation Mobile Systems, explaining new paradigms of service provisioning that include flexible and adaptable services. Towards 4G Technologies: Gives a comprehensive description of future networking and service delivering technologies. Covers hot topics such as intelligent user profiling, proactive service selection, context-aware service provisioning and ubiquitous computing. Introduces seemingly diverse technologies to show how they will play together to create a new user experience. Includes case studies to illustrate the theory. This invaluable guide will provide telecoms engineers in R&D departments, CTOs, and telecoms managers as well as academic researchers in electrical, electronic engineering and telecommunications with a comprehensive understanding of next generation mobile system technologies and services.


An instrumented model pile was used to investigate the fundamental behaviour in clay soils of driven cylindrical steel piles used for offshore structures. Four test-bed sites were chosen; two in stiff heavily consolidated clays, and two in normally/lightly overconsolidated clays.

Data from these sites confirm that a residual shear surface is formed along the pile during installation, the location of which relative to the shaft surface appears to depend on the shaft roughness. Comparisons with other site investigation data and cavity expansion theoretical predictions indicate that stress relief immediately behind the pile tip during driving gives rise to total radial stresses and pore pressures measured on the pile shaft which are lower than predicted. This stress relief is particulary severe in the stiffer clays. The data did however show that the installation total radial stresses and pore pressures are governed by the initial in-situ stresses and undrained shear strength as is predicated by the theory.

During reconsolidation, pore pressures close to the instrument rise initially in all clays, and radial effective stresses drop. The slow recovery in radial effective stress during the later stages of reconsolidation was in some cases insufficient to return it to levels recorded during installation. However, the generation of negative pore pressures during undrained loading increased the radial effective stress and shaft friction at failure. This effect is particularly important in the normally consolidated clays, and is responsible for the set-up of shaft capacity seen in such clays, which might not be observed if the loading were drained. The observed behaviour was therefore quite different from the monotonic increase in radial effective stress during reconsolidation, followed by decrease during undrained loading which was expected from a review of current theory.


This text introduces and draws together pertinent aspects of fluid dynamics, physical oceanography, solid mechanics, and organismal biology to provide a much-needed set of tools for quantitatively examining the biological effects of ocean waves. "Nowhere on earth does water move as violently as on wave-swept coasts, " writes the author, "and every breaker that comes pounding on the shore places large hydrodynamic forces on the organisms resident there." Yet wave-swept coral reefs and rocky shores are home to some of the world's most diverse assemblages of plants and animals, and scientists have chosen these environments to carry out much of the recent experimental work in community structure and population dynamics. Until now these studies have been hampered because biologists often lack a working understanding of the mechanics of the wave-swept shore. Mark Denny here supplies that understanding in clear and vivid language.Included are an introduction to wave-induced water motions and the standard theories for describing them, a broad introduction to the hydrodynamic forces these water movements place on plants and animals, and an explanation of how organisms respond to these forces. These tools are put to use in the final chapters in an examination of the mechanisms of "wave exposure" and an exploration of the mechanical determinants of size and shape in wave-swept environments.


The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit exists at least in part to achieve goals related to patent law that the Supreme Court singularly failed to achieve. Since the Federal Circuit's inception just over thirty years ago, however, critics have shifted blame for problems with the patent system from the Supreme Court to the Federal Circuit. A common criticism that has gained strength is that the Federal Circuit engages in overly formalistic rule-based adjudication in patent cases. One aspect of this criticism is that the Federal Circuit too often creates rules to govern patent law. In this Article, I challenge that critique and defend the Federal Circuit's practice of considering the appropriateness of a rule-based adjudicatory approach to patent law in the context of the present institutional structure. After evaluating the history of the Supreme Court's oversight of the Federal Circuit and assessing normative bases for the use of rules in patent law, the Article suggests a framework for evaluating the appropriate degree of rule-based adjudication in patent law. In short, this Article develops and defends the position that the Federal Circuit's consideration of rule-based adjudication reflects not only the expected but also the preferred practice of a semi-specialized intermediate appellate court whose development of patent law is subject to discretionary review by a generalized court of last resort.


Single image-level annotations only correctly describe an often small subset of an image's content, particularly when complex real-world scenes are depicted. While this might be acceptable in many classification scenarios, it poses a significant challenge for applications where the set of classes differs significantly between training and test time. In this paper, we take a closer look at the implications in the context of $\textit{few-shot learning}$. Splitting the input samples into patches and encoding these via the help of Vision Transformers allows us to establish semantic correspondences between local regions across images and independent of their respective class. The most informative patch embeddings for the task at hand are then determined as a function of the support set via online optimization at inference time, additionally providing visual interpretability of `$\textit{what matters most}$' in the image. We build on recent advances in unsupervised training of networks via masked image modelling to overcome the lack of fine-grained labels and learn the more general statistical structure of the data while avoiding negative image-level annotation influence, $\textit{aka}$ supervision collapse. Experimental results show the competitiveness of our approach, achieving new state-of-the-art results on four popular few-shot classification benchmarks for $5$-shot and $1$-shot scenarios.


Today's potential users of machine learning technology are faced with the non-trivial problem of choosing, from the large, ever-increasing number of available tools, the one most appropriate for their particular task. To assist the often non-initiated users, it is desirable that this model selection process be automated. Using experience from base level learning, researchers have proposed meta-learning as a possible solution. Historically, predictive accuracy has been the de facto criterion, with most work in meta-learning focusing on the discovery of rules that match applications to models based on accuracy only. Although predictive accuracy is clearly an important criterion, it is also the case that there are a number of other criteria that could, and often ought to, be considered when learning about model selection. This paper presents a number of such criteria and discusses the impact they have on meta-level approaches to model selection.


Forest ecosystem services are critical for human wellbeing as well as functioning and growth of economies. However, despite the growing demand for these services, they are hardly given due consideration in public policy formulation. The values attached to these services by local communities are also generally unknown in developing countries. Using a case study of the Mau forest conservancy in Kenya the study applied a choice experiment technique employing the efficient design criteria to value salient forest ecosystem services among forest-adjacent communities. The values attached to various ecosystem services were estimated using the conditional logit, random parameter logit model and random parameter logit model with interactions. The results revealed high level of preference heterogeneity across households and that communities would prefer conservation programs that would guarantee them improved forest cover, reduced flood risk and high water quality and quantity for drinking but would experience a loss in welfare for choosing an alternative with medium wildlife population. One significant finding from the study is the altruistic nature of forest-adjacent communities as revealed by the high willingness to pay for flood mitigation showing that they are not just concerned with the private benefits accruing to them but also the welfare of the society. Overall, we found that there is much appreciation for the role of forest ecosystem services and that forest-adjacent communities are more pro conservation mainly motivated by the direct use and non-use values. In terms of policy, the information forms a basis for the design of market based incentives such as PES and the roll out, design and implementation of participatory forest management. Policy makers also need to focus on policy options with higher mean welfare impacts to deepen community involvement in forest conservation while taking into account the heterogeneity in preferences to ensure equity.


Laboratory work, in the undergraduate engineering course, is aimed at enhancing students' understanding of taught concepts and integrating theory and practice. This demands that laboratory work is synchronised with lectures in order to maximise its derivable learning outcomes, measurable through assessment. The typical high costs of raditional engineering laboratory, which often militates against its increased use and the synchronisation of laboratory and lectures, have, in addition to other factors, catalysed the increased adoption of virtual laboratories as a complement to the traditional engineering laboratory. In extreme cases, virtual laboratories could serve as alternative means of providing, albeit simulated, meaningful practical experiences. A Virtual Electronic Laboratory (VEL), which can be used to undertake a range of undergraduate electronic engineering curriculum-based laboratory activities, in a realistic manner, has been implemented as part of the work presented in this thesis. The VEL incorporates a Bayesian Network (BN)-based model for the performance assessment of students' laboratory work in the VEL. Detailed descriptions of the VEL and the assessment model are given. The evaluation of the entire system is in two phases: evaluation of the VEL as a tool for facilitating students' deeper understanding of fundamental engineering concepts taught in lectures; and evaluation of the assessment model within the context of the VEL environment. The VEL is evaluated at two different engineering faculties, in two separate universities. Results from the evaluation of the VEL show the effectiveness of the VEL to enhance students' learning, in the light of appropriate learning scenarios, and provide evidence and support for the use of virtual laboratories in the engineering educational context. Performance data, extracted from students' behaviour logs (captured and recorded during the evaluation of the VEL) are used to evaluate the assessment model. Results of the evaluation demonstrate the effectiveness of the model as an assessment tool, and the practicability of the performance assessment of students' laboratory work from their observed behaviour in a virtual learning environment.


The remaining missionary task in South Africa This article is based on the results of a research project of the Institute for Missiological Research at the University of Pretoria which was recently concluded. The author and a team of co-workers researched practically the whole of South Africa in an endeavour to describe the contemporary situation of its population and the unfinished task of the church. The understanding of the missionary task which formed the basis of this project, and a sample of the kind of results obtained are illustrated in this article by means of 12 representative or typical scenarios which together indicate the dimensions of the future task for the South African church.


Although some piecemeal efforts have been made to investigate the validity and use of the Iranian PhD exam, no systematic project has been specifically carried out in this regard. The current study, hence, tried to attend to this void. As such, to ensure a balanced focus on test interpretation and test consequence, and to track evidence derived from a mixed–method study on the validity of Iranian PhD entrance exam of TEFL (IPEET), this study drew on a hybrid of two argument-based structures: Kane's (1992) argument model and Bennett's (2010) theory of action. Resting on the network of inferences and assumptions borrowed from the hybridized framework, the study investigated the extent to which the proposed assumptions would be supported by empirical evidence. It also examined the unintended consequences that may possibly be revealed through this validity investigation. Three sources of data informed the present study: (a) Test score data from about 1000 PhD applicants' taking IPEET test administered in 2014, (b) questionnaires completed by university professors and PhD students of TEFL, and finally, (c) telephone and focus-group interviews with university professors and PhD students of TEFL, respectively. The results from the analysis of mixed-method data indicated that all the inferences proposed for this study were rebutted, suggesting that some unintended consequences have happened to the technical as well as the decision quality of this test, hence its invalidity. Findings also provided valuable insights and suggestions for the betterment of the present content and current policy of IPEET in Iran.


Abstract A volatile series of presidential transitions has only intensified the century-long conflict between progressive defenders and conservative critics of the administrative state. Yet neither side has adequately confronted the fact that the growth of uncertainty and the corresponding spread of guidance–a kind of provisional "rule" that invites its own revision–mark a break in the development of the administrative state as significant as the rise of notice-and-comment rulemaking in the 1960s and 1970s. Whereas rulemaking corrected social shortsightedness by enlisting science in the service of lawful administration, guidance acknowledges that both science and law are in need of continual correction. Administrative law has the resources to ensure that the provisionality of guidance does not lead to the abuses that conservatives fear. But to deploy those resources–and to carry through the reforms of administrative organization that are their natural complement–progressives must rethink their commitments to judicial deference to administrative authority and administrative deference to presidential authority, commitments on which the progressive defense of the administrative state currently depends.


Restorative approaches to criminal behaviour can have wide application, extending even to peacekeeping operations and rebuilding post‐conflict societies. One example is reconciliation in post‐civil‐war Bougainville, a province of Papua New Guinea. The international intervention there was organised and implemented with societal reconciliation as one of its prime aims and it is shown here, through description of peacemaking ceremonies, that reconciliation in Bougainville is an exemplar of restorative justice. The design and composition of the multinational force is outlined, and the article is infused with interviews from peacekeepers and local Bougainvilleans – the people whose peace 'was being kept'. This particular case shows that a more restoratively focused peace operation can have valuable lessons for international interventions generally.


This thesis describes the research and development of a decision support tool for
determining a medical patient's suitability for surgical anaesthesia. At present,
there is a change in the way that patients are clinically assessedp rior to surgery.
The pre-operative assessment, usually conducted by a qualified anaesthetist, is
being more frequently performed by nursing grade staff. The pre-operative
assessmenet xists to minimise the risk of surgical complications for the patient.
Nursing grade staff are often not as experienced as qualified anaesthetists, and
thus are not as well suited to the role of performing the pre-operative assessment.
This research project used data collected during pre-operative assessments to
develop a decision support tool that would assist the nurse (or anaesthetist) in
determining whether a patient is suitable for surgical anaesthesia. The three
main objectives are: firstly, to research and develop an automated intelligent
systems technique for classifying heart and lung sounds and hence identifying
cardio-respiratory pathology. Secondly, to research and develop an automated
intelligent systems technique for assessing the patient's blood oxygen level and
pulse waveform. Finally, to develop a decision support tool that would combine
the assessmentsa bove in forming a decision as to whether the patient is suitable
for surgical anaesthesia.
Clinical data were collected from hospital outpatient departments and recorded
alongside the diagnoses made by a qualified anaesthetist. Heart and lung sounds
were collected using an electronic stethoscope. Using this data two ensembles of
artificial neural networks were trained to classify the different heart and lung
sounds into different pathology groups. Classification accuracies up to 99.77%
for the heart sounds, and 100% for the lung sounds has been obtained. Oxygen
saturation and pulse waveform measurements were recorded using a pulse oximeter. Using this data an artificial neural network was trained to discriminate
between normal and abnormal pulse waveforms. A discrimination accuracy of
98% has been obtained from the system. A fuzzy inference system was
generated to classify the patient's blood oxygen level as being either an
inhibiting or non-inhibiting factor in their suitability for surgical anaesthesia.
When tested the system successfully classified 100% of the test dataset. A
decision support tool, applying the genetic programming evolutionary technique
to a fuzzy classification system was created. The decision support tool combined
the results from the heart sound, lung sound and pulse oximetry classifiers in
determining whether a patient was suitable for surgical anaesthesia. The evolved
fuzzy system attained a classification accuracy of 91.79%.
The principal conclusion from this thesis is that intelligent systems, such as
artificial neural networks, genetic programming, and fuzzy inference systems,
can be successfully applied to the creation of medical decision support tools.


Abstract : Issues of stability of the Tethered Satellite System (TSS) during station-keeping, de- ployment and retrieval are considered. The basic nonlinear equations of motion of the TSS are derived using the system Lagrangian. Using the Hopf bifurcation theorem, tension control laws are established which guarantee the stability of the system during the station-keeping mode. A constant angle control method is hypothesized for subsatellite deployment and retrieval. It is proved that this control law results in stable deployment but unstable retrieval. An enhanced control law for deployment is also proposed, which entails use of the constant angle method followed by a station-keeping control law once the tether length is sufficiently near the desired value. Simulations are given to illustrate the conclusions.


Some of the studies associated with laser assisted processing including machining, surface treatment applications, and electrochemical response of the selective surfaces were carried out prior to the thesis work by the thesis author. In the light of the previous studies, additional study on laser controlled melting of surfaces is carried out for pre-prepared Haynes 188 and Inconel 718 alloys, and high speed steel workpieces. Metallurgical and morphological changes in the laser treated layer are examined using Scanning Electron Microscopy, Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy, and X-ray Diffraction. A carbon film of about 50 thickness and containing 5% TiC particles is formed at the workpiece surface prior to the laser treatment process. The carbon film formed at the surface enhances the absorption of laser irradiation and accommodates uniformly distributed TiC particles. The residual stress formed at the surface of the laser treated workpiece is obtained using X-ray Diffraction technique while indentation tests are carried out to measure microhardness and fracture toughness of the resulting surfaces. It is found that laser treated surfaces of Hayness 188 and Inconel 718 alloys, and high speed steel are free from microcracks and surface asperities. The formation of carbnotride and nitride phases at the surface vicinity of laser treated layer contribute to increased hardness and dense layer formation at the surface. The residual stress formed at the surface of Hayness 188 alloy is on the order of 590 ± 15 MPa, 460± 15 MPa for high speed steel, and 48014 MPa for Inconel 718 alloy. For high speed steels, e-Fe3N, and e-Fe3 (N,C) compounds are formed at the laser treated surface which are attributed to the presence of carbon film and high pressure nitrogen assisting gas during the laser processing. The fracture toughness of laser treated surface reduces considerably because of increased hardness and dense layer formed at vicinity of laser treated surface. Partially dissolution of carbide particles takes place at the surface of the Inconel 718 alloy. The formation of fine grains, nitride compounds formed as well as dissolution of Laves phase at the surface region enhance hardness at the surfaces of laser treated Inconel 718 alloy workpiece.


High risk devices are mostly used as last-resort surgical procedures. Their approval by national regulatory bodies depends essentially on their quality, safety, and efficacy for a particular clinical indication. In our study, we examine the national regulatory processes of the five founding members of the former Global Harmonization Task Force (replaced by the International Medical Device Regulators Forum in 2012) – Australia, Canada, the European Union, Japan, and the United States – with a view to identifying which uncertainties associated with high risk devices raise sufficiently serious ethical concerns to warrant more robust regulatory oversight and governance. The assessment of the safety and effectiveness of high risk medical devices is a challenging issue, both during the pre-market and post-market phases of evaluation, because there may be lack of robust and reliable evidence to demonstrate long term safety and effectiveness, as seen in the many product recalls in recent years (e.g., hip replacement prostheses). Faulty devices can have a significant negative impact on patients and the broader public. The deployment of unsafe or ineffective medical devices raises questions about the extent to which manufacturers, regulators and clinicians attend to fundamental ethical principles of medicine, such as informed consent, beneficence and nonmaleficence. The respect of these principles is essential to facilitating optimal decision-making by patients and clinicians who are considering recourse to a procedure involving the use of a high risk device; failure to respect these principles can undermine public confidence in clinicians, manufactures and regulators. We therefore suggest some avenues to improve the


Australia's National Road Safety Strategy 2011-2020 proposes greater use of alcohol ignition interlocks. To inform a potential expansion of interlock use, an international literature review examined the influence of mandatory versus voluntary alcohol ignition interlock schemes (AIS) in offenders' subsequent driving and broader rehabilitation, and interlocks as preventative measures in occupational driving contexts. Additionally, the review documented AIS operational effectiveness in relation to first offenders versus repeat offenders, timing of program admittance and exit, program monitoring, participant support programs and problems experienced in AIS implementation. Evaluations of road safety effectiveness for AIS in Canada, USA, Sweden and Australia were also studied. The literature review yielded a substantial list of considered best practice components of effective AIS, ranging from the various broad contexts where interlock use can be usefully encouraged or mandated, down to specific operational considerations. Identifying best practice components affords assistance to any efforts to progress the National Strategy's vision for the future deployment of interlocks.


We consider the problem of deriving formulas that capture traps, invariants, and dead-ends in classical planning through polynomial forms of preprocessing. An invariant is a formula that is true in the initial state and in all reachable states. A trap is a conditional invariant: once a state is reached that makes the trap true, all the states that are reachable from it will sat- isfy the trap formula as well. Finally, dead-ends are formulas that are satisfied in states that make the goal unreachable. We introduce a preprocessing algorithm that computes traps in k- DNF form that is exponential in the k parameter, and show how the algorithm can be used to precompute invariants and dead-ends. We report also preliminary tests that illustrate the effectiveness of the preprocessing algorithm for identifying dead-end states, and compare it with the identification that follows from the use of the h1 and h2 heuristics that cannot be preprocessed, and must be computed at run time.


This work was part of a project to provide information on key fatal and serious crash types across Australia and New Zealand, and to benchmark safety performance of different road stereotypes between jurisdictions. The entire dataset of casualty crashes occurring in Australia and New Zealand from 2001 to 2010 was assembled. So far as possible, differences between the different data sets were reconciled to create a single database for Australia and another for New Zealand. Where this was not possible, those jurisdictions which could not be reconciled with the overall classification were omitted from that part of the analysis. In line with Safe System principles, results were presented as fatal and serious injury crashes contrasted with all casualty crashes, generating some important insights for crash countermeasure priorities. Some types of crash had large proportions of fatal and serious injury crashes, while other types of crash had relatively small percentages of these crashes but such high overall frequencies that they accounted for a large proportion of the fatal and serious injury crashes. Key crash types for Australia were off-path, head-on, adjacent approaches, and same direction crashes, and for New Zealand the key crash types were loss-of-control on curve, crossing/turning, loss-of-control on a straight, and rear-end/ obstruction. In Australia, the largest number of fatal and serious injury crashes occurred on urban arterial roads; while in New Zealand, the greatest number occurred on rural roads. Plans for further analyses in terms of crash rates for benchmarking will be described in the paper.


Background: The incidence of shoulder and elbow injuries among adolescent baseball players is on the rise. These injuries may lead to surgery or retirement at a young age. Purpose: To identify independent risk factors for elbow and shoulder injuries in adolescent baseball players. A secondary aim was to determine whether the literature supports the Major League Baseball and USA Baseball Pitch Smart guidelines. Study Design: Systematic review. Methods: A systematic review was performed in accordance with PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines utilizing MEDLINE, SPORTDiscus, and Web of Science. Because of study heterogeneity, a quantitative synthesis was not performed. A qualitative review was performed on 19 independent risk factors for elbow and shoulder injuries in adolescent baseball players. Level of evidence was assigned per the Oxford Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine Working Group, and risk of bias was graded per the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale. Results: Twenty-two articles met criteria for inclusion. Of the 19 independent variables that were analyzed, age, height, playing for multiple teams, pitch velocity, and arm fatigue were found to be independent risk factors for throwing arm injuries. Pitches per game appears to be a risk factor for shoulder injuries. Seven independent variables (innings pitched per game, showcase participation, games per year, training days per week, pitch type, shoulder external rotation, and shoulder total range of motion) do not appear to be significant risk factors. The data were inconclusive for the remaining 6 variables (weight, months of pitching per year, innings or pitches per year, catching, shoulder horizontal adduction, and glenohumeral internal rotation deficit). Conclusion: The results from this study demonstrate that age, height, playing for multiple teams, pitch velocity, and arm fatigue are clear risk factors for throwing arm injuries in adolescent baseball players. Pitches per game appears to be a risk factor for shoulder injuries. Other variables are either inconclusive or do not appear to be specific risk factors for injuries.


We propose a Bayesian approach to dynamic panel estimation in the presence of cross-sectional dependence and dynamic heterogeneity which is suitable for inference in short panels, unlike alternative estimators. Monte Carlo simulations indicate that our estimator produces less bias, and a lower root mean squared error, than existing estimators. The method is illustrated by estimating a panel VAR on sector level data for labour productivity and hours worked growth for Canada, Germany, France, Italy, the UK and the US from 1992 Q1 to 2011 Q3. We use historical decompositions to examine the determinants of recent output growth in each country. This exercise demonstrates that failure to take cross-sectional dependence into account leads to highly misleading results.


The EU-UK Joint Report of December 2017 recognised the possibility for a differentiated Brexit that would allow Northern Ireland to maintain a special relationship with the EU. Such an arrangement could occur if addressing the challenge of the Irish border through the overall future EU-UK relationship proves impossible and if the specific technological solutions the UK proposes are deemed insufficient. Indeed, the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland of the draft UK Withdrawal Treaty the EU published on 28 February 2018 codified such a 'backstop option'. The present Independent Opinion suggests that the UK Withdrawal Agreement should recognise the unique circumstances of Northern Ireland by providing for a special designated status. Such a status should be understood as a mutually agreed arrangement that will respect and protect the unique constitutional status of the region as provided by all three Strands of the Good Friday Agreement. In particular, the special designated status should respect the principle of consent and the right of self-determination by providing for a legal route for the reintegration of Northern Ireland into the EU. This status should protect the all-island economy by allowing for the participation of the region in the single market and/or the EU Customs Union (EUCU). This situation should not happen at the expense of weakening 'East-West' institutions, however (i.e. between the Republic of Ireland and the UK); in fact, their strengthening will be necessary in order to manage the tensions that Northern Ireland's remaining in the single market and the EUCU would likely cause to its economic relationship with the rest of the UK.


A modified rotation shear device was used for measuring interface friction angles between soils and geosynthetics. The device was modified so that a geosynthetic specimen can be attached to the upper platen. A reliable method for cutting and attaching geosynthetic specimens to the device is described. The geosynthetic mounting system is simple, strong, and easy to remove. Interface friction angles and interface efficiencies for two ash samples and Boston Blue Clay with three geosynthetics are reported and compared. A range of strength increase is reported for a given soil with change from a smooth geomembrane to a textured geomembrane or nonwoven geotextile. Shear displacements up to 300 mm are quantified in the paper, showing that large, unidirectional displacements may accumulate in the rotation shear device.


Does the disappointingly high unemployment in Central and East European countries reflect non-completed adjustment to institutional shocks from transition to a market economy, or is it the result of high labour market rigidities, or rather a syndrome of too weak aggregate demand and output? In the case of transitional causes, unemployment is expected to decline over time. Otherwise, it would pose a challenge to the European Union, particular in case of accession countries, for it jeopardizes the ambitious integration plans of, and may trigger excessive migration to the Union. In order to find out which hypothesis holds 15 years after transition has started, we analyze the unemploymentgrowth dynamics in the eight new member countries from Central-Eastern Europe. The study is based on country and panel regressions with instrument variables (TSLS). The results suggest to declare the transition of labour markets as completed; unemployment responds to output and not to a changing institutional environment for job creation. The regression coefficients report a high trend rate of productivity and a high unemployment intensity of output growth since 1998. The conclusion is that labour market rigidities do not to play an important role in explaining high unemployment rates. Rather, GDP growth is dominated by productivity progress, while the employment relevant component of aggregate demand is too low to reduce substantially the high level of unemployment.


The study contributes to the understandings of how women negotiate work and family over the life course by investigating what factors impact young women's aspirations for full time, part-time, and other forms of work. Using data from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health (ALSWH) with its nationally representative sample of Australian women, the authors examine how women moving from their 20s to early 30s change their aspirations for employment (at the age of 35) after significant life events and changes, including the birth of a child. Multinomial logistic regression analyses across two transition periods (N = 7,505 and N = 7,584) showed that changes in employment aspirations co-occurred with movement into marriage or stable relationships and with changes in aspirations for family size. As young women become mothers, or move into situations in which motherhood is likely, many adjusted their employment aspirations away from full-time employment and toward part-time work. The findings suggest a growing awareness of the practical difficulties of balancing paid work and family roles within the current context of work and family policy and practice in Australia. Women's choices are not free of constraints; rather, younger generations of women negotiate work and family life by adjusting and changing their own aspirations within the context and circumstances of their lives.