It is perhaps appropriate that this symposium, in celebration of the career of Hans Baade, should conclude with some words on areas of convergence of comparative and international law-fields of the law to which Hans has devoted so much of his work over the past decades. Of course, in a sense, the doctrines of international law have always relied to an important extent on comparative law-when that phrase is broadly understood to mean the comparison of differing doctrines, rules, and practices adopted in various legal systems. In the words of the American Restatement-echoing the well-known formulation of the Statute of the International Court of Justice-international law may result from, or be derived from, "a general and consistent practice of states followed by them from a sense of legal obligation" or "general principles common to the major legal systems."1 Certainly the determination of such "general [international] practice," or such "general principles," has always required the collection and comparison of legal and diplomatic sources from many countries of the world.2 But, in traditional views of international law, this process generally involved legal rules and diplomatic actions that were turned outward-outside the border of the country itself. Accordingly, these were doctrines and practices that were already international in nature because they concerned the treatment by one state of other states or of the citizens of other states. For example, in the well-known American case of The Paquete Habana,3 the learned opinion of Justice Horace Gray examined numerous diplomatic acts, such as that of Louis XVI-referred to as "our ally" in the Revolutionary War-who gave "orders to the commanders of all his ships not to disturb English fishermen, nor to arrest their vessels laden with fresh fish."4 The Court also examined subsequent parallel actions of French prize tribunals, with respect to the capture by French boats of English or Portuguese vessels.5 Similarly, in the famous Lotus case, the Permanent Court of International Justice examined decisions from various countries, in order to determine whether a Turkish court could exercise criminal jurisdiction over the officer of a French ship after a collision on the high seas.6 A fundamental turning point came immediately after World War II, when, in the light of that cataclysm, international law began to shift its focus toward an area that was previously thought to lie exclusively within the realm of internal, domestic law: the treatment by one state of its own citizens-the field that we now call human rights. Yet dramatic as this development was in 1945, its basic principles were far from new, even then. As Hersch Lauterpacht made clear in a groundbreaking book published right at the end of World War II, ideas of human rights had for centuries been bound up with many of the central ideas and concepts of natural law.7 Natural law, in turn, has long had a close, albeit somewhat uneasy, relationship with the principles of international law. Moreover, a state's treatment of the citizens of other states within its own borders-that is, a state's treatment of aliens-had been a traditional subject of international law. The same was true of a state's treatment of the citizens of other states in time of war. But the treatment by a nation of its own citizens had not emerged as a plausible subject of international law until the end of World War II.8 A rather tentative step in this direction was taken in Article 6(c) of the Nuremberg Charter, the section of the Charter that defines "crimes against humanity."9 Unlike the case of the other Nuremberg crimes-the planning and waging of aggressive war (crimes against peace) and traditional war crimes-the definition of crimes against humanity was designed to include acts by the German regime against German citizens. Yet the step was tentative because the International Criminal Tribunal at Nuremberg required that any crime against humanity-in order to be proven against the defendants-must have been committed in connection with one of the more purely international crimes set forth in the charter: that is, crimes against peace or war crimes. …


The Sempa Resource Manager is a resource management system for parallel applications in a network of workstations that enables the utilization of idle resources for parallel computing and shortens the execution time of parallel applications by dynamic load balancing at runtime. The network of workstations runs in a non-dedicated mode, where the Sempa Resource Manager assigns hosts that are not required by interactive users to its batch jobs. The flexible structure of the Sempa Resource Manager guarantees scalability and results in functions for transparent process migration and dynamic reconfiguration of the parallel execution environment. We present performance measurements with an industrial computational fluid dynamics program proving the efficiency of the Sempa Resource Manager.


Selective conversion of bio-derived ethanol to benzene, toluene and xylenes (BTX) is desirable for producing renewable BTX. In this work, we show that addition of Ga to H-ZSM-5 leads to a two-fold increase in the BTX yield as compared with H-ZSM-5 when ethanol is converted over these zeolites at 450 °C and ambient pressure. Besides promoting BTX formation, Ga also plays an important role in enhancing molecular hydrogen production and suppressing hydrogen transfer reactions for light alkane formation. The ion exchange synthesis of Ga-ZSM-5 results in the majority of Ga at the outer surface of zeolite crystals as extra-zeolitic Ga2O3 particles and only a small fraction of Ga exchanging with the Bronsted acid sites which appears to be responsible for higher ethanol conversion to BTX. The interface between H-ZSM-5 and Ga2O3 particles is not active since H-ZSM-5 and the physical mixture of β-Ga2O3/H-ZSM-5 furnish an almost identical product distribution. Hydrogen reduction of the physical mixtures facilitates movement of Ga to ion exchange locations and dramatically increases the BTX yield becoming comparable to those obtained over ion-exchanged Ga-ZSM-5, suggesting that exchanged Ga(III) cations are responsible for the increased BTX production. A linear correlation between the BTX site time yield and exchanged Ga sites further confirms that Ga occupying cationic sites are active sites for enhancing BTX formation. Reduction of physical mixtures (β-Ga2O3/H-ZSM-5) also provides an economical and environmentally friendly non-aqueous method for large scale catalyst synthesis without sacrificing catalyst performance for ethanol conversion application.


In speech processing, reflections of sound wave in a bounded space have considered as speech reverberation. Although for musical instruments and their related recording devices these reflections are useful, however, some other applications face serious problems receiving them along with speech signal. Reverberation causes speech degradation and unintelligibility as well as quality reduction. Dereverberation algorithms are essential for Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR), telecommunication and hearing aid devices, which are some of the mostly used applications. Even though dereverberation itself is a challenging issue, dereverberating a speech signal recorded only by one microphone (or channel) requires more attention and resolution. Aside from that, in acoustic environments, interference signals such as White Gaussian Noise and any other type of noise decrease the quality of received signal even more. In this paper, we propose a two stage algorithm for enhancement of reverberant speech from one microphone recordings. In the first stage, Kalman filter has been employed to reduce the effects of noise on received speech signal. In this stage, different values of SNR of additive White Gaussian Noise have been practiced on a reverberated speech signal. Furthermore, the results of noise reduction stage have been compared to show the grade of effectiveness of each adaptive filter. In the second stage, an inverse filter has been applied for reducing the reverberation's effect on received speech signal.


Aerodynamic characteristic of a small scale wind turbine under the influence of an incoming uniform wind field is studied using k-w Shear Stress Transport turbulence model. Firstly, the lift and drag characteristics of the blade section consisting of S826 airfoil is studied using 2D simulations at a Reynolds number of 1X 10. After that, the full turbine including the rotational effects of the blade is simulated using Multiple Reference Frames (MRF) and Sliding Mesh Interface (SMI) numerical techniques. The differences between the two techniques are quantified. It is then followed by a detailed comparison of the turbine\'s power/thrust output and the associated wake development at three tip speeds ratios ( = 3, 6, 10). The phenomenon of blockage effect and spatial features of the flow are explained and linked to the turbines power output. Validation of wake profiles patterns at multiple locations downstream is also performed at each . The present work aims to evaluate the potential of the numerical methods in reproducing wind tunnel experimental results such that the method can be applied to full-scale turbines operating under realistic conditions in which observation data is scarce or lacking.


From diggers and weeders, to artists and colourists, writers and dreamers to trend-setters, plantswomen to landscape designers, women have contributed to the world of gardening and gardens. Here Deborah Kellaway, author of The Making of an English Country Garden and Favourite Flowers , has collected extracts from the 18th century to the present day, to create a book that is replete with anecdotes and good-humoured advice. Colette, Margery Fish, Germaine Greer, Eleanor Sinclair Rohde, Vita Sackville-West, Rosemary Verey, Edith Wharton and Dorothy Wordsworth are some of the writers represented in this book.


Though variability is everywhere, there has always been a shortage of publicly available cases for assessing variability-aware tools and techniques as well as supports for teaching variability-related concepts. Historical software product lines contains industrial secrets their owners do not want to disclose to a wide audience. The open source community contributed to large-scale cases such as Eclipse, Linux kernels, or web-based plugin systems (Drupal, WordPress). To assess accuracy of sampling and prediction approaches (bugs, performance), a case where all products can be enumerated is desirable. As configuration issues do not lie within only one place but are scattered across technologies and assets, a case exposing such diversity is an additional asset. To this end, we present in this paper our efforts in building an explicit product line on top of JHipster, an industrial open-source Web-app configurator that is both manageable in terms of configurations (≈ 163,000) and diverse in terms of technologies used. We present our efforts in building a variability-aware chain on top of JHipster's configurator and lessons learned using it as a teaching case at the University of Rennes. We also sketch the diversity of analyses that can be performed with our infrastructure as well as early issues found using it. Our long term goal is both to support students and researchers studying variability analysis and JHipster developers in the maintenance and evolution of their tools.


Shortly after being elected President, Ike Eisenhower was approached with a plan that would involve the participation of the CIA in the overthrow of the Iranian government. His predecessor, Harry S. Truman, had refused complicity in such a plan. However, given the escalating tension between the Soviet Union and the West and the geopolitical value of Iran, Eisenhower approved the plan. As the first of its kind, the CIA-sponsored coup ended Iran's attempt at democracy and placed in power Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi. In an effort to preserve Iran as a cold war ally of the West, the United States gave extensive support to the Shah for the next three decades, even at the expense of civil rights for Iranian nationals. As a contradictory foreign policy, the United States simultaneously attempted Americanization of the Iranians through curricular and exchange programs. This dichotomous approach introduced the internal conflicts of Iranians and Americans alike during the Jimmy Carter presidency, who similarly struggled with international distribution of American civil rights and the desire to maintain control of Iran. With this understanding, the Iranian hostage crisis is not the sudden and unexpected event of the late 1970s as portrayed, but is a natural culmination of thirty years of conflicting cultural and ideological foreign policy towards Iran. The current animosity between the two countries is a modern reminder of an intimate Cold War relationship that turned hostile because of infidelity. Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE .


This article reports the results of an empirical inquiry analyzing why some businesses adopt "planned early dispute resolution" (PEDR) systems when most other businesses probably do not do so. PEDR systems enable parties and their lawyers to resolve disputes favorably and efficiently as early as reasonably possible. They involve strategic planning for preventing conflict and handling disputes promptly as they arise rather than dealing with them ad hoc. One might assume that using a PEDR system should be a "no-brainer" for businesses that regularly litigate because litigation-as-usual undermines many business interests such as efficiency, protection of reputations and relationships, control of disputing and business operations generally, and risk management, among others. Although this seems like a plausible assumption, this study indicates that is it problematic for multiple reasons. Yet some inside counsel, who are key players in developing PEDR systems, have been able to overcome common barriers to adoption of these systems.This article uses in-depth interviews to tell the story of inside counsel at major corporations who designed PEDR systems to satisfy the interests of key stakeholders. It describes elements of PEDR systems and the processes for developing them. Interview subjects emphasized that it is especially important to build support for the systems, change the corporate disputing culture, designate individuals to manage the process, and use early case assessments. The article offers recommendations for more widespread use of PEDR systems, including development of resources to help companies implement PEDR systems, use of dispute system design methods, designation of PEDR counsel to manage the process, and making PEDR a valued part of the corporate culture.


As humans we have the capacity to remember and to forget. For millennia remembering was hard, and forgetting easy. By default, we would forget. Digital technology has inverted this. Today, with affordable storage, effortless retrieval and global access remembering has become the default, for us individually and for society as a whole. We store our digital photos irrespective of whether they are good or not - because even choosing which to throw away is too time-consuming, and keep different versions of the documents we work on, just in case we ever need to go back to an earlier one. Google saves every search query, and millions of video surveillance cameras retain our movements. In this article I analyze this shift and link it to technological innovation and information economics. Then I suggest why we may want to worry about the shift, and call for what I term data ecology. In contrast to others I do not call for comprehensive new laws or constitutional adjudication. Instead I propose a simple rule that reinstates the default of forgetting our societies have experienced for millennia, and I show how a combination of law and technology can achieve this shift.


In this paper the novel lattice structure composed of homogeneous invertible two-point operations which are connected in regular and simple structure is proposed. Further on the pipeline scheme for implementation of such a structure is presented. It is proved with the orthogonal variant of the presented scheme that with respect to the computational complexity it is equivalent to the lifting technique. It means that the proposed scheme belongs to the class of the most effective algorithms for calculation of orthogonal wavelet transforms. The variant of the lattice structure with simplified two-point operations is also proposed. Finally the fundamentals of the synthesis of lattice structure coefficients with the aid of artificial neural networks and some aspects of lattice structures implementation on basic computational architectures are discussed.


A major influence on civil rights, anti-colonial, and black consciousness movements around the world, Black Skin, White Masks is the unsurpassed study of the black psyche in a white world. Hailed for its scientific analysis and poetic grace when it was first published in 1952, the book remains a vital force today. "[Fanon] demonstrates how insidiously the problem of race, of color, connects with a whole range of words and images." -- Robert Coles, The New York Times Book Review


A 78-year-old white man presented with a painless, right upper eyelid mass causing mechanical ptosis. There was no prior history of trauma, surgery, or eyelid inflammation. Examination revealed a firm, globular mass that was fixed to the tarsal plate of the upper eyelid. Excisional biopsy performed through an upper eyelid crease incision revealed a mass securely attached to the tarsal plate which upon separation leaked cheesy, malodorous material. Histopathologic sections demonstrated a cyst lined by squamous epithelium containing laminated keratin consistent with a diagnosis of an epidermoid cyst. The authors report, to their knowledge, the first description of an epidermoid cyst of the tarsal plate. As with epidermoid cysts in other locations, surgical excision is the treatment of choice.


This chapter discusses the specific challenges faced by Icelandic students trained in traditional English as a Foreign Language (EFL) when they enter university programs that are partially or entirely taught in English (English as a Medium of Instruction, EMI). This includes the measures taken by the Department of English to meet English majors' and non-English majors' growing demand for academic English support. The lack of academic English skills of Icelandic students is a "hidden challenge" (Ingvarsdottir and Arnbjornsdottir, 2014) caused by an overconfident perception of students' English proficiency by University officials and by the students themselves. The goal of the Department of English is to bring students quickly to a level of academic English that allows them to access curriculum and instruction where ENL (English as a Native Language) norms are expected. As the identified challenges differ from those encountered in students' previous EFL dominated environment with minimal writing experience, there is a critical need to adapt teaching and learning practices to a new linguistic context where English functions as an additional language. The article concludes with a description of a new intensive instructional approach that targets identified English academic literacy needs of students entering the University of Iceland. The foundation of the new approach is that all students can acquire skills in organizing ideas and composing clear and effective text in English across all genres. The approach accomplishes this by developing awareness of English writing conventions, knowledge about which strategies to employ and when to employ them, revision skills and the persistence to rewrite until the text authentically reflects the views of the author. The idea is that through writing, students also gain an awareness of the nature of English academic texts and thereby hone their reading skills.


A Virtual Reality documentary film, the film uses scientific data in the visual arts through visualisation of data management processes. Puerto Rico Trench is a documentary that uses scientific data to visualise data management processes. The film explores
representations of wilderness through science by taking data from newly mapped areas of the ocean floor in the Pacific and
transforming them into inhabitable virtual spaces.
Digital technologies, in particular database VR technologies, offer new kinds of textual and visual discussions. VR challenges
such fundamental concepts as an image of landscape. The Puerto Rico Trench film uses pioneering VR software in a high
definition large scale moving image project. The Fledermouse software was adapted for use in moving image project by ten
Brink with technical support from USGS in the USA and University of Westminster and attracted a $35,000 grant from NOAA in
the USA. By using a Multibeam echo-sounder and extensive use of 3-D visualisation fly-bys along the ocean floor through the
dramatic bathymetry of the Puerto Rico trench, the film creates 'digital landscapes' simulating in parts video games and 3-D
visualisations.
The film is a product of a close cooperation between ten Brink and a group of scientists throughout all the stages of production
and post production. It includes live action documentary filming aboard a research ship and generation of 3-D fly-by using the
Fledermaus software. Beside its contribution to the visual arts, the film has been presented in science conferences and is widely
distributed (over 1200 copies to date) in the USA, Caribbean region and Australia in university libraries and science museums
(The University of Western Australia, University of Texas at Austin, Russian Academy of Sciences Novosibirsk, University of
North Dakota).
Screenings:
1. 10.10.2004: American Geophysical Union Conference, San Francisco, USA (www.agu.org/fm04) - Science Film Programme ,
San Fransico, USA
2. 27- 30.6.05 International Scientific Congress 2005, Havana, Cuba
3. 12.05.2005 - CBS TV, Boston, USA


Over the last ten years the increased demand for ecotourism has represented not only a growing trend in the tourism industry, but also one of the most significant challenges to the sector. It became evident over this type of consumer had shifted away from mass tourism towards experiences perceived to be more individualistic and enhancing. In part, this trend was stimulated by the increased global awareness of environmental issues which in turn, encouraged a growth in visits to natural areas and placed ecotourism at the centre of the re-orientation of tourism. This growth of demand for ecotourism initially ran ahead of the supply of ecotourism products, and created a new challenge for researchers and scholars in tourism. In particular, the consumer-driven demand for ecotourism created a disequilibrium in academic circles. For example,there are uncertainties and confusions both in terms of the definition of ecotourism and also in the enumeration of its fundamental principles; confusions which in part are derived from a lack of understanding of the behaviour of ecotourists. Indeed, it can be suggested that until the behaviour of ecotourists is fully explored it will continue to be difficult to clarify the concept of ecotourism. Having said this, there are a number ofstudies in the supply environments of North America and Australia which provide evidencet that ecotourists are consumers with strong motivations to be in and protect rather than profligate the natural environment. However, such studies have not been carried out in Europe and it is therefore the aim of this doctoral research to remedy this gap by examining the consumer behaviour of British ecotourists by using the involvement concept and techniques. In particular, this research concentrated on the assessment of the so-called occasional and frequent ecotourists, derived from their presence in the natural areas. These types of individuals provided the basis for the research analysis in which both qualitative and quantitative procedures were used to outline their characteristics and involvement patterns. The occasional ecotourists were subject to a quantitative assessment, where their involvement and ecotourism knowledge confirmed the existence of this type of ecotourist as well as their primary characteristics and values. With the intention to explore the product knowledge of frequent ecotourists the so-called laddering interviews were conducted which presented ecotourists knowledge structures,as well as providing a back bone for the quantitative assessment.In turn, this enabled both their profiles and involvement elementsto emerge aswell ashighlighted their value domains. Overall, this study underlined the behavioural andinvolvement patterns of thesetwo types ofecotouristsand indicatedthe elements of an ecotourism holiday experience which are not usually associated with this form of
travel.


The biodiversity of the Mediterranean Sea is rapidly changing due to anthropogenic activity and the recent increase of seawater temperature. Citizen science is escalating as an important contributor in the inventory of rare and data-limited species. In this study, we present several records of five data-limited native fish species from the eastern Mediterranean Sea: Alectis alexandrina (Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1817), Ranzania laevis (Pennant, 1776), Dalatias licha (Bonnaterre, 1788), Lophotus lacepede (Giorna, 1809), and Sudis hyalina (Rafinesque, 1810). All of the records were collected by a participatory process involving fishers and validated by associated taxonomic experts of the citizen science programme "Is it Alien to you? Share it!!!". This study fills an important gap for the distribution of the reported species and signifies the important role of citizen participation as a tool for extending marine biodiversity knowledge and fisheries management in an area with several gaps of knowledge on targeted and non-targeted species.


We address interactive voice services over Best Effort packet networks where traffic is subject to unpredictable congestions. The quality of voice services can be significantly affected by network delay and jitter due to the rejection of late packets. LIFO has proven to be an interesting overload strategy in delay constrained systems. We propose the use of the LIFO discipline in the context of congested packet networks where voice packets are subject to delay bounds. We analyze how delay accumulates in congested queues and show that serving voice packets in LIFO improves user-level quality. An extensive simulation study shows that LIFO scheduling in congested nodes significantly reduces the fraction of late packets compared to the FIFO discipline. The enhancement of user-level quality is emphasized by using the ITU-T P.861 standard for perceptual evaluations of reconstructed voice. Finally, we show how the proposed mechanism can be easily used in the Internet.


Blue whiting (Micromesistius poutassou) is a mesopelagic gadoid that is widely distributed in northeastern Atlantic from the Canary Island to Spitsbergen. It is abundant and commercially exploited in the Norwegian Seas, off Iceland, Faeroe Islands, Hebrides and Ireland, and in the Bay of Biscay. Blue whiting is a highly migratory species. During the spawning season (March-April), blue whiting concentrates to dense aggregations on the well-known spawning locations along the shelf edge west of Ireland and Hebrides and in the Rockall area. Other spawning areas also exist, but stock structure, distribution and migration of this abundant species are insufficiently known. The oceanic distribution of blue whiting westward, towards the mid-Atlantic Ridge (MAR), has not been thoroughly investigated. Scattered observations show that the species occurs along the MAR from the Azores in the south to the Reykjanes Ridge in the north. The possibility that blue whiting is a key species in the mi-water community of the MAR should not be dismissed. Where present, blue whiting is often highly abundant, and plays an important role in the pelagic ecosystems, both as a consumer of zooplankton and small mesopelagics, and as a prey for larger fish and cetaceans. Is there a 'stock' of blue whiting over the MAR? If yes, is this stock separate from the stock(s) in the northeastern Atlantic? Institute of Marine Research in Bergen has proposed a component project of MAR-ECO that combines routine monitoring information with observations from the MAR-ECO surveys to evaluate the significance of blue whiting in the pelagic ecosystem of the MAR. We present the available background information, along with hypotheses being tested. We also describe some of the methodological and technological challenges.


The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson is the only one-volume edition containing all Emily Dickinson's poems. The editor, Thomas H. Johnson, has presented the poems in their original texts; and where alternate readings were suggested, he has chosen only those which the poet evidently preferred. His introduction includes a brief explanation of his selection of texts as well as an outline of Emily Dickinson's career.


As the depredation of the planet's greatest storehouse of biodiversity-the Amazon region-continues apace, it is vitally important to understand the implications of the immense devastation the area has undergone. Describing the stunning diversity of plant an animal life found in and along the rivers, and showing how this wealth is being plundered, Floods of Fortune offers the first holistic view of the conservation drama unfolding in the Amazonian floodplain. Enriched with nearly 100 beautiful and arrested color photographs as well as an investigation of the cultural history of the region's human habitation, the book helps readers comprehend the complex environmental and social problems associated with Amazonian development and offers solutions that reconcile development with conservation.


Quantifying how C fluxes will change in the future is a complex task for models because of the coupling between climate, hydrology, and biogeochemical reactions. Here we investigate how pedogenesis of the Peoria loess, which has been weathering for the last 13 kyr, will respond over the next 100 yr of climate change. Using a cascade of numerical models for climate (ARPEGE), vegetation (CARAIB) and weathering (WITCH), we explore the effect of an increase in CO 2 of 315 ppmv (1950) to 700 ppmv (2100 projection). The increasing CO 2 results in an increase in temperature along the entire transect. In contrast, drainage increases slightly for a focus pedon in the south but decreases strongly in the north. These two variables largely determine the behavior of weathering. In addition, although CO 2 production rate increases in the soils in response to global warming, the rate of diffusion back to the atmosphere also increases, maintaining a roughly constant or even decreasing CO 2 concentration in the soil gas phase. Our simulations predict that temperature increasing in the next 100 yr causes the weathering rates of the silicates to increase into the future. In contrast, the weathering rate of dolomite – which consumes most of the CO 2 – decreases in both end members (south and north) of the transect due to its retrograde solubility. We thus infer slower rates of advance of the dolomite reaction front into the subsurface, and faster rates of advance of the silicate reaction front. However, additional simulations for 9 pedons located along the north–south transect show that the dolomite weathering advance rate will increase in the central part of the Mississippi Valley, owing to a maximum in the response of vertical drainage to the ongoing climate change. The carbonate reaction front can be likened to a terrestrial lysocline because it represents a depth interval over which carbonate dissolution rates increase drastically. However, in contrast to the lower pH and shallower lysocline expected in the oceans with increasing atmospheric CO 2 , we predict a deeper lysocline in future soils. Furthermore, in the central Mississippi Valley, soil lysocline deepening accelerates but in the south and north the deepening rate slows. This result illustrates the complex behavior of carbonate weathering facing short term global climate change. Predicting the global response of terrestrial weathering to increased atmospheric CO 2 and temperature in the future will mostly depend upon our ability to make precise assessments of which areas of the globe increase or decrease in precipitation and soil drainage.


This study examines how blogs and their interactive and collaborative features help academically-advanced graduate students process academic writing knowledge and make sense of their writer identity. Seven graduate students undertaking Master's level study in TESOL and Linguistics participated. The research questions are: (a) What kinds of writing-related topics do students blog about? (b) How do students' collaborative dialogues on blogs help them process and reconstruct knowledge about academic writing? (c) How do students' collaborative dialogues on blogs facilitate their negotiation of academic identities and construction of authorship? Open-coding and content analysis were conducted to inductively identify salient themes and patterns regarding students' learning and perception of their writer identities. The results suggest that the blog activity not only encourages students to actively and reflectively engage in knowledge sharing, knowledge generation, and the development of numerous strategies to cope with difficulties encountered in the learning process. Blogs also endow students with a sense of authorship as the writers of blog entries and, at the same time, provide a space for them to sort out what being an author entails, their purposes of writing, and their authority in writing.


The paper deals with current lexical databases that are seen as a basis for broad-coverage general-purpose ontologies. Various extensions and refinements of existing multilingual lexical knowledge bases are proposed with the aim of improving the capabilities of these resources. The main goal lies in the effort to gain a better lexical knowledge representation, which is crucial to coping with the requirements of the Semantic Web. The final section discusses the question of how lexical knowledge bases can be shared and combined. It presents the designed and implemented system WOMANISER that is able to merge independently developed parts of ontologies, check inconsistencies and report errors. The paper ends with the future directions of this research.


Today, the author writes, business can be conducted in English almost anywhere in the developed world, possibly excepting Japan. But when you build or grow a global consumer‑facing business, you must speak the language of your customers, wherever they are. Booking.com, the Priceline Group's largest global business, strives to meet that goal by employing people who can answer calls in 42 languages. Although Booking.com is a digital company that facilitates online reservations, about 20% of its customers wind up calling for some other reason. Even though many of them are multilingual, when it comes to their personal travel, they want to speak in their native language. When Huston took the reins, in 2011, the company was relatively small, with a hard‑to‑find customer service number. Now it has 6,000 full‑time customer service employees, all of whom speak fluent English plus at least one other language; many speak three or four. When planning how to staff call centers, the company must consider cultural factors (for instance, people in emerging markets such as Brazil and China tend to call more frequently) and nuances (Americans tend to not like speaking with a rep who has a British accent, and vice versa). For future centers, it has prioritized major cities for either their depth in major languages (Tokyo, Shanghai) or their breadth of languages (London, Amsterdam, Berlin, Barcelona). Booking.com is now, the author writes, "the largest online accommodations platform in the world, by almost any measure," and has been rated "one of the most international websites on the planet."


Organisms are often confronted by both predators and pathogens. Defending against such widely divergent enemies requires more than one type of defence. Multiple defences, however, raise the possibility of trade–offs among defences. We tested for such trade–offs by manipulating the level of predator–avoidance behaviour and immune function in the freshwater snail Lymnaea stagnalis (Gastropoda: Pulmonata). Our results show that predator avoidance and immune function had clear costs in terms of reproduction and survival. Further, we show that increased levels of predator–avoidance behaviour reduced the snail's ability to defend against potential pathogens. Predator–avoidance behaviour may thus have the additional indirect cost of reduced immunocompetence and increased susceptibility to pathogens. Our results suggest that ecological factors (e.g. predator density) may considerably modify the expression and costs of immune defences.


In this work, we present three different types of population models. The first two models are examined in the context of optimal control problems. The third involves the construction of an invasion model using a significant amount of data. The first model describes the interaction of three populations, motivated by a combat scenario. One of the three populations can switch the mode of alliance with the other two populations between cooperation and competition. The other two populations always compete with each other. In this system of parabolic partial differential equations, the control is the function which measures the strength of alliance. The second model is a metapopulation SIR model for the spread of rabies among raccoons. This system of ordinary differential equations considers subpopulations connected via movement of individuals between subpopulations. The strength of the connectivity between two subpopulations is inversely proportional to the geographical distance between them. We apply control theory to find the best strategy (timing and location) for vaccination to control the disease. The third problem involves construction of a model of the spread of Eurasian collared doves in the U.S. using an integrodifference equation. We investigate the effect of spatial variation of the length of the growing season on the growth rate of the collared dove. Since the growing season length affects the breeding season length, we take into account the difference in the number of clutches in estimating the number of offspring produced each breeding season.


Modern society relies substantially on satellite technology as it is involved in vital services like telecommunication services, Earth observation, navigation, and many more. There are more than 1000 operational satellites in Earth orbit and most of these spend at least some of their time in the harsh environment of the Van Allen radiation belts. The radiation belts are usually split into two regions, the inner and the outer radiation belt. While the inner belt is considered stable, the flux of electrons in the outer belt can vary over several orders of magnitude, reaching levels that may disrupt satellite operations. It is therefore important to understand the variability of the outer belt and ultimately to predict its behaviour.

In this thesis, the radiation belts are described by the BAS Radiation Belt Model (BAS-RBM) which solves a 3D diffusion equation. The BAS-RBM requires accurate diffusion coefficients that describe the interaction between electrons and plasma waves. The most important plasma waves are chorus, plasmaspheric hiss, and EMIC waves. Here, new statistical models of the diffusion coefficients for these waves are presented, which considerably improve existing models. Among others, they benefit from better global wave models due to improved satellite coverage, and revised wave normal angle and plasma density models.

The results show that chorus waves are an important acceleration and loss mechanism at energies up to about 1MeV and for all pitch-angles, while plasmaspheric hiss is found to be an essential loss process in the same energy and pitch-angle range. In contrast, EMIC waves proved to be a relevant loss process for ultrarelativistic electrons, but only at lower pitch-angles. The work presented here has led to a better understanding of the variability of the outer radiation belt and has considerably improved the accuracy and reliability of the modelling and forecasting capabilities.


This paper proposes approximations of the angular transfer responses of fiber lightguides by mathematical functions associated with solutions of the diffusion equation. The parameters of the approximations are determined for various lightguides. The angular intensity distributions are investigated for the output radiation from the shortest possible lightguides. The possibility is demonstrated of calculating the directional patterns of lightguides based on the proposed approximations, including the case of lightguides with scattering end surfaces.


I. INTRODUCTION The payday lending industry has suffered from a poor public perception based at least in part on inconclusive data. The public, hearing horror stories of payday loans gone wrong, appears to believe that the entire industry needs to be regulated. One assumption for regulation is that payday lenders make an enormous profit from their services.1 This assumption is grounded in the relatively high cost of short-term credit obtained through payday lenders.2 As a response to poor public perception, the industry has searched to justify itself, falling on the explanation that operating costs and loan losses require the high fees associated with their loans. Without hard data indicating that payday lenders are making extraordinary profits, however, this call for regulation is without foundation. To date, no conclusive data has been presented to either justify or refute the claims of either consumer groups or the industry. This article does not suggest that payday lending is a desirable service, or that the industry should be entirely free from regulation. Rather, this article intends to provide the reader with an objective financial analysis, along with conclusions, of seven publicly traded payday lenders. The payday lenders in this study have been analyzed against six commercial lenders and one large company with a similar business model.3 The study shows that, despite the common belief, payday lending firms do not always make extraordinary profits. In fact, when compared to many other well-known lending institutions, payday lenders may fall far short in terms of profitability.4 If that is the case, then the call for regulation should be based solely in principle, moral, or other subjective reasoning-not on high fees.5 This article attempts to shed light upon two specific aspects of the payday lending industry. First, it will provide more information regarding the typical payday borrower.6 Next, it provides insightful financial data regarding the typical payday lending company.7 New information regarding the typical borrower is available from the Colorado study as well as from an in-depth investigation by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation ("FDIC").8 Additionally, this article discusses the financial and operating results of individual stores within one publicly-traded payday lender.9 Finally, by reviewing the operating results of seven publicly-traded payday lenders, this article provides profitability information upon a relatively unexplored market.10 II. THE HISTORY AND BACKGROUND OF PAYDAY LENDING A. The Emergence of Payday Lending Methods of providing short-term financial solutions to others are not new. In the early twentieth century, "salary buyers" offered to purchase a consumer's paycheck in advance at a discount.11 For instance, a lender would give the borrower $20 today for the right to receive athe borrower's next paycheck of $24.12 This market arose for a number of reasons: with many people moving from rural to urban areas, and with a significant influx of immigrants, there was a large supply of manpower for a small number of jobs. As a result, meeting cash-needs was challenging for many people. Banks were not offering small-dollar short-term cash loans because they were considered too "risky." Additionally, few of the borrowers had assets with which to secure a loan.13 The salary-buying industry arose to meet the needs of this underserved market.14 In the 1980s, new factors created a similar need for short-term cash loans. The deregulation of the banking industry, the absence of traditional small loan providers and the elimination of interest rate caps set the stage for the emergence of payday lending.15 As banks eliminated less profitable services (such as short-term loan services), families and individuals in need of short-term cash flow were left with nowhere to turn.16 While the payday lending market emerged at about this time, many consider the father of "modern" payday lending to be W. …


ABSTRACT In response to stress, cells can utilize several cellular processes, such as autophagy, which is a bulk-lysosomal degradation pathway, to mitigate damages and increase the chances of cell survival. Deregulation of autophagy causes upregulation of p62 and the formation of p62-containing aggregates, which are associated with neurodegenerative diseases and cancer. The Nrf2-Keap1 pathway functions as a critical regulator of the cell's defense mechanism against oxidative stress by controlling the expression of many cellular protective proteins. Under basal conditions, Nrf2 is ubiquitinated by the Keap1-Cul3-E3 ubiquitin ligase complex and targeted to the 26S proteasome for degradation. Upon induction, the activity of the E3 ubiquitin ligase is inhibited through the modification of cysteine residues in Keap1, resulting in the stabilization and activation of Nrf2. In this current study, we identified the direct interaction between p62 and Keap1 and the residues required for the interaction have been mapped to 349-DPSTGE-354 in p62 and three arginines in the Kelch domain of Keap1. Accumulation of endogenous p62 or ectopic expression of p62 sequesters Keap1 into aggregates, resulting in the inhibition of Keap1-mediated Nrf2 ubiquitination and its subsequent degradation by the proteasome. In contrast, overexpression of mutated p62, which loses its ability to interact with Keap1, had no effect on Nrf2 stability, demonstrating that p62-mediated Nrf2 upregulation is Keap1 dependent. These findings demonstrate that autophagy deficiency activates the Nrf2 pathway in a noncanonical cysteine-independent mechanism.


The ideals of a democratic society coupled with the vast expansiveness of the American landscape have led to settlement patterns within the urban environment that are distinctively American and non-traditional. The continual tension between principles of collective majority rule and rights of individual equality has led to an identifiable urban form that is neither city, with its collective characteristics, nor country, with its sense of individual freedom, but a vast middle landscape where the majority of Americans live, work, shop, and recreate. The current middle landscape has developed into a place where accommodation of the automobile, providing its sense of autonomous movement, dictates the form and order of the built environment. While investing great efforts toward the development of means of movement between places the places themselves have been forgotten. The middle landscape, a legitimate urban form rooted in the history, culture, and natural environment of American city development, has become a place that is vastly scaled and oblivious to human existence. The thesis is an examination of this middle landscape with an attempt at the making of place within an otherwise place-less environment.


Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) is the most significant infectious disease currently affecting the swine industry worldwide. Several inactivated and modified live vaccines (MLV) have been developed to curb PRRSV infections. The unsatisfactory efficacy and safety of these vaccines, drives for the development of new generation PRRS universal vaccines. Virus like particles (VLPs) based vaccines are gaining increasing acceptance compared to subunit vaccines, as they present the antigens in more veritable conformation and are even readily recognized by the immune system. Hepatitis B virus (HBV) core antigen (HBcAg) is very well studied and has been successfully used as a carrier for more than 100 other viral sequences. In this study, hybrid HBcAg VLPs are generated by fusion of the conserved protective epitopes of PRRSV and expressed in E. coli. An optimized purification protocol that overcomes issues from ultracentrifugation is developed to obtain hybrid HBcAg VLP protein from the inclusion bodies. This hybrid HBcAg VLP protein self assembled to 23nm VLPs that were shown to block virus infection of susceptible cells when tested on MARC 145 cells. Therefore, the safety of non-infectious and non-replicable VLPs and production through low-cost E. coli fermentation may make this vaccine competitive against current vaccines on both efficacy and cost.


We develop algorithms for imitation learning from policy data that was corrupted by temporally correlated noise in expert actions. When noise affects multiple timesteps of recorded data, it can manifest as spurious correlations between states and actions that a learner might latch on to, leading to poor policy performance. To break up these spurious correlations, we apply modern variants of the instrumental variable regression (IVR) technique of econometrics, enabling us to recover the underlying policy without requiring access to an interactive expert. In particular, we present two techniques, one of a generative-modeling flavor (DoubIL) that can utilize access to a simulator, and one of a game-theoretic flavor (ResiduIL) that can be run entirely offline. We find both of our algorithms compare favorably to behavioral cloning on simulated control tasks.


This paper presents the electrical characterizations of a novel concept for thermal energy harvesting at micro scale. The devices presented here are based on a two-step transduction combining thermo-mechanical and piezoelectric conversion. The piezoelectric layer is directly integrated into a buckling bilayer plate made of aluminium and aluminium nitride. For the first time, we have characterized the structures electrically and we have investigated their output power during the buckling. Firstly, we have used an insulating tip to make the plate buckle in order to have an estimation of the output power due to piezoelectric contribution only, and to eliminate any pyroelectric contribution that might be present during the thermal actuation. Then, we heated up the structure and we collected the output signal with an instrumentation amplifier in order to measure the voltage generated during the buckling. The output power during the mechanical and the thermal buckling is compared in the paper.


From the great citadels of Caernarvon, Harlech, Powis and Beaumaris in the north, to the Victorian glories of Cardiff in the south, St David's cathedral ('the loveliest church in Wales') in the west to the exquisite little hill church of Patrishow in the east, from Plas Newydd above the Menai Straits to the romantic citadel of Carreg Cennan in the heart of the country, the buildings of Wales embody its history and are the equal of any in the British Isles. Simon Jenkins has travelled, it seems, every mile of the country to celebrate, and in some cases to find the very best of them, and irresistibly conveys in this book his enthusiasm for them. Cumulatively they amount to a cultural history of Wales by one of its most devoted sons. Anyone who is visiting Wales or who loves it will want to own this glorious book.


First paragraphs: The local food movement has emerged from the erosion of public trust and confidence in organic foods. The organic food movement emerged as a consequence of declining trust and confidence in the conventional/industrial food system. As organic foods grew in popularity, there was a call for their standardization and certification to maintain the integrity of the movement. National organic certification also made organic foods accessible to more people by allowing organics to move into mainstream food markets. However, uniform organic standards also facilitated the consolidation of control of organic production by large agri-food corporations. To maximize profits, corporate processors and retailers pressured organic producers to minimize production costs, which meant moving toward the minimum enforceable organic production practices. The social and ethical integrity of the organic movement couldn't be encoded in the sets of allowable and non-allowable organic inputs and production practices required for organic certification. Many organic consumers then turned to local farmers to restore trust and confidence in the social and ecological integrity of  their food. The philosophical mainstreams of the organic and local foods movements parted ways. Organic production surged ahead, but the heart and soul of organics were left behind (Ikerd, 2008). Many factors have contributed to the growing popularity of local foods. However, the modern local food movement was born out of the industrialization of organics.


The engagement of reputable underwriter and auditor by the listing firm is believed
to provide a positive signal to the market, thus reducing the uncertainty surrounding
the firm's value. Since audit quality is differentiated, some of the issuing firms
switch to more reputable auditors during listing to increase the credibility of the
financial information in the prospectus. The disclosure of earnings forecast in the
prospectus is also perceived to provide information that could reduce the
uncertainty. However, evidence from previous studies on these issues is
inconclusive.
This study investigates the effect of underwriter reputation, auditor choice and
auditor switch during listing and earning forecast error on the level of IPOs initial
returns. Thus, the main objective is to examine whether these factors provide a
signal to potential investors in IPOs that might have consequences on the level of
initial return. This study also examines the relationship between the engagement of
quality differentiated audit firms and level of earning forecast errors.


In this paper we consider a fractional optimization problem that minimizes the ratio of two quadratic functions subject to a strictly convex quadratic constraint. First using the extension of Charnes-Cooper transformation, an equivalent homogenized quadratic reformulation of the problem is given. Then we show that under certain assumptions, it can be solved to global optimality using semidenite optimization relaxation in polynomial time.


Knowledge about move is fundamental to language learning which prepares students and writing practitioners to understand the natures and the organization of a certain discourse and genre. Teachers, consequently, need to familiarize students with a framework of moves that enable them to produce well written work. Consequently, the author conducted a genre analysis on a corpus of 50 problem-solution (PS) articles in the opinion columns of two online newspapers to identify the move characteristics and the move structure of the problem-solution discourse in the genre. The study used a genre analysis methodology relying on Hoey (1983)'s framework of rhetorical organization for the problem-solution discourse. The findings have implications for the writing instruction. They include a set of move features which is a practical guide and a ready-made template for writing the problem-solution discourse. The findings also show that the Problem move is the nucleus move followed by the Response move. Regarding the move structure, the study unfolds that the Problem move and the Response moves are moves that are most used to start and to end the articles, respectively. The identification of move characteristics and move structure provides language learners, writing practitioners, and especially English language teachers with empirical results beneficial for a writing practice and for material designs.


OF DISSERTATION VIRAL FUSION PROTEIN TM-TM INTERACTIONS: MODULATORS OF PROTEIN FUNCTION AND POTENTIAL ANTIVIRAL TARGETS Enveloped viruses, such as HIV, influenza, and Ebola, utilize surface glycoproteins to bind and fuse with a target cell membrane. This fusion event is necessary for release of viral genomic material so the virus can ultimately reproduce and spread. The recently emerged Hendra virus (HeV) is a negative-sense, single-stranded RNA paramyxovirus that presents a considerable threat to human health as there are currently no human vaccines or antivirals available. The HeV utilizes two surface glycoproteins, the fusion protein (F) and the attachment protein (G), to drive membrane fusion. Through this process, the F protein undergoes an irreversible conformational change, transitioning from a meta-stable pre-fusion conformation to a more thermodynamically stable post-fusion structure. Understanding the elements which control stability of the pre-fusion state and triggering to the post-fusion conformation is important for understanding F protein function. Studies that replace or mutate the TM domain of the F protein of several viruses implicated the TM domain in the fusion process, but the structural and molecular details in fusion remain unclear. Previously, analytical ultracentrifugation was used to demonstrate that isolated TM domains of HeV F protein associate in a monomer-trimer equilibrium. To determine factors driving this association, we analyzed the sequence of several paramyxovirus F protein TM domains and found a heptad repeat of β-branched residues. Analysis of the HeV F TM domain specifically revealed a heptad repeat leucine-isoleucine zipper motif (LIZ). Replacement of the LIZ with alanine resulted in dramatically reduced TM-TM association. Mutation of the LIZ in the whole protein resulted in decreased protein expression and pre-fusion conformation. To further understand the role of the TM domain, the TM domain was targeted as a potential modulator of F protein stability and function. Exogenous HeV F TM constructs were co-expressed with the full length F protein in Vero cells to analyze the effects on protein expression. Co-expression of the exogenous HeV F TM constructs dramatically reduced the expression of HeV F. However, the co-expression of exogenous HeV F TM constructs with a different paramyxovirus F protein, PIV5 F, did not strongly affect PIV5 F expression levels, suggesting that the interaction of the exogenous TM constructs is specific. Fusion assays revealed that HeV F TM constructs dramatically reduced HeV F, but not PIV5 F fusion activity. We hypothesize that the short exogenous HeV TM constructs associate with the TM domain from full-length HeV F, resulting in pre-mature triggering or protein misfolding. The work presented here demonstrates that specific elements in the TM domain contribute to TM association and pre-fusion protein stability. Furthermore, targeting these interactions may be a viable approach for antiviral development against this important pathogen.


Aims and Objectives: Actinidic archaea has been related to the pathogenesis of schizophrenia, malignancy, metabolic syndrome x, autoimmune disease and neuronal degeneration. The actinidic archaeal and viroid induced Warburg phenotype contributes to the pathology of the disease states mentioned. The possibility of administration of high medium chain triglyceride, high fiber vegetarian ketogenic diet on actinide based primitive organism like archaea with a mevalonate pathway and cholesterol catabolism was considered in these disease states. The effect of a high medium chain triglyceride and a high fiber modified vegetarian ketogenic diet on the Warburg phenotype was also studied. Methodology: The following groups were included in the study:- endomyocardial fibrosis, alzheimer's disease, multiple sclerosis, non-hodgkin's lymphoma, metabolic syndrome x with cerebrovascular thrombosis and coronary artery disease, schizophrenia, autism, seizure disorder, creutzfeldt jakob disease and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. There were 10 patients in each group and each patient had an age and sex matched healthy control selected randomly from the general population. The blood was drawn from the (1) in freshly diagnosed cases and (2) after a 15-days modified vegetarian ketogenic diet of medium chain triglycerides (150 g of coconut oil), fiber (45 g of banana stem fiber) and vegetable proteins (black gram protein 100 g/day) with 50 g of carbohydrate (black gram polysaccharide). Plasma from fasting heparinised blood was used and the experimental protocol was as follows (I) Plasma+phosphate buffered saline, (II) same as I+cholesterol substrate, (III) same as II+rutile 0.1 mg/ml, (IV) same as II+ciprofloxacine and doxycycline each in a concentration of 1 mg/ml. The following estimations were carried out:- Cytochrome F420, free RNA, free DNA, hexokinase activity and archaeal cholesterol oxidase activity as indicated by liberation of hydrogen peroxide. Results: Plasma of control subjects showed increased levels of the above mentioned parameters with after incubation for 1 hour and addition of cholesterol substrate resulted in still further significant increase in these parameters. The plasma of patients showed similar results but the extent of increase was more. The addition of antibiotics to the control plasma caused a decrease in all the parameters while addition of rutile increased their levels. The addition of antibiotics and rutile to the patient's plasma produced the same changes but the extent of change was more in patient's sera as compared to controls. The patients on modified vegetarian high fiber, high medium chain triglyceride ketogenic diet showed a decrease in all the parameters. Conclusion: An actinide dependent shadow biosphere` of archaea and viroids in the above mentioned disease states is described. High dietary fiber and medium chain triglyceride ketogenic diet suppressed actinidic archaeal and viroidal growth, cholesterol oxidase activity and hexokinase activity. Thus the high fiber and medium chain triglyceride vegetarian ketogenic diet can inhibit the Warburg phenotype as well as has a antiarchaeal/viroidal effect. Key words : Modified ketogenic diet; Medium chain triglyceride; Fiber; Archaea; Viroid; Warburg phenotype


In Parkinson's disease (PD) the loss of the neurotransmitter dopamine (DA) results in abnormal oscillations of the cortico-basal ganglia network, the emergence of which correlate with symptoms. Increased oscillatory power in the primary motor cortex (M1) is reduced by dopamine replacement therapy and by targeted stimulation, suggesting that M1 plays an important role in the pathology of PD. In this study we have investigated, using pharmacology, the mechanisms by which oscillatory activity in rat M1 is generated and determined the power changes associated with DA depletion and DA receptor modulation. Extracellular local field potential recordings were made in brain slices of M1 which were prepared using a modified protocol to improve viability. Co-application of carbachol (5 μM) and kainic acid (100 nM) elicited simultaneous theta (4-8 Hz) and gamma (30-40 Hz) oscillations in layer V of M1. These oscillations displayed phase-amplitude coupling; the first report of such findings in vitro. These oscillations were found to be pharmacologically distinct with theta oscillations generated by intrinsic non-synaptic mechanisms while gamma oscillations required contributing excitatory and inhibitory networks. Following successful unilateral lesions using 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA), as determined by the adjusting step test, DA-depleted (ipsilateral) and DA-intact (contralateral) slices were obtained. Although no difference in the oscillatory profile of M1 ipsilateral, contralateral or age-matched control (AMC) slices was found, bath application of DA reduced gamma power only in the ipsilateral slices and amphetamine only decreased gamma power in contralateral slices. Furthermore, D2-like receptor activation consistently increased both theta and gamma power in contralateral and AMC slices, while only theta power was increased in ipsilateral slices. Overall, these data suggest that DA, through action at multiple sites, differentially modulates the power of both theta and gamma oscillations in M1. Using the 6-OHDA model, the oscillatory activity of M1 in vivo was investigated. Successful lesions were determined by using the rotometer, the locomotor activity and the adjusting stepping tests at 2-4 weeks post-surgery. Further testing at 22 weeks post-surgery indicated the long-term stability of the lesions. Using depth electrode and EEG recordings, oscillatory activity in the 2-10 Hz range was found in the ipsilateral and contralateral hemispheres of both lesioned and sham animals. However, only in the ipsilateral hemisphere of DA-depleted animals did we detect a 30-40 Hz oscillatory peak, which was localised to layer V of M1. In EEG recordings this led to a significant increase in the interhemispheric ratio. Using depth electrode recordings, the ipsilateral 30-40 Hz oscillation (but not 2-10 Hz oscillation) was reduced by the administration of L-DOPA (6 mg/kg) with a reduction in interhemispheric ratio. However, administration of zolpidem (0.3 mg/kg), which previously reduced abnormal beta oscillatory activity in vivo and in vitro resulting in the rebalancing of interhemispheric beta power (Hall et al., 2014; Prokic et al., 2015), was without effect. Overall, these studies demonstrate that M1 alone can generate multiple, pharmacologically distinct, but interacting oscillations, which contribute to pathological activity in the DA-depleted state.


We argue the revenue potential from increasing tax rates on capital gains may be substantially greater than previously understood. First, many prior studies focus primarily on short-run taxpayer responses, and so miss revenue from gains that are deferred when rates change. Second, the rise of pass-throughs and index funds has shifted the composition of capital gains in recent years, such that the share of gains that are highly elastic to the tax rate has likely declined. If some components are less elastic, then their elasticity should get more weight when scoring big changes because they will comprise more of the remaining tax base. Third, closer parity to income tax rates would provide a backstop to the rest of the tax system. Fourth, additional base-broadening reforms, like eliminating stepped-up basis, making charitable giving a realization event, reforming donor advised funds, and limiting opportunity zones to places with the highest poverty rates, will decrease the elasticity of the tax base to rate changes. Overall, we do not think the prevailing assumption of many in the scorekeeping community—that raising rates to top ordinary income levels would raise little revenue—is warranted. A crude calculation illustrates that raising capital gains rates to ordinary income levels could raise hundreds of billions more revenue over a decade than other leading estimates suggest.


The issue of whether profitable preharvest and postharvest marketing strategies exist relative to harvest sales for Kansas crops for the 1985-1998 marketing years is addressed. Practical application of market efficiency concepts is discussed. Nonharvest wheat marketing strategies offered less opportunity relative to harvest sales than for feedgrains and especially soybeans.


While QuarkXPress has been the most-widely used page-layout program in the world, Adobe InDesign is rapidly gaining ground with better typography and transparency features, speedier performance, and more overall control. Learn InDesign now from respected InDesign and QuarkXPress expert Galen Gruman. He packs this book with real-world insights from publishing pros who use InDesign in critical projects, shows you the program's innovative architecture and functionality, and tells you everything you need to know to get up to speed. Whether an experienced designer, a novice, or somewhere in between, you'll find all the real-world tips and techniques you're looking for in this comprehensive reference.


A discussion of some of the problems arising during the course of attempting a 'musical' verse translation of Lermontov's early lyric poem 1831-go IYUNYA 11 DNYA is presented. A metrical analysis of the poem's prosodic features is carried out in accentualsyllabic, beat-prosodic and musical terms. In particular, the Russian poet's extensive use of enjambment and caesura to create rhythmic and syntactic tension between the levels of phrase and poetic line creates challenges for a translator who aims to preserve the rhythmic structure of the original while also using the phraseological resources of the target language to the fullest advantage. In the course of the analysis, it became apparent that some prosodic features, appearing both in the source text and the attempted translation, evade full description in accentual-syllabic, beat-prosodic and musical terms. Therefore, it also became necessary to introduce the concept of "flow", which is derived from contemporary rap music and may partially correspond to the Russian prosodic term zashagovaniye. Readers are invited to assess to what extent the translation strategies employed in this case are successful in maintaining fidelity to the source text in terms of its (i) signification, (ii) form, (iii) emotionality and (iv) singability.


Iron oxide-apatite (IOA) and iron oxide-copper-gold deposits (IOCG) are often spatially and temporally related with one another and with coeval magmatism. However, a genetic model that accounts for observations of natural systems remains elusive, with few observational data able to distinguish among working hypotheses that invoke meteoric fluid, magmatic-hydrothermal fluid, and immiscible melts. Here, we use high-resolution trace element concentrations in magnetite, hematite and pyrite, high-precision Fe and O stable isotope data of magnetite and hematite grains, δD of magnetite and actinolite, and Re and Os in magnetite and pyrite from the Los Colorados IOA and Candelaria and Mantoverde IOCG deposits in the Chilean Iron Belt to elucidate the origin of IOA and IOCG systems. At Los Colorados, Ti, V, Al, and Mn are enriched in magnetite cores and decrease systematically from core to rim, a trend consistent with magmatic and/or magmatic-hydrothermal magnetites. High Co/Ni ratios of pyrite from Los Colorados are also consistent with a magmatic-hydrothermal origin. δD values for magnetite and actinolite indicate a mantle source for H. Values of d56Fe and d18O for magnetite and hematite from all deposits indicate a magmatic source for Fe and O. The Re-Os systematics overlap data from Andean porphyry Cu-Mo deposits and are consistent with a magmatic-hydrothermal origin. Together, the data are consistent with a genetic model wherein 1) magnetite cores crystallize from silicate melt; 2) these magnetite crystals are nucleation sites for aqueous fluid that exsolves and scavenges Fe, P, S, Cu, Au from silicate melt; 3) the magnetite-fluid suspension is less dense that the surrounding magma, allowing ascent; 4) as the suspension ascends, magnetite grows in equilibrium with the fluid and takes on a magmatic-hydrothermal character (i.e., lower Al, Mn, Ti, V); 5) during ascent, magnetite, apatite and actinolite are deposited to form IOA deposits; 6) the further ascending fluid transports Fe, Cu, Au and S toward the surface where hematite, magnetite and sulfides precipitate to form IOCG deposits. This model is globally applicable and explains the observed temporal and spatial relationship between magmatism and formation of IOA and IOCG deposits.


Zoonotic bacterial infections are a health hazard for people who are in regular contact with livestock at the farm level. Improved biosecurity can limit zoonotic pathogen transmission within farms. The aim of this review was to summarize the effectiveness of farm‐level biosecurity interventions in reducing bacterial transmission from animals to people who lived, worked in or visited farms. A systematic literature review was conducted using Embase, Ovid Medline and Agris databases, which were searched on 7th of July 2019, limited to English language papers but with no time exclusion criteria. A narrative synthesis was undertaken utilizing the Centre for Reviews and Dissemination approach, reported in accordance with Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta‐Analyses guidelines. Risk of bias within and across the included studies was performed using established checklists. Out of 869 studies retrieved through database searches, 11 studies were selected. In addition, three studies were found through study reference lists. Fourteen studies were therefore included in this review. Biosecurity interventions were grouped into five categories: hand washing, sanitization and hygienic measures (six studies); personal protective equipment (five studies); vaccination (two studies); other interventions (e.g. air ventilation flap) (four studies); and routine farm activities (two studies). Across studies that investigated odds of human colonization or infection (three studies), odds were seen to both be increased and decreased through use of tested biosecurity measures. Large confidence intervals that often crossed the threshold of an odds ratio equal to 1 were found. Most of the studies' overall risk of bias was 'medium risk' (11 studies), with selection bias domains generally being scored 'medium risk.' Biosecurity interventions are potentially beneficial in reducing bacterial transmission from animals to humans. However, more high‐quality evidence is needed to increase certainty in which interventions, in which contexts, are most effective from the human health perspective.


Robert C. Pozen is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a senior lecturer at Harvard Business School. Lucas W. Goodman is a research assistant for Pozen. The authors are grateful to Alan Auerbach, Ted Buerger, Marc Goldwein, Don Marron, Jim Poterba, Richard Skillman, Alvin Warren, and Matthew Weinzierl for their helpful comments on previous drafts.Many lawmakers have indicated support for reducing the statutory corporate tax rate from 35 to 25 percent on a revenue-neutral basis. However, they have not made clear how they would broaden the base enough to pay for that rate reduction. This report proposes a specific approach for revenue neutral corporate tax reform: limiting the tax deductibility of interest expense for C corporations. That would significantly reduce the tax code's bias in favor of debt-financed investment relative to equity-financed investment, while keeping the overall cost of capital roughly the same.The authors propose reform that lowers the corporate tax rate from 35 to 25 percent and allows nonfinancial C corporations to deduct only 65 percent of their interest expense, with special treatment for the financial sector and for companies that would have otherwise realized taxable losses. Based on a static analysis of aggregate data between 2000 and 2009, the authors calculate that the revenue loss from lowering the corporate tax rate to 25 percent would have been about the same as the revenue gain from their proposed limits on interest deductions.


In this paper, we take a deterministic approach to the problem of broadcasting nested message sets. We mainly consider the scenario where a common message and a private message are to be encoded into a signal and transmitted over a broadcast channel towards a set of users. A group of the users, called public receivers, demand only the common message and the rest, called private receivers, demand both messages. A Linear deterministic model for broadcast channels assumes that every user receives a linear transformation of the sent signal. This model is mainly motivated by the MIMO Gaussian broadcast problem in the high SNR regime. We start our study with a simple, yet rich, class of such broadcast channels. We address the main challenges in designing optimal encoding schemes and seek new techniques. In particular, we give an exact characterization of the ultimate rates of communication (together with a class of linear codes that achieves them) over channels with three public and any number of private receivers. We show sub-optimality of these schemes for channels with more than three public receivers and propose a block Markov scheme which allows communication at higher rates. Using this technique, we characterize a set of achievable rates of communication. The intuitions and techniques that we develop over this class of channels guide us towards designing optimal codes for (general) linear deterministic channels. We fully characterize the set of all admissible rates of communication for linear deterministic channels with two public and any number of private receivers. We extend this result to also allow communication of three nested message sets. The study of deterministic models is aimed to be instructive for understanding more general channels. In this regard, we consider the problem of broadcasting two nested message sets over general broadcast channels with two public and one private receiver. For such general broadcast channels, the ultimate rates of communications (and consequently optimal communication schemes) are still unknown. We adapt the block Markov encoding scheme, which we developed within the framework of linear deterministic channels, to general broadcast channels and characterize a set of achievable rates. We discuss potential future directions that seem promising.


Context. Synchrotron X-ray emission from the rims of young supernova remnants allows us to study the high-energy tail of the electrons accelerated at the shock front. Aims. The analysis of X-ray spectra can provide information on the physical mechanisms that limit the energy achieved by the electrons in the acceleration process. We aim at verifying whether the maximum electron energy in SN 1006 is limited by synchrotron losses and at obtaining information on the shape of the cutoff in the X-ray synchrotron emission. Methods. We analyzed the deep observations of the XMM-Newton SN 1006 Large Program. We performed spatially resolved spectral analysis of a set of small regions in the nonthermal limbs and studied the X-ray spectra by adopting models that assume different electron spectra. Results. We found out that a loss-limited model provides the best fit to all the spectra and this indicates that the shape of the cutoff in the electron momentum (p) distribution has the form exp [ − (p/pcut)2]. We also detected residual thermal emission from shocked ambient medium and confirmed the reliability of previous estimates of the post-shock density. Conclusions. Our results indicate that radiative losses play a fundamental role in shaping the electron spectrum in SN 1006.


Over recent years, with growing concern over climate change, the need for energy which is sustainable, economical and in line with legalisation has led to a substantial surge of interest in organic Rankine cycles (ORC). With the ability to convert low temperature heat sources into power, ORC technology is at the forefront of many sustainable technologies such as biomass, solar, geothermal and waste heat recovery. Despite successful commercialisation for large-scale systems (> 200 kWe), more development is required at the small-scale to realise its potential. For low temperature (< 150_C), low power applications, volumetric expanders are the preferred choice. However, for a 10 kWe system, a well-designed radial inflow turbine could achieve a higher efficiency, and bridge an observed gap between the output powers of existing volumetric expander systems. This thesis investigates the design and analysis of radial inflow turbines for this application.

A thermodynamic ORC model is first developed, which combines cycle analysis with component design. This model is coupled with a multi-objective optimisation, and a novel objective function is developed that considers the trade-o_ between system performance and system complexity. Following a cycle analysis case study, a radial inflow turbine design method for ORC turbines is developed which extends existing ideal gas design methods to be applicable for real gases. Two candidate turbine designs are developed and are validated using computational fluid dynamics (CFD).

For small-scale systems to be economically feasible it is reasonable to assume that the same turbine will be implemented within a number of different systems. This requires o_- design models, and the suitability of using non-dimensional performance maps, obtained using similitude theory, has been investigated using further CFD studies. This has led to the development of a modified similitude theory, suitable for subsonic ORC turbines. This modified similitude theory has been implemented within another thermodynamic model, and the results from a case study show how the same turbine can be effectively utilised within a number of different ORC systems. This is done by selecting a working fluid to match the available heat source.

Overall, this thesis successfully demonstrates the development of modelling methods for small-scale low temperature ORCs utilising radial inflow turbines. This has considered design and o_-design performance models, and ultimately the results demonstrate how the economy of scale of these systems can be improved, aiding in the future commercialisation of the technology.


Aim: The purpose of the study was to determine the various complaints for which older patients seek dental
treatment and to identify the reason for the presenting chief complaint. Other oral health issues as well as the
utilization of comprehensive oral health also to be evaluated.
Materials and Method: The hospital records of the newly registered elderly patients in a dental school in
Mangalore, India were accessed to obtain data relating to the wants, needs, and utilization of services of
older patients.
Results: The most frequent complaint with which older patients visited the dental hospital was pain (31.1%).
When the data was analysed, it was observed that there was no association between utilization and the nature
of the complaint. Other than the chief complaint, 49.4% patients were found to have prosthetic requirements
as their normative need.
Conclusions: Pain was the most common complaint with which elders reported to the dental hospital.
However, there was no significant difference in the utilization patterns in the pain and non-pain category.
In addition, the patient's normative needs were far ahead of their expressed needs indicating their neglect
towards oral health and emphasizes the requirement for regular dental check-up among the older individuals.
Clinical significance: There is a neglect of oral health among elderly individuals; therefore it is important
to organize and plan oral health services for geriatric patients.


Safety and security have emerged as a major force driving change in the multinational hotel industry. As a problem area not well-developed in the literature but considered a crucial force influencing hotel firms' value by the multinational hotel community, safety and security provide an excellent opportunity for industry professionals and academic researchers to improve the value creation of multinational hotel firms. A research need is more urgent in the upscale sector of the industry, and thus, an upscale brand of multinational hotel firm was selected for this study. This case study investigated how a multinational hotel firm developed a process of valuing its investments in safety and security for its properties under an upscale brand. This European hotel firm operates in twenty countries with a variety of business climates. The differences in the remote environments, namely the political, economic, sociocultural, technological, and ecological environments, presented a great opportunity to gather different views regarding safety and security investments from hotel managers. The dimensions of hotel safety and security were identified by management teams running the firm's hotels to provide scope for decision-making. With this scope, the management teams continued to develop a framework for assessing the value generated from investments in safety and security by identifying the components of an investment decision-making model. A framework as a result of this exploratory study is suggested for future research where causality can be specified and a descriptive decision-making model can be built.


Interaction Design has different definitions in different areas. Generally, it is the creation of physical and emotional dialogues between a person and a product, system, or service that can be experienced during the action and reaction between form, function, and new technology. User-product interaction describes the behavioral relationships between user and product, which are analyzed to understand the tangible actions and apply that knowledge to product design applications, including the design of the symbols that help the user understand the product's intended use. In any kind of interaction, affordances (characteristics of a product that help users perform tasks) play an important role. Proper evaluation of the role of affordances in these interactions can result in better-designed objects and consequently better user-product interactions. Current methods of evaluation in the user-product interaction design process have not been fully explored, and new, more scientific approaches are needed. In this study we focused on a statistic evaluation model of the behavioral relationship between user and product. By studying theoretically reviewed, multi-disciplinary papers and projects dealing with affordance and related fields, we summarized and systematically explained how to evaluate user-product interactions by analyzing the affordances, which are generally focused on cognitive, physical and functional information. This paper proposes a new analytics-based, user-product interaction evaluation (UPIE) model which can provide product designers with more informative and reliable interaction data, and ultimately help them redesign and improve user-product interaction.


This work analyzes the history, themes, and tropes of various monsters within horror literature. From thesethemes, the figure of the monster can be deconstructed, revealing the hidden meanings behind their development andperpetuation in our society. Various psychoanalytic theories are used to understand the ontological construction ofthe monster, arguing that monsters are imperative in communicating the ways in which we construct and align theconcept of the self. Also, several sociological theories are employed to understand the perpetuation of the monster,arguing that monsters are indicative of the social ills of a particular society or culture. Specifically, zombies are areflection of our fear of death and our increasing tendency towards nihilism. Furthermore, werewolves reflect a basalfear of our own emotions, reveal our tendency to separate reason from emotion, and expose our fear of the "other."Finally, these stories have the potential impact our society, as analyzed in the development, perpetuation, andabuse of folklore and fairytales in modern German culture. This work can be used to further analyze the complexrelationship between language, literature, and culture.


The purpose of the research is to examine how and why hotel managers conceptualise service quality and business performance in the context of the under-researched UK branded budget hotels. The aim of the research is to explore the conceptualisation, implementation and measurement of service quality and business performance. Furthermore, the research focuses on the contextual constraints that affect the implementation of service quality and business performance operations. In doing so, the research takes a realist qualitative multiple case study methodology. Within that methodology, the research uses a multi-methods data collection strategy in the form of 20 semistructured interviews with different budget hotel managerial levels, participant observation of operations and document analysis in a purposeful sample of five case study hotels. The results reveal that the impact of quality and performance initiatives on enhancing continuous improvement is a function of middle managers' practical approach to service quality and performance operations and the existence of a high degree of alignment and consistency between senior managers' approach with that of middle and first-line managers. Essentially, the study reveals a gap between theory and organisational practice. The results indicate that although managers acknowledge the importance of service quality and performance monitoring, their efforts are impeded by flaws in implementation and contextual constraints. The results reveal the flaws as lack of policy on quality, nonimplementation of action plans and a biased reward/incentive scheme. The contextual constraints are identified as competition, budgetary constraints, high team turnover and biased rewards. The contextual factors appear to force managers to ignore company policies on long term service quality and performance improvements in favour of short term profitability goals for which they are handsomely rewarded by the senior managers.This reveals contradictions between what the company portrays to the outside world and real practice. The results suggest that service quality and performance initiatives are sacrificed on the altar of profits as senior managers appear to hope for quality but reward financial performance. The results also identify a significant gap in UK literature and a consequent paucity in knowledge regarding the use of service guarantees as a service quality strategy in budget hotels. The research findings present useful implications for both practitioners and researchers for better management of service quality and performance in order to ensure continuous improvement at both the individual and organisational levels. It is concluded that budget hotel leaders should take responsibility for delivery on service quality and business performance. Similarly, academic researchers should dare not indulge in the luxury of engaging in endless theoretical discourses for their thematic focus should be resonantly on implementation.


Rho GTPases control a variety of cellular processes, including actin polymerization, integrin complex formation, cell adhesion, gene transcription, cell cycle progression, and cell proliferation. A patient is described who has recurrent infections and defective neutrophil cellular functions similar to those found in Rac2-deficient mice. Molecular methods were used to clone the expressed Rac2 cDNA from this patient, and a single base pair change (G-->A at nucleotide 169) in the coding sequence was identified. This results in an asparagine for aspartic acid mutation at amino acid 57 (D57N), a residue that is involved in nucleotide binding and is conserved in all mammalian Rho GTPases. The cloned cDNA was then introduced into normal bone marrow cells through retrovirus vectors, and neutrophils expressing this mutant exhibited decreased cell movement and production of superoxide in response to fMLP. The expressed recombinant protein was also analyzed biochemically and exhibited defective binding to GTP. Functional studies demonstrated that the D57N mutant behaves in a dominant-negative fashion at the cellular level. The syndrome of Rac2 dysfunction represents a human condition associated with mutation of a Rho GTPase and is another example of human disease associated with abnormalities of small G protein signaling pathways. (Blood. 2000;96:1646-1654)


Abstract Background Severe asthma in horses, known as severe equine asthma (SEA), is a prevalent, performance‐limiting disease associated with increased allergen‐specific immunoglobulin E (IgE) against a range of environmental aeroallergens. Objective To develop a protein microarray platform to profile IgE against a range of proven and novel environmental proteins in SEA‐affected horses. Animals Six SEA‐affected and 6 clinically healthy Warmblood performance horses. Methods Developed a protein microarray (n = 384) using protein extracts and purified proteins from a large number of families including pollen, bacteria, fungi, and arthropods associated with the horses, environment. Conditions were optimized and assessed for printing, incubation, immunolabeling, biological fluid source, concentration techniques, reproducibility, and specificity. Results This method identified a number of novel allergens, while also identifying an association between SEA and pollen sensitization. Immunolabeling methods confirmed the accuracy of a commercially available mouse anti‐horse IgE 3H10 source (R 2 = 0.91). Biological fluid source evaluation indicated that sera and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) yielded the same specific IgE profile (average R 2 = 0.75). Amicon centrifugal filters were found to be the most efficient technique for concentrating BALF for IgE analysis at 40‐fold. Overnight incubation maintained the same sensitization profile while increasing sensitivity. Reproducibility was demonstrated (R 2 = 0.97), as was specificity using protein inhibition assays. Arthropods, fungi, and pollens showed the greatest discrimination for SEA. Conclusions and Clinical Importance We have established that protein microarrays can be used for large‐scale IgE mapping of allergens associated with the environment of horses. This technology provides a sound platform for specific diagnosis, management, and treatment of SEA.


PLA (0.5 to 3%) was successfully dissolved in furfuryl alcohol (FA). Acid number of neat polylactic acid (PLA) and PLA incorporated in FA were determined. Neat PLA and PLA incorporated polyfurfuryl alcohol based bioplastics were successfully fabricated with p-toulene sulfonic acid as an acid catalyst by casting method in silicon mould. The fabricated bioplastics are black in colour. The as-fabricated bioplastics were tested for resistance against acid and alkali. Additionally, water uptake studies of bioplastics were also carried out. Cite this Article Mohd. Sharib, Rakesh Kumar. Acid and Alkali Resistance of Polylactic Acid Incorporated Polyfurfuryl Alcohol Bioplastics. Journal of Modern Chemistry & Chemical Technology. 2017; 8(2): 1–4p.


After considerable improvements of wastewater treatment, the loads of nutrients and plant protection agents, deriving from agriculture and heavy metals from urban drainages effluents as well as from erosion of agricultural soils are the main sources of nutrients and harmful substances in the loads of water bodies. The targets of the project were on the one hand the analysis of the political and legislative framework of both policy fields and on the other hand the evaluation of several, selected water protection measures with regard to their contribution to reduce water pollution, their economical effects as well as their political enforceability. The focus was laid on diffuse water pollution caused by agriculture. As main reasons for the diffuse water pollution stagnating at high level, the analysis of the political framework identified a lack of implementation discipline of water law, followed by the fragmented and insufficient water protection legislation itself and the previous design of the common agricultural policy slanted towards increasing productivity. For the future co-operation of agricultural and water authorities in implementation of their reforms and better definition of "Good Farming Practice" are recommended. The second investigation level focuses on the analysis and assessment of selected measures to reduce the input of nutrients and plant protection agents. This part was done with help of calculation models focussing on the specific cost/benefit ratios for water protection. In detail the following measures have been analysed: decoupling of direct payments, coupling of livestock farming to areas, tax on mineral nitrogen, pesticide levy, buffer stripes alongside of watercourses, all season crop cover on arable land, soil cultivation procedures, changing the use of arable land, optimisation of animal nutrition, optimisation of manure storage and application, co-operative agreements, education and training. Co-operations and water protection related education and training can be highly recommended, since they improve knowledge and freedom of action. As the results on county level show, the measure "Decoupling of direct payments" would not lead to appreciable changes as far as the nutrient surpluses on farmland is concerned. "Coupling livestock farming to areas" would decrease the surpluses substantially. For this measure and Tax on mineral nitrogen, varying adaptation reactions could be expected depending on the regional specialisation in cropping or livestock farming areas. On single farm level the measures, protein adapted feeding, optimisation of manure storage and application showed the best cost-efficiency to reduce nutrient surpluses. All season crop cover on arable land and conservation tillage are highly efficient, too, and should be included in farming practice. A stronger limitation of livestock density could mean a reduction of manure, but the implementation of this measure would lead to high losses of income for farmers specialised in animal production. For reduction of diffuse water pollution caused by urban drainage political approaches as well as detailed technical measures are examined. In the area of urban drainage storm water management (especially infiltration and constructed wetlands), unsealing of paved areas and small wastewater treatment structures (for phosphorus reduction) showed best cost-effectiveness.