To improve the stealthiness, and the efficiency of military aircraft, engineers moved carried weapons from external hand points, to weapons bays. However, the flow inside bays is turbulent, and characterised by strong broadband, and tonal noise. The open bay flow leads to variability in the released store trajectory, excites the missile, and bay structures, and reduces the aircraft stealthiness. This thesis aims to improve our understanding of real weapon bay flow, and suggests a method for quantifying the store trajectory variability.
The main spatio-temporal characteristics of cavity flows are described using post-processing methods, like, SPL, OASPL, and wavelet transform. Also, the code HMB3 is validated for simulation of cavity flows, comparing Scale Adaptive (SAS) results with experiments. To further improve the understanding of the physics driving this flow, a simple model is presented, and compared to experiments. The results are promising, and the model is able to reproduce the cavity flow fluctuations both in space and time.
To support measurements of the noise field around a cavity flow, beamforming is applied to the CFD results. This method was able of capturing the main sources of noise around the cavity, using a microphone array, and the mean flow to simulate the propagation of acoustic waves. Also, recommendations for future use of this technique are given.
Developments were carried out for this thesis, and for the first time, a CFD code is reported to simulate the complete weapon bay operation, including door operation, store release, and store aeroelasticity. The different parts of the code are strongly coupled, and work together. Thanks to new capabilities of HMB3, this thesis shows more insight on the physics behind realistic weapon bay operation. The flow establishment during door opening is described, and appears to be important for store design, only if the doors are moving very fast. Store releases are simulated, and statistical analysis of the data is performed. A statistical metric was proposed to identify the minimum number of simulations necessary for capturing the mean and standard deviation of the trajectories. Using averaged, and filtered flow data, the trajectory phases were identified and the role of the pressure field inside the cavity was clarified. In addition, the aeroelasticity of the store was computed during carriage, door opening, and release phases, showing small deformations that may lead to structural fatigue. Thanks to the efficiency of the SAS method, a large number of simulations were performed, and more than 1800 cavity travel times were simulated.
Simulation of the flow around a store in a supersonic flow, and at high attitude is described in an appendix of the thesis. Like a cavity, this flow has complex features that require advanced turbulence modelling to be simulated.
In addition, novel cavity flow controls are investigated, and described in a restricted appendix of the thesis.


A number of theoretical and technical innovations in the 1930s and 1940s led to a new era of computing, and computing started to develop as an independent academic discipline. Some pioneers of computing emphasized the theoretical elements of science, advocating a mathematical view of computing as a discipline. Others distanced computing from natural sciences and championed for academic legitimacy of sciences of the artificial. At the time when experimental computer science debates emerged, many meta-studies compared research in computing with natural sciences and engineering, condemning computing as methodologically deficient. But in the new century, the success of computing in many scientific applications made computing, in the minds of many, a "paradigm" for other sciences: Computing can learn from nature, or it might be the best tool for studying natural phenomena, or it might actually be what nature does. This talk describes the journey of computing from a nascent young field struggling for legitimacy to the views that computing might not be only "a" science but "the" science.


This paper presents a new symmetry-integrated region-based image segmentation method. The method is developed to obtain improved image segmentation by exploiting image symmetry. It is realized by constructing a symmetry token that can be flexibly embedded into segmentation cues. Interesting points are initially extracted from an image by the SIFT operator and they are further refined for detecting the global bilateral symmetry. A symmetry affinity matrix is then computed using the symmetry axis and it is used explicitly as a constraint in a region growing algorithm in order to refine the symmetry of the segmented regions. A multi-objective genetic search finds the segmentation result with the highest performance for both segmentation and symmetry, which is close to the global optimum. The method has been investigated experimentally in challenging natural images and images containing man-made objects. It is shown that the proposed method outperforms current segmentation methods both with and without exploiting symmetry. A thorough experimental analysis indicates that symmetry plays an important role as a segmentation cue, in conjunction with other attributes like color and texture.


The radial intensity distribution of a transmission from a single-mode optical fiber is often approximated using Gaussian-shaped spatial field distributions. While such approximations are useful for some applications, they do not accurately describe optical transmission intensity off of the axis of propagation. A recent paper was presented that more accurately describes the intensity distribution, and this paper presents a simple experimental setup that verifies the model's accuracy through formal uncertainty quantification procedures. Agreement between the model and the experiment is established both on and off of the axis of propagation. These results are then discussed in the context of displacement sensor designs based on the optical lever architecture. Transmission behavior off of the axis of propagation controls the sensor performance when large lateral offsets (25-1500 μ m) exist between transmitting and receiving fibers. The practical implications of modeling accuracy over this lateral offset region are discussed as they relate to the development of high-performance, intensity-modulated optical displacement sensors. Specifically, the sensitivity, linearity, resolution, and displacement range of a sensor are functions of the relative positioning of the sensor's transmitting and receiving fibers. It is concluded that the predictive capability of the model presented in this paper could enable an improved methodology for high-performance sensor design.


This paper explores the introduction of mindfulness into courses in higher education. Some of these courses are taught by Buddhist scholars; others are taught by scholars within other disciplines who themselves have a meditation practice. Those scholars included here represent a much larger number in diverse settings, including state universities, liberal arts colleges, Ivy League institutions, and historically black colleges. They teach in almost every discipline, including architecture, poetry, chemistry, economics, and law. The courses discussed in this paper are taught by Contemplative Practice Fellows, a programme of the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society. The paper also places this movement into a short history of contemplative education and raises questions about its future impact on the academy.


Zooplankton contributes in different ways to pelagic-benthic coupling: Their faecal material is a major route of energy flow and the vertical migrations of many species as well as the production of pelagic larvae by benthic organisms represent different paths to link the two subsystems. Antarctic particle fluxes have been shown to be highly variable in size and composition within a given region and even at the same site from year to year. There are also differences throughout the water column, where particle fluxes close to the sea floor beyond the continental shelf break do not normally show seasonal variation within shallow environments. Commonly, at depths shallower than 500 m, the most evident feature is that more than 90% of the annual fluxes occur during a short period of the spring-summer. This event is masked near the seabed at greater depths due to resupension and lateral advection of particles. Faecal material of various origins is one of the main constituents of the biogenic matter flux. It usually reaches its maximum in February once the early phytoplankton bloom has developed. However, the presence of faecal pellets is ubiquitous during the months of the year when there is enough light to support primary production. At this stage more research is needed to elucidate the particular role of distinct taxa—including among others salps, krill, copepods and protozoans—in the transport of organic matter to the benthos, and their contribution to the biogeochemical cycles of carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and silicon. Aggregation of particles is another important process controlling the development and dynamics of pelagic-benthic coupling due to its influence on the sinking velocity of particles and the enhancement of organic matter utilisation by members of the microbial loop in the upper layers of the water column. Also in shallow waters, aggregation favours the transfer of high-quality organic matter to the benthic realm. At greater depths resuspended aggregates and single particles from shallow environments may constitute a considerable fraction of the "fresh" biogenic flux. Submarine canyons accelerate and cause more efficient transfer of energy to the deep-sea benthos. Both faecal pellets and aggregation increase the original sinking velocity of individual particles and reduce their residence time in the water column, thus creating rich organic mats over the seabed in shallow environments. In the Southern Ocean these rapid organic matter transfers are important since they allow the accumulation of highly nutritive material, which may fuel the benthos during the dark months due to constant resuspension by tidal currents. Several factors control the particle fluxes in the Southern Ocean, such as size and composition of phytoplankton blooms, currents, seasonality, depth, and ice coverage. Due to this complexity, despite many efforts there is still a long way to go before the pathway of this ecologically important link can be fully understood and described. Our knowledge of the pelagic-benthic coupling in the Magellan region is still extremely limited and offers many opportunities for future scientific research. The same holds true for the production of meroplanktonic larvae in the Southern Ocean.


A flexure hinge is a flexible connector that can provide a limited rotational motion between two rigid parts by means of material deformation. These connectors can be used to substitute traditional kinematic pairs (like bearing couplings) in rigid-body mechanisms. When compared to their rigid-body counterpart, flexure hinges are characterized by reduced weight, absence of backlash and friction, part-count reduction, but restricted range of motion. There are several types of flexure hinges in the literature that have been studied and characterized for different applications. In our
study, we have introduced new types of flexures with curved structures i.e. circularly curved-beam flexures and spherical flexures. These flexures have been utilized for both planar applications (e.g. articulated robotic fingers) and spatial applications (e.g. spherical compliant mechanisms). We have derived closed-form compliance equations for both circularly curved-beam flexures and
spherical flexures. Each element of the spatial compliance matrix is analytically computed as a function of hinge dimensions and employed material. The theoretical model is then validated by comparing analytical data with the results obtained through Finite Element Analysis. A case study
is also presented for each class of flexures, concerning the potential applications in the optimal design of planar and spatial compliant mechanisms. Each case study is followed by comparing the performance of these novel flexures with the performance of commonly used geometries in terms of principle compliance factors, parasitic motions and maximum stress demands. Furthermore, we have extended our study to the design and analysis of serial and parallel compliant mechanisms, where the proposed flexures have been employed to achieve spatial motions e.g. compliant spherical joints.


BACKGROUND
A number of different socio-economic classifications have been used in relation to health in the United Kingdom. The aim of this study was to compare the predictive power of different socio-economic classifications in relation to a range of health measures.

METHODS
A postal questionnaire was sent to a random sample of adults in the West of Scotland (sampling from 1997 electoral roll, response rate 50 percent achieved sample 2,867).

RESULTS
Associations between social position and health vary by socio-economic classification, health measure and gender. Limiting long-standing illness is more socially patterned than recent illness; income, Registrar General Social Class, housing tenure and car access are more predictive of health than the new National Statistics Socio Economic Classification; and men show steeper socio-economic gradients than women.

CONCLUSION
Although there is a consistent picture of poorer health among more disadvantaged groups, however measured, in seeking to explain and reduce social inequalities in health we need to take a more differentiated approach that does not assume equivalence among social classifications and health measures.


Modification of crop water use patterns in response to the field soil temperature regime has important agronomic and environmental implications. A 2-yr field study was conducted to ascertain how soil temperature modification influenced seasonal soil water depletion for a winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) crop near Bozeman, MT. Soil surface cover materials including clear plastic, white metal, and styrofoam were applied in the fall after germination and plant establishment. Soil temperature and water content profiles were monitored throughout the winter and spring growing seasons. Soil water depletion was significantly accelerated for those treatments having relatively warmer soil temperatures. Differences of up to 65 mm of cumulative soil water depletion were observed between warm and cool treatments during spring. Significant water extraction from a given depth within the soil profile did not occur until the soil temperature reached 10 to 11°C during 1985. Repeated rainfall during 1986 obscured any relationship between minimum soil temperature and water uptake in the upper soil profile, but the same relationship as during 1985 was noted at greater depths. Although the nature of our field data does not allow determination of whether cold temperatures constrained root growth, root water uptake, or both of these processes, our field results substantiate conclusions drawn by other investigators using controlled-environment techniques. It is clear that cultural practices or climatic changes affecting seasonal soil temperature can impact soil water utilization by winter wheat in thermally limited growing areas


This study investigates knowledge structures and scientific communication using bibliometric methods to explore scientific knowledge production and dissemination. The aim is to develop knowledge about this growing field by investigating studies using international large-scale assessment (ILSA) data, with a specific focus on those using Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) data. As international organisations use ILSA to measure, assess and compare the success of national education systems, it is important to study this specific knowledge to understand how it is organised and legitimised within research. The findings show an interchange of legitimisation, where major actors from the USA and other English-speaking and westernised countries determine the academic discourse. Important epistemic cultures for PISA research are identified: the most important of which are situated within psychology and education. These two research environments are epicentres created by patterns of the referrals to and referencing of articles framing the formulation of PISA knowledge. Finally, it is argued that this particular PISA research is self-referential and self-authorising, which raises questions about whether research accountability leads to 'a game of thrones', where rivalry going on within the scientific field concerning how and on what grounds 'facts' and 'truths' are constructed, as a continuing process with no obvious winner.


We introduce Probabilistic Knowledge-Based Programs (PKBPs), a new, compact representation of policies for factored partially observable Markov decision processes. PKBPs use branching conditions such as if the probability of φ is larger than p, and many more. While similar in spirit to value-based policies, PKBPs leverage the factored representation for more compactness. They also cope with more general goals than standard state-based rewards, such as pure information-gathering goals. Compactness comes at the price of reactivity, since evaluating branching conditions on-line is not polynomial in general. In this sense, PKBPs are complementary to other representations. Our intended application is as a tool for experts to specify policies in a natural, compact language, then have them verified automatically. We study succinctness and the complexity of verification for PKBPs.


Genetically modified plants are currently causing controversy worldwide; a great deal has been written about their supposed environmental effects. However, the newspaper headlines and public debates often provide a level of reasoning akin to "this is your brain on genetically modified corn," which is to say, they exclude or exaggerate the actual scientific research on the impacts of these plants. Genetically Modified Planet goes beyond the rhetoric to investigate for concerned consumers the actual state of scientific research on genetically modified plants. Stewart argues that while there are indeed real and potential risks of growing engineered crops, there are also real and overwhelmingly positive environmental benefits.


Estimates of growth or change in a forest population parameter for a specific length of time, such as cubic meters of wood per hectare per year, are often made from sample observation intervals of different lengths of time. For instance, a basic building block of growth estimators in forest inventory systems is often the annual mean of the first differences of all observations for a particular year, regardless of observation interval length. The aggregate differences between successive observations on re-measured forest sample plots can be viewed as a linear combination, while forest growth is usually assumed to be non-linear. Bias can be assumed to exist whenever a linear combination is used to estimate a specific segment of an underlying non-linear trend. The amount of bias will depend upon the relationship of the intended estimation interval relative to the set of observation intervals. Here, three specific segments, relative to each year of interest, form the bases for a standard set of three estimands. Bias-ratio-adjusted composite estimators for use with observations made on alternative sets of symmetric interval lengths are compared in a simulation against this standard set of estimands. The first estimand has a one-year basis, the second has a five-year mid-interval basis, and the third has a five-year end-of-period basis. For the first and second bases, the initial results clearly show a logical ordering of bias and mean-squared error by observation interval length relative to the target interval length. As expected, some deviance from these clear trends are shown for the end-of-period basis. In the presence of three simple distributions of symmetric measurement intervals, the bias-ratio adjustments and subsequent composite estimators are shown to usually be effective in reducing bias and mean-squared error, while being most obviously effective for the most disparate distribution of intervals and for the end-of-period basis.


To establish the influence of phytoplankton blooms on the cycling of dissolved and particulate species of organic carbon and nitrogen, we conducted a field study during a series of blooms in a coastal embayment on Shelter Island, NY. Using cross‐flow filtration, we collected high‐ and low‐molecular‐weight (HMW and LMW) dissolved organic matter (DOM), along with particulate organic matter (POM). There was a significant and near equivalent enhancement in levels of particulate organic carbon (POC) and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) during phytoplankton blooms. HMW organic carbon was responsible for most (80%) of the DOC increase. In contrast, substantial amounts of organic nitrogen were produced in all size fractions (particulate organic nitrogen [PON], HMW, and LMW) during blooms. POC:PON and HMW C:N ratios exceeded Redfield stoichiometry and were well correlated with chlorophyll concentrations, which suggests that phytoplankton were the primary source of C‐enriched particles and colloids in this system. DOM C:N ratios were higher during periods of elevated nitrate than during low nitrate conditions, which were dominated by phytoplankton with heterotrophic capabilities. This suggests that, in some coastal systems, the accumulation of C‐enriched organic matter may be more dependent on algal species composition than ambient inorganic nitrogen levels. After the collapse of algal blooms, bacterial densities rose markedly, and all organic pools rapidly decreased to near prebloom levels. Despite substantial production and turnover rates of HMW organic carbon during blooms, longer residence times of other, more refractory, organic carbon pools such as the LMW fraction indicated that considerable portions of organic matter produced during estuarine phytoplankton blooms may be exported to continental shelves.


Dystrophin, the protein product of the Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) gene, is a cytoskeletal protein tightly associated with a large oligomeric complex of sarcolemmal glycoproteins including dystroglycan, which provides a linkage to the extracellular matrix component, laminin. In DMD, the absence of dystrophin leads to a drastic reduction in all of the dystrophin-associated proteins, causing the disruption of the linkage between the subsarcolemmal cytoskeleton and the extracellular matrix which, in turn, may render muscle cells susceptible to necrosis. The COOH-terminal domains (cysteine-rich and carboxyl-terminal) of dystrophin have been suggested to interact with the sarcolemmal glycoprotein complex. However, truncated dystrophin lacking these domains was reported to be localized to the sarcolemma in four DMD patients recently. Here we report that all of the dystrophin-associated proteins are drastically reduced in the sarcolemma of three DMD patients in whom dystrophin lacking the COOH-terminal domains was properly localized to the sarcolemma. Our results indicate that the COOH-terminal domains of dystrophin are required for the proper interaction of dystrophin with the dystrophin-associated proteins and also support our hypothesis that the loss of the dystrophin-associated proteins in the sarcolemma leads to severe muscular dystrophy even when truncated dystrophin is present in the subsarcolemmal cytoskeleton.


This clinical policy focuses on critical issues in the evaluation and management of patients with acute myocardial infarction or unstable angina. A MEDLINE search for articles published between January 1993 and December 1998 was performed using combinations of the key words chest pain, acute myocardial infarction, unstable angina, thrombolytics, primary angioplasty, 12-lead ECG, ST-segment monitoring, cardiac serum markers, and chest pain centers. Subcommittee members and expert peer reviewers also supplied articles with direct bearing on the policy. This policy focuses on 5 areas of current interest and/or controversy: (1) ECG eligibility criteria for fibrinolytic therapy, (2) role of primary angioplasty in patients with acute myocardial infarction, (3) use of serum markers to diagnose acute myocardial infarction, (4) serial 12-lead ECGs during the initial evaluation, and (5) chest pain evaluation units. Recommendations for patient management are provided for each of these 5 topics based on strength of evidence (Standards, Guidelines, Options). Standards represent patient management principles that reflect a high degree of clinical certainty; Guidelines represent patient management principles that reflect moderate clinical certainty; and Options represent other patient management strategies based on preliminary, inconclusive, or conflicting evidence, or based on panel consensus. This guideline is intended for physicians working in hospital-based emergency departments or chest pain evaluation units. [American College of Emergency Physicians. Clinical policy: critical issues in the evaluation and management of adult patients presenting with suspected acute myocardial infarction or unstable angina. Ann Emerg Med. May 2000;35:521-544.].


This study of the 1990s television show Friends analyzes the representations and portrayals of gender and sexuality presented throughout the series. Episodes containing the word "Wedding" in the title were examined for issues of gender and sexuality. This examination specifies particular attention to the lesbian and transgender community in regards to Friends' representation of sexuality. While an examination of gender in Friends focuses more on ideas of hegemonic masculinity and adverse ideas of feminism and postfeminism. Through the application and acceptance of media influence being derived through a process of negotiated meaning, a motley of possible influences and effects can be extracted from Friends. The identification of Friends as a negotiated text prevents a solitary identification of Friends as either a positive or negative text in terms of sexual and gendered representations/expectations and allays the plausibility of identifying all possible influences Friends has on viewers' perceptions. However, it is still vital to examine and identify a number of these representations and possible influences, so that a greater level of understanding, consciousness, and cultural significance can be derived about the influence Friends had and has on viewer's beliefs, attitudes, and expectations particularly in regards to gender and sexuality. THE ONE ABOUT GENDER AND SEXUALITY 3


Maximum-likelihood estimation of nonlinear models with fixed effects is subject to the incidental-parameter problem. This typically implies that point estimates suffer from large bias and confidence intervals have poor coverage. This paper presents a jackknife method to reduce this bias and to obtain confidence intervals that are correctly centered under rectangular-array asymptotics. The method is explicitly designed to handle dynamics in the data and yields estimators that are straightforward to implement and that can be readily applied to a range of models and estimands. We provide distribution theory for estimators of index coefficients and average effects, present validity tests for the jackknife, and consider extensions to higher-order bias correction and to two-step estimation problems. An empirical illustration on female labor-force participation is also provided.


These exciting new TreeTops Myths and Legends are guaranteed to appeal to all your junior readers - whatever their cultural background, gender or enthusiasms. These are the oldest and most enduring stories in the world, retold by leading contemporary children's authors to bring out all of the action, drama, humour and depth of the original stories in a way that makes them as exciting and meaningful today as ever. The strand is comprised of 24 books, telling a total of around 65 traditional stories from around the world. All of the stories are fully illustrated with stunning, vibrant images. The stories are carefully levelled, making them accessible to the average 7-11 year old reader. A thought-provoking letter from the author explains something about the background of the stories and the process of writing or retelling them. The letter also encourages the reader to make links between stories in a collection - prompting a fascinating investigation of the similarities and differences between stories that have evolved from different cultures around the world.The stories are ideal for making links to other areas of curriculum. Books contain inside cover notes to support children in their reading. Help with childrens reading development is also available at www.oxfordowl.co.uk.


Exploration of our organisational life has much to gain from fiction so as to reflexively engage with provisional processes of uncertainty, doubt and paradox. These are often neglected qualities of how we go on together in our organizational lives. Here I take an autoethnographic approach presenting one narrative of a fraught meeting that I was part of to explore my leadership development. I do this in relation to Homer, Shakespeare and Allen-Poe to explore leadership issues of: paradox and how we become enmeshed in unfolding events; the interaction between a leader's future intent and how this plays out in action. In doing this I offer an invitation to explore literature that speaks to and develops our practice of leadership and how we might develop and communicate useful insights.


In contrast to much work on gender and development in the Global South, which has emphasized the influence of Global North-oriented capitalism, my research demonstrates that the gendering of labor and identities as well as the collective mobilization of subalterns in southern China are the outcomes of the articulation of both former socialist development projects and current neoliberal discourse. Gender, in my dissertation, is a necessary category of analysis to understand the workings of state power, technologies of governance, and subaltern oppositions. A gendered approach makes evident the ways in which former workers personalize and skillfully utilize discursive logics from different historical junctures to protest the current conditions of their lives. Grounded in gender studies, anthropology, and critical development studies, my project is also in dialogue with environmental studies, geography, political science, and studies of law and society. My dissertation is a historical and ethnographic examination of workers' lives and labor amidst the reforms of the forestry industry in China since the 1950s. The dissertation demonstrates how, through the use of development projects, the Chinese state institutionalized the gendering of labor and social welfare. It also shows, however, that the forestry workers were able to re-purpose this same gendered institutionalization in order to create space for their own political voices. My work, based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in a mountainous area of Fujian Province in southern China between 2008 and 2015, illustrates gendered difference in the treatment of workers in the realm of labor divisions, state pensions and legal institutions as well as workers' subsequent effective cultivation of a gendered legal consciousness to contest economic injustices from decades earlier. I use discursive analysis of state documents, oral histories with multiple generations of workers, and ethnographic attention to still-unfolding protests in order to make sense of these dynamics.


Rotation in closed contour recognition is a puzzling nuisance in most algorithms. In this paper we address three fundamental issues brought by rotation in shapes: 1) is alignment among shapes necessary? If the answer is "no", 2) how to exploit information in different rotations? and 3) how to use rotation unaware local features for rotation aware shape recognition? We argue that the origin of these issues is the use of hand crafted rotation-unfriendly features and measurements. Therefore our goal is to learn a set of hierarchical features that describe all rotated versions of a shape as a class, with the capability of distinguishing different such classes. We propose to rotate shapes as many times as possible as training samples, and learn the hierarchical feature representation by effectively adopting a convolutional neural network. We further show that our method is very efficient because the network responses of all possible shifted versions of the same shape can be computed effectively by re-using information in the overlapping areas. We tested the algorithm on three real datasets: Swedish Leaves dataset, ETH-80 Shape, and a subset of the recently collected Leafsnap dataset. Our approach used the curvature scale space and outperformed the state of the art.


What is life like for women with learning disabilities detained in a secure unit? This book presents a unique ethnographic study conducted in a contemporary institution in England. Rebecca Fish takes an interdisciplinary approach, drawing on both the social model of disability as well as intersectional feminist methodology, to explore the reasons why the women were placed in the unit, as well their experiences of day-to-day life as played out through relationships with staff and other residents.   Through making the women's voices heard, this book presents their experiences and unique perspectives on topics such as seclusion, restraint, and resistance. Exploring how the ever present power disparity works to regulate women's behaviour, the book shows how institutional responses replicate women's bad experiences from the past, and how women's responses are seen as pathological. It demonstrates that women are not passive recipients of care, but shape their own identity and futures, sometimes by resisting the norms expected of them (within allowed limits) and sometimes by transgressing the rules. These insights thus challenge traditional institutional accounts of gender, learning disability and deviance and highlight areas for reform in policy, practice, methodology, and social theory. This unique book will be of interest to scholars, students, policy-makers and advocates working in the fields of learning disability and disability studies more widely, women's studies and sociology.


The thesis approaches the issue of IS support for service work, understood as distributed knowledge work taking place as a negotiation between diverse interests. It is based on an ethnographically inspired, longitudinal case study of certification auditing according to a formal generic standard. A handful of certification auditors are followed closely, periodically and comprehensively over three years. Observations are combined with interviews of subjects and colleagues, added by exploration of other material. The practices of company 'W' is placed within a larger historical and institutional context. Research literature and theory is explored in four chapters from Social studies of science (STS), Computer supported cooperative work (CSCW), Information systems (IS), Information infrastructures (II) and Management literature. The aim is to identify basic characteristics of service work, its opportunities and challenges, from both the company's and workers' perspective. Main topics are Decision Making as negotiated sensemaking, contextual rationality and judgement; Sharing of understanding and meaning as ongoing practiced articulation work aiming for trust and an equifinal level of accord that will 'find and allow common action'; Perseverance in a capable role that will allow calibration of distributed knowledge is vital for auditors. Common Information Spaces (CIS) is used as a framework to explore the heterogeneous circumstances of identity work in work practices; Predictability in production is sought through various strategies of standardization. Approaches to avoid and counter the inherent side-effects of standardization are described. The empirical results of the research project are presented and analysed in four chapters that look at the issue of i) being an accomplished service worker and ii) practicing service work. Both issues are addressed from a local, individual perspective, and from an organizational perspective in terms of the continuation of quality production. The thesis closes with a Conclusion of organized and standardized service work as displaying Practical drift, in response to the research question RQ0. How is IS supported distributed service work negotiated?, followed by implications for IS research and practice. The empirical case displays the role of information systems (IS) support in distributed service work - as part of a larger assembly of standardization measures, a broad-spectrum approach, displaying practical drift in its effect. The service work of certification auditing is characterized by ongoing negotiation of partly contradictory interests. It is heterogeneously standardized through material, rational/immaterial and social/organizational measures, many in place long before the advent of advanced IS. Traditionally, there are release mechanisms that, on the auditors' discretion, alleviate the inappropriate effects of standardization. With new harmonising efforts the scope of this personal latitude needs to change, but when first implemented the IS along with new procedures start off as too tight. However, over time adaptations are made, making the overall process self regulatory with feedback mechanisms. On the whole, the thesis aims to contribute to the literature on information infrastructures, on knowledge work in general, and CSCW by drawing on insights from this specific collaborative work in controversial settings. The case provides practical insights for resilient systemizing of knowledge based global service work practices.


India has the largest number of non-schoolgoing working children in the world. Why has the government not removed them from the labor force and required that they attend school, as have the governments of all developed and many developing countries? To answer this question, this major comparative study first looks at why and when other states have intervened to protect children against parents and employers. By examining Europe of the nineteenth century, the United States, Japan, and a number of developing countries, Myron Weiner rejects the argument that children were removed from the labor force only when the incomes of the poor rose and employers needed a more skilled labor force. Turning to India, the author shows that its policies arise from fundamental beliefs, embedded in the culture, rather than from economic conditions. Identifying the specific values that elsewhere led educators, social activists, religious leaders, trade unionists, military officers, and government bureaucrats to make education compulsory and to end child labor, he explains why similar groups in India do not play the same role.


This article examines the growth of vacant property registration ordinances (VPROs) in the U.S. It utilizes a new, unique database of local VPROs enacted in the U.S. The database is based on an industry listing of ordinances maintained by a large, national field services firm employed by mortgage lenders to secure and maintain foreclosed properties. Copies of over 550 ordinances (or in a few cases, summaries of ordinances) were obtained and coded on over 30 characteristics. Initial analysis of the database reveals that VPROs grew dramatically in 2008 and 2009, during the climax of the national foreclosure crisis, and that number or ordinances continued to grow after 2009, albeit at a somewhat slower pace. Growth was particularly robust in the Midwest, Southeast and West, although growth occurred in all parts of the country generally. Localities in some states, especially California, were particularly early adopters of VPROs in 2007 and 2008. In general, higher foreclosure levels do predict higher rates of VPRO adoption within a state, but only roughly, with a good deal of variation not explained by foreclosure rates. In particular, a few states that have been hit hard by foreclosures (Arizona and Nevada, e.g.) did not see substantial growth in the number of VPROs. The coverage, requirements, and penalties specified in VPROs vary greatly across ordinances and across regions of the country.


Silicon nanoparticles between 2.5 nm and 30 nm in diameter were functionalized by means of photoassisted hydrosilylation reactions in the aerosol phase with terminal alkenes of varying chain length. Using infrared spectroscopy and nuclear magnetic resonance, the chemical composition of the alkyl layer was determined for each combination of particle size and alkyl chain length. The spectroscopic techniques were used to determine that smaller particles functionalized with short chains in the aerosol phase tend to attach to the interior (β) alkenyl carbon atom, whereas particles >10 nm in diameter exhibit attachment primarily with the exterior (α) alkenyl carbon atom, regardless of chain length.


In "Is the Turk a White Man?" Murat Ergin examines how the links between race and modernity has shaped the formation of Turkish identity.


Arbitrators are lead actors in global dispute resolution. They are to global dispute resolution what judges are to domestic dispute resolution. Despite its global significance, arbitral decision making is a black box. This Article is the first to use original experimental research to explore how international arbitrators decide cases. We find that arbitrators often make intuitive and impressionistic decisions, rather than fully deliberative decisions. We also find evidence that casts doubt on the conventional wisdom that arbitrators render "split the baby" decisions. Although direct comparisons are difficult, we find that arbitrators generally perform at least as well as, but never demonstrably worse than, national judges analyzed in earlier research. There may be reasons to prefer judges to international arbitrators, but the quality of judgment and decision making, at least as measured in these experimental studies, is not one of them. Thus, normative debates about global dispute resolution should focus on using structural safeguards and legal protections to enhance quality decision-making, regardless of decision maker identity or title.


The acceptance of English as an international language has encouraged many nations to introduce curriculums that cater for teaching of English. Learning of English in many nations has been very successful because of the cooperation that educational stake holders have provided to students and teachers. However, in other nations with very strong attachment to their native languages such as Libya, introduction of English as a new language has been a tasking process. Such nations consider introduction of English in their education curriculum as a form of neo colonialism thus very considerate in accommodating the leaning programmes. On the other hand poor motivation and negative attitude on the part of teachers and students has contributed greatly to the poor acceptance of English learning in these nations. Introducing a new language in a nation where there is an already effective and established language requires total motivation and positive attitude from the trainers and students.


It is now well understood that dividends paid to all nonresidents are subject to dividends tax at the rate of 15%, unless reduced in terms of a particular double tax agreement (DTA). (There are still a couple of DTAs that provide for a zero withholding tax on dividends but their days are numbered, and the lowest rate of withholding tax will be 5% where there is a so-called substantial holding - typically at least 10%, depending upon the DTA concerned.)


Time preferences vary by age. Notably, according to experimental studies, senior citizens tend to discount future payoffs more heavily than working-age individuals. Based on these findings, we hypothesize that demographic change has contributed to the cut-back in government-financed investment that many advanced economies experienced over the last four decades. We demonstrate for a panel of 19 OECD countries between 1971 and 2007 that the share of elderly people and public investment rates are cointegrated, indicating a long-run relationship between them. Estimating this cointegration relationship via dynamic OLS (DOLS) we find a negative and significant effect of population aging on public investment. Moreover, the estimation of an error correction model reveals long-run Granger causality running exclusively from aging to investment. Our results are robust to the inclusion of additional control variables typically considered in the literature on the determinants of public investment.


Processor Design addresses the design of different types of embedded, firmware-programmable computation engines. Because the design and customization of embedded processors has become a mainstream task in the development of complex SoCs (Systems-on-Chip), ASIC and SoC designers must master the integration and development of processor hardware as an integral part of their job. Even contemporary FPGA devices can now accommodate several programmable processors. There are many different kinds of embedded processor cores available, suiting different kinds of tasks and applications. Processor Design provides insight into a number of different flavors of processor architectures and their design, software tool generation, implementation, and verification. After a brief introduction to processor architectures and how processor designers have sometimes failed to deliver what was expected, the authors introduce a generic flow for embedded on-chip processor design and start to explore the vast design space of on-chip processing. The types of processor cores covered include general purpose RISC cores, traditional DSP, a VLIW approach to signal processing, processor cores that can be customized for specific applications, reconfigurable processors, protocol processors, Java engines, and stream processors. Co-processor and multi-core design approaches that deliver application-specific performance over and above that which is available from single-core designs are also described. The special design requirements for processors targeted for FPGA implementation, clock generation and distribution in microprocessor circuits, and clockless realization of processors are addressed. Tools and methodologies for application-specific embedded processor design are covered, together with processor modelling and early estimation techniques, and programming tool support for custom processors. The book concludes with a glance to the future of embedded on-chip processors.


This paper explores how teenage thinking about jobs and careers relates to adulthood labour market outcomes. The OECD working paper Career Ready? How schools can better prepare young people for working life in the era of COVID-19 identifies career certainty, alignment and ambition as relevant indicators related to career thinking. This paper extends analysis of these indicators to new longitudinal datasets from Australia, Denmark, and Switzerland, and incorporates two new indicators, instrumental motivation and career concentration. The findings provide further evidence that teenage career ambition, certainty, alignment, instrumental motivation and broad occupational expectations relate to positive employment outcomes, including in periods of economic turbulence. However, this is not always the case and on some occasions, this association is found only in specific subgroups. Finally, the paper presents evidence from the academic literature, analysis of OECD PISA data and accounts from practitioners, which focus on ways in which schools can foster students' career thinking.


Using a model of farm household resource allocation and data from the USDA-ERS Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS), this study compares the effects of various categories of farm program payments on time allocation by farm operators and spouses. Results suggest that agricultural market transition payments (AMTA) increase leisure hours of both farm operators and spouses. Loan deficiency payments (LDP) and payments that combine market loan assistance (MLA) and disaster payments are shown to reduce leisure. The study also finds that AMTA payments exhibit a much higher degree of income transfer efficiency than the LDP and MLA payments.


INTRODUCTION: Brachial plexus root avulsion injuries cannot be repaired by neurorrhaphy or nerve grafting. There is no possibility of spontaneous recovery and these injuries occur most often in individuals who are in their productive period. At present, the best surgical treatment option for brachial root avulsion injury is neurotization. OBJECTIVE: To describe the importance of neurotization in the treatment of brachial plexus root avulsion injury in view of the literature. CASE: A thirty-year-old male patient, who had suffered a traffic accident 6 months ago, was referred to our clinic because of ongoing severe pain refractory to medical treatment and weakness of the left arm. A complete brachial plexus lesion in the form of a root avulsion was diagnosed after neurological and radiological evaluation. Neuroneural neurotization was performed. The spinal accessory nerve, phrenic nerve and cervical plexus were used as donor nerves while the sural nerve was the choice as inter-graft material. In this patient with adult type brachial plexus injury, pain decreased in the early post-surgical period and there was no change in neurological examination at 6 months follow-up. CONCLUSION: One of the greatest problems for peripheral nerve surgeons is treating functional loss due to brachial plexus injuries. It takes a long time to regain lost function after neurotization in brachial plexus root avulsion injuries. Physical therapy and rehabilitation are very important in the postoperative period. It should always be kept in mind that the acquirement of even some function is important for the patient.


Lean Construction strives for reliable workflow on the construction site by using work-structuring and the Last Planner System. In the construction industry, many factors contribute to unreliable workflow such as late delivery of material and equipment, blue-print errors, change orders, equipment breakdowns, tool malfunctions, improper resources utilization, labor strikes, and environmental (weather) effects. Another important source of variability, which is often overlooked is construction waste, as in by-products of the construction process. This source of reliable workflow impedance create cluttered, congested, and dangerous work conditions. In Lean Construction, 5s or 6s is deployed in order to mitigate the effects of construction waste. Another tact to use, which follows from the continuous process improvement spirit that underlies lean, is to minimize and ideally eliminate this waste. If dealt with appropriately, there can be many benefits, including lower overall cost, faster production, a higher quality, and more sustainable buildings. The purpose of this investigation is to ascertain key sources of construction waste, and whether generation varies with the type and size of the constructions. A sample of 30 general contractors was studied, and several null hypotheses on waste generation and minimization differences were tested using the Kruskal-Wallis H test. Although subtle shifts were observed in the aspects of waste behavior that seemed predicated on construction sectors and capital base, to some extent the proposition that construction type and size can influence waste generation and minimization was validated. Based on this study, some solutions are provided as viable avenues to managing and minimizing construction waste.


Finding the optimal balance between high training loads and recovery is a constant challenge for cyclists and their coaches. Monitoring improvements in performance and levels of fatigue is recommended to correctly adjust training to ensure optimal adaptation. However, many performance tests require a maximal or exhaustive effort, which reduces their real-world application. The purpose of this review was to investigate the development and use of submaximal cycling tests that can be used to predict and monitor cycling performance and training status. Twelve studies met the inclusion criteria, and 3 separate submaximal cycling tests were identified from within those 12. Submaximal variables including gross mechanical efficiency, oxygen uptake (VO2), heart rate, lactate, predicted time to exhaustion (pTE), rating of perceived exertion (RPE), power output, and heart-rate recovery (HRR) were the components of the 3 tests. pTE, submaximal power output, RPE, and HRR appear to have the most value for monitoring improvements in performance and indicate a state of fatigue. This literature review shows that several submaximal cycle tests have been developed over the last decade with the aim to predict, monitor, and optimize cycling performance. To be able to conduct a submaximal test on a regular basis, the test needs to be short in duration and as noninvasive as possible. In addition, a test should capture multiple variables and use multivariate analyses to interpret the submaximal outcomes correctly and alter training prescription if needed.


A number of sedimentary basins formed within the Tauride-Anatolide Platform of Anatolia during the Late Cretaceous-Tertiary period. Previous studies have proposed different tectonic and evolutionary models for each basin. Geological characteristics of the basins, however, suggest that all these basins are of the same origin and that they followed a similar evolutionary model to one another. Basin development within the Tauride-Anatolide Platform took place in a post- collisional environment following the northward subduction of the northern Neotethys ocean beneath the Pontides. The closure of the northern Neotethys ocean ended with collision of the Tauride- Anatolide Platform with the Pontide volcanic arc and resulted in large bodies of oceanic remnants thrust over the Tauride-Anatolide Platform as ophiolite nappes. Formation of the sedimentary basins followed the emplacement of the ophiolite nappes as they formed as piggy-back basins on top of the underlying thrust ophiolite basement.


In Cybernetic Revolutionaries, Eden Medina tells the history of two intersecting utopian visions, one political and one technological. The first was Chile's experiment with peaceful socialist change under Salvador Allende; the second was the simultaneous attempt to build a computer system that would manage Chile's economy. Neither vision was fully realized--Allende's government ended with a violent military coup; the system, known as Project Cybersyn, was never completely implemented--but they hold lessons for today about the relationship between technology and politics. Drawing on extensive archival material and interviews, Medina examines the cybernetic system envisioned by the Chilean government--which was to feature holistic system design, decentralized management, human-computer interaction, a national telex network, near real-time control of the growing industrial sector, and modeling the behavior of dynamic systems. She also describes, and documents with photographs, the network's Star Trek-like operations room, which featured swivel chairs with armrest control panels, a wall of screens displaying data, and flashing red lights to indicate economic emergencies. Studying project Cybersyn today helps us understand not only the technological ambitions of a government in the midst of political change but also the limitations of the Chilean revolution. This history further shows how human attempts to combine the political and the technological with the goal of creating a more just society can open new technological, intellectual, and political possibilities. Technologies, Medina writes, are historical texts; when we read them we are reading history.


ABSTRACT The genus Neoplanorbulinella Matsumaru, 1976 was firstly identified in the Lower Miocene of Saipan and Mariana Islands in the Western Pacific. The present paper reports on its occurrence in the Lower Oligocene of Malatya Basin (Eastern Taurids, East Turkey). Neoplanorbulinella is characterized by a conical test, having several sized equatorial chambers irregularly arranged around the cone, and lateral chambers underdeveloped in umbilical cavity. The new planorbulinid species, namely Neoplanorbulinella matsumarui n. sp. and Neoplanorbulinella malatyaensis n. sp., are recorded in the Muratlı Formation (Malatya Basin, Turkey), which is dated to the Rupelian-early Chattian. The new species are associated to an assemblage of the SB 21–22 larger foraminiferal zone. The new species are described, and their affinities are discussed.


There are different official estimations about current and future growth rate of Iran's population. Inadequacy and unreliability of data in addition to usage of unsuitable forecasting methods are the main reasons for existence of this variety. To have accurate estimates for year on year growth rate, in this research, a population system dynamics model is implemented. To run the model, total fertility rate and other needful fertility parameters are calculated by processing raw data. In the next step and to resolve the statistical inconsistencies in census data which have been revealed by calculation of survival fractions and death rates, an appropriate adaptive process is proposed and applied to modify the parameters. The result of applying model shows that the next ten-year average growth rate will be about 1.9. Finally, simulation results of three possible scenarios on the fertility factor are obtained that warns on exceeding of population over 100m by 2020.


The association of a four-media stratified illumination device and a high N.A. objective allowed us to obtain nonresonant Raman spectra of ultrathin films. The signal-to-noise ratio provided by this combination was computed. From this ratio we derived the optimization of the illumination conditions and optical coupling of the objective with the sample and with the spectrometer.


Abstract Stuart Hall, a founding scholar in the Birmingham School of cultural studies and eminent theorist of ethnicity, identity and difference in the African diaspora, as well as a leading analyst of the cultural politics of the Thatcher and post-Thatcher years, delivered the W. E. B. Du Bois Lectures at Harvard University in 1994. In the lectures, published after a nearly quarter-century delay as The Fateful Triangle: Race, Ethnicity, Nation (2017), Hall advances the argument that race, at least in North Atlantic contexts, operates as a 'sliding signifier,' such that, even after the notion of a biological essence to race has been widely discredited, race-thinking nonetheless renews itself by essentializing other characteristics such as cultural difference. Substituting Michel Foucault's famous power-knowledge dyad with power-knowledge-difference, Hall argues that thinking through the fateful triangle of race, ethnicity and nation shows us how discursive systems attempt to deal with human difference. Part I of the forum critically examines the promise and potential problems of Hall's work from the context of North America and western Europe in the wake of #BlackLivesMatter and Brexit. Donna Jones suggests that, although the Birmingham School's core contributions shattered all certainties about class identity, Hall's Du Bois Lectures may be inadequate to a moment when white racist and ethno-nationalist appeals are ascendant in the USA and Europe and that, therefore, his and Paul Gilroy's earlier work on race and class deserve our renewed attention. Kevin Bruyneel examines Hall's work on race in relation to three analytics that foreground racism's material practices: intersectionality, racial capitalism and settler colonialism. William Garcia in the final contribution asks us to think about the anti-immigrant black nativisms condoned and even encouraged by discourses of African-American identity and by unmarked references to blackness in the US context. In 'Fateful Triangles in Brazil,' Part II of Contexto Internacional's forum on The Fateful Triangle, three scholars work with and against Hall's arguments from the standpoint of racial politics in Brazil.


Repositories in deep clay geological formations are considered one of the most promising solutions for a sustainable management of High Level radioactive Waste (HLW). The Swiss HLW disposal concept consists in horizontal tunnels excavated at high depth in strongly over consolidated clay (Opalinus Clay) where Granular Bentonite is chosen for enclosing steel canisters containing the waste. This paper presents the theoretical approach and the research activities aiming at investigating the behaviour of this material. An elasto-plastic constitutive model taking into account coupled processes of stress, capillary pressure, and temperature is used. In this framework, from an experimental point of view, an exhaustive characterization is necessary in order to calibrate required parameters and to validate the model. Laboratory tests designed for this purpose are described. Particular attention is paid in investigating the swelling behaviour, which is among the features that distinguish materials potentially usable in nuclear waste disposals. First results confirm indeed that the chosen bentonite shows a natural and remarkable swelling attitude.


Today's data centers may contain tens of thousands of computers with significant aggregate bandwidth requirements. The network architecture typically consists of a tree of routing and switching elements with progressively more specialized and expensive equipment moving up the network hierarchy. Unfortunately, even when deploying the highest-end IP switches/routers, resulting topologies may only support 50% of the aggregate bandwidth available at the edge of the network, while still incurring tremendous cost. Non-uniform bandwidth among data center nodes complicates application design and limits overall system performance.
 In this paper, we show how to leverage largely commodity Ethernet switches to support the full aggregate bandwidth of clusters consisting of tens of thousands of elements. Similar to how clusters of commodity computers have largely replaced more specialized SMPs and MPPs, we argue that appropriately architected and interconnected commodity switches may deliver more performance at less cost than available from today's higher-end solutions. Our approach requires no modifications to the end host network interface, operating system, or applications; critically, it is fully backward compatible with Ethernet, IP, and TCP.


Objective To evaluate the correlation between data collected from the HS-1000 multi-modality brain monitoring device and standard neurological, psychomotor, and neuropsychological diagnostics in the assessment of acute sports-induced concussion. Design Prospective, open-label, non-randomised study. Setting Collegiate athletes were recruited at the Vanderbilt Sports Concussion Centre, Nashville, TN. Participants Sixty-four subjects across concussed (n1=14) and healthy control (n2=50) arms were consented. Interventions and assessment of risk factors Eligible subjects suffering recent concussion and age/gender-matched healthy controls were enrolled into the study. Participants in both groups were monitored for at least 15min per recording with the HS-1000. Concussed subjects were recorded 4 times relative to time of concussion injury: acute/baseline, 48 hr, 1 wk, 1 mo. Healthy control subjects were recorded at 2 time points: baseline, 2 wk. Outcome measures Standard clinical diagnostics and demographic information were collected from all study participants. As per current clinical standards and their assigned group, concussed subjects received Immediate Post-Concussion Assessment and Cognitive Testing (ImPACT), Modified Balance Assessment Scale (mBESS), and total clinical symptom index scores. MathWorks MATLAB™ (Matrix Laboratory) engineering software was used to interpret signals and calculate sensitivity-specificity as a function of predictive accuracy with clinically confirmed concussion status. Main results Post-processing of HS-1000 signals identified concussed athletes with a sensitivity-specificity of 86.1% and 91%, respectively. Conclusions The HS-1000 demonstrated strong predictive accuracy compared with clinical diagnosis. Improved statistical power through greater sampling sizes and the development of a real-time diagnostic algorithm suggests this technology holds promise in the assessment and diagnosis of sports-induced concussion. Competing interests None.


As a generalization of cyclic codes, quasi-cyclic (QC) codes contain many good linear codes. But quasi-cyclic codes studied so far are mainly limited to one generator (1-generator) QC codes. In this paper, 2-generator QC codes are studied, and many good 2-generator QC codes are constructed using simplex codes. A computer algorithm is given, and used to find the best possible 2-generator QC codes. Among those 2-generator QC codes constructed, some codes are two-weight codes.


Safety and non-safety applications envisioned for Vehicular Ad hoc NETworks (VANETs) heavily rely on broadcasting for the exchange of data and status messages. New threats to road safety and efficiency raise if security requirements for broadcasting are not properly met. The decision whether or not a driver can trust information about a reported hazard should take into account the tradeoff between the decision delay, false warning probability and likelihood of missing the hazard. Although broadcasting in VANETs has been analytically studied at least for the simplified assumptions, related works do not jointly consider the reliability of the medium access control (MAC) protocol and the trust issues. In this letter, a new analytical model is designed for evaluating the latency required to guarantee trustworthiness in VANETs. This model explicitly accounts the operation of 802.11p/WAVE MAC protocol and computes mean decision delay as a function of number of vehicles, ratio of intruders as well as contention window sizes.


With the advancing age of the population, the increasing incidence of cancer, and all of the advances in cancer therapy, comes the ability to prolong life in cancer patients well beyond what was possible even ten years ago. Along with the progress of advanced surgical and radiation techniques, there is now an ever-expanding array of chemotherapy, biotherapy, and immunotherapy being used on patients in all age groups and in all stages of cancer. These advances have thrilled researchers and physicians, as they now have a multitude of options to offer cancer patients, perhaps even as late as third or fourth line therapy. If traditional chemotherapy fails, it is very likely that a new novel agent will be offered to the patient, regardless of age and performance status. Cancer patients often have an unwavering amount of hope and faith in their physician, and these treatments, while promising and encouraging, add to the growing problem of delaying end-of-life care discussions in patients, often until they are exhausted of all hope and quality of life. The Institute of Medicine has made dying well from cancer a top priority and states that those with palliative needs deserve access to expert-level care and those who meet the criteria of a six month or less prognosis should be offered hospice. Ambulatory oncology nurses are in a unique position to add to the discussion of barriers to end-of-life care discussions in cancer patients and, for this reason a qualitative research study was


Two field studies (winter and summer) were performed to evaluate the effect of three different fertilizer programs and a urea formaldehyde resin foam (UFRF) soil amendment on sod establishment and anchorage. Fertilizer treatments involved were 1) a quick release (QR) granular fertilizer (12-12-17); 2) a slow release (SR) fertilizer (27-5-7); and 3) a foliar (FL) fertilizer (20-20-20). The application rate was 50, 30, 0.35 g.m -2 for QR, SR, and FL, respectively. The substrate consisted of sandy loam soil, and in half of the plots UFRF flakes were incorporated in the upper 100 mm at a rate of 20% v/v. The effects of the fertilizer and soil amendment on sod establishment were evaluated through measurements of the dry weight of clippings and roots and the visual quality of the turf. Sod anchorage was measured by determination of the vertical force required to detach a piece of sod. For each treatment the initial and final pH, EC, available P, exchangeable K, Ca, Mg, and Fe were also determined. It was found that FL reduced clipping yield but retained turf visual quality similar to the other fertilizer treatments except in winter, when it resulted in the worst quality ratings. However, FL fertilizer promoted root growth and provided high vertical detachment force values and therefore enhanced sod establishment. Slow release fertilizer resulted in moderate top growth and visual quality of the turf during winter, but delayed sod establishment. Quick release fertilizer increased top growth and improved turfgrass visual quality during the winter, but root growth and vertical detachment force were reduced, indicating poorer sod establishment. UFRF did not enhance sod establishment since there was a negative effect on root growth when temperatures were below 10 °C, without however affecting vertical detachment force. Differences in soil P, K, Ca, Mg and Fe between treatments were inconsistent between the two studies, except for final K concentration, which was higher for QR fertilization than SR and FL. Foliar fertilization can enhance sod establishment compared to QR and SR, by accelerating sod anchorage and root growth. QR can be used in late autumn to improve winter green up of the sod. UFRF does not improve or accelerate sod establishment and possesses a minimal capacity to improve soil properties of sandy loam soils.


This study pursues research questions about outsourcing in the framework of a four-stage process model that is derived from complementary, structural, transaction-cost and resource-based views of outsourcing. The stages are: • Strategy development for outsourcing business activities • Partner identification and selection • Contracting • Implementation and control of daily operations We use Merchant and Van Der Stede's (2007) typology of management controls – cultural, personnel, action, and results controls – to describe the uses of management controls in the stages of this framework. This paper presents the results of a two-part field study at three global companies that have outsourced non-strategic resources across foreign borders (aka offshoring) with different outsourcing strategies, business complexities and degrees of success. These firms also represent three different industries: air transportation, consumer products, and high technology manufacturing. The outsourcing choices reflect the purchasing firms' different strategies, and the providers range from local to global suppliers, who also have different strategies. The three outsourcing implementations represent extremes from repeated, market-mediated transactions to a strategic alliance, and one point in between. The research was conducted in the context of operating in Latin America, which has unique regional characteristics, but also presents issues common to the management control of outsourcing elsewhere. The first part of the field study describes how structural theory explains the design and implementation of management controls in the simplest case, where near-commodity resources are outsourced with unilateral contracts. The second part of the field study presents results from two more complex and contrasting cases of customized outsourcing with bilateral contracts, which identify the ascendance of cultural controls and trust-building that are less salient than bureaucratic controls in the simpler context. This research points to understanding and anticipating the dynamic nature of management control of outsourcing through iterative verification of performance and trust-building. We find that cultural affinity and trust might not replace bureaucratic controls in complex contracting but can (1) reduce unproductive conflicts and (2) enhance cooperation and innovation. We find unanticipated side effects of global outsourcing that raise important risk management, financial reporting, auditing, human resource, and education issues. Finally, the paper points to promising areas of future qualitative and quantitative research on the management control of outsourcing relationships.


This study, based on an analysis of 6 months of records (amounting to 3945 records) held on the London Metropolitan Police congestion file, has examined the frequency and the importance of the different types of incident which have led to traffic congestion. The analysis has grouped the different types into three classes and identified that about up to 30% of incidents would allow some degree of pre-planning for minimising congestion. The study also includes an analysis of journey time records during a number of car journeys to work, some of which were affected by incidents. In terms of ranking the types of incidents which cause congestion, road traffic accidents (28.2%), roadworks (25.1%), and vehicle breakdowns (11%) are major causes of congestion. Although the study is based on traffic conditions in London it is thought that the findings will have application to urban areas generally.


Recent studies have speculated that the prophetic powers of Pythia, the woman of the Delphic Oracle, at the Temple of Apollo in Greece, were induced by hydrocarbon vapors, specifically ethylene, rising from bedrock fissures at the intersection of the E-W Delphi fault with the NNW-SSE Kerna fault, and producing neurotoxic effects, including trance and delirium. New surveys including gas flux from soil, gas in groundwater, and isotopic analyses of spring scales, provide the experimental confirmation of the gas release in the Delphi area. Presently, methane, ethane, and carbon dioxide are being released from a thermogenic (catagenetic) hydrocarbon-prone environment. This environment is not prone to biogenic production of ethylene in amounts inducing neurotoxic effects (hundreds or thousands of ppmv). A WNW-ESE–trending subsidiary fault within the Delphi fault zone, extending for ∼2 km, passes under the Temple of Apollo and shrine of Athena. The Temple of Apollo, located above this fault, may have been the site of enhanced degassing in the past. If gas-linked neurotoxic effects upon Pythia need to be invoked, they should be sought in the possibility of oxygen depletion due to CO2-CH4 exhalation in the indoor temple. Alternatively, a plausible geological explanation behind the natural presence of sweet scents could be the occurrence of aromatic hydrocarbons, such as benzene, dissolved in the groundwater spring.


In existing mobile information access systems, mobile devices are typically viewed as consumers of information, with information providers resident on the wired network. With the advent of short-range ad-hoc connectivity based on Bluetooth like systems, an alternative scenario arises where mobile devices gather and exchange information from not just wired sources, but also their environment and one another. Each device is both a source and a consumer of information/data. In this paper we describe new challenges that this scenario presents to the distributed database framework, and present the design of a framework for serendipitous querying and query response in an ad-hoc mobile environment. We also describe an implementation of this system on mobile devices connected over Bluetooth networks, and present experimental results.


Abstract The development of Conduct Disorder (CD) in children and adolescents is examined from the perspective of Hans Eysenck's biosocial theory of personality. The theory views personality as a product of the interaction of biologically based temperament source traits and socialization experiences. Eysenck's antisocial behavior (ASB) hypothesis about the development of antisocial behavior is discussed. Intervention suggestions for antisocial behavior based on Eysenck's theory are presented. The possible interaction of temperament based personality profiles with the interventions for CD identified as well established or as probably efficacious using criteria developed by the American Psychological Association are also discussed. Finally, the possible contribution of Eysenckian personality profiles to Kazdin's proposal for the use of a chronic disease model when treating CD is discussed. ********** There are many contributing factors in the development of conduct problems (McMahon & Wells, 1998), including a number of biological factors (Niehoff, 1999). Temperament is a biologically based trait that in some cases is a risk factor predisposing individuals to antisocial and aggressive behavior. One well known perspective on temperament is based on the New York Longitudinal Study (Thomas, Chess & Birch, 1968; Chess & Thomas, 1987). This longitudinal study identified a temperament pattern called the difficult child that represents a risk factor for antisocial behavior. Another perspective on temperament as a risk factor in antisocial behavior is Eysenck's biosocial theory of personality (Eysenck, 1995). In Eysenck's model, personality is the product of an interaction between temperament and social experience. It is a model strongly supported by a very long and continuous history of research and development (Eysenck, 1947,1967,1981, 1991a, 199Th, 1995; H. Eysenck & M. Eysenck, 1985). Eysenck's temperament based theory is sometimes referred to as a three-factor model of personality in which the three factors are Extroversion (E), Neuroticism (N), and Psychoticism (P). Eysenck (1991a) points out that nearly all large-scale studies of personality find the equivalent of the three traits he proposes. Further, the traits are found across cultures worldwide. Assessments of an individual on the traits are relatively stable across time. Finally, research on the genetics of personality supports the three traits (Eaves, Eysenck, & Martin, 1988). The development of the theory and related research has given considerable attention to measurement. The Eysenck Personality Questionnaire developed for research on the model includes both adult and child versions (H. Eysenck & S. Eysenck, 1975,1993). None of the scales are intended as a measure of psychopathology; but rather they are measures of temperament based personality traits. The Extroversion (E) trait is represented by a bipolar scale that is anchored at one end by sociability and stimulation seeking and at the other end by social reticence and stimulation avoidance. Extroversion is hypothesized to be dependent upon the baseline arousal level in an individual's neocortex and mediated through the ascending reticular activating system (ARAS) (Eysenck, 1967,1977,1997). The difference in basal arousal between introverts and extraverts is evident in research on their differential response to drugs. Claridge (1995) reviews drug response studies that demonstrate introverts require more of a sedative drug than do extraverts to reach a specified level of sedation. This finding is explained by the higher basal level of cortical arousal in introverts. The Neuroticism (N) trait is anchored at one end by emotional instability and spontaneity and by reflection and deliberateness at the other end. This trait's name is based on the susceptibility of individuals high on the N trait to anxiety-based problems. Neuroticism is hypothesized to be dependent upon an individual's emotional arousability due to differences in ease of visceral brain activation, which is mediated by the hypothalamus and limbic system (Eysenck, 1977, 1997). …


Increased terrestrial sediment and nutrient yields are regarded as significant threats to coral reef health. Within the central Great Barrier Reef lagoon, where water quality has reportedly declined since European settlement (since ca. A.D. 1850), inner-shelf reef conditions have purportedly deteriorated. However, the link between reef decline and water-quality change remains controversial, primarily because of a lack of pre-European period ecological baseline data against which to assess contemporary ecological states. Here we present a high-resolution record of reef accretion and coral community composition from a turbid-zone, nearshore reef on the inner shelf of the Great Barrier Reef; the record is based on six radiocarbon date–constrained cores, and extends back to ca. 1200 calibrated yr B.P. Results demonstrate not only the potential for coral communities to initiate and persist in settings dominated by fine-grained terrigenous sediment accumulation, but also that a temporally persistent (but low diversity) suite of corals has dominated the reef-building community at this site for at least the past millennium. Furthermore, the coral assemblages exhibit no evidence of community shifts attributable to post-European water-quality changes. While extrapolation of these findings to other turbid-zone reefs must remain tentative, the study raises important questions about the resilience of inner-shelf reefs that are under terrestrial sediment influence and subject to elevated turbidity conditions, and demonstrates the potential to develop detailed, millennial time scale, coral community records from Holocene reef systems.


Driven by the emerging network applications, querying and mining uncertain graphs has become increasingly important. In this paper, we investigate a fundamental problem concerning uncertain graphs, which we call the distance-constraint reachability (DCR) problem: Given two vertices s and t, what is the probability that the distance from s to t is less than or equal to a user-defined threshold d in the uncertain graph? Since this problem is #P-Complete, we focus on efficiently and accurately approximating DCR online. Our main results include two new estimators for the probabilistic reachability. One is a Horvitz-Thomson type estimator based on the unequal probabilistic sampling scheme, and the other is a novel recursive sampling estimator, which effectively combines a deterministic recursive computational procedure with a sampling process to boost the estimation accuracy. Both estimators can produce much smaller variance than the direct sampling estimator, which considers each trial to be either 1 or 0. We also present methods to make these estimators more computationally efficient. The comprehensive experiment evaluation on both real and synthetic datasets demonstrates the efficiency and accuracy of our new estimators.


Copyright law allocates entitlements in intangible cultural resources between copyright owners and users. Copyright owners have in-rem exclusive rights to do and authorize certain uses of copyrighted works, or otherwise phrased, the right to exclude the rest of the world from utilizing copyrighted works (for certain uses). Users' rights cover instances in which there is a default presumption according to-: users' free exploitation of cultural works is more beneficial than subordinating such uses to restrictions by copyright owners and by other third parties.This article proposes to conceptualize users' rights as reverse exclusion rights. According to the reverse exclusion paradigm, people other than users hold a duty not to interfere with users' rights and not to impose restrictions that violate users' entitlements over certain uses and certain categories of cultural works. For example, unless authorized by users, technological protection measures that override the fair-use defense should be prohibited and classified as an infringement of users' rights. Similarly to a copyright infringement, a users' rights infringement should also be subjected to remedies of injunction and monetary damages.The Article begins by establishing the paradigm of reverse exclusion through economic, public-regarding and other rationales. To a large degree, these considerations mirror rationales that traditionally justify copyright owners' exclusive rights. I then offer initial directions for integrating the paradigm of reverse exclusion into contemporary copyright law. The article concludes by demonstrating the contribution and significance of reverse exclusion through several case studies in which current concepts of copyright law and users' rights fail in achieving a socially desired equilibrium-: (1) access and usage restrictions through technological protection measures; (2) content removal in the shadow of notice and take-down procedures; (3) contracting around copyright, and (4) the fair use defense.


The internet revolution, specifically using the internet in business environment has resulted into significant changes in how business is conducted in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Recent research has pointed to the important role that electronic commerce (EC) plays in improving the performance of SMEs. Yet, in the context of Palestine, adoption of EC in SMEs is still slow. Therefore, the current study aimed to investigate the effect of perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness and perceived trust on managers' acceptance of EC in SMEs. In order to achieve this, the study used the technology acceptance model (TAM). The study used a survey that was administered to 250 managers of SMEs from Palestine. The data was analysed employing a structural equation modelling (SEM) approach through partial least square (PLS) software. The results revealed that perceived trust and perceived usefulness had positive effect on the participating managers' behavioural intention to adopt EC services. It was also found that the manager's perception, including their perceived ease of use significantly affected their perceived trust of using EC services. Moreover, perceived ease of use had a significant impact on perceived usefulness. However, the managers' perceived ease of use failed to predict their intention to adopt such EC services, and perceived usefulness failed to predict their perceived trust. Based on these results, the study offers a developed research model of the major factors that affect managers' trust to accept and use EC services in SMEs.


There is a gender gap in United States politics; men are overrepresented, and prioritize issues/policies differently compared with women. Stereotypes may be associated depending on group memberships. Stereotypes of men (competent) are consistent and stereotypes of women (warm) are inconsistent with politicians (competent). I examined stereotypes of major/non-major political parties, and how party affiliation affects whether stereotypes about men/male politicians/women/female politicians predict female politicians' traits. Stereotype valence ascribed to political parties is important because people vote for a positively viewed party/representative. I assessed the strength and valence of stereotypes associated with political parties, and found major parties were viewed more positively than non-major parties, and the Democratic and Republican parties were viewed more positively than the Independent Party (Study 1). I found warmth and competence attributes ascribed to women/female politicians/men/male politicians predicted Karen Johnson's warmth and competence depending on whether Karen Johnson was a major or non-major party candidate. When men/male politicians were perceived as competent Karen Johnson was perceived as competent, but no relationship between men/male politicians' warmth and Karen Johnson's warmth emerged. When women/female politicians were perceived as warm/competent, Karen Johnson was perceived as warm/competent. As a major candidate, Karen Johnson was perceived as warm/competent when women/female politicians were perceived as warm/competent. However, when Karen Johnson was a non-major candidate, there was no relationship between women's competence and Karen Johnson's competence, and when women/female politicians were perceived as warm, Karen Johnson was perceived as warm (Study 2). Women in office and members of multiple social groups are discussed. IMPRESSIONS OF A FEMALE POLITICAL CANDIDATE 2


Choice is at the heart of ethics, but our choices are never entirely free. Human choice is fettered by history, by context, by biology, by expected consequences and by imagination. Every choice has a history, and a price. In world politics, the scope for choice seems particularly fettered. Historical and geographical contextualization, and projected price have meant that politics beyond state borders has traditionally been understood as an arena of necessity, not ethics. Choice may never be entirely free, but neither is it totally determined; to argue it is, as a result of biology, the unconscious, predestination or whatever would be to abolish ethics. This is not our position, or that of the contributors. We do however recognize that the fettering of ethical choice begins at birth. Humans are nationalized or tribalized once we are born almost as quickly as we are genderized. We learn to live in concentric circles of loyalty, sympathy, duty and conceptions of justice; and for the most part, the tighter the circle, the stronger have been the moral codes shaping behaviour. Even so, the idea that there are natural limits to ethics has not gone uncontested. There has been a long tradition—while still privileging the family bond—which has stressed the need to think ethically from the outside inwards, rather than the opposite. Conceiving ethics from what Henry Sidgwick called 'the point of view of the universe' (an all-embracing perspective which accords strangers no less consideration than one's own kind, however defined) has been a two-thousand year tradition.


We extend the classical model of lossy channel systems by considering systems that operate on a finite set of variables ranging over an infinite data domain. Furthermore, each message inside a channel is equipped with a data item representing its value. Although we restrict the model by allowing the variables to be only tested for (dis-)equality, we show that the state reachability problem is undecidable. In light of this negative result, we consider bounded-phase reachability, where the processes are restricted to performing either send or receive operations during each phase. We show decidability of state reachability in this case by computing a symbolic encoding of the set of system configurations that are reachable from a given configuration.


Although beautiful in flight and valued as a symbol of the wild, Canada Geese (referred to hereafter simply as geese) have become an increasing issue on lawns and other open turf areas. Geese occur as subspecies and populations, each with distinctive breeding, wintering, and migratory behaviors. Populations that cause problems are usually what have become known as resident or local-breeding geese. Most of these birds belong to the physically largest subspecies that many had believed to be extinct. Scattered flocks were re-discovered in the middle of the 20th century, and extensive introduction efforts followed within both the historic range of the subspecies, and areas where they were not known to have previously existed. These introductions were very successful, and geese now occupy not only most marshes and similar wild habitats, but also urban and suburban landscapes that readily meet the major habitat requirements for geese: an open area with a wide view, turf for grazing, and a nearby body of water.


During and after every military conflict or war, there appears to be rapports about military crimes which were done by
military and civil personal of conflicting sides. The basis of these offences
is different; however the common to these is psychological and psychical
background. The psychological background is an indoctrination of troopers that
all what they are doing is right, well for country, nation or defends religion,
or ideology. The life and property of enemy (opponent) are less worth than
their oven. But most important in this indoctrination is the direct or indirect
insurances about the absence of responsibility and promises about free for
punishment for these actions. These aspects are well known and well-studied.
The psychical background is less studied and more diverse; however in all cases
the components of stress are present. The stress can be physical, psychical or
toxic. The physical and psychical stress of engaged in military conflict personal
is well studied, its action both during the war and as postwar syndrome have
sufficient explanations. The action of intoxication especially by contaminants
in medical forms, or toxins to induce the criminal behavior of military
personal is nearly unstudied. The exceptions are alcohol, psychogenic
substances as narcotics, LSD and special doping agents. This paper presented
the evidences of additional toxic stress by contaminates in medical forms and
intoxication by toxins of military personal engaged in different conflicts
during last decades. The hypothesis about the influences of the additional
toxic stress by medication with low quality pharmaceutical forms and some
toxins on inducing the crimes generally and war crimes by military personal is
launched in the paper. In this part the investigation will be concentrated on
antimalarial drugs, especially on contaminated primaquine. Primaquine has a
special position in preventing malaria infection in areas of conflict on the
territories of endemic malaria. The possibility of induction of psychotic cases
which lead to uncontrolled by person its-self actions and which are of criminal
nature will be discussed, together with juridical responsibilities for these
actions.


This paper presents the first theoretical analysis of the choice of firms between "preparing" and not preparing the equity market in advance of a possible dividend cut. In our model, insiders have private information about their firm's intermediate cash flow as well as about the net present value of its growth opportunity. We show that, in equilibrium, firms in temporary financial difficulties but with good long-term growth prospects are more likely to prepare the market in advance of dividend cuts, while those with permanently declining earnings are less likely to prepare the market. Our model generates several new testable predictions.


Title of dissertation: DISCRETE CHOICE UNDER SPATIAL DEPENDENCE AND A MODEL OF INTERDEPENDENT PATENT RENEWALS Diana Alexandra Iercosan, Doctor of Philosophy, 2011 Dissertation directed by: Professor Ingmar Prucha Department of Economics In my thesis I develop a theoretical model of interdependent choices and an estimation strategy which I apply to model patent renewal. The model and the estimation are not confined to my application, but rather can have other applications in which firms or people are making strategic and simultaneous decisions. Chapter 1 is the introduction which contains a brief description of the structure of the thesis. Chapter 2 provides a literature review of studies that have focused on spatial dependence with discrete choice dependent variables; recent contributions include Pinkse and Slade (1998), LeSage (2000), Kelejian and Prucha (2001), Beron and Vijverberg (2004), and Wang et al. (2009). A major difficulty in the estimation of spatially dependent discrete choice models is computational intensity. Chapter 3 is a Monte Carlo study that investigates the small sample properties of an estimator for spatially dependent discrete choice models which is computationally simple. The analogue of a linear probability can be formulated as a spatial autoregressive Cliff and Ord (1973, 1981)-type model. The sets of Monte Carlo experiments show that the parameters of the model can be estimated without bias using a spatial 2SLS estimator. Chapter 4 is a study is on the determinants of patent renewal, using US patents for Computer Hardware and Software granted between 1994 and 1997. Patent protection is important in that it encourages innovation by allowing firms to rely on patents to appropriate the returns to their R&D efforts. Returns to patents are modeled to depend on the firm's willingness to pay the patent renewal fees by, e.g., Harhoff et al. (2003), Serrano (2006), and Bessen (2008, 2009), and typically ignored potential interdependences in the decision making. Liu et al. (2008) showed that patent renewal was more likely if the patent was part of a firm's sequence of citing patents. I elaborate on their result and formulate a model in which the decision to renew a patent is dependent on the decisions of other firms to renew technologically similar patents. The theoretical model implies for the probability to renew a patent to depend on the probabilities to renew other patents, where the extent of interdependence is modeled based on a measure of similarity for patents. By making use of the estimation strategy from Chapter 3, I find that indeed the decision to renew a patent is dependent on the decision to renew related patents. Results in the literature which ignored this interdependence may hence suffer from specification biases. One plausible explanation for the interdependence I find is defensive patenting in the form of patent fencing, patent blocking and patent thickets. In the latter case, litigation and negotiation can impose high costs to society and their anticipation can lead to a hold up problem, which could deter investment in R&D. DISCRETE CHOICE UNDER SPATIAL DEPENDENCE AND A MODEL OF INTERDEPENDENT PATENT RENEWALS