Reducing rural poverty by intensifying agricultural production is one of the major challenges in most developing countries. The main objective of this study was to quantify the effect of white pepper production on the challenge of poverty reduction in Penja, Cameroon. We have to make used of multiple correspondence analyses to construct a poverty reduction index using primary data collected in the study area. The result is estimated using weighted ordinary least squared. The result shows that white pepper production is significantly corroborating with poverty reduction in Penja, Cameroon. However, the reduction in poverty is more explained by the industrial production of pepper. We equally observed that climate change, financial difficulties and availability of cultivated land are the main constraints faced by pepper farmers. In terms of policy, the government should create policies to regulate the pepper market as well as grant subsidies to producers operating in this sector. This is a wise step towards increase production and poverty reduction in Cameroon.


We analyze the potential influence of a number of factors on the distribution of equivalized net incomes in Germany over the period 2005/2006 to 2010/11. While income inequality considerably increased in the years before 2005/2006, this trend was stopped after 2005/2006. Among many other factors, we consider the role of the employment boom and the development of inequality in wage incomes after 2005/2006. Our results suggest that, despite further increases in wage inequality, inequality in equivalized net incomes did not increase further after 2005/2006 because increased within-year employment opportunities compensated otherwise rising inequality in annual labour incomes. On the other hand, income inequality did not fall in a more marked way after 2005/2006 because also the middle and the upper part of the distribution benefitted from the employment boom. Other factors, such as changing household structures, population aging and changes in the tax and transfer system had no important effects on the distribution. Finally, we find little evidence that the distribution of equivalized net incomes was affected in any important way by the financial crisis and the subsequent great recession. This version: 15 December 2016 JEL-Classification: C14, D31, I30


Practical theology in the 21st century is faced with increasing diversity that requires a new pedagogy to address multicultural challenges. Multiculturalism serves as a subversive agency for monocultural and 'silent minority' landscapes. It might also contribute to the development of an identity pedagogue for the three public spaces of theology, specifically in South Africa, where this new democracy seeks a new culture of humanity and has to deal with the dichotomy of a multicultural society and a resistant monocultural 'laager' mentality of minority races. Despite the promising start to its democracy, South Africa has many social challenges and practical theology has a role to play by reflecting on how we understand and embody the relationship between faith, culture and public life. To this end, this article seeks to reflect critically on spirituality, leadership and social transformation praxis in search of meaning-forming multicultural praxes.


New inner and outer bounds on the achievable compression-equivocation rate region for generalised secure data compression with side information are given that do not match in general. In this setup, two senders, Alice and Charlie intend to transmit information to Bob via channels with limited capacity so that he can reliably reconstruct their observations. The eavesdropper, Eve, has access to one of the channels at each instant and is interested in the source of the same channel at the time. Bob and Eve also have their own observations, which are correlated with Alice's and Charlie's observations. In this model, two equivocation and compression rates are defined with respect to the sources of Alice and Charlie. Furthermore, different special cases are discussed where the inner and outer bounds match. Our model covers the previously obtained results as well.


In many cases, censoring documents on the Internet is a fairly simple task. Almost any published document can be traced back to a specific host, and from there to an individual responsible for the material. Someone wishing to censor this material can use the courts, threats, or other means of intimidation to compel the relevant parties to delete the material or remove the host from the network. Even if these methods prove unsuccessful, various denial of service attacks can be launched against a host to make the document difficult or impossible to retrieve. Unless a host's operator has a strong interest in preserving a particular document, removing it is often the easiest course of action.
A censorship-resistant publishing system allows an individual to publish a document in such a way that it is difficult, if not impossible, for an adversary to completely remove, or convincingly alter, a published document. One useful technique for ensuring document availability is to replicate the document widely on servers located throughout the world. However, replication alone does not block censorship. Replicas need to be protected from accidental or malicious corruption. In addition, a censorship-resistant publishing system needs to address a number of other important issues, including protecting the publisher's identity while simultaneously preventing storage flooding attacks by anonymous users.
This dissertation presents the design and implementation of two very different censorship-resistant publishing systems. The first system. Publius, is a web based system that allows an individual to publish, update, delete and retrieve documents in a secure manner. Publius's main contributions include an automatic tamper checking mechanism, a method for updating or deleting anonymously published content and methods for publishing anonymously hyperlinked content. The second system, Tangler, is a peer-to-peer based system whose contributions include a unique publication mechanism and a dynamic self-policing network. The benefits of this new publication mechanism include the automatic replication of previously published content and an incentive to audit the reliability with which servers store content published by other people. In part through these incentives, the self-policing network identifies and ejects servers that exhibit faulty behaviour.


Theoretical and empirical research pertaining to the influence of gender on sentencing outcomes has focused almost exclusively on the gender of offenders. What this literature has not fully considered is how the gender of crime victims might affect sentencing outcomes. Using data for offenders convicted of three violent crimes in the seven largest metro counties in Texas in 1991, the authors find evidence that offenders who victimized females received substantially longer sentences than offenders who victimized males. Results also show that victim gender effects on sentence length are conditioned by offender gender, such that male offenders who victimize females received the longest sentence of any other victim gender/offender gender combination. However, whereas these effects are observed for sentence length, no victim gender effects are observed on whether offenders received an incarcerative or nonincarcerative sentence. The authors address the implications of their findings for theory and subsequent research.


The LD(_50) of 10-day-old blowflies differed significantly in two different stocks, and were found to be 38.12 ± 0.07oC for the Durham stock and 40.8 ± 0.18oC for the Cambridge stock. A transitory increase in heat resistance occurred following the exposure of adult blowflies to a sublethal heat shock. This thermotolerance was apparent 1h after the application of heat shock, was maximal 2-3 h later and had disappeared after 6 h. Oxidative phosphorylation by flight muscle mitochondria from non-thermotolerant control flies was impaired by an LD(_50) dose in vivo. Respiration using glycerol-3- phosphate was more heat sensitive than that with pyruvate plus proline. State III respiration was markedly inhibited, acceptor control (RCI) was lost with (G 3P) as substrate and so ADP:0 ratios were not measurable; whereas with pyruvate + proline as substrates, although State III respiration was inhibited by 50% and acceptor control was significantly reduced, ADP:0 remained measurable. Uncoupling of oxidative phosphorylation was obvious only with pyruvate + proline where State IV was significantiy increased. The development of thermotolerance protected oxidative phosphorylation against heat damage. With G-3-P respiration State III was largely restored and acceptor control was not significantly different from controls, but ADP:0 remained lower. With pyruvate + proline as substrates State III respiration was inhibited, but State IV was also lower without evidence of uncoupling of oxidative phosphorylation. Acceptor control was restored to control levels but ADP:0 values were lower. The lower ADP:0 ratios indicate some impairment of mitochondrial function occurred. The effect of experimental temperature in vitro on respiratory performance of mitochondria from non-pretreated control and thermotolerant LD(_50) flies was also determined between 19 and 39oC. State III respiration was markedly temperature- dependent in mitochondria from non-pretreated control flies with both substrates; it was maximal at 24-29oC and fell progressively at higher measuring temperatures. In mitochondria from thermotolerant flies, State III respiration was less temperature dependent with both substrates, but this effect was more marked for G-3-P. The effect of experimental temperature on State IV respiration was similar in mitochondria from non- pretreated control and thermotolerant LD(_50) flies with the same substrate, but differed between the two substrates. With G 3P as substrate, respiration rate rose with temperature with a Q(_10) of approximately 1.5; however, with pyruvate + proline as substrate, the trend was for respiration rate to fall as experimental temperature rose. Differences in the temperature sensitivities of mitochondria from control and thermotolerant flies, in terms of acceptor control, were found. Using G-3-P, acceptor control was lost in mitochondria from control flies above 29oC, but was still measurable at 34oC in mitochondria from thermotolerant flies. With pyruvate + proline as substrate acceptor control was demonstrable in mitochondria from both non-pre-treated control and thermotolerant flies at all experimental temperatures. The thermal sensitivities of the respiratory complexes were studied using the inhibitors rotenone and antimycin A. In mitochondria from LD(_50) treated control flies respiration uncoupled with FCCP was not restored to State II levels. However, in LD(_50) treated mitochondria from thermotolerant flies respiration uncoupled with FCCP was not different from State III respiration. These data suggest that the reduction in State III respiration after heating is owing to an inhibition of oxidation rather than phosphorylation. Complex I, NADH coenzyme Q reductase, was shown to be the most temperature sensitive of the respiratory complexes.


Using a large dataset of countries during the last forty years, this paper analyzes the main determinants of export diversification. We explore the role of several factors and we use three different indicators of export diversification. We find robust evidence across specifications and indicators that trade openness induces higher specialization and does not favor export diversification. In contrast, financial development helps countries to diversify their exports. Looking at the effects of exchange rates, our results suggest a negative effect of real exchange rate overvaluation, but not significant effects of exchange rate volatility. We also find evidence that capital accumulation contributes positively to diversity exports and that increasing remoteness tend to reduce export diversification. We explore also the role of terms of trade shocks. Some of our results suggest that there is an interesting interaction between this variable and human capital. We find that improvements in terms of trade tend to concentrate exports, but this effect is lower for those countries with higher levels of human capital. This evidence suggests that countries with higher education can take advantage of positive terms of trade shocks to increase export diversification.


This article outlines positioning theory as a discursive analysis of interaction, focusing on the topic of conflict. Moreover, said theory is applied to a new work environment for the social sciences: virtual spaces. The analysis is organized in the following way. First, the major key psychosocial issues which define the topic of conflict are reviewed. Then, virtual environments are presented as a new work space for the social sciences. Thirdly, a synthesis of positioning theory and its FOUCAULTian legacy is conducted, while appreciating its particular appropriateness for analyzing conflictive interaction in virtual environments. An empiric case is then presented. This consists of an analysis of interactive sequences within a specific virtual environment: the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) Humanitats i Filologia Catalana studies forum. Through positioning theory, the production and effects that a conflictive interaction sequence has on the community in which it is produced are understood and explained


Many wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are used to collect and aggregate data from potentially hostile environments. Catering to this, early application scenarios did not put tight constraints on performance properties like delay, but rather focused on ruggedness and energy conservation. Yet, there is a growing number of sceanarios like e.g. production monitoring, intrusion detection, or health care systems which depend on the sensor network to provide performance guarantees in order to be able to act upon the phenomena being sensed in a timely fashion. Nevertheless, these applications still face the traditional issue of energy-efficiency. In this paper, we present means to find energy-efficient medium assignments in time-slotted multi-hop networks that satisfy given real-time constraints. Specifically, we present a way to find the optimal length of time slots and periods in TDMA schemes. We also present a software to compute those values for typical sink-tree WSNs.


Large areas of bedrock in Canada, such as in the interior plateau of British Columbia, are covered by a thick glacial overburden. Lateral variations in overburden thickness can create spurious anomalies in gravity data. These anomalies can be of a size and amplitude similar to those associated with mineral bodies and can be mistaken for them. A methodology is introduced that corrects gravity data for changes in overburden thickness through the use of a bedrock topography map created by integrating information from a helicopter transient electromagnetic survey with geological survey data, well water data, and gravel pit locations. The approach is tested for a 68 km × 38 km area in the prospective Nechako interior plateau of British Columbia, Canada. The methodology extends the traditional Bouguer corrections by taking into account the gravitational contribution of the overburden. Results show that the capability of an airborne survey to detect a change in overburden thickness depends primarily on survey line spacing and to a lesser extent on the level of random noise in the gravity data. The bedrock topography correction has the capability of removing the gravitational attraction of overburden for the purpose of revealing, through interpretation, geological structures in the gravity data that originate from the bedrock and are otherwise concealed.


The Kyoto Protocol (KP) has played an important role in putting climate change action firmly on the political agenda and to deliver real reductions in industrialized countries' Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions. It also led to widespread action in developing countries through the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), although real emission reductions were much smaller than how they appear on paper. Policies to promote low emission technologies have been applied widely. Financial support to developing countries from public and private sources has grown to about US$100 billion/year. In 30–40% of CDM projects, foreign technology was used and the investment in renewable energy in developing countries rose to US$ 70 billion/year in 2011, with some Chinese and Indian manufacturers belonging to the top global suppliers. An extensive administrative machinery of reporting of emissions and other data, review, and enforcement has been built. And awareness of climate change, its impacts, and how to tackle it has grown enormously. However, as results from the past are not a guarantee for the future, the prospects for the KP look bleak. Geopolitical developments led to rejection by emerging economies to adopt the KP model of legally binding emission reductions, which triggered reluctance by major industrialized countries to continue this model. With the persistent rejection of the USA of the KP model, it seems a different approach will be needed. This could for instance be a system based on commitments that are only binding under national law or a system based on coordination of policies and measures across countries, which would 'wake up' an unused article of the KP. WIREs Clim Change 2013, 4:151–158. doi: 10.1002/wcc.216


The increasing visibility and sophistication of cyberattacks, coupled with the global interconnection and dependence of the Internet, has created a need not only for specialized skills in the prevention of and response to cyber attacks but also for cooperation on a global scale. A "cyber regime complex" (Nye 2014) is emerging as governments, the private sector, the technical community and non-governmental organizations cooperate to secure cyberspace. Computer security incident response teams (CSIRTs) are key actors in the cyber regime complex that help the broader Internet community prevent and respond to cyber incidents through incident analysis and response, information sharing and dissemination, and skills training. Teams generally agree that cooperation could be strengthened through the enhanced and timely exchange of cyber threat information. However, a number of complex legal questions and a lack of trust among community members have discouraged sharing. This paper examines the role of CSIRTs in the emerging cyber regime complex and asks what might be driving the lack of trust and information sharing within the community. The commercialization of cyber security and threat vulnerabilities, the Internet's development as a new power domain, the growth of the CSIRT community and the emergence of a cyber regime complex are examined as factors that are giving rise to and exacerbating existing problems around information sharing and trust.


A group of ritual musicians and former slaves brought from sub-Saharan Africa to Morocco, the Gnawa heal those they believe to be possessed, using incense, music, and trance. But their practice is hardly of only local interest: the Gnawa have long participated in the world music market through collaborations with African-American jazz musicians and French recording artists. In this first book in English on Gnawa music and its global reach, author Deborah Kapchan explores how these collaborations transfigure racial and musical identities on both sides of the Atlantic. She also addresses how aesthetic styles associated with the sacred come to inhabit non-sacred contexts, and what new amalgams they produce. Her narrative details the fascinating intrinsic properties of trance, including details of enactment, the role of gesture and the body, and the use of the senses, and how they both construct authentic Gnawa identity and reconstruct historically determined relations of power. Traveling Spirit Masters is a captivating and elucidating demonstration of how and why trance-and indeed all sacred music-is fast becoming a transnational sensation.


Graffiti, being a form of written communication invariably free of social restraints, are a far more accurate reflection of the character of the Egyptian era of the pharaohs than the far more polished artistic or literary works. This work is an overall attempt to offer insight into more than 2800 years of Egyptian and Nubian hieroglyphic and hieratic graffiti. Graffiti have long been neglected when compared to larger and more formal texts and inscriptions, and it is only in recent years that many important graffiti texts written in these scripts have been published and made available to wider scrutiny. For this work, extensive use has also been made of materials as yet unpublished.


Emotions can have important effects on performance and economic outcomes. This study examines the behavior of professional athletes involved in a dynamic competition in their own natural environment. We empirically analyze overtime shootouts in the National Hockey League in the context of performance under psychological pressure as initially outlined and tested by Apesteguia and Palacios-Huerta (2010) in international soccer. We find no team-level advantage in NHL shootouts for either the first shooting, second shooting, or home team, suggesting that the influence of pressure is not consistent across the two sports of hockey and soccer. However, shot level analysis indicates that on average there is an advantage to shooting second, or equivalently, a disadvantage to being the second goalkeeper. Because there is a much greater natural advantage to the goalkeeper in a hockey shootout than in a soccer shootout, the preliminary results suggest that goalkeepers might perform slightly worse under pressure.


The aim of the study was to investigate how different teaching methods, singing, listening to songs and reciting song lyrics, affect the development of pronunciation of Finnish as a foreign language pronunciation. The second objective of the study was to investigate whether future classroom teachers and future Finnish as a second language teachers evaluate the strength of foreign accent differently. The results indicate that reciting song lyrics is the most beneficial for the development of pronunciation. This teaching method is especially useful for beginners' level language learners. The future class teachers gave stricter evaluations of foreign accent than the future Finnish as a second language teachers. Based on the results of the study, it could be argued that reciting song lyrics could be used for teaching pronunciation. Further, the results support previous findings that more experienced listeners give milder evaluations than more unexperienced. Thus, it would be valuable for future teachers to gain experience in listening diverse accents.


While a number of publications show that natural resources are associated with internal armed conflict, surprisingly little research looks at how natural resources affect post-conflict peace. This article therefore investigates the relationship between natural resources and post-conflict peace by analyzing new data on natural resource conflicts. We argue that the effect of natural resources on peace depends on how a country's natural resources can constitute a motive or opportunity for armed conflict. In particular, three mechanisms may link natural resources to conflict recurrence: disagreements over natural resource distribution may motivate rebellion; using natural resources as a funding source creates an opportunity for conflict; and natural resources may aggravate existing conflict, acting either as motivation or opportunity for rebellion, but through other mechanisms than distributional claims or funding. Our data code all internal armed conflicts between 1946 and 2006 according to the presence of these resource–conflict links. We claim such mechanisms increase the risk of conflict recurrence because access to natural resources is an especially valuable prize worth fighting for. We test our hypotheses using a piecewise exponential survival model and find that, bivariately, armed conflicts with any of these resource–conflict mechanisms are more likely to resume than non-resource conflicts. A multivariate analysis distinguishing between the three mechanisms reveals that this relationship is significant only for conflicts motivated by natural resource distribution issues. These findings are important for researchers and policymakers interested in overcoming the 'curse' associated with natural resources and suggest that the way forward lies in natural resource management policies carefully designed to address the specific resource–conflict links.


Ninety-five mutants of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans altered in the cell lineages of the vulva have been isolated on the basis of their displaying one of two phenotypes, Vulvaless or Multivulva. In Vulvaless mutants, which define 12 genes, no vulva is present. In Multivulva mutants, which define ten genes, one or more supernumerary vulva-like protrusions are located along the ventral side of the animal. A single recessive mutation is responsible for the phenotypes of most, but not all, of these strains. Fifteen of these 22 genes are represented by multiple alleles. We have shown by a variety of genetic criteria that mutations that result in a Vulvaless or Multivulva phenotype in six of the 22 genes most likely eliminate gene function. In addition, Vulvaless or Multivulva mutations in seven of the other genes most likely result in a partial reduction of gene function; the absence of the activity of any of these genes probably results in lethality or sterility. Our results suggest that we may have identified most, or all, genes of these two classes.


This article explores relationships between social workers' political ideologies and the effects on practice. Self-administered surveys from 294 licensed social workers in a mid-Atlantic state generated quantitative and qualitative data on whether and to what extent their ideologies influenced professional practice. Findings suggest that while social workers largely believe that their political ideology is separate from their practice, those who identified with more liberal political ideologies claim they used their ideologies more in practice than those who were more conservative. Additionally, strategies for monitoring political ideology in practice are shared. Implications for practice include the need for practitioners' increased awareness of their political ideologies and the profession's responsibility for establishing venues in which the ideology -- practice link can be explored and debated.


We examined the acute effects and safety of OPC-18790 (toborinone), a novel water-soluble quinolinone derivative, on mechanoenergetics in 12 patients with chronic congestive heart failure. OPC-18790 was intravenously administered at a rate of 5μg/kg/ min or 10 μg/kg/min. Left ventricular (LV) pressure-volume data were obtained by conductance methods and myocardial oxygen consumption (MVO2) was measured using a Webster catheter.Heart rate was slightly increased in all patients after receiving OPC-18790. Ventricular preload as assessed by LV end-diastolic volume index significantly declined, and mean and systolic pulmonary artery pressure also fell after OPC-18790 infusion. In addition to venodilation, systemic vasodilation was observed after OPC-18790 infusion. Systolic and mean arterial pressure, and systemic vascular resistance significantly declined after OPC-18790 infusion. Effective arterial elastance (Ea), which represents both the mean vascular resistance and the pulsatile components, fell significantly.LV contractility as assessed by end-systolic elastance (Ees) significantly rose after OPC-18790 infusion. Cardiac index and ejection fraction improved significantly. External work (EW) was unchanged.The isovolumic relaxation time constant was prolonged before OPC-18790 infusion and OPC-18790 shortened this time constant rate. MVO2 was reduced after OPC-18790 infusion probably due to a reduction of wall tension. Ventricular-arterial coupling (Ea/Ees) was far less than optimal before OPC-18790 infusion and was near optimal after OPC-18790 infusion. Mechanical efficiency (EW/MVO2) was improved along with the Ea/Ees ratio. Systolic arterial pressure fell by 40 or 50 mmHg after OPC-18790 infusion in 2 patients probably due to vasodilation.In conclusion, OPC-18790 had favorable mechanoenergetic effects in patients with congestive heart failure. Despite enhancing contractility, OPC-18790 reduced MVO2 and improved mechanical efficiency probably due to its favorable effects on loading conditions. These findings suggest that OPC-18790 may be useful for short-term treatment of patients with congestive heart failure.


A review of conservation programs in the state shows that agricultural easements are concentrated in central coastal counties. Many of these counties, such as Marin and Sonoma, are not top agricultural regions, while some of the state's most productive agricultural counties have no easement programs at all. To date, there are approximately 120,000 California farmland acres in easements, nearly 80% of them grazing land and the rest in crops. Our review shows that state coastal conservation programs and sentiments among local populations are major reasons why easements are plentiful in some counties and not in others.


When equipped with adaptive optics, the coming generation of large 6–10-m telescopes can combine huge light grasp with very sharp images. We describe a specific design concept for recovery of diffraction-limited images in the 1.6- and the 2.2-μm atmospheric windows, yielding 0.05-arcsec resolution for an 8-m telescope. Our goal has been to achieve this performance routinely by not requiring above-average atmospheric conditions or the use of unusually bright nearby stars. Atmospheric blurring is sensed with a sodium laser beacon of a few watts. Image motion is sensed by starlight, with a quadrant detector that is sensitive to the broad infrared band in which photon flux is typically largest and the field star has been sharpened by laser-beacon correction that is shared with the science target. A detailed performance analysis shows that for typical conditions Strehl ratios of >25% are expected at 2.2 μm, with the probability of finding a sufficiently bright field star exceeding 50%.


Bipedal locomotion requires precise rhythm and balance. Here we demonstrate two fitness-function enhancements applied to OpenAI's 3D Humanoid-v1 walking task using a replica of Salimans et al.'s evolution strategy (Salimans et al., 2017). The first enhancement reduces control cost, following a start-up period, and the second enhancement penalises poor balance. Individually, each enhancement results in improved gaits and doubles both median speed and median distance walked. Combining the two enhancements results in little further improvement in the absence of noise but is shown to produce gaits that are much more robust to noise in their actions, with median speed, distance and time two to five times those of the default and individual-enhancement gaits at an intermediate noise level.


"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes


Laboratory beers and samples taken at each stage of production, were analysed for the flavour active 4-hydroxyfuranones; 5-methyl-4-hydroxy-3(2H)-furanone (MHF), 2,5-dimethyl-4-hydroxy-3(2H)-furanone (DMHF) and 5-(or 2)-ethyl-2(or 5)-methyl-4-hydroxy-3(2H)-furanone (EMHF). The length and temperature of mashing, the length of boiling, the rate of cooling the worts and the effects of grist composition were investigated to identify the 4-hydroxyfuranone content of worts and subsequent beers. Fermentation temperature and the use of the stabilising agents, PVPP and Lucilite PC5, on the 4-hydroxyfuranone content of the beer was also investigated. The results demonstrated that several aspects of beer production procedures affect the furanone content of the beer, but in practice the important factors are grist composition, the rate at which the boiled wort is cooled and fermentation temperature. Fermentation has a major effect on final furanone content as yeast produces both DMHF and EMHF. The results suggest that malt levels of precursor compounds, which can be converted to 4-hydroxyfuranones by the Maillard reaction or by yeast, may prove to be more important than the quantities of the furanones found in malt in determining the final furanone content of beer. A clearer understanding of the nature of the precursors should allow manipulation of their production and beer furanone content.


The late 2010s have seen the unprecedented rise of Russian rap culture on YouTube. This study delves into the unexplored area of the relationship between rap music, politics, and the Internet audience in Russia. It focuses on the analysis of the production of the most popular rap videos—their narratives, power relations, and socio-political themes, as well as the prevailing patterns in the discussion on socio-political issues by the YouTube audience. The study brings three contributions that identify the power relations in the Russian society that manifest in the field of rap music. First, the Russian-speaking users demonstrate a high level of criticality toward the pro-Kremlin rap music on YouTube and challenge the lies of propaganda rap. Second, pro-government rappers follow the Soviet authoritarian ethos and praise belonging to the collective of elites, while liberal ones adhere to the individual responsibility. Third, we demonstrate the prevalence of patriarchal gender values, including macho politics and unquestioned sexism, which are representative of gender politics in the country. This article proves the importance of socio-political commentary on YouTube and points to the rap videos as the popular hubs for the socio-political debates. Users flow to rap videos and utilize the comment section to have their say on the political context and power relations rather than the music, to engage with others, and to contribute to the emerging collective debate. The comment sections on these rap videos have a unique value for the Russian users who exploit them as the negotiation space in the void of other platforms for social dialogue in Russia.


This is a revised second edition of A New Arabic Grammar of the Written Language first published in 1962. It is based on and replaces Thatcher's Arabic Grammar and has a vocabulary of over 4,000 words, almost twice as many as in the old Thatcher, while the number of chapters has been increased from forty-nine to fifty-two. The Supplement contains a number of new features. Apart from selections from the Qur'an, fables, stories, newspaper extracts, advertisements and letters, additional material in the form of extracts from classical and modern Arabic writings and proverbs is included. Appendix A provides a useful introduction to the main colloquial Arabic dialects, Appendix B, a useful reading guide, and Appendix C, further grammatical information not supplied in the first edition. This book will serve as a basis for a further and deeper study of the classical language and literature and at the same time form a good foundation for those who wish to concentrate on the modern written language of literature and the daily press. The authors have been careful to indicate which usages are current in modern Arabic, and which are antique or antiquated. The vocabulary also is both classical and modern. This is above all a practical grammar, not an advanced reference grammar like Wright's. It is meant for the beginner who is not familiar with the peculiarities of Semitic languages. Nevertheless it is comprehensive enough, the authors believe, for most students' needs in the first two or three years of their study.


This paper reviews new developments in high-tech greenhouse horticulture. It will focus on sensors, energy solutions, covering materials, production technology and robotics. Driving forces for new technologies are identified and Dutch greenhouse crop production is used as an example. Sensors are introduced in horticulture using the latest techniques from medical and industrial research. A 3D volumetric intersection technique is used to sort tomato seedlings at a speed of 40.000 pieces per hour and measures the full 3D geometric features, which is clearly an impossible challenge when done manually. Other 3D techniques like stereo vision, time of flight and laser triangulation are introduced in greenhouse horticulture to control robots, measure the geometric quality features as flower diameter and bulb orientation or to separate target features from its agricultural surroundings (e.g., Anthurium, chicory, lily bulbs). But also the interest to measure internal quality features as ripeness, food compounds, internal defects and the ability of photosynthesis capacity can be measured by spectral cameras, fluorescence techniques and X-ray. First applications in research and production are being introduced (e.g., rose, Alstroemeria, tulip, tomato or cucumber). To apply integrated management on pests and diseases in the greenhouse, sensors are needed to determine pests and diseases and its magnitude automatically at an early stage (e.g., long horn beetle, botrytis, sticky plates). More future sensor applications are expected in this field. New developments in energy solutions in greenhouses will lead to more profitable options in crop production. Energy saving in horticulture has been the subject of research for more than 20 years in a special program "greenhouse as energy source" financed by the Dutch ministry of agriculture and growers. The result is that Horticultural industry in The Netherlands consumes now 50% less energy compared to 1990 due to all energy saving measures. Various technologies developed are now common practice in greenhouses like the application of thermal screens and temperature integration. More recent developments in humidity control have been adopted further decreasing energy consumption and thereby even increasing production quality and quantity. Alternative energy sources like geothermal heat are being used by some growers allowing fossil-fuel free vegetable production. More futuristic concepts where electricity and heat are produced in combination with greenhouse production are still in the experimental phase. When all new developments lead to products with excellent quality in the right amount, price and ready just in time, products need to be harvested with a predictable capacity and reliability. Progress is made on robotic harvesting of fruits, flowers and vegetables. First robots that are tested in practice on a 24/7 base (cutrose, strawberry, kiwi) have shown to be very close to market introduction. Progress is made and big efforts by several consortia are put in actual developments to harvest tomato leaves, cucumbers and sweet peppers. Self-learning algorithms, open source robotic software and generic mechatronic solutions are available and adaptive to new tasks and products and will enable fast future robot solutions after first successful introductions.


This paper focuses on the origins of the teachers' union in Portugal, making an historical journey through the associations of the 19th century and the first demonstrations of the trade unions in the first Republic. In the light of history, it is intended to analyze the emergence of the Teachers' Union, in Portugal, and their paths in the decades of the 1970's and 1980's of the 20th century, and to present some of the reasons that have contributed to a substantial change in teachers' union from the decade of the mid 1980's. We will give particular attention to the roots of the contemporary teacher unionism that are found in the Study Groups of the Teaching Staff of the Secondary Education (GEPDES) and which constitute a movement of reflection and claims in anticipation of the teachers unions that were formed in the days followed by the April revolution. The empirical study was carried out by means of interviews with four of the main protagonists of this movement and reveals the goals, the political consciousness of its members, the possible influences of the Communist Party, and the importance of this movement in emergency and affirmation of the teachers' union. It is a reflection on the conditions existing in Portugal in post- April 25th, 1974, and about the conditions that have emerged from the second half of the 1980s, especially with the advancement of economicist and neo-liberals policies, who have contributed to a certain decline and crisis of the teacher union movement as to the crisis of professional identities of teachers. The teachers union was constituted as a reflexive movement drifting away, gradually, from the references of the labor movement, stating at the same time its specificity and autonomy.


Verticality was an important aspect of urban African American life in the early twentieth century. In this paper, the term stands for three different but entangled concepts of verticality: vertical city planning, vertical social mobility, and vertical movement. Basketball, as an expression of urban African American culture, serves as a connecting link between these three different notions of verticality, incorporating facets of all of them. Firstly, due to its spatial adaptability and upright dimension, basketball thrived in the confined space of the inner city where traditional American team sports like baseball or football faded. Secondly, the founding of athletic clubs and the organization of basketball-and-dance events did not only strengthen African American communities by instilling black pride and a new urban identity, but also promoted hope for upward social mobility. Thirdly, basketball quickly became entwined with other aspects of African American culture, primarily dances that, like the Lindy Hop with its jumping motions, also involved a vertical aspect. he 1890s were the decade that saw the end of horizontal America. Vertical America was on the rise. The city of Chicago, birthplace of the skyscraper, played a decisive role in this spatial shift of the imagined American landscape. In 1893, Frederick Jackson Turner proclaimed his influential frontier thesis at the annual meeting of the American Historical Association in Chicago. According to his thesis, the Anglo-Saxon settlers' specifically American character was formed through the cathartic experience at the frontier where civilization and wilderness clashed (293). On the same occasion, Turner also noted that the official closing of the frontier by the Superintendent for the Census of 1890 had put an end to expansionist American history of old (1). In accordance with Turner's thesis, new immigrants and African Americans moving North in search of a better life were thus almost automatically T


What do we know about the history, literature, and religion of Judaism in its formative age? How do we know it, and why does it matter? In Studying Classical Judaism, renowned scholar and author Jacob Neusner addresses these and other important questions. Applying many of the same methods Christian scholars use to study Christianity, Neusner outlines what we now know about ancient Judaism. He points out the core-belief of normative Judaism and reveals the methodological underpinnings of the most cogent and up-to-date interpretations of the texts that determined classical Judaism.


Herein we report a new strategy to construct nano-rings of sp2 carbon by taking advantage of the "C" shape of syn-tetrabenzoheptafulvalene. This strategy led to the successful synthesis of an sp2 carbon nano-ring containing a tetrabenzoheptafulvalene moiety fused with tetraphenylene. However, attempts to synthesize a more strained nano-ring of sp2 carbon using the same strategy only yielded an oxygen-bridged nano-ring with the step of aromatization being unsuccessful. Both the nano-rings were unambiguously characterized by X-ray crystallography.


This study aims to investigate the similarities and differences between prospective mathematics teachers' creative thinking skills in paper-pencil test and on a Geogebra-supported environment in terms of problem-posing. This case study used purposive sampling method for determining the participants. Findings revealed that the activities carried out in the GeoGebra-supported environment were insufficient to produce creative problems, and GeoGebra's main utility to prospective teachers was in identifying their mistakes related to mathematical concepts and discrepancies among numerical values of the problems posed. The reasons for the low achievement in posing problem were discussed: These were; (i) lack of problem-posing experience, (ii) the structure of problem-posing activity, and (iii) prospective teachers' mathematical content knowledge.


Dependability is a critical concern in provisioning services in Cloud Computing environments. This is true when considering reliability, an attribute of dependability that is a critical and challenging problem in a Cloud context [2]. Fault-tolerance is one means to attain reliability, and is typically implemented by using some form of diversity. Federated Cloud, which is an emerging Cloud paradigm that orchestrates multiple Clouds, is able to implement environmental diversity for Cloud applications with relative ease and minimal additional cost to the consumer due to its inherent design. Real-Time Applications (RTAs) can benefit from deploying fault-tolerant schemes to fulfill deadlines in the presence of faults as they enable the provisioning of correct service in the event of a component in the application failing. However, this diversity can potentially become an issue when designing dynamically scalable fault-tolerant RTAs in a federated Cloud environment while also fulfilling QoS demands. In particular, building fault-tolerant RTAs by using the diversity of the Virtual Machine (VM) configurations and of the underlying Cloud infrastructure can have a negative impact on the ability to fulfill deadlines whilst still allowing the application to dynamically provision VMs with minimal human interaction. This paper identifies a number of characteristics that affect the ability for a RTA to fulfill specified deadlines in a federated Cloud environment as a result of deploying environment diverse fault-tolerant schemes. Furthermore we have designed and performed initial experiments using a real world Cloud federation to justify the feasibility of this problem. Results demonstrate that deploying RTAs in a federated Cloud environment can potentially increase the rate of deadline violations.


Many martial artists, once they reach a certain level of proficiency with their barehanded fighting forms, choose to expand their knowledge to include weapons techniques. But what weapon to choose? Over the past 5,000 years, the Chinese have developed a vast array of weapons, built for a multitude of purposes. What are these purposes? What is the background of these weapons? What weapon is right for you? "Ancient Chinese Weapons: A Martial Artists Guide" is an easy reference guide. It is profusely illustrated, easy to navigate, and conveniently broken down into four main classifications: Long Weapons, Short Weapons, Soft Weapons, and Projectile/Thrown Weapons. Inside you will find weapons of many types, from swords and spears, sharpened coins to flying claws! Even if you're not a martial artist, but have an interest in history and warfare, you'll find this guide an invaluable resource. It includes: techniques and fighting strategy; history and evolution of weapons; Translations of Chinese terms; and, over 130 illustrations.


In the aftermath of the 2007-2008 financial crisis, new legislation and regulations have pressured banks and insurance companies to reduce their size, leverage, and riskier lines of business in order to avoid another too-big-to-fail debacle. Nonbank financial intermediaries have naturally taken up some of that slack, and, not surprisingly, regulatory scrutiny has turned toward these intermediaries to evaluate whether they could pose similar risks to financial stability that banks did pre-crisis. This article explores whether there is a demonstrable link between the asset management industry and systemic risk.


The article discusses the impact of the pandemic COVID-19 on the human rights, in particular, the right to freedom of movement and free choice of residence The purpose of the article is to investigate whether the restrictions implemented to prevent spread of the infection were legitimate and necessary The concept and content of the right to free movement according to Ukrainian legislation has been investigated The legitimate grounds for restriction of human rights were analyzed The state of compliance of Ukrainian legislation with the legislation of the EU and world standards was revealed The range of issues that Ukraine faced during the pandemic COVID-19 and limitations of human rights were disclosed Particular attention was paid to legal acts which implemented such limitations It was revealed that the approach of the Ukrainian legislator while implementing restrictions of human rights was unconstitutional and violated fundamental human freedoms General and special scientific methods were used in the process of research, such as dialectical, comparative, dogmatic and legal methods © 2021, European Center of Sustainable Development All rights reserved


This paper considers the problem of estimating a linear model between two heavy-tailed variables if the explanatory variable has an extremely low (or high) value. We propose an estimator for the model coefficient by exploiting the tail dependence between the two variables and prove its asymptotic properties. Simulations show that our estimation method yields a lower mean squared error than regressions conditional on tail observations. In an empirical application we illustrate the better performance of our approach relative to the conditional regression approach in projecting the losses of industry-specific stock portfolios in the event of a market crash.


The microscopic calculation of nuclear level densities in the presence of correlations is a difficult many-body problem. The shell model Monte Carlo method provides a powerful technique to carry out such calculations using the framework of the configuration-interaction shell model in spaces that are many orders of magnitude larger than spaces that can be treated by conventional methods. We present recent applications of the method to the calculation of level densities and their collective enhancement factors in heavy nuclei. The calculated level densities are in close agreement with experimental data.


The concluding volume of Dave Pelzer's million-copy bestselling memoir. 'I don't blame others for my problems. I stand on my own. And one day, you'll see, I'm going to make something of myself.' These words were eighteen-year-old Dave Pelzer's declaration of independence to his mother, a woman who had abused him with shocking brutality. But even years after he was rescued, his life remained a continual struggle. Dave felt rootless and awkward, an outcast haunted by memories of his years as the bruised, cowering 'It' locked in his mother's basement. Dave's dramatic reunion with his dying father and the shocking confrontation with his mother led to his ultimate calling: mentor to others struggling with personal hardships. From a difficult marriage to the birth of his son, from an unfulfilling career to an enduring friendship, Dave was finally able to break the chains of his past, learning to trust, to love, and to live.


The last decade has seen growing interest in professional public about applications of porous metallic materials. Porous metals represent a new type of materials with low densities, large specific surface, and novel physical and mechanical properties, characterized by low density and large specific surface. They are very suitable for specific applications due to good combination of physical and mechanical properties such as high specific strength and high energy absorption capability. Since the discovery of metal foams have been developed many methods and techniques of production in liquid, solid and gas phases. Condition for the use of metal foams - advanced materials with unique usability features, are inexpensive ways to manage their production. Mastering of production of metallic foams with defined structure and properties using gravity casting into sand or metallic foundry moulds will contribute to an expansion of the assortment produced in foundries by completely new type of material, which has unique service properties thanks to its structure, and which fulfils the current demanding ecological requirements. The aim of research conducted at the department of metallurgy and foundry of VSB-Technical University Ostrava is to verify the possibilities of production of metallic foams by conventional foundry processes, to study the process conditions and physical and mechanical properties of metal foam produced. Two procedures are used to create porous metal structures: Infiltration of liquid metal into the mold cavity filled with precursors or preforms and two stage investment casting.


In recent years, activities related to socio-economic development have led to land cover (LC) changes in the upper part of the Dong Nai river basin. The use of remote sensing applications to analyse the impacts of these changes plays an important role in the managing the sustainability of theriver basin. This paper introduces a solution for analysing the impacts of LC changes on the water balancein the upstream catchment of the Dong Nai river in Lam Dong province. Landsat images were used for mapping and monitoring major changes over the last 20 years. Rainfall and water discharge data was collected from the local hydrometeorological stations to identify the impacts of the LC changes on the runoff in the catchment area. The results show that the forest area was reduced by more than 223,576 ha (23%). The main changes were an increase in the agricultural area from 18.2 to 31.3% and in water bodies from 0.9 to 2.2%. The latter was due to hydropower development projects in the catchment area. The LC changes caused by the changes in the hydrological conditions of the river basin have had a significant impact on water resources. The identification of the main LC changes in the catchment area could be useful for establishing a policy to protect the headwater forests and mitigate against future impacts.


The 2016 campaign ended with a surprising and inconclusive outcome: Hillary Clinton won the popular vote comfortably but lost the Electoral College to Donald Trump. We identify three factors that help explain this outcome. First, fundamental economic and political trends favored a Democratic popular vote win. Second, the party coalitions had become more polarized by race and education during Obama's presidency. Third, Trump's focus on issues connected to ethnic and social identities made attitudes toward immigration and African-Americans more important in voters' choices in 2016 than they had been in 2012.


Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning (MARL) considers settings in which a set of coexisting agents interact with one another and their environment. The adaptation and learning of other agents induces non-stationarity in the environment dynamics. This poses a great challenge for value function-based algorithms whose convergence usually relies on the assumption of a stationary environment. Policy search algorithms also struggle in multi-agent settings as the partial observability resulting from an opponent's actions not being known introduces high variance to policy training. Modelling an agent's opponent(s) is often pursued as a means of resolving the issues arising from the coexistence of learning opponents. An opponent model provides an agent with some ability to reason about other agents to aid its own decision making. Most prior works learn an opponent model by assuming the opponent is employing a stationary policy or switching between a set of stationary policies. Such an approach can reduce the variance of training signals for policy search algorithms. However, in the multi-agent setting, agents have an incentive to continually adapt and learn. This means that the assumptions concerning opponent stationarity are unrealistic. In this work, we develop a novel approach to modelling an opponent's learning dynamics which we term Learning to Model Opponent Learning (LeMOL). We show our structured opponent model is more accurate and stable than naive behaviour cloning baselines. We further show that opponent modelling can improve the performance of algorithmic agents in multi-agent settings.


Praise for the First Edition: "Well written, well organized [and] easy to read...provides everything that a physician would need to know in order to include cardiac CT in his or her practice...this book was a pleasure to read."--Radiology With a special emphasis on the complementary nature of anatomic and functional cardiac data, Clinical Cardiac CT: Anatomy and Function -- now in a lavishly illustrated Second Edition -- ensures physicians develop the skills they need to interpret cardiac CT images with confidence. This volume begins with a brief introduction to the essentials of CT technique, normal cardiac anatomy, and anatomic anomalies. The expert authors then discuss the clinical application of cardiac CT for risk stratification, how to evaluate coronary artery disease, and the preoperative planning for and postoperative assessment of percutaneous cardiac procedures, including coronary stents and bypass grafts. Features: * Entirely new chapters address evaluation of the thoracic aorta, congenital heart disease in the adult, triple rule-out CT angiography, and the latest innovations in cardiac CT *1,157 high-resolution CT images -- including over 500 images that are new to this edition -- demonstrate the full range of normal cardiac variations and pathologic findings * An accompanying DVD contains 3-D displays of anatomic relationships and cine clips of more than 200 cases that demonstrate cardiac function and valve evaluation * New information on frontier techniques, including myocardial perfusion and targeted contrast agents This highly visual reference is a must-have for anyone involved in performing or interpreting cardiac CT images. It is an essential resource for radiologists, cardiologists, or cardiothoracic surgeons, as well as for residents or fellows preparing for Boards or a cardiac imaging rotation.


A challenger of traditions and boundaries A pivotal figure in 20th-century philosophy, Nelson Goodman has made seminal contributions to metaphysics, epistemology, aesthetics, and the philosophy of language, with surprising connections that cut across traditional boundaries. In the early 1950s, Goodman, Quine, and White published a series of papers that threatened to torpedo fundamental assumptions of traditional philosophy. They advocated repudiating analyticity, necessity, and prior assumptions. Some philosophers, realizing the seismic effects repudiation would cause, argued that philosophy should retain the familiar framework. Others considered the arguments compelling, but despaired of doing philosophy without the framework. Goodman disagreed with both factions. Rather than regretting the loss of structure, he capitalized on the opportunities that arise when the strictures of tradition are loosened. Available individually by volume 1. Nominalism, Constructivism, and Relativism in the Work of Nelson Goodman (0-8153-2609-2) 296 pages 2. Nelson Goodman's New Riddle of Induction (0-8153-2610-6) 312 pages 3. Nelson Goodman's Philosophy of Art (0-8153-2611-4) 284 pages 4. Nelson Goodman's Theory of Symbols and its Applications (0-8153-2612-2) 344 pages


Students advanced health education and general education skills through a multi-phased behavior change plan project. Predominantly selecting nutrition or fitness as focus areas for improvement, 145 students set SMART goals, reported BCP progress, perceived obstacles, and behaviors important toward goal attainment, illuminating their importance in successfully teaching/managing health behavior change. One-group posttest-only design included quantitative analysis of reported BCP success. Qualitative evaluation of students' reports were distilled into common themes. Seven behaviors were found important to goal attainment, physical/psychological/financial benefits were reported, correlations to the study site's core values were reported, and final reflections indicated students would use BCP processes again.


BACKGROUND
 Over the past decade, public health research and practice sectors have shifted their focus away from identifying health disparities and toward addressing the social, environmental, and economic determinants of health equity. Given the complex and interrelated nature of these determinants, developing policies that will advance health equity requires collaboration across sectors outside of health. However, engaging various stakeholder groups, tapping into their unique knowledge systems, and identifying common objectives across sectors is difficult and time consuming and can impede collaborative efforts.

 OBJECTIVE
 The Southwest Health Equity Research Collaborative at Northern Arizona University, in partnership with an 11-member community advisory council, is addressing this need with a joint community-campus effort to develop and implement a Regional Health Equity Survey (RHES) designed to generate an interdisciplinary body of knowledge, which will be used to guide future multisectoral action for improving community health and well-being.

 METHODS
 Researchers and community partners used facilitated discussions and free listing techniques to generate survey items. The community partners pilot tested the survey instrument to evaluate its feasibility and duration before survey administration. Respondent-driven sampling was used to ensure that participants included leadership from across all sectors and regions of northern Arizona.

 RESULTS
 Over the course of 6 months, 206 participants representing 13 sectors across the 5 counties of northern Arizona were recruited to participate in an RHES. Survey response rates, completion percentage, and sector representation were used to assess the effectiveness and feasibility of using a community-engaged apporach for survey development and participant recruitment. The findings describe the current capacity to impact health equity by using a multisectoral approach in northern Arizona.

 CONCLUSIONS
 The Southwest Health Equity Research Collaborative effectively engaged community members to assist with the development and implementation of an RHES aimed at understanding and promoting multisectoral action on the root causes of health inequity. The results will help to build research and evaluation capacity to address the social, economic, and environmental conditions of health inequity in the region.

 CLINICALTRIAL


of Project This project focused on the development of ten physical education lesson plans based on the creative climate research done by Goran Ekvall (1984, 1996, 1999). Each lesson plan was created with a deliberate focus on one dimension of a creative climate. The lessons were taught to a fourth grade class, twice a week, for forty minutes each class period. The project contains hypotheses and observations from the teacher, as well as responses from the students based their experiences of Ekvall's ten dimensions. These observations and responses go a long way in determining that there is a definite need for Ekvall's work to be infused into educational class settings. Much of the conversation between the teacher and students offered more suggestions and ideas for future use as well.


An examination of whether or not the nature of consciousness and human identify can be explained using scientific methodology and neurobiological technology. Until recently, the vast complexity of the brain has kept researchers from tackling the thorny topic of consciousness. But now, new imaging techniques are revealing many of the brain's mysteries to neuroscientists, while researchers in the field of artificial intelligence believe they soon might replicate consciousness with silicon and circuitry. Meanwhile, philosophers take issue with this scientific methodology, questioning whether a reductionist approach can really solve the holistic relationship between mind and brain. These approaches are debated in Consciousness and Human Identity by leading figures from such diverse fields as psychology, philosophy, neuroscience, cognitive science, theology, and artificial intelligence. Each contributor brings the insights of their field of study to the debate. Contributors include John Searle, Margaret Boden, Steven Rose, and Olaf Sporns. John Cornwell, the editor, is the former features editor of the Observer, a frequent contributor to the Sunday Times, and currently runs The Science and Human Dimension Project at Jesus College. The project's aims is to stimulate debate between science and the arts and humanities.


Health care workers in India are at high risk of developing bloodborne infections from needlestick injuries. Indian hospitals often do not have the resources to invest in safety devices and protective equipment to decrease this risk. In collaboration with hospital staff, the primary author implemented a sharps injury prevention and biomedical waste program at an urban 60-bed charity hospital in northern India. The program aligned with hospital organizational objectives and was designed to be low-cost and sustainable. Occupational health nurses working in international settings or with international workers should be aware of employee and employer knowledge and commitment to occupational health and safety.


The purpose of this study was to examine changes in research data deposit policies of highly ranked journals in the physical and applied sciences between 2014 and 2016, as well as to develop an approach to examining the institutional impact of deposit requirements. Policies from the top ten journals (ranked by impact factor from the Journal Citation Reports) were examined in 2014 and again in 2016 in order to determine if data deposits were required or recommended, and which methods of deposit were listed as options. For all 2016 journals with a required data deposit policy, publication information (2009-2015) for the University of Toronto was pulled from Scopus and departmental affiliation was determined for each article. The results showed that the number of high-impact journals in the physical and applied sciences requiring data deposit is growing. In 2014, 71.2% of journals had no policy, 14.7% had a recommended policy, and 13.9% had a required policy (n=836). In contrast, in 2016, there were 58.5% with no policy, 19.4% with a recommended policy, and 22.0% with a required policy (n=880). It was also evident that U of T chemistry researchers are by far the most heavily affected by these journal data deposit requirements, having published 543 publications, representing 32.7% of all publications in the titles requiring data deposit in 2016. The Python scripts used to retrieve institutional publications based on a list of ISSNs have been released on GitHub so that other institutions can conduct similar research.


Objective: The aim is to assess the prevalence of knowledge of patients' dental radiography and safety measures of radiation. Background: Dental radiographs are being used frequently in dental practice. They are being used excessively. There exists a panic among dental patients about the safety issues about dental radiography. The knowledge and behavior of patients toward radiographic examination can affect the patient's exposure to radiation. This study gathers information about the knowledge of patients have toward dental radiographs. Materials and Methods: A questionnaire with 16 questions regarding dental radiography and radiation protection were asked to the patients. Results: There was 100% response rate. Although most of them (82%) said it was for tooth decay, 54% of the patients believed it was for gum diseases and only 19% of the patients said it was for routine checkup and 22% said they were taken for impacted teeth. A small percentage of the patients mentioned it was for all the reasons (16%). 80% felt radiography should be avoided for pregnant ladies. 37%of the patients felt radiographs should be avoided for children. Conclusion: The results shows the patients do not have a clear understanding why x-rays are taken or their benefits. There is also a definite lack of knowledge regarding the safety of dental radiographs.


Special heat exchanger made out of polymer materials have been developed and applied in refrigeration systems. The initial purpose was to provide corrosion resistant heat exchangers for the rejection of heat into sea water for an improved efficiency compared to regular air cooling of A/C and refrigeration system condensers. Another application was the corrosion resistant heat exchanger for heat rejection or heat extraction to resp. from ground source water in A/C and heat pump installations. In a further step the polymer material have been used as solution heat exchanger (HEX) for ammonia/water absorption-resorption cycles with the advantage that this fluid pair allows cooling below 0°C and that the resorption reduces the pressure level for a further extended application of polymer material heat exchangers. As a next option modified polymer HEX will be used as desorbers and absorbers in ammonia/water cycles. A further step leads to the application of polymer HEX equipment for evaporation and condensing in compression cycles with maximum pressure below 5 bar.


Background and Aims: Literature from medical and health sciences indicated that sensory stimulation had a positive effect on traumatic brain injury patients. The present study was aimed to find out the effectiveness of a specific sensory stimulation (4 modalities) in comparison with another sensory stimulation (5 modalities) on recovery in comatose patients following severe traumatic brain injury. Methods: The study design was experimental, repeated measured with three groups. Two sensory stimulation models were compared with one control group. Forty-five participants with traumatic brain injury were recruited from surgical wards at Maharaj Nakhon Sri Thammarat Hospital, Thailand. The participants were randomly assigned to three groups, each group of 15 participants. Outcomes of the program were recovery determined by the Coma Recovery Scale-Revised (CRS-R). Inter rater agreement of the CRS-R was 0.85. Descriptive statistics, Fisher's exact test, repeated measure analysis of variance, and post hoc comparison were used for data analysis. Results: All the patients were equally comparable regarding their baseline characteristics, and basic recovery determined by CRS-R. Recovery scores of the three groups were improved. However, those who received the sensory stimulation program (4 modalities) had significantly higher CRS-R scores (P<0.001) after 5 days when compared to the two other groups. Conclusion: The sensory stimulation therapy had positive effects on traumatic brain injury patients. Application of the program required few stimuli materials which could be stored at the patient's bedside making them accessible to care providers. However, monitoring physiologic parameters should be done before, during and after the stimulation.


Ground-penetrating radar (GPR) is increasingly being used in transportation projects to monitor the performance of roadways and bridges and to identify buried structures. The objective of this thesis was to evaluate the use of GPR for the identification of bridge scour and to estimate the depth of shallow rock for geotechnical site investigations. The ability to understand and predict scour at bridges is a requirement for safe, economical foundation design and is important for the development of feasible scour monitoring systems. Accurate assessment of the depth to rock is essential for designing and constructing foundations for buildings and transportation infrastructure. Misinterpretation of the depth to bedrock can dramatically increase construction costs. GPR surveys were performed at two bridge locations across shallow streams, on land at four shallow rock locations, and at three other test sites in Rhode Island. During the bridge site tests, the GPR was maneuvered in a small pontoon boat across the water surface from one river side to the other while towed from the bridge deck. The acquired two-dimensional data sets from the shallow streams accurately image the channel bottom, demonstrating that the GPR is an effective and safe tool for measuring or monitoring scour. However, infilled scour features could not be identified due to the presence of cobble armoring layers. During the tests on land, the GPR was placed on a survey cart and pushed along to create a linear profile. The acquired two-dimensional data sets from the shallow rock locations were compared to boring logs and shear wave velocity profiles taken previously at the sites and showed good agreement between the different estimated depths to rock. These results showed that GPR is a useful, cost effective tool for the identification of shallow rock layers.


The thin-film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) industry has in recent years demanded ever-larger- area substrate processing capability to keep up with consumer market demands for larger and larger displays. This paper discusses the latest plasma-enhanced chemical-vapor deposition (PECVD) system, the AKT 50 K PECVD, which handles up to 2160 x 2460 mm2 substrates. As substrate size increases, lowering the processing temperature is getting even more important to improve production reliability and cost performance. The most commonly used process temperature for the so-called active layers of amorphous silicon (a-Si) TFTs is approximately 350 degC. In this paper, a newly developed single-chamber low-temperature PECVD active-layers process is discussed. In particular, our low-temperature process maintains film performance at the same level as high-temperature active layers while also maintaining system productivity and throughput.


The most intriguing question about Indonesia's economic development during the twentieth century is why the country's growth performance has been so erratic and displayed such a high degree of discontinuity. This is connected with the fundamental question about the nature of long-run economic development in Indonesia. So far the economic history of Indonesia has been less systematic than what the available source material would permit. Indonesia is exceptionally well endowed with rich statistical sources, which carry the potential of supporting a rigorous and systematic quantitative approach to vital questions concerning the economic growth performance in the long run. This book takes such an approach and presents new estimates for the long-run growth of the Indonesian service sector, and analyses the role of the various service sectors in economic development. Linking empirical and theoretical analysis in a creative fashion, it provides a rich and original contribution to our understanding of the economic history of Indonesia. The study shows that the service sector has played a crucial role in Indonesia's economic development. Or in other words, to fully understand Indonesia's economic development path services need to be accounted for.


Aspect category detection (ACD) in sentiment analysis aims to identify the aspect categories mentioned in a sentence. In this paper, we formulate ACD in the few-shot learning scenario. However, existing few-shot learning approaches mainly focus on single-label predictions. These methods can not work well for the ACD task since a sentence may contain multiple aspect categories. Therefore, we propose a multi-label few-shot learning method based on the prototypical network. To alleviate the noise, we design two effective attention mechanisms. The support-set attention aims to extract better prototypes by removing irrelevant aspects. The query-set attention computes multiple prototype-specific representations for each query instance, which are then used to compute accurate distances with the corresponding prototypes. To achieve multi-label inference, we further learn a dynamic threshold per instance by a policy network. Extensive experimental results on three datasets demonstrate that the proposed method significantly outperforms strong baselines.


Abstract The lower Valanginian-lower Barremian Agrio Formation in the Mendoza region of the Neuquén Basin (Argentina) accumulated in a hemipelagic outer ramp/basin setting. The formation records the alternation of periods of fine-grained carbonate accumulation and periods of fine-grained clastic deposition, which resulted in a strongly rhythmic succession in which dark clastic hemicycles alternate with light carbonate hemicycles. Clastic and carbonate hemicycles show distinct geochemical signatures that reflect cyclic fluctuations in terrigenous influx to the basin. Clastic hemicycles have relatively high percentages of Fe, Al and K, and less than 60% CaCO3, whereas carbonate hemicycles contain relatively low quantities of detrital elements (Fe, Al and K), and more than 60% CaCO3. Fluctuations in terrigenous supply to the basin occurred in response to the alternation between two contrasting climate regimes and resulted in the formation of dilution cycles. Warm temperate (winter-wet) climate conditions led to the accumulation of clastic hemicycles, whereas arid conditions promoted the deposition of carbonate hemicycles. The ultimate mechanism that controlled the alternation of the dark and light intervals was orbital forcing, as the latitudinal shifting of climate zones was driven by the c. 21 000 years precessional cycle.


Fission is an important process which is responsible not only for the yields of transuranium isotopes, but may have a strong influence on the formation of the majority of heavy nuclei due to fission recycling in the r-process. Calculations of beta-delayed and neutron-induced fission rates were performed taking into account different fission barriers and mass formulae were done. It is shown that an increase of fission barriers results in naturally changes of fission rates, but that the absolute values of fission rates are nevertheless sufficiently high and lead to the termination of the r-process. Furthermore it is discussed, that the probability of triple fission could be high for A < 260 and have an affect on the formation on the heaviest nuclei.


Althusser's Machiavelli and Us has often been considered as the French Marxist's first step on the path beyond Marxism. This article opposes this interpretation by showing that, while Machiavelli helps Althusser to renounce any attempt to deduce a communist political practice from the necessity portrayed by a theory of history, Althusser was mindful not to identify the relationship between the communist party and the masses with the relationship between the Prince and the people. From a Marxist perspective, a communist political practice must further the autonomous political initiatives of the masses that delineate a tendency towards the withering-away of the state and cannot merge with a practice of governing the people. This is why Marxism must not forsake its theory of history but employ it in the process of the subtraction of the party to its becoming-state by detecting the conditions of impossibility of the duration of a communist political practice.


Background Human N-Myc downstream regulated gene2 (NDRG2), a novel gene has been cloned and shown to be related to a number of cellular processes, including proliferation, differentiation, stress, and apoptosis. NDRG2 has also been linked to age-related Alzheimer's disease. Since the role of this gene in senescence is limited, we have investigated the potential role of NDRG2 in human lens epithelial cells (HLECs), a paradigm implicated in age-related cataract. Methodology/Principal Findings Cultured HLECs (SRA01/04) were subjected to prolonged exposure to low dose of H2O2 to simulate senescence. After being exposed to 50 µM H2O2 for 2 weeks, HLECs senescent-morphological changes appeared, cell viability decreased dramatically, cell proliferation reduced from 37.4% to 16.1%, and senescence-associated β-galactosidase activity increased from 0 to 90.3%. Ndrg2 protein expression was also significantly increased in these senescent cells. To induce overexpression of NDRG2, SRA01/04 cells were infected with the adenoviral vector of NDRG2. In these cells, overexpression of NDRG2 resulted in a fibroblast-like appearance and the cell viability decreased about 20%. In addition, the NDRG2-overexpression cells demonstrated 20% lower viability when exposed to 50–200 µM H2O2 for acute oxidative stress. Furthermore, the expression of NDRG2 from age-related cataracts was up-regulated 2-fold at both mRNA and protein levels compared with the clear lenses. Conclusions/Significance NDRG2 is up regulated not only in the ageing process of HLECs in vitro but also in the cells from human age-related cortical cataract in vivo. Up-regulation of NDRG2 induces cell morphological changes, reduces cell viability, and especially lowers cellular resistance to oxidative stress. NDRG2-mediated affects in HLECs may associate with age-related cataract formation.


The purpose of this study is to investigate the long-run relationship between education and economic growth in the 25 OECD countries over the period from 1980 to 2008 by utilizing the Pedroni and Kao panel cointegration, Pedroni DOLS and FMOLS and Canning-Pedroni causality methods. According to DOLS results the elasticity coefficients of education and economic growth are %0.283 and %2,931 respectively. According to FMOLS results the elasticity coefficients of education and economic growth are %0.25 and %2.82 respectively. While the results of Lamda-Pearson statistics indicate the long-run bilateral causality between education and economic growth, Group statistics indicate the long-run uni-directional causality from economic growth to education. It is concluded that there is a strong cointegration relationship between education and economic growth.


In this paper, we propose a unified view of gradient-based algorithms for stochastic convex composite optimization by extending the concept of estimate sequence introduced by Nesterov. This point of view covers the stochastic gradient descent method, variants of the approaches SAGA, SVRG, and has several advantages: (i) we provide a generic proof of convergence for the aforementioned methods; (ii) we show that this SVRG variant is adaptive to strong convexity; (iii) we naturally obtain new algorithms with the same guarantees; (iv) we derive generic strategies to make these algorithms robust to stochastic noise, which is useful when data is corrupted by small random perturbations. Finally, we show that this viewpoint is useful to obtain new accelerated algorithms in the sense of Nesterov.


On March 11, 2011, an earthquake and tsunami hit the northeast coast of Japan and damaged the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, leading to the release of radioactive material into the atmosphere. We trace the evolution of radioactivity release to the atmosphere and subsequent dispersion as simulated by models, and we compare these to actual measurements. Four main release periods are highlighted. The first event had limited consequences to the north of the power plant along the coast; the second had no impact on Japanese territory because the plumes travelled toward the Pacific Ocean; the third was responsible for significant and long-term impact, especially northwest of the plant; and the last had consequences of lesser impact on the Tokyo area.


Seismic surveys are widely used for exploration for oil and gas deposits below the sea floor. Despite concern they may have an impact on whale behaviour, our knowledge of marine mammal responses is limited. In the first of a series of experiments (the last one involving a full seismic array), this study tested the response of migrating humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) groups to a 20 cubic inch air gun. Experiments were carried out during the southward migration of humpback whales along the east coast of Australia. Groups of whales were focally followed from land stations and/or small boats with observations before, during, and after exposure to a vessel towing the air gun. The source vessel moved either eastwards across the, migratory flow or northwards into the migratory flow In total, there were 18 control trials (where the source vessel ran the compressor and towed the air gun without it firing; n = 35 whale groups) and 16 active trials (where the air gun was firing every 11 s; a = 32 whale groups). The air gun source level was 199 dB re 1 mu Pa(2.)s (Sound Exposure Level [SEC]) at 1 m, and SELs received by the whales varied from 105 to 156 dB re 1 mu Pa(2.)s (modal value 128 dB re mu Pa(2.)s) for SELs at least 10 dB above the background noise (measured as dB re 1 mu Pa). Other baseline groups were focal followed when there was no source vessel in the area (n = 25). Results suggested that humpback whale, groups responded by decreasing both dive time and speed of southwards movement though the response magnitude was not found to be related to the proximity of the source vessel, the received level of the air gun, the tow path direction, or the exposure time, within the during phase. There was no evidence of orientation of the groups towards, or away from, the source vessel in the during phase. Interestingly, this behavioural response was found in the control trials as well as the active trials suggesting a response to the source vessel.


Introduction: Skin and mucosa are most susceptible to the adverse effects of chemotherapeutic agents due to rapid rate of proliferation. A wide array of these adverse effects has been reported in patients undergoing chemotherapy. Although mostly of cosmetic significance, few of these side effects may require alteration or suspension of therapy and reduce the likelihood of therapy completion. This study was undertaken to know the spectrum of skin pigmentary issues seen in these patients. Material and Methods: A total of 153 patients on chemotherapy for various malignancies from oncology department of the hospital were screened for cutaneous adverse effects over a period of 3 months. Relevant details and chemotherapy protocol followed were assessed. Cutaneous examination was done in daylight and photographs were taken. The data was analyzed at the end of 3 months. Results: Ninety-one (59.4%) patients had cutaneous adverse effects due to chemotherapeutic agents. Colorectal carcinoma was most common malignancy seen in 27 (29.6%) patients. Hand–foot hyperpigmentation was most common adverse effect seen in 67 (73.6%) patients followed by supravenous hyperpigmentation in 14 (15.3%), oral hyperpigmentation in four (4.3%), and flagellate hyperpigmentation and melisma-like pigmentation in three (3.2%). Capecitabine was most common drug resulting in hand–foot hyperpigmentation in 29 (43.2%) patients whereas docetaxel resulted in supravenous hyperpigmentation in five (35.4%) patients. Flagellate hyperpigmentation was seen with bleomycin and oral pigmentation exclusively noticed with capecitabine. Conclusion: Cutaneous adverse effects of chemotherapy are common but rarely reported. It is important to understand the entire spectrum of these side effects and allay the anxiety associated with them.


Single Stranded Conformational Polymorphism as a molecular PCR based method has been significant for rapidly identification of fungal species. This method was previously used for the other aims including analysis of mutations as well as identification and discrimination between some organisms. In the present study, we tried to use the free digestion method of SSCP for discriminating Aspergilli in the species level considering polymorphism patterns between them.

 Materials & Methods : Totally 205 Aspergillus strains were isolated from clinical and environmental specimens being collected in some Iranian approved hospitals and from medical mycology lab - School of Public Health , Tehran University of Medical Sciences. The sample size of this study was based on the prevalence 1% of Aspergillus infections among total of fungal nosocomial infections. All of the Aspergillus isolates, were identified by using four Aspergilli differential media including, CZA, CYA, CYA20S and MEA , followed by macroscopic and microscopic examinations. In the molecular assay, we extracted DNA manually using Glass beads and Phenol chloroform method, followed by PCR amplification of ITS2 region and then thermal denaturizing DNA to make single stranded DNA . Finally, we compared differentiate patterns of electrophoresis bands.

 Results : During an 18 month study, we obtained 205 Aspergillus isolates including 11 species, from the hospital and environmental specimens. Hospital sources included clinical (25%) and environmental (75%) isolates. Our findings of SSCP method included: A. nidulans, A. fischeri, A. quadricincta, (A.fumigatus, A. niger ) as a category and (A. flavus, A. terreus, A. ochraceus) as the other category.�

 Conclusion : SSCP as a rapid and simple molecular method enabled us to identify most important pathogenic Aspergillus species. The above technique is not commonly used because of the low specificity.


Summary Th e results of mineral composition of the clay fraction of the chernozems spread out in Ovce Pole are presented. Th e mechanical composition of the soil samples show high domination of the physical clay and clay fractions in the soil separates, what is one of the reasons for strong infl uence on the physical and physical-mechanical properties of the soil. Th e clay content is dominant in the soil separates fraction and varies from 23.60% to 56.90%, or 36.23% average. Th e average content of physical sand and physical clay fractions is 42.20% and 57.80% respectively. Analysis of the mineral composition of clay in its entirety showed that no one of the minerals in the analyzed chernozem samples is not in absolute domination, but there is evident higher presence of clay minerals with 2:1 lattice type (vermiculite, illite and smectites) in comparison with 1:1 lattice type (kaolinite). Th is shows that our variety of vertical chernozems has little deteriorated physical and physical-mechanical properties compared with typical chernozems.


We present temporally abstract actor-critic (TAAC), a simple but effective off-policy RL algorithm that incorporates closed-loop temporal abstraction into the actor-critic framework. TAAC adds a second-stage binary policy to choose between the previous action and a new action output by an actor. Crucially, its"act-or-repeat"decision hinges on the actually sampled action instead of the expected behavior of the actor. This post-acting switching scheme let the overall policy make more informed decisions. TAAC has two important features: a) persistent exploration, and b) a new compare-through Q operator for multi-step TD backup, specially tailored to the action repetition scenario. We demonstrate TAAC's advantages over several strong baselines across 14 continuous control tasks. Our surprising finding reveals that while achieving top performance, TAAC is able to"mine"a significant number of repeated actions with the trained policy even on continuous tasks whose problem structures on the surface seem to repel action repetition. This suggests that aside from encouraging persistent exploration, action repetition can find its place in a good policy behavior. Code is available at https://github.com/hnyu/taac.


Carrier transport characteristics in high-efficiency single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs)/silicon (Si) hybrid solar cells are presented. The solar cells were fabricated by depositing intrinsic p-type SWNT thin-films on n-type Si wafers without involving any high-temperature process for p-n junction formation. The optimized cells showed a device ideality factor close to unity and a record-high power-conversion-efficiency of >11%. By investigating the dark forward current density characteristics with varying temperature, we have identified that the temperature-dependent current rectification originates from the thermally activated band-to-band transition of carriers in Si, and the role of the SWNT thin films is to establish a built-in potential for carrier separation/collection. We have also established that the dominant carrier transport mechanism is diffusion, with minimal interface recombination. This is further supported by the observation of a long minority carrier lifetime of ~34 μs, determined by the transient recovery method. This study suggests that these hybrid solar cells operate in the same manner as single crystalline p-n homojunction Si solar cells.


This chapter examines the origins and various versions of the only children's book known to have been produced by the Hungarian modernist artist Sandor Bortnyik. A member of the radical modernist Ma group, Bortnyik spent the years 1922–1925 in Weimar, though not at the Bauhaus. When he returned to Hungary, he brought with him the new German ideal of the Gebrauchsgraphiker , a graphic artist who reconciles the commercial with the artistic, an idea which informed his work throughout the 1920s. A critical and influential figure in Hungarian poster and advertising design as well as the founder of an influential private art school, Bortnyik transferred to his children's book, eventually published in Hungarian, German and English, the aesthetics of poster advertising, producing a book which, in the end, could, like an advertising poster, wordlessly transmit its idea.


The properties of paper are defined on two sampling scales, depending on whether the microor the macroscopic physical characteristics of the sheet are of interest . Two models are presented for the structure of homogenized paper, based either on the orientational distribution of the fibres or on that of the interfaces of pores and fibres . Orientational anisotropy arises on the scale of the fibre aggregates through shearing between flocs . Accurate tests were performed of the floc anisotropy, which influences the properties of paper on the size scale of a few mm2 .


This article problematizes the relationship between the global super‐rich and processes of property development that have generated large volumes of underused residential space. Evidence is presented to show that much of London's new skyline is underused or lies entirely empty, so that one interpretation of this new landscape of super‐prime residential development is that it is a kind of dead residential space or necrotecture. These relatively lifeless spaces can be interpreted as the particularly wasteful result of continuing rounds of international capital investment in the built environment and the overconsumption of housing and other resources by the super‐rich. Necrotectural forms, seen in new towers and spectacular homes, appear to index a massive misdirection of development capacity, even as the city experiences a massive social crisis that continues to be played out in the wider housing market.


An increasing number of women who present to the health care settings with trauma and injuries are victims of intimate partner violence (IPV). There is evidence that women who experience IPV present to these settings with other shortterm and long-term health consequences of ongoing abuse other than the obvious physical trauma. Often they do not disclose that they are victims of IPV. Evidence also indicates an increase of IPV among pregnant women who are seen in antenatal clinics and other health settings presenting with maternal and foetal and or neonatal complications.4 But this is not always documented in the antenatal records of these women. Health care providers have always documented the care rendered to all patients, but the documentation of intimate partner violence demands special attention because it has forensic ramifications and a potential to be brought up in the court of law for criminal and / or civil lawsuits.

The purpose of this article is to highlight the importance of forensic documentation, record keeping of injuries and experiences IPV victims share with health care providers. Forensic use of health records for abused women is also described. For the purpose of this article, intimate partner violence is defined as "physical and sexual assault that occurs in intimate partner relationships???. An intimate partner is defined as "current or former spouses, opposite-sex cohabiting partners, same-sex cohabiting partners, boyfriends, girlfriends or dates.??? 5 There is also an increase in reports of intimate partner violence among lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) relationships. 6 Thus the use of the term intimate partner violence is more appropriate than domestic violence or wife abuse.

(SA Fam Pract 2004;46(4): 37-40)


Our 1998 video The Optiverse [18] illustrates an optimal sphere eversion, computed automatically by minimizing an elastic bending energy for surfaces. This paper describes AVN, the custom software program we wrote to explore the computed eversion. Various special features allowed us to use AVN also to produce our video: it controlled the camera path throughout and even rendered most of the frames.